It's already gone

File under: flanerie, Wellington

I saw these billboards in Arthur St while out for a walk the other day.


Note the one at top left that says "There goes the neighbourhood". Note also the bare earth, fencing and construction equipment on the right of the picture: this marks the route of the "bypass", from where the neighbourhood has definitely gone.

I doubt that the billboard was intended as a comment on this destruction, and in fact it is advertising Radio Hauraki, a once-rebellious radio station whose target demographic (the sort of middle-aged wannabe bogan who thinks that buying a Harley will get his youth back) is exactly the one that supports the demolition of a creative inner-city community in order to get from Johnsonville to the airport a couple of minutes faster.

Connoisseurs of irony will also have noticed the car yard in the foreground, complete with SUV. What you can't tell from this picture is that the man walking his dog along the bypass route has been one of its strongest supporters, and is still calling for more motorways.