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Scoop
5 days ago
- General
- Scoop
Mangawhai Risks $100 Million Economic Disaster If Sandspit Fails: Warning
Article – Susan Botting – Local Democracy Reporter Mangawhai sandspit has lost more than 420,000 tonnes of its locally-unique non-replenishing sand. Many in the community worry about its future as a result. Mangawhai sandspit has recently been confirmed to have lost more than 420,000 tonnes of its locally-unique non-replenishing sand. Many in the community worry about its future as a result. Mangawhai sandspit is described as 'a hotbed of coastal management considerations' by a University of Auckland academic. The rare landform is one of just five drumstick-shaped sandspits in New Zealand. Its sand was predominantly made hundreds of thousands of years ago from volcanic explosions in the central North Island, delivered by the Waikato River. It's at the epicentre of competing tensions between seabed sand mining, local and central government bureaucracy, New Zealand's rarest bird, community groups, conservation, harbour health, mana whenua, population growth, tourism, recreation and development. In the first of a two-part feature, Local Democracy Reporting Northland reporter Susan Botting looks at what sort of health report card those connected with the rare landform give it. New Zealand's fastest-growing coastal settlement risks a more than $100 million economic disaster if Mangawhai Sandspit fails, a community leader warns. The stark warning is from community group Mangawhai Matters member Dr Phil McDermott, a former Massey professor of resource and environmental planning. A second breach of the sandspit where sea washed in from the Pacific Ocean would hit the economy on many fronts, he says. McDermott was among a range of community leaders, councils, coastal experts and government organisations who raised their fears for the spit's future with Local Democracy Reporting Northland. They have overwhelmingly given the spit's health a bare pass of C report card, pointing to a range of reasons. Rising sea levels and intensifying storms are among the issues sounding warning bells. McDermott said the economic hit would be from plummeting property values, disappearing tourism, and fewer visitors. 'There are so many pressures including significant development,' McDermott said. Mangawhai Matters has successfully legally challenged unfettered Mangawhai development. The sandspit breached in 1978 after a huge storm. The resulting 600 metre channel split the three kilometre long, 3 square kilometre spit in half for more than a decade. The breach led to today's main northern harbour entrance filling up with sand as Mangawhai Harbour discharged via a new exit point to the sea. Renegade action by the local community known as 'the Big Dig' opened the channel. The blockage led to stagnating harbour water. House prices fell and properties weren't selling. Banks in some cases did not want to provide mortgage lending. Work to open the blockage and close the breach finally started in 1991. Mangawhai Sandspit's at the epicentre of competing tensions between seabed sand mining, local and central government bureaucracy, New Zealand's rarest bird, community groups, conservation, harbour health, mana whenua, population growth, tourism, recreation and development. Mangawhai Matters community group chair Doug Lloyd said surveying showed the harbour and sandspit were rated the most important feature of their local area. When Lloyd arrived in Mangawhai in 1989 there were about 600 people there. Now there are up to 20,000 over the summer peak. And there are more than 2000 new houses on the cards in several big developments. Mangawhai Harbour Restoration Society (MHRS)'s Peter Wethey chairs the community group credited by many as having had a key role in the spit surviving to the degree it has. The society runs New Zealand's only dredging operation of its type, sucking up sand blown into the sea from Mangawhai Sandspit and putting it back onto the rare coastal landform. Wethey said the dredging was about keeping the harbour's ever-filling navigation channels open and protecting the spit with an about 800 metre long harbourside bund – effectively a man-made sand dune strip edging to protect it from future breaching. Longtime MHRS dredge operator Mark Vercoe said the process of sustainably delivering sand from the harbour floor to the prescribed location, that continued to strengthen spit protection, was an exacting one. Just over 5000 Kaipara District Council (KDC) Mangawhai Harbour catchment ratepayers pay $80 annually towards the society for its work. Kaipara Mayor Craig Jepson said that money was well spent to protect the spit, echoing many in the community by saying the group had to navigate significant bureaucracy to do its work. Jepson said he believed too much of the society's funds and time were being wasted on bureaucracy when they were better spent on taking action. Northland Regional Council (NRC) governs consenting for the dredge's sand extraction with up to 50,000 cubic metres of sand dredgings allowed annually. More recently that quantity was not fixed but instead dependent on location and dredging depth. Dredging must take place between April and December each year, depending on where it happens and the values of those locations – outside the fairy tern breeding season. DoC rules on where the dredgings can go on the spit. DoC acting operations manager – Whangārei Sarah Newman-Watt, said the Mangawhai government wildlife refuge reserve was protected for its ecological significance, particularly for its critical nesting habitat for New Zealand's fairy tern/tara-iti and northern dotterel. She said the sandspit was the country's largest tara-iti breeding site with fewer than 45 individuals left. Fairy Tern Trust convenor and Mangawhai property owner of three decades Heather Rogan said the spit was critical for the bird's future. It was currently home to all but one of New Zealand's tara-iti nesting sites. University of Auckland coastal geomorphologist Professor Dr Mark Dickson said it was about how well the spit would do its job of protecting the Mangawhai community. The work of the community was essential. Thousands of sand dune plants, kilometres of sand fencing to trap sand, pest control work and dredgings from the harbour going onto the sandspit towards maintaining its resilience are among this work. Dickson said the spit would undoubtedly breach again if left to its natural cycles without this community input. 