Cleanliness

[tottefan]

Having trawled my way through many photos on the internet, I must say that I was taken back at how relatively vandalism/litter/chewing gum free streets NZ seems to be. Is this just down to nice photos shielding the reality, or is NZ a very clean place?

From personal experience, I think there is often a very strong link between the prevalance of crime and how well people look after their own area. Generally inner city areas have loads of litter, vandalism, graffiti etc, whereas nice areas tend to have less of these problems. How bad would you say vandalism/litter/graffiti in NZ are compared to the UK?

[sarahw]

Personally, we live in Welly (others may have different experience) but on the most part there isn't vandalism, much graffiti, or littering. You still find it but on a smaller scale.

Kids playparks for example - in UK where we lived it was where all the local teenagers went to drink, smoke and vandalise/graffiti. Here its where kids go to play - they're in great condition. I drove past Aotea lagoon yesterday in Papakowhai and it was great to see so many kids playing on a playground.

I must say I nearly crashed my car laughing when a house's front fence had been grafitti'd in Ascot Park recently and I saw a police man outside taking a photograph and noting down details in his book!!! Can you imagine a British bobby even entertaining the idea of going round to a house to take down details of a bit of grafitti?!

Littering - there are still idiots that throw things out of cars, you still find things dumped in strange places just not on the same scale. The other week something had fallen off a truck - an empty old plastic petrol can - on the motorway. The first driver that came along stopped (caused a traffic jam) to pick it up & put it in her car to dispose of. There seems to be more responsibility.

Another thing is that it is windy in Welly some days & things do get blown around - recycling especially plastic bottles - you find them and newspapers in the strangest places in your garden! As a result of that and lazy people beaches sometimes have litter in the dune areas. Its not really noticeable until you undertake a beach cleanup (I work for an environmental NGO) and then you see the extent of the rubbish!

Generally, if people see someone doing something that is socially unacceptable they're far more likely to say something about it... and be listened to! Especially kids. I think I've used this example before, (its not about littering but demonstrates my point) I was in the shopping centre and a woman came in and told the security guard that some teenage boys had asked her for money. The big Samoan security guard went out to 'have a chat' they all went away after apologising to him with their tails between their legs.

At the end of the day we don't have the same population numbers over here that are in the UK so the problems seem much smaller because we're not living in such concentrated numbers.

[veronica]

vandalism in the way of 'tagging' (spraypainting or felttipping initials or 'gang'symbols) is commonplace in certain areas, litter doesnt seem to be a problem here in Christchurch but the wind when it gets up can create it, the worst litter offence that I see is in the way of broken bottles, the side of chch we live in is not one of the better ones but where our ski shop is located is, there seems to be very little differnce in this problem in either area. Always amazes me that a society that loves to walk around barefoot also seems to feel its ok to smash beer bottles on the way home from a night out.

[StevieD]

Suppose it is better than smashing every single pane of glass in bus stops/phone boxes as well.....

[Moorf]

Unfortunately they do like to do the bus-stop glass too in Chch - apparently they use catapults etc and do "drive by" smashings...

[Diny]

Unfortunately they do like to do the bus-stop glass too in Chch - apparently they use catapults etc and do "drive by" smashings...

I understand that's getting to be quite the 'thing' over here, I've seen evidence of it on a couple of occasions.

Gang 'tagging' is commonplace.

One the whole there seems to be alot less litter over here but you need to remember that there are exceptions to every rule.

Once again, the fact that NZ has a small population means the problem isn't so 'in your face'.

Diny

[Snappy]

Tagging is a huge problem here in Auckland - lots of graffiti everywhere, although having travelled quite a lot in NZ over the past year, I know it's a widespread problem, not just isolated to AKL.

Broken glass is also a problem by the roadside (I cycle daily, so a tad sensitive on the subject), but this is caused by the recycling guys being overzealous when they're loading the truck, or a case of the bottles rolling out of the bins on the kerbside.

Actually, on the subject of tagging - Auckland valiantly tries to paint murals on a lot of public buildings and traffic light control boxes - seems to work and looks great too!