It's a squalid, nasty place, as you so often get when there is a cluster of state houses. The row along the railway line are notorious for using the rail corridor as a rubbish dump, so much so that an excavator and trucks are regularly needed to clean this strip out. It's quite a site to see the rats bailing out of the trucks!
To look at the buildings, it would seem that sales of spray paint cans exceed sales of personal hygiene products and that roller doors are the most popular sort of shop frontage.
The main exports are prison inmates, dole bludgers and DPB spongers (note that I differentiate them from those who have a taxpayer-funded income for temporary support) The main employers are WINZ, CYPS, TAB and the Naenae hotel.
A six-metre chain-link fence around the perimeter would be an improvement and would make for a view such as is found in places like Rimutaka prison- the inhabitants should be quite familiar with this!
It's even worse than Masterton!
7 comments:
...the same corridor election hoardings go up. Time after time I would re-erect signs while thugs sneered from across the road, picking my way through all the dog shit they had thrown across there. The signs were either trashed, hurled onto the lines, or spray painted. One day I found sanitary pads taped to them.
I arrived in NZ in 1968. Started at Avalon school and used to visit the Naenae shopping centre regularly. Had my heart set on a jigsaw puzzle which took me 6 weeks to save up for. The place has degenerated badly in the ensuing period. Nobody will ever convince me it's not the benefit system. This is DPB capital of the lower North Island.
I work in market research and a couple of weeks ago I spent two days knocking on doors in the upper Seddon St. area of Naenae. I encountered a couple who were on a benefit, she had never worked in her life and was pregnant and just round the corner in another street I encountered another couple, she a chinese immigrant he a New Zealander, combined income in excess of $100k and owning several investment properties. Such is the nature of Naenae, very friendly people, easy to talk to and people comfortably off living in the same street as those on a benefit.
Back in the same time- late 60's I used to live in Taita. BAck then Naenae had what was for the time a very good shopping centre.
As kids, we would go down to the Saturday afternoon movies at Naenae- travelled by train, all unescorted at age nine!
What has happened since then?
Didn't they turn the cinema into a bingo hall? Don't know what it is now. I was in Naenae again today. Trying to turn this kid around. Desperately down in the dumps today because the boyfriend is going inside for two years. I pointed out to her that she was constantly on the verge of chucking him anyway. But now he's going to prison he's taken on some kind of mystical aura. Somehow though the vow of chastity is about as convincing as her aim to become a lawyer.
Hmm... I am probably the couple that mark v was talking about earlier!
But you guys are right, Naenae is a bit of a dump. On the other hand, it is starting to pick up a bit as it is still one of the most affordable place in Lower Hutt that is not as far as Stokes Valley nor as damp as Wainuiomata.
We hate the dole bludger neighbours and their big exhaust car, but hey, we just close the window and never forget to set the burglar alarm.
I do wish for a day when Naenae is filled with first home owners again, and not the fringe dwellers who is constantly at the WINZ office. Actually, I only know of 4 other couple in Naenae that is not a dole bludger!
It's true that may run-down suburbs get a lew lease on life through being affordable to first home buyers.
Addington in Christchurch would be one example, Featherston where I live is another.
Houses start getting renovated, prices rise and landlords sell up to turn a profit on investment properties. The riff-raff drift away in seach of cheaper hovels.
What stuffs the process up is when there are a sizable proportion of state houses, unaffected by moves in the rest of the market. The undesirables have to incentive to move along.
And the first home buyers tend to look elsewhere. They are moving to the Wairarapa before Naenae.
Oswald, you're from Featherston, right? What is the main money earner there, mate? Isn't it harvesting season soon? Sorry, hydroponics is all year round! Don't pick on Masterton!
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