'The spit's not quite holding its own. It requires quite a level of intervention,' Dickson said. Save Our Sands spokesperson Ken Rawyard gave the spit a D health report card. He said DoC was prohibiting the re-establishment of critical vegetation cover on the spit due to concerns about the fairy tern. Newman-Watt said this was not the case. It was actively encouraging the re-establishment of appropriate dune vegetation – where it supported the sandspit's health and resilience and did not conflict with conservation goals. Fairy terns needed open shell patches with very little to no vegetation for nesting. 'At known nesting sites, DoC removes or limits vegetation to preserve these rare habitat conditions,' Newman-Watts said. Mangawhai sandspit was a dynamic system that required careful, site-specific management. NRC local coastal south councillor Rick Stolwerk acknowledged there were processes that needed to be navigated before the dredging began. He said the spit was not faring as well as it could, but community members were doing great work. Te Uri o Hau Environs representative Cindy Hempsall did not want to comment on Mangawhai sandspit when approached by Local Democracy Reporting Northland.
The National
08-06-2025
- Business
- The National
Exploring the history and culture of magical Boston
I'm not alone on the second-ever JetBlue ( flight from Edinburgh. My daughter Tara has just finished her Highers and joins me for a rare just daddy and daughter trip. On the way out we're privileged to try Mint, which someone insists on social media – over the free all-plane wifi – is 'America's best business class'. It's hard to disagree with flat beds, restaurant-quality food, Tunnock's with their (proper) coffee and beaming New England service. We ease into Boston, where the airport is handily just across the harbour from the centre. It's quite some harbour, a cross between New York's skyscraper drama and the swathes of greenery that make Sydney such a joy. Old-world wooden trawlers straight out of Jaws chug by hulking tankers that dwarf the locals yachting around their beloved waterway. A massive change is one that 17-year-old Tara cannot appreciate – the 'Big Dig' is over. This seismic multi-billion-dollar city revamp is one of the bravest I've ever seen. The massive elevated six-lane highway that savaged through the centre was demolished and a colossal tunnelling project forced traffic underground, so Bostonians now enjoy calmer traffic, urban greenery and cycleways. Boston feels like a new city. Even our base, the Omni Seaport Hotel ( lies in an eponymous district that was an unappealing industrial zone 25 years ago. It has been reborn as a leisure oasis with cafes, restaurants, hotels and parks, plus waterfront walks. Later this month new ferries will even better connect Seaport to Downtown. Change is perpetual in Boston; creativity too. The Big Dig – officially the Central Artery Tunnel Project – created a LOT of soil, over 16 million cubic yards. Being Boston it didn't go to waste as Christian Merfeld, of Boston Harbor Now, tells me: 'We not only turned highways into the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, but brought the city back together. We also created glorious green spaces like Spectacle Island.' Spectacle Island is one of the 28 islands that make up one of the most dramatic harbours in the Americas. We jump on a ferry that runs in conjunction with this Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park. How many cities have national parkland within a 20-minute scenic boat ride? Tara is impressed with the Big Dig, suggesting, 'Glasgow should try it with its motorway'. She is also impressed with the lobster roll picnic we snare from Luke's, owned by a fifth-generation lobster fisherman. Again it's great timing. Tara has seen his other outlets on TikTok, but this one just opened. The buttered bread stuffed with New England's finest is divine. Or, as Tara beams, 'the nicest roll I've ever had.' Boston is renowned for its Irish connections, but there are Scottish ones too and not just with Scots rippling through the city's rich historical fabric. There is a physical connection on Spectacle Island, formed as 'partially drowned drumlin field', a rare glacial phenomenon I know from Dumfries and Galloway's Machars. READ MORE: Freedom Flotilla urges UK Government to 'protect' ship from Israel as it nears Gaza Spectacle Island – which used to be Boston's landfill – is symbolic of how far the city has come. Park ranger Thomas Spadea proudly explains the rebirth of his island charge: 'We buried the rubbish with millions of square cubic meters of dirt and use a network of sea walls, a filtration system and methane vents to create this clean green oasis.' We hike between the two drumlin hills for epic city and harbour views. Since 1995, the Deer Land Wastewater Treatment Plant has turned one of America's dirtiest harbours into one of its cleanest. Back in the city, the Scottish interweaving continues. The State House sports an English lion, closely watched by his old adversary, the unicorn. At the brilliantly immersive Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum actors re-create the lighting of the flame of American