Welcome to the Cheat Sheet, a clickable, shareable, bite-sized FAQ on the news of the moment. Today, Don Rowe explains why shutting down Hamilton’s most notorious bar isn’t automatically a good idea. What’s going on? The most notorious bar in Hamilton – and thus the country – has had its liquor license canned by police. … Read more
It started with a gross message sent from a councillor to a journalist. And it hasn’t stopped since. It’s now more than two weeks since Hamilton City Councillor Mark Bunting sent a deeply inappropriate message to journalist, Spinoff commentator and campaigner for Hamilton playgrounds Angela Cuming, and the unpleasantness continues unabated. To briefly recap: Bunting, a … Read more
Opinion: So far the Hamilton City Council has ignored the pleas from the region’s families to save the city’s playgrounds, writes Angela Cuming. But will they listen to the United Nations Children’s Fund? Update: The Hamilton City Council CEO has contacted the Spinoff disputing elements of this piece, requesting that “The Spinoff acknowledge the article … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, José Barbosa suffers pure horror in the form of Hamilton Gardens’ trauma-inducing scarecrows. Hamilton gets ribbed a lot, but the city has at least two things going for it: 1) the mighty Waikato River (why was the city built … Read more
A destination playground saved Angela Cuming’s little family from cracking, so just why does her local council reckon the cost of them is ‘bordering on obscene’? During the long, long days I was stuck at home with three boys under three I would sometimes lock myself in the woodshed so my kids wouldn’t see or … Read more
Hamilton City Councillor Garry Mallett is the subject of a formal complaint over allegations he used the words ‘fags’ and ‘homos’ while on council business. But he has defended any use of such terms, and warned the Spinoff against getting ‘sucked into this politically correct vortex’, reports Angela Cuming. A Hamilton City councillor accused of … Read more
Raiza Biza’s first full length album since 2012 is on the horizon. He talks to Simon Day about the local hip hop community, growing up black in New Zealand, and his upcoming all-ages gig – which we’re giving away tickets to. It’s been a complicated journey for Raiza Biza. His family left Rwanda when his … Read more
She’s an anti-vaccination, anti-fluoride campaigner who believes measles is a hoax and polio can be cured with vitamin C. Meet Siggi Henry, one of the most powerful people in our fourth largest city. Angela Cuming reports. First published 13 July 2017. When Hamilton councillor Siggi Henry wore a tinfoil hat to meet associate health minister … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today Simon Day asks: is Duck Island Ice Cream the greatest thing the Tron has ever produced? Hamilton has suffered from an image problem for decades. Suffocated beneath the weight of its own branding, the legendary city slogan “More than … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Don Rowe surveys the chaos at the 66th Annual All Breeds Cat Show. You know what they say: nothing fixes a hangover like the hair of the cat, and so I took my hangover to a cat show at … Read more
Over the weekend a fan of Hamilton brewer and bar Good George noted how similar taps at an Auckland’s Headquarters bar were to their custom taps. The bar’s owner, gross hospitality personality Leo Molloy, found the post and went apeshit. Here, Good George’s Race Louden responds. Ron Burgundy would be mightily impressed at how quickly things … Read more
It’s New Zealand’s most successful city slogan by far, and the council had nothing to do with it. Angela Cuming finds out how a grassroots social media movement created an explosion of civic pride. A hot November afternoon, 2012, and a lime green picnic bench flashed up on my computer screen. It was from a … Read more
Head of news concedes ‘regrettable error’ over TV and online stories on what appears to be a phantom Hamilton police survey. Broadcast and text stories relating to a purported police survey about beggars on Hamilton streets have been removed by TVNZ following a Spinoff report published this week. “We didn’t verify there was a survey … Read more
‘Beggars pretending to look homeless by bringing props to streets’ blared a recent One News report, citing as evidence a survey of the homeless population by Hamilton police. Just one problem: the survey doesn’t appear to exist. Branko Marcetic goes in search of the phantom police survey, and looks at what our readiness to accept … Read more
There’s a block of houses in Hamilton that exists as some kind of sad metaphor. It sits in the middle of tidy suburban streets and it lines a small part of the new motorway, so that thousands of cars pass by it on their way to work and on their way home. It’s as close … Read more