Let me quote the whole thing:
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a Christchurch citizen in possession of a motor vehicle must be in want of a bus.It is sadly typical behaviour for a council full of environmentalists. Cars (which carry some 95% of Christchurch commuters) are bad, therefore we need to block the roads, remove the parking and subsidise buses. There is nothing unusual about this.
However little known the feelings or views of such a citizen may be, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the council, that the citizen is considered as the rightful property of one or other of the bus companies.
Accordingly, citizens will lose nearly half (105) of the parks in Madras and Barbadoes Streets, 115 of 549 parks permanently on the Papanui Rd bus lane route and 323 parks in the afternoon peak period.
Citizen's losses include 23 parks outside St Margarets, 22 outside Merivale Mall, 13 outside St Georges in bus lane hours, 56 outside St Andrews, and 47 outside the Papanui shops in the afternoon peak period.
In addition, the Council has removed about 200 other Merivale parks over recent years, and forced through the Merivale Parking Plan with no mandate and against the express wishes of 1191 citizens including 554 residents.Contrast all this with the Council plan to build itself car parks using $800,000 of ratepayers' funds.
Sheryn Gillard Glass, Papanui
What is unusual is the extent to which Christchurch ratepayers are willing to put up with it. The Environmentalists likely can't believe their luck. They have spent millions filling major arterial roads with concrete and paint to slow cars and speed buses, narrowed and blocked residential back routes to force traffic growth on arterials, reduced the patronage of hundreds of businesses, and banned thousands of residents from parking in their own residential streets. There is no purpose in any of this other than to make Christchurch a less convenient and easy city.
Yet still they have jobs / remain in office. That is the real disgrace for Christchurch.