Warning: content will disturb political conservatives, the religious and the terminally stupid.
7 May 2014
The worst NIMBYs in the country.
NIMBY is an acronym for "not in my back yard" - in other words, people who want to have the advantage of a particular technology or product, but don't want it near their place.
Some classic examples are people who object to seeing wind farms, and people who object to cellphone towers near their houses, even though the people themselves use cellphones.
Today, we see the worst of the worst - people in central Auckland suburbs who are objecting to new international flight paths that go over their houses.
Now, I live on the standard approach to Auckland airport and we have planes flying over far more frequently than the people in Epsom/Eden who are objecting, and they are not just shitheads, they're hypocritical shitheads.
Go and ask - people who live in Eden/Epsom are the most frequent flyers, yet they're the very ones crying about planes being able to save vast amounts of fuel by cutting the corner on the approach to Auckland, potentially saving hundreds of tonnes of exhaust vapours being released into the atmosphere. Note that some clown has donated $14,000 to fight the new flight plan, and I bet $1 to $1000 that that person is a frequent user of international flights.
Planes fly over our heads much lower than the flight path over the city, and there are several important facts to note:
Planes coming in to land are under minimum power and not very loud - especially compared to take-off.
The frequency of flights over the central suburbs is not that high.
Planes do not land at Auckland between 1 am and 5 am.
The article contains a claim that people are selling up because they can't handle the noise. Fine - move. Why should anyone else care? If you want to live in a world-class city, then having an effective airport is part of that, so they are welcome to move to a quieter spot - like Morrinsville or Matamata, where there are no planes at all.
Tens of thousands of people live a lot closer to the airport than I do and I've never heard a single one of them complain.
Make no mistake - the only people who are entitled to moan are those who never, ever use international flights.
When those people stand up, I will be happy to join them in protest, but they'd better have their passports handy to prove it, because I am firmly of the opinion that the loudest complainers will be the most-frequent travellers.
Copyright © Alan Charman