independence. Tara throws a replica tea chest overboard as we learn of another country's struggle to free itself from British rule. Boston is famed for its food; we're not disappointed. At Woods Hills Pier 4, the New England produce is as delightful as the manager's welcome. He stresses: 'We really welcome the new JetBlue route as we love hosting Scots'. We try more of that famous lobster (a match for Scotland's finest) and beef from the restaurant's farm. Quincy Market – where Tara delights in trying the famous Boston Cream Pie – is very Boston, a historic bolthole reborn with food stalls. Then at the Beehive, a buzzy live music venue, Tara and I bond over delicious dishes featuring New England tuna and swordfish. Our last meal is at the Union Oyster House, America's oldest restaurant, Wes Hagan tells me: 'I was not a history fan until I started working here, now like many Bostonians I'm obsessed.' As we savour local shellfish, Tara points out that the booth next to us was JFK's favourite. Experiences like this make Boston stack up brilliantly not just for a daddy-and-daughter trip, but for anyone jumping on Scotland's latest Transatlantic route. For further information on Boston see Meet Boston at
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
California's $100bn railway to nowhere exposes the stunning costs of Democrat incompetence
The latest broadside in the seemingly unending war between President Trump and California Governor Newsom came with a presidential attack on the state's long-delayed, over-budget high-speed rail project. Trump, who seems determined to stop federal funding for the project, even suggested that its dire problems will pose a challenge for Newsom as he gets ready for a run for the 2028 Democratic nomination. If Newsom were prone to self-reflection, he'd admit that the line – intended to connect LA and San Francisco – is an embarrassment. The rail authority estimated in 2008, when voters approved $9 billion for the system, that it would cost $33 billion and start running by 2020. The projected cost has since ballooned to over $100 billion. Governing magazine, hardly a voice for less public spending, placed the blame largely on incompetence – 'uncoordinated planning' that ignored basic construction logistics and bent to the need to please political factions. Indeed, the route was in large part sold to people in the state's hard-pressed interior as an economic boon, which ignores the nature of the area, whose economy is largely based on agriculture, manufacturing and oil. Wider truck lines for congested freeways would make far more economic sense. Many projects go over budget, but, as the president has suggested, for once plausibly, the California high-speed train may be 'the worst managed project' he'd ever seen. Even progressives are aware of this failure. The first to jump off the train, so to speak, was Kevin Drum at Mother Jones a decade ago, who called the project 'ridiculous'. He assaulted the cost overruns and absurd ridership projections. More recently, the train was singled out for infamy by the authors of Abundance. This new progressive bible, which embraces all the memes of the Left, for example on urban density and climate, expresses horror at how the train has been delayed and has escalated in cost. Today, even Democrats like former California State Speaker Anthony Rendon admit that there is 'no confidence' in the project and have been far from anxious to pour more good money after bad. Unless there is an unanticipated flow of state funds, the Legislative Analyst's Office suggests that the project could grind to a halt within 15 months. There is now only enough money, and perhaps not even that, for a line from agriculture and oil-dominated Bakersfield to even more rustic Merced. Not exactly the glamorous LA-San Francisco route originally mooted, much less something to rival the lines connecting Tokyo to Osaka or Paris to Lyon. Despite being described by Hoover Institute economist Lee Ohanian as 'the greatest infrastructure failure in the history of the country', the California disaster does admittedly have a great deal of competition. A similar pattern can be seen in the slow pace of repairs to the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore's Harbour. Boston's Big Dig (Central Artery/Tunnel Project) was plagued by cost overruns and delays, eventually coming in at nearly $25 billion, $10 billion more than previously reported. In fact, the entire transit industry, a favourite target for investment among progressives and greens, is stymied by what the Marron Institute at New York University found were 'among the highest transit-infrastructure costs in the world' – far higher than not only China, which can ascribe to less cumbersome processes, but the likes of Sweden, Italy, and Turkey as well. Phase one of New York's Second Avenue Subway, Marron notes, clocked in at 8 to 12 times more expensive than what the international analysis suggested should be the baseline cost, reflecting strict overtime rules, local union agreements that limit the available labour pools geographically, and an unwillingness to address staffing and labour agreements. But even in this world of lavish overruns, Newsom's California stands in a league of its own. Back in 2015, UC Berkeley scholar Karen Trapenberg Frick outlined how the cost of replacing the eastern section of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge rose from an estimated price of $250 million in 1995 to $6.5 billion by September 2013. This was in part due to political pressures from elected officials, according to a report prepared for a state Senate committee. But nothing quite matches the incompetence and overspending of Newsom's choo-choo. It has likely undermined support for building a national network of high-speed trains, something promoted in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal. Despite