34: Best of Both Worlds
What if the New Auckland can combine the best of both worlds?
One of the defining characteristics of the 21st century is that cities everywhere are having a global conversation and a global competition with each other. Many have old rivalries and have always contrasted their way of life against that of their neighbours; others are getting to know each other and are constantly comparing and competing as up and coming cities on the world stage.
One aspect of this that is clear is that the old divides between cities increasingly do not apply. Auckland (along with say Los Angeles and Sydney) has historically belonged in a grouping of cities usually characterised as having the world’s most beautiful urban settings but characterised by high levels of sprawl, auto-dependency and low levels lacking in public life and vitality . Each often gets compared with their neighbours the vibrant liveable cities (San Francisco, Melbourne and Wellington). Increasingly these comparisons are outdated.
Here in NZ this is important for Auckland (and Wellington) to recognise in a number of ways.
For one we should stop dissing LA and saying we don’t want to be like them. It isn’t the 1960s anymore and the old LA stereotypes increasingly don’t apply. They have been building metro system and light rail for quite some time now and Downtown LA is regenerating and gentrifying at a pace that it seems they are really embracing the urban century.
Likewise Sydney is quite blatantly and unashamedly copying the tactics and successful strategies of Melbourne (light rail, laneways, small bars, arts and culture) to bring a new energy and feel-good pride to the city.
And here in our little corner of the world Auckland is increasingly not defined by the old ways, and is staking its own claim as one of the most vibrant and liveable cities around.
Who said cities can’t be beautiful and vibrant? Why can’t we have amazing beaches, harbours and natural settings and amazing culture, life and energy? LA, Sydney and Auckland are all working to prove this wrong. Increasingly, it does feel like these cities can combine the best of both worlds.
Stuart Houghton 2014
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Probably the worst one yet. Just dumb. Melbourne is more of an auto city, with lower rail and bus patronage than Sydney. Then only thing it has on Sydney in that regard is trams, which (in my admittedly limited experience) aren’t great. Moreover it has a vastly larger motorway network and is far, far sprawl-ier.
And since when has ‘art and culture’ been a ‘strategy’. Sydney (and LA and Auckland) have always had those things, they aren’t some revelatory concepts that were dreamed up by the Victorian government in 1995.