Colour conscious

Or perhaps unconscious, preconscious, or some other aspect of consciousness.

Some years ago, Auckland became a "super city" with the amalgamation of four local body councils into the one Auckland Council. By Government fiat, Auckland City, Waitakere City, North Shore City (+ Rodney Council), and Manukau City (+ Franklin) became governed by one council known as  Auckland Council. All in the name of efficiency.

An excellent example of the inefficiency rampant in the super city is the colour of the street signs. Some residents in 2013 noticed that previously blue street signs had been replaced by green ones. Before the amalgamation, green signs were only seen in Waitakere City, which had chosen green to indicate that Waitakere was a green city; relatively speaking that was not unreasonable.

I am told that because white on blue is more easily read than is white on green, more street signs around the world are white on blue than otherwise. Nevertheless, the new Council needed to make a decision about which colour, and kept deferring consideration, believing it wasn't that important. When residents began to notice and question the presence of green signs where once were blue, Council staff scrambled to explain.

First explanation was that the particular sign was a mistake. Residents were told if they objected the sign would be replaced with a blue one. The same offer of changing was made when more green signs were reported in the once blue Auckland City area. As the number of changes became much larger, it became the fault of a contractor who, "acting without authorisation", decided to replace all blue signs with green. And the number involved precluded Council staff identifying where they are and putting them back to green. And anyway, Council had yet to decide which colour to choose. 

I'm not sure that Council has considered the matter in the last five years, and this juxtaposition on the route to Young L's school when I walked him there this morning, tends to suggest that the whole issue has been shelved, swept under the carpet (choose your cliche).