L I F E S T Y L E
KĀPITI C ATA S T R O P H E Kāpiti contains 11% of the region’s population, but has only 2.6% of its public housing provision. To understand residents’ feelings about the housing squeeze, the council has sought information from them. In the space of a month, more than 1300 Kāpiti residents shared information about their housing situations and aspirations. Councillor Rob McCann, housing portfolio leader, visited one respondent’s three-bedroom house, which housed nine people. McCann said there was a strong indication of housing stress, calling it a “catastrophe”.
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
LANDFILL LOAFERS
PARKING PROHIBITION
Smoking and vaping inside cars have now been banned in New Zealand if anyone under the age of 18 is present. This news comes after a decade of campaigning by community groups such as Drive Smokefree for Tamariki. The bill, titled “Prohibiting Smoking in Motor Vehicles Carrying Children”, now makes the practice a legal offence. Associate Minister of Health Jenny Salesa says this is “because children are especially vulnerable to the harmful effects of second-hand smoke due to smaller lungs, higher respiratory rate, and more immature immune systems”.
White-coloured and leaving no environmental trace, a new biodegradable shoe named Ghost is the brainchild of Kāpiti inventor Greg Howard. Humans manufacture a (very spooky) 20 billion pairs of shoes a year, with almost all eventually going to landfill. The new shoe manufactured by Howard’s company Orba is 94% plant-based, made with flax, kenaf (similar to hemp), and ramie (similar to thistle). The sole is a natural rubber, with ricehusk ash and coconut oil. The insoles are cork, coconut husk, and natural rubber. Boo-tiful.
When parking, you sometimes have to creep onto the footpath, right? It’s a balancing act, dividing room on the road but not hogging the pavement. From 1 February, Wellington City Council “may” issue you a parking ticket for this, perhaps hinting at some discretion – which is probably wise considering areas like Devon St and Palliser Rd, where cars invariably have to park on the footpath. Guidelines from 2005 that allowed the practice outside of urban and suburban centres were recently scrapped, citing “safety risks to footpath users”.
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