18/01/2018
Otara Pioneer shares his story about the impacts of bikes in our community.
Do you have a story or opinion to share?
Did you know over 600million dollars worth of resources will be injected into communities paths and cycle ways and yet our community won’t see an inch until 2023.
Share your feedback, opinion and stories of the impact our pathways and cycleways make, in order to make the difference!
Sully Paea, Otara
www.walknridesouthside.co.nz
The community work that I’ve done, I’ve been doing since 1979 and everyone knows my face. Kids come and tell me ‘My grandma knows you!’ That’s how long I’ve been doing this, I’m working with the grandkids of the ones I used to work with as kids.
My feet are on the street because that’s where the community is and because of this everything is mobile and it draws attention. You’ve got to know where the ‘fish’ are running! If the fish are running on Sunday afternoon, that’s where you need to be. So I don’t fit into someone else’s box with this way of doing things or any corporate boxes. I make my own box.
You have to do stuff that grabs kid’s attention. That’s what this big pile of bikes is all about. I’m restoring this bike and in turn it’s restoring me. You’re restoring the bike and it’s restoring you. The project is the bike but the project is building you. When kids come here and say ‘Can you fix my bike?’ I say no – you’re going to fix your bike. I’ll show you but you’re doing it. And if you want a bike, you’re gonna fix it up and if I hear about anything about you at school bullying or anything like that, I’m gonna come and take your bike.
I give the kids bags to go and pick up all of the rubbish on the street and then we start with the bikes. And it’s showing them that there’s this exchange – we give and we receive. And I earn the right to speak into their lives.
Some neighbourhoods look beautiful on the outside, but get close to them and they’re cold. Despite all that goes on, there’s warmth here, we have heart and soul and you can feel it. People love this place and are really connected to it. But there is the ongoing stigma associated with Otara. It’s huge.
We’re building from the street level this way of being responsible for ourselves, building the ladder of support for each other. We’ve started with Velvet Crescent and then branching out where we want to get to the Pearl Baker area where some of the real challenges are. It’s easy for others to forget what the real issues are because they aren’t there all the time. You have to show your face and be there.
There is an estimated $635 million set aside by Auckland Transport for a proposed new cycleway and paths programme across the Auckland region. South Auckland communities are looking at a four year wait (2021) before we will see any investment into our communities.
Read more stories and tell us why you think there should be earlier investment into South Auckland cycleways and paths here -->www.walknridesouthside.co.nz
