Okara – at your service

Okara is on a waiting list – unfortunately, it’s the queue of traffic waiting for the lights to change.

Right through the Okara Ward there are queues of traffic and people waiting – to get into town, to pick up and drop off supplies, to park, to go shopping in the CBD area, to visit doctors, dentists, hairdressers or simply to go home.  Whangarei is what used to be called a ‘service town’.  It used to be the commercial hub of a growing district at the centre of community activity. 

It still is – sort of. 

Okara is figuratively the heart of Whangarei.  Okara includes much of what we identify with the town – the Town Basin (well maybe not in the future) - and CBD area, Okara Park and Stadium, the railway yards, the Polytech, the library and Forum North, and my personal favourite, the National Clock Musuem – well, it was.  However, Okara also includes some of the principal issues that drive people away from Whangarei.  Flooding, sewerage, poor traffic flows and parking problems affect the whole district and are, quite literally, providing a disservice.

I want the heart of Whangarei to beat strongly and well.  Those who live and work in this Ward must not be squeezed out with roads and roundabouts that don’t work and open spaces that are constantly at risk from developers wanting to add to the problem.  No one wants to see Okara become one, great grid-locked concrete carpark, but that surely is what is happening.  Except when it rains –then it becomes one great grid-locked underground carpark.

We need to look at Okara as part of the bigger picture.  If Okara is at the heart of Whangarei, then the whole district would be better served if it was able to deliver more.