Joel MacManus

1 month ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Joel MacManus

Things are about to change in the capital, and it has nothing to do with the mayoral race. Windbag is The Spinoff’s Wellington issues column, written by Wellington editor Joel MacManus. Subscribe to the Windbag newsletter to receive columns early. Wellington spends an inordinate amount of time naval-gazing about vibes or the perceived lack thereof. Vibes are ill-defined, intangible, immeasurable but ever-present, and any effort to change them is more art than science.

1 month ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Joel MacManus

A tense day in the house reached a fiery collusion when Brooke Van Velden became the first MP to use the word ‘cunt’ in parliament. You could cut the tension in the air with a knife. There was a trepidation that it was coming. That word, the one that’s been on the minds and lips of every political observer this week. The one that starts with C and rhymes with runt. It began with a column in the Sunday Star Times by Andrea Vance, which criticised the government’s changes to pay equity legislation.

1 month ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Joel MacManus

Roadway art like Wellington’s rainbow crossing can be a cheap way to improve inner-city vibrancy and pedestrian safety. Windbag is The Spinoff’s Wellington issues column, written by Wellington editor Joel MacManus. Subscribe to the Windbag newsletter to receive columns early. Wellington’s rainbow crossing at Cuba Street and Dixon Street opened with pomp and circumstance on October 10, 2018.

1 month ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Joel MacManus

They’re both young, female, progressive leaders whose career trajectories are intertwined with Andrew Little. But their strengths, weaknesses, governing style and political legacies couldn’t be more different. Windbag is The Spinoff’s Wellington issues column, written by Wellington editor Joel MacManus. Subscribe to the Windbag newsletter to receive columns early. It was July 2017, less than two months out from the general election, and Labour was heading to an almost certain defeat.

2 months ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Joel MacManus

After the high court backed Wellington City Council’s decision to reduce the city’s character areas, Joel MacManus looks back at the five decades that shaped the restrictive housing policy. The motorway came and tore the community in two. A great big gash of concrete. Eight lanes of destruction and separation. Thorndon is New Zealand’s oldest residential neighbourhood; the place where the British occupation of Wellington city began. Then, Wellington Urban Motorway cut right through its heart.