RAMBLING SEASON 17/08/21
This must be the warmest winter as far as I can remember. Someone said last winter was, but now this winter has just broken the record for June /July period. And it comes in time for the Climate Change red alert for human. So I'm already thinking of how warm the next winter would be.
The season is winter associated with the cold and wet; then some people do like the fresh morning and cold breeze. The reality of Climate Change is changing all that. It may bring some relief from those full blast heaters and power bills, but then there's the housing crisis and the pandemic.
Meantime in suburbia, folks are busy in protest against the shortage of staff in hospitals and schools. I think some are complaining about underpaid and overworked. The condition makes more staff off work sick causing staff shortage. But the bulk of complaints is the intake on emergency admittance and school enrolments. It's enough to make anyone sick just thinking about it.
So if Capitalism is the cause correlated to Climate Change, Homelessness, covid-19, staff shortages and mental illness, then I don't think the weather matters much. Capitalism is an economic system and we are looking at the social consequences of the economic system in place. It is therefore necessary to put in place a social organisation of the economy to counter the abnormal consequences on human.
When home buyers find affordable houses in small towns, the locals have to move somewhere. And the impact is felt upon overcrowding and homelessness. This is not ideal for the covid-19 condition as overcrowding is known to be a breeding ground for communal disease.
Fortunately, there might be a natural solution. There could be a shift from city buyers to small towns and small town folks to suburbs. If so, then small town locals could find more resources for work and shared accommodations in suburban areas. Despite the change in location, I think both settlers; city buyers and town folks would benefit from the shift.
However, this was tried before but locals didn't want to move as they identify with the place they were brought up on. And they are just as protective as traditional landlords of the land from commercial development.
At the same time, city buyers would soon change the outlook status of the township raising its commercial value, and housing could become more unaffordable for the rest of the town folks. This reminds us of Ponsonby, Grey Lynn and Glen Innes. It hovers a nostalgic image over the horizon.
Under Climate Change red alert warning, there's no choice but to modify Capitalism from accumulation of material consequences to quality of social organisation. There has to be a green and diverse filter for developments on any projects. This could be implemented in the new RMA, purpose built for the people with regards to the environment.
The material approach is as long as profit is guaranteed, there is no consequences. City buyers could buy off town locals and throw them on the street after the purchase. The social approach places a guarantee that there is no purchase unless another place is available for town locals to move into. And resembles the place they have just moved out of in terms of demographic facilities and natural landmarks. This also guarantees the greenery protection of the area, and environmental friendly of developmental materials. That's a holistic and fair trade.
This may force material developers to expand and integrate human qualities on natural surrounding and land to the house and facilities. It is not a brick and wood building exchange for a profit. It may also curb exploitation of natural resources and consumers.
In places, the polarised landscape is acclimatised to commercial status where the well-off are symbolised by design and material quality of buildings on the sunny side of the street; but the not so well-off are bulked up in housing stock of colonial terraces on the shaded side.
So if we develop a diverse and green outlook of suburbia, keeping in mind how volatile and extreme the weather is, I think the hovering image of nostalgia could be replaced by a future aerial phenomenon. The dangers also warn us of flooding and fires as frequent occasions of Climate Change.
The rest of housing development is availability of funds. Prospective buyers or buying to rent are privileged under financial terms more secure than those seeking a home. And the security interests on loans can only benefit corporate and rich investors. It just so unfair on how they sold housing and social housing to the private sector when on the very next year the housing crisis evicted so many folks on the street. That's the difference between material development and social organisation of the economy.
The green and diverse approach place quality and security checks before a purchase to preserve and maintain natural sites. And the image projected upon the landscape is not only human but also environmental friendly characters accustomed to the modern.