A while ago someone made these chairs and put them in the picnic area at Back Beach.
I like them well enough. They're silly.
I keep expecting to find them busted or tagged or thrown into the sea, but neoliberal economic policy + gentrification banishes of the sort of people who didn't understand that they are worth less than things now to parts unknown. Or South Dunedin. It's not that people who can negotiate this kind of sociopathic capitalism in the midterm aren't responsible for social harm; they do it with their money rather than smashing public shit. In a housing crisis it must be very gratifying for a certain cohort to buy three properties and hike the rents by 20%.
But that's not considered vandalism.
These chairs have more friends and prospects than the people priced out of places like Port Chalmers, which used to be so ghetto it was actually called Dogtown. If we had rented instead of buying a little shitbox here, we'd be fucked and priced out too. I think about that every time we walk past this spot.
I like them well enough. They're silly.
I keep expecting to find them busted or tagged or thrown into the sea, but neoliberal economic policy + gentrification banishes of the sort of people who didn't understand that they are worth less than things now to parts unknown. Or South Dunedin. It's not that people who can negotiate this kind of sociopathic capitalism in the midterm aren't responsible for social harm; they do it with their money rather than smashing public shit. In a housing crisis it must be very gratifying for a certain cohort to buy three properties and hike the rents by 20%.
But that's not considered vandalism.
These chairs have more friends and prospects than the people priced out of places like Port Chalmers, which used to be so ghetto it was actually called Dogtown. If we had rented instead of buying a little shitbox here, we'd be fucked and priced out too. I think about that every time we walk past this spot.
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