by Ian Apperley
What a difference a week makes. It’s hard to keep up with the madcap shambles that is going on around the mayoralty race in Wellington. Attempts at history are being rewritten, the proverbial is flying and no one is without sin. Read more »

by Felicity Wong
It takes a while for head office memos to reach council staff. The Local Government infrastructure conference this week reflected on councils’ increased debt, and the risks of population levels not supporting higher debt. Read more »

by Helene Ritchie
The Wellington City Council’s preferred option for water reform is plainly absurd. It is nothing less than a regional copy-cat of the seriously failed 20-year-old regional company, exemplified by Wellington Water. Read more »

by Stuart Niven
This is Leo. He is the last Wellingtonian to be welcomed onto Toi Te Rito Maihi’s weaving pattern of flounder that made up the surface of our Civic Square and represented a reference to manaakitanga – welcome and hospitality – now a pile of discarded rubble at the side of where the Square used to be. Read more »

by Peter Dunne
There is an old saying doing the rounds in Rome at present as Cardinals gather to elect a successor to Pope Francis that “he who enters the conclave a Pope, leaves a Cardinal”. While the warning has not always been borne out in recent Papal elections, it does have application more widely. Read more »

by Lindsay Shelton
There seemed to be no doubt about why Tory Whanau gave up her ambition to be mayor of Wellington for a second term. The Green mayoral candidate spelled out her change of mind in the NZ Herald: “Now having Andrew Little in the race, I’ve decided I’d like to step aside to give him a clear runway to win the mayoralty.” Read more »

Tory Whanau launches Golden Mile project yesterday. RNZ photo by Samuel Rillstone

Report from RNZ by Giles Dexter
Wellington mayor Tory Whanau has announced she is no longer running for a second term, a move which took one of her biggest would-be opponents by surprise. Read more »

LDR report by Mary Afemata
Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau says it’s the right call to step aside from the mayoral race to contest the city’s newly established Māori ward. She cited a need for stronger Māori and Pacific representation and wanting to protect women and minorities from online abuse, while also avoiding a divisive campaign. Read more »

Wellington.Scoop
The Wellington City Council has announced that work will start early next month on the first stage of its Golden Mile project, which it has named “Courtenay Place Revitalisation.” Reconstruction at the Courtenay Place intersection of Kent and Cambridge Terraces will take eight months. Read more »

by Karl Tiefenbacher
The Wellington City Council wants to demolish the City to Sea bridge, but they’ve had to hold off because of a judicial review this month. Read more »