This weekend is Auckland’s 175th birthday and there’s a lot on (click image for a larger version)
As you can see Lower Queen St outside Britomart has been closed and it appears that already people are flocking to use it.
Yes please Queen St. What a beaut. pic.twitter.com/ATgJZ0zFRW
— Su Yin Khoo (@ksuyin) January 23, 2015
Auckland’s newest ppl space was full as soon as the deck chairs & bean bags got put out #AKLturns175 pic.twitter.com/Pie76Komyt
— Pippa Coom (@pippacoom) January 23, 2015
Making this permanent is the longer term plan for the area after the CRL is finished so it’s great to see it effectively trialled. Also why can’t we close roads like Queen St and put out chairs and beanbags more often. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to do every weekend.
Processing...
Typical that the only place AT can bring themselves to close is a bus only area and hence won’t affect cars.
The photo’s show the pointlessness of closing the area. All they’ve done is plonk some chairs in the middle of the road so people can do what exactly? Sit on a chair in the middle of the road? Whoop de do. The only thing that has been created is an obstruction.
I’d also like to know how much ratepayer money the Council is contributing to this rubbish. In theory they should be contributing nothing to the Seafood Festival. Running the festival should be the role of a private promoter as it is not the council’s role to take on business risk as it has no mandate from ratepayers to do so. I’d also like to no what involvement the Council has in funding the Buskers festival. Hopefully they aren’t paying the buskers by the hour because you’d only get 5 minutes of show during that time.
Overall the list of “things to do” is very disappointing because none involve people doing anything. Watching a tugboat?? You have to be kidding me.
Someone got up out of the wrong side of their bed….
Ah yes, The Real Matthew, aka grumpy ratepayer. One of the Quax//Brewer/Wood constituents. Oppose everything. Do nothing. Hate the future.
Please don’t misrepresent my position.
I am in favour of the CRL. What I am opposed to is that there is no credible financial plan to pay for it. I am in favour of Skypath but given the current financial constraints facing the Council I believe it should be delayed.
There is a credible financial plan to pay for the CRL. Govt pays half (they’ve already said that) and council pay the other half. Council’s half is funded by debt with interest capitalised until it is complete and then funded by rates like all other council debt. As for Skypath, that is funded by a private party, not council so has no impact on rates.
This is why this country gets nowhere and has a small population. This attitude that we can’t afford to build anything. We spend approx $18 bn on social welfare at present, plus Auckland contributes 1/3 rd of tax revenue and fuel tax. There’s plenty of available funds that could be spent on Auckland’s needed infrastructure.
The Real Matthew, we’re having a celebration of Auckland’s history, plus the Seafood Festival, etc. I’m sorry if you object to any funds for these events and celebrations. Go down there, there’s plenty on.
I seriously can’t believe what I’m reading. In the 8 years I’ve lived in Auckland, my day today at Lower Queen St has been one of the most memorable. Buskers performing, blown up old photos of Auckland on the street, children playing safely on playgrounds. Road closure for festivals like THIS is why I love this city.
Boring killjoys like you can move to some dull cities that has zero cultural activities if you find this too ‘wasteful’ for your precious council rates.
Totally agree. Exciting time to live in this wonderful place. Perhaps the killjoys might like to try Temuka or Foxton or Huntly. Cheap rates. No annoying visionaries.
Why do you assume we would have zero cultural activities?
Cultural activities would live and die by their popularity.
What annoys me is that my cultural activities aren’t funded by Council. The Council is picking winners and deciding what sort of events it’s citizens should partake in. It’s nanny state in the extreme and I am more than entitled to object to my rates going to activities I don’t want to/can’t attend whilst I have to pay full price to attend the activities I want to because someone at Council has decided not to fund them.
Yeah I think they should start with free English grammar classes.
Seriously though, if these are your priorities, then I suggest you move to Tauranga. It would make both you and us happier.
“All they’ve done is plonk some chairs in the middle of the road so people can do what exactly? Sit on a chair in the middle of the road? Whoop de do.”
Well as shown in the photos, that’s exactly what people did. They came, they played, they bought stuff (ie market/economic activity) and used the space, and enjoyed it. How is this a bad thing?
“The only thing that has been created is an obstruction.”
You just outed yourself as a traffic engineer.
We already have a city centre space where people can sit around.
It’s called Albert Park – the forgotten jewel of Auckland
Forgotten?
We are attending and using PT, call us idiots we are paying $26.50 for a return trip from Te Atatu( 2 adults one child) as opposed to AT parking fee of $7.50 all day. Role on fares that actually encourage families to use PT.
