The etiquette of rubbish bins and the rules of dating

If you are unable to view this message correctly, [click here]( Auckland! We have volcanoes. We have pretty beaches, yachts, a tower, Fashion Week, dumplings, lantern festivals, Lorde. Oh and we have racism – plenty of racism. Bold, hidden, simmering... It’s all here. We don’t need your Canadian imports. Take my suburb. It’s in the West. The population was once highly Māori. But around the turn of the Millenium it began to be – that obnoxious term – gentrified. Now it’s a bona fide racial mix. When we moved here our daughter was about to start school. There were two nearby – let’s call them A and B – and the rumour was that A was better. “Don’t go to school B,” people said. But specific reasons for A’s superiority were elusive. Both schools were Decile 5. School B was closer to us, the class sizes were smaller and the teachers seemed great. So we sent our child there. She thrived. But a few blocks away, at School A, the roll continued to swell until it was more than twice the size of B's. New families moving into our street joined the throngs, bypassing School B for the one they had to drive to. Of course, no one would have called this white flight. Not in so many words. It’s always “Johnny is very creative and we felt that School A used a better class of crayon.” That kind of thing. In the next round of ERO reports, School A’s decile rating, which measures parental income, had risen. Now parents had a concrete reason to opt for A. It got so crowded it had to draw up a zone. Real estate agents began describing houses as being “in the School A zone”. And so the streets around that school gained value, further raising the level of gentility. This happens all over Auckland all the time. A sorting and separating. A flocking together with one's own. I can’t say I didn’t feel the tug. Part of me wanted to send my child to the school where more of the parents looked like me. That kind of passive, buried racism is always the easy option. If you don’t mind sitting in traffic. But there’s a powerful desire for things to be better here, too. That’s the force that gathered and ejected two Canadian racists last week. Who could ignore the photos of them clowning in front of the Waharoa at Auckland airport? Later they explained that was just them joking about being barred from the city by an invisible forcefield. Which, funnily enough, is kind of what they met. FOOD - RUNNING - NEIGHBOURLY Where to eat, what to drink, and what's new? Tell us what you need – we're the agony aunt of Auckland's food scene. Email your questions to Your09@stuff.co.nz. Tom asks: Auckland's so small that it seems like every time I go on a date I end up running into people I know, or even worse, people I've dated. It's not that I want to be shady, but it's awkward having to introduce a date in the early stages. Where's a good date spot to avoid this happening? [See our suggestions of a couple of great options here.]( Even when you’re just running a mostly suburban route, it’s good to give it a name to make it sound exciting. Try the Double Yellow Bridge Doozie. Start at the yellow Westgate pedestrian bridge, link up with the trails through the green belt of reserves on the other side, along the paths past the marina at West Harbour, and end up by the yellow bridge at Hobsonville. Plenty of gentle off-road, and a lot of yellow. [See Eugene Bingham's latest column here.]( Is there an etiquette when it comes to putting rubbish in other people's bins? Mount Roskill residents are fired up with others sneaking rubbish into their bins - to the point that some paranoid residents are watching their bins at night, while others are waiting for the rubbish truck before putting out their bins. Some have even suggested hiding in the bin and jumping out to surprise the offender. [What do you think? Is a bin on the footpath free for all?]( Enjoying this email? [Check out Stuff's other daily and weekly newsletters](. DATING - WHAT'S ON - NEWS Our flat motto is “What Would Evan Do?” Whenever one of us is about to fire off a risky-ish text to a guy, we have a quick group debrief about whether or not Evan would approve. Evan Katz is a dating coach who “specialises in helping smart, strong, successful women understand and connect with men,” and who writes books like Why You're Still Single: Things your friends would tell you if you promised not to get mad. While the feminist in me is appalled I’m subscribing to this man’s dating advice, what’s even worse is it’s working for me. - Sinead Corcoran Politics, back room deals and powerful women at the centre of it all. Sounds like real life, but it’s Burn Her, the latest work from rising playwright 27-year-old Sam Brooks which takes us to election night and a party led by the charismatic and idealistic Aria. Brooks is perhaps best known for Riding in Cars with (Mostly Straight) Boys and won the Bruce Mason Playwrighting Award. Burn Her has received strong reviews, wowing audiences. [Catch it at Q Theatre on Saturday night.]( Is Auckland Council's new "Airbnb" rate a pot of gold, [or a crock of you-know-what?]( The move to charge higher rates on dwellings offered to visitors via booking websites seemed like a good idea at the time – well, at least to Phil Goff. Now, six weeks old, it doesn't seem to be going so well. Home owners stung by rates hikes of up to 300 per cent [may take legal action against Auckland Council](. A group of hotels, motels and serviced apartments is already taking court action claiming a targeted rate on commercial accommodation providers was unfair when other businesses also benefited from tourism. [Click here]( for Stuff Pix competition terms and conditions. Did a friend forward this to you? [Sign up to get Your 09 to your inbox]( [Unsubscribe]( [Newsletter Settings]( [Privacy Policy]( [Advertise]( [Feedback](