the green visions, high-speed trains seem a bit of a step back – the St Louis Post-Dispatch labelled them 'a bridge to the 19th century'. In a world where most people drive, and many commute from home, the idea of sinking tens of billions into high-speed projects seems a poor bet, as Britain has already found with the cancellation of large parts of the HS2 project. Even in China, where political opposition is verboten, the choo-choos have been plagued by corruption, rising costs and massive indebtedness. Under Biden, Newsom enjoyed large lumps of gravy for his train, but under Trump, he is now likely to have to choose between funding the money-mad rail network or doing such basic things as balancing his budget and facing California's gargantuan public employee pension costs, as well as paying for healthcare for the state's estimated 2.5 million undocumented immigrants. The overpriced choo-choo reflects the ultimate dilemma for Democrats like Newsom. In the 1930s and 1940, under Democrats, American ingenuity produced the infrastructure that underpinned the world's largest industrial economy – the Hoover Dam, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and countless bridges, roads, and other critical infrastructure. Today's presumed heirs of FDR still talk big about infrastructure, but are loath to offend public unions, green lobby groups and progressive non-profits. Most of the successful case studies on infrastructure come from red states like Florida, which built its new train lines at something approaching original costs and deadlines. If you want to advocate for more government, perhaps it's best to prove that you can do this efficiently. Newsom's high-speed rail line proves that, for now, the progressives are prisoners of their own massive incompetence. Joel Kotkin is presidential fellow in urban futures at Chapman University and senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
CBS News
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Many say Boston's Copley Square has lost its charm with new design
Copley Square Park was once a green space, but after a multi-year remodel, it was partially reopened with a new design that many Bostonians aren't loving. The grass has been replaced with cement pathways meant to make gathering easier. 'Brick and concrete' Bostonians are voicing their displeasure over the new concrete jungle."There's ... seems to be just kind of brick and concrete ... something," said Tedd York, who eats his lunch in the park. "Before, it was a beautiful field, lots of space to gather and have picnics, and people are sad that we lost it," said Rosa Bestmann, another neighbor who had her lunch in the plaza. People have a slew of adjectives and analogies to describe the new space. One person called it "sterile and soulless." He said Copley went from a park to a skatepark. "When I visited as a kid, my Dad lived here, and we'd always sit in the plaza on the grass," said Bestmann. "I'm happy that it's back. I think that a community space is a space." Green spaces coming The park has been closed since July 2023. Since then, it has been undergoing an $18.9 million overhaul. Mayor Michelle Wu announced a partial reopening of the park before the Boston Marathon, and now she is hearing the critiques. "This is the result of months and months of community conversations, and so I am excited for what this will mean - a more walkable, vibrant space for everyone," said Wu. Renderings of the design do show smaller lawn spaces in the back of the park. However, those are currently under construction. There is a yellow tulip feature at one end of the park that is drawing plenty of onlookers. Right now, it is the only green space in the park. Beyond the aesthetics, the long completion time has some folks cracking Big Dig jokes. The expectation is that the city will continue its remodel through the spring by finishing the fountains and lawn areas. By then, it may show shades of its old self. "There's a tortoise and a hare (statue). I don't know if that's a joke because it took so long," laughed York.
Axios
15-04-2025
- Business
- Axios
Decatur to begin $8.5 million downtown square overhaul
The heart of Decatur's downtown is getting an overdue overhaul. Driving the news: On Thursday, Decatur leaders will ceremoniously break ground on the $8.5 million expansion of the square and popular plaza that sits in the heart of the city's most walkable area and neighbors a MARTA station that connects directly to Downtown Atlanta. The big picture: The 12-month project, which the city hopes to finish before next summer's FIFA World Cup matches, aims to give one of metro Atlanta's downtown success stories a community space that encourages people to stick around and enjoy the square. Zoom in: Decatur's " Square Shake-Up" plan increases the size of the square and lawn, adds a "hillside" children's play area and swaps out the bandstand with a stage that can host concerts, performances and movie screenings. In addition, expect a redesigned MARTA bus terminal, larger open spaces and, importantly, public restrooms. Context: Funded by a DeKalb County sales tax earmarked for special projects, the overhaul stems from Decatur's Town Plan 2.0, the first major initiative in decades to improve the square and plaza. A second phase — timeline to be decided — would include an outdoor pavilion, splash pad and more seating. What they're saying:"The city hopes the project "sends a clear message that we aren't resting on our laurels when it comes to making Decatur the best it can be for all stakeholders," Angela Threadgill, Decatur's assistant city manager for community and economic development, said in a statement. Flashback: In 2007, the city spent $5 million to give the square a makeover — a project officials dubbed the "Little Dig," a riff on Boston's problem-plagued yet transformative "Big Dig" project."
