“Bottom up” means that the strategy is driven from those who own and operate the land and who invest their time and money, and the local stakeholders, while top down strategies usuaally take the form of rigid blueprint plans determined by philosopher kings or central planners as they are now known.

For example, in Wellington a property company owns a large piece of land near the airport and wants to develop it as a commercial centre, and will invest many millions and has twenty commercial clients ready to take occupancy and prepared to invest many more millions.
The planners say know because it is contrary to their plan and their decision that the land should be used for industry because Wellington is short of industrial land to accommodate the service industries the central area needs.

The owner points out that the reason the land is available is that the manufacturers have moved out to the periphery where they have cheaper land and better access to transport.

If Council threw away their blueprint and worked with the land owner he could oblige with a comprehensive development that included light service industry alongside the commercial development. These lines don’t mean much anymore.
Printing used to be a noxious industry now you can do it in your bedroom and disturb no one.

The real problem is that once a Plan is in place it can take ten years to change it unless the plan builds in a process for comprehensive development which allows everyone to adapt to change.

As I used to tell my MBA students “The only valid long term business plan (ie beyond six months) is one which ensures the business is able to adapt to change and has a strategy for doing so.”

Matakana is an example of a development of a whole peninsula by the occupants which was fought tooth and nail by the planners of Rodney but finally has proved such a success that the planners have now decided it is a Heritage Area and have moved to Protect It. The Matakana market is a wonderful market which is a delight to visit, and this in turn has given a whole bundle of landowners the confidence to develop their properties with all manner of projects and museums and restaurants and so forth – none of which were envisaged in the original plan which wanted to lock it all up as pure pastoral rural. The ARC opposed everything too.
BUt Sally Meiklejohn and the winemakers and potters and bakers prevailed.
It is worth a visit.

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

read..learn..

..inwardly digest..

http://whoar.co.nz/2009/vegetarian-and-proud/

phil(whoar.co.nz)

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

Maybe its ironic…..anyone with one of these illegal visas stamped on their passport is now automatically under suspicion of being an overstayer. Was this some cunning plan to flush such people out, charge them a fee, mark their passport and leave them feeling like a sneech (minus the star). Bad form.

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

Thanks Turnip… I just added my $0.02 – BJ

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

Great post over at interest.co.nz talking about the mystery debt dairy problem.

http://www.interest.co.nz/ratesblog/index.php/2009/06/19/big-problems-with-big-dairy-herds-tell-us-what-youve-heard-or-seen/

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

The president is just a figure head BJ just like the Queen of england.

Obama doesn’t make any important choices just as Bush didn’t make any important choices. Obama will like any other president do exactly what he is told. When a US president doesn’t do what he’s told for some strange reason a LONE gunman seems to end up killing him.

I mean for goodness sake the guys supposed to be protecting the president, the secret service were until very recently a division of the Treasury Department, the treasury department is in no way beholden to the president of the united states and takes its marching orders from wall street & the bank.

This is also why I don’t understand anyone who says I support the democrats or I support the republicans, people just don’t get it the US IS a one party state no different than the soviet union. The reason why it works is the people have had a veil pulled over their eyes, most americans live in the matrix plugged in walking around living their mundane lives thinking they are free.

The absolute beauty of the american system is the belief they live in a democracy and that they are free. Of course not everyone here is stupid and some people can see through the veil, so what do they do well they allow people like Ron Paul to exist so those individuals can flock and gravitate to him, of course they will never change anything but as long as they are focused on thinking they can change things then they aren’t really hurting anyone.

The brute force authoritarian approach is to open it is too easy to see the evil. I stand in awe at just how wonderfull of a system it is, if you talk about any of the things I just said you are instantly labeled a nut and a conspiracy theoryist as if that is somehow dirty and wrong. Machiavellia would be in awe at the beauty of the system.

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

A more graphic view of the future of the US… (particularly its currency).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2009/03/21/GR2009032100104.html?sid=ST2009032100105

BJ

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

For those who think that the economic problems are “over” because Obama is taking regulation to the banks….

http://www.motherjones.com/bailout/2009/06/financial-regulation-good-bad-very-ugly

He didn’t do so very well. This is not surprising, the banks being the source of most of his advisors.

respectfully
BJ

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

The mistake of the Iranian regime is that they didn’t use global warming to justify their authoritarianism.

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

George Friedman doesn’t believe the Iranian elections were rigged
http://www.stratfor.com/

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

Another good read from Neville Bennet
Opinion: Rise of the ‘East’; Western dominance will continue to decline

http://www.interest.co.nz/ratesblog/index.php/2009/06/19/opinion-rise-of-the-east-western-dominance-will-continue-to-decline/

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

Anything out from Keith on the Iranians election results yet? I notice neither Indymedia or Green Left Weekly have picked up on the story. Anyone know if Peace justice Aotearoa is on to it?

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

Owen – could you expand on the ‘bottom up’ approach?
Regulations never related to Change well – we got lots of silly stuff already.

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

The riff I was referring to was the Maori party singing the blues? No, actually, the typo is very funny…. duh!

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

Given this relates to Green Party policy (in the UK anyway) you might be interested in this research on viable community centres.

Much good sense in this research. Especially with regard to the “bottom up” approach. The development of the Matakana market is a good local example.

The essay is called Sustaining Localism in the English Suburban Context.

The trouble with Centres planning here is that the regulators overlook the importance of adaptability and tend to regulate everything out of existence.

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

not us Bro.

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

….anything for a buck….there’s a recession on….should have gone onto politics….sweet…

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

You must be selling glossies there Mark?

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

…if these people are so incredibly stupid as to think that you can buy a passport from “Rangi” for $500 then they deserve to be deported.

That’s beside the point. If they’re overstayers – regardless of stupdity – they should get the arse.

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

Why are we concerned about the plight of over stayers?

I would hope that our immigration department will take note of this and run their own sting operation, if these people are so incredibly stupid as to think that you can buy a passport from “Rangi” for $500 then they deserve to be deported.

We simply cannot afford to let these people bludge from us at times like this.

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)