+1.5 million
At the very least they should allow children (13 and under) to travel free with an adult during “event” periods such as this.
Agreed. Should be $10 for families in the weekend like Perth. And 25% for school kids other days. PT needs to be mainstream and attract a bigger customer base. $10 day pass like Calgary for Adults. A serious gauntlet thrown down would really help public opinion and choice.
and more fool us, our return bus the19.05 was a no show ( just fell off the electronic board and AT call centre could give us no info but did lodge complaint) the next bus to Te Atatu was 20:35. Yes to CRL, yes to light rail, please yes for walking and cycling but stop widening our arterials out west for cars and forgetting PT.
Anyway looks great will go tomorrow.
I was planning to catch the train in to the festivities on Sunday but the last train home on the Southern line departs at 9:28pm – right before the fireworks start at 9:30pm.
How hard would it be for them to have a few extra evening trains like they do on a Saturday?
So, unfortunately we will have to drive in and park 🙁
Check the journey planner, there are extra trains scheduled to run after the fireworks.
Not for the Onehunga line there isn’t, last train out is 9:41pm is the last train out of Britomart
I took my family over via Ferry from Devonport yesterday, and although I stuck the my trip on my Hop card, my wife and two kids brought paper tickets; which was expensive. A family pass would have been useful for the day.
The ferries were packed; I noticed staff members counting people on, and looked like they were going to going to cut people off once a certain number had boarded. Given the ferries were running 30 minutes apart, would have been a wait if you missed one ferry.
They seemed to be running late as well, no surprise with the large numbers of people using the ferry and a mass of boats on the harbour, but another negative when ferries were sticking to 30 minute sailings and no updated real-time display (the electronic boards were showing scheduled departures even nearly 10 minutes after that time had passed!). Overhead a couple of negative comments, which was a pity on such a nice day, but part of the problem was that instead of experienced commuters, lots of people using ferries for the first time, and getting confused about how ticketing worked (saw people trying to use Fullers tickets through Hop gates etc) 🙁
I felt a bit unnerved standing on Quay Street. It’s such a rare event to be able to do this. I couldn’t stop looking at one of the photos on show down there. It shows the intersection of downtown Queen and Quay Street. There are more people on the footpaths than current times and the wonderful trams operating.
It all looked so civilised compared to the petrol madhouse of today. Wonderful buildings,… If we have made progress it made me feel quite sad.
That’s it in a nutshell we havn’t made progress to liveability,mobility or sustainability. But now electric trains and the north shore busway show what the best use of space is. Widespread lanes and visual and air pollution, loss of amenity across the spectrum or a narrow corridor with capacity that never needs widening or at worse an upgrade to some form of rail if bus. Those two things are an excellent start. Even a minor close of Queen St, Quay St shows potential, did we survive yes. Cars are great just not a widespread solution in a city, and really in places like Queen St, they are not necessary or wanted.
Having gone to Howick Friday night can definitely confirm Pakuranga Rd wider than 17.5m even without measuring it from Panmure Bridge at least past highland park. Just saying example No 1. I think Quay St even without measuring it is example No2.
Well I hope the business owners look at those photos and think look at all those walking customers. Do cars buy goods or people? Or have we lost sight of what is good for people. Widedpread Public Transit corridors, widespread protected cycle..no. Shopping areas maximised for pedestrians..no, car space to intoxication..yes.
Time to reclaim some road corridor space for people for a change. 3m cycleway space with 1m physical protection, and 2 public transport lanes-7m. 11m isn”t much for 2 independent , smart and sustainable networks.
I’ve never understood why they put that bus terminal where they did, the sooner it’s removed, the better.
Well with the CRL they dont necessarily all have to go to britomart and with the new bus network there will be a lot let buses running into the city.
Yeah I have work as per normal on monday and guess what? Sunday services, nice one AT… have to drive in so i can make it in time at 7am. Another prime example of unreliability.
You will get paid at T1.5 and also get a day in lieu, so don’t cry to loudly!
Not complaining about the work, just the lack of proper PT forcing car use.
Sorry to interrupt your party but I have a question from Canterbury.
What do you guys think of Christchurch’s Mayor asking for an alliance with Auckland. Also Lianne Dalziel, her off sider Raf Manji and her council think Canterbury should be preparing for up to 2 million people living in the province in 35 years or so?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/65372803/Christchurch-Mayor-Lianne-Dalziel-pushes-for-alliance-with-Auckland
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/65378638/Canterbury-with-a-population-of-2-million
Finally Happy Birthday Auckland!
Hi Brendon,
Sounds on the surface like a plan to gang up against the Central Govt and to actually wrest control of the future economic development processes back to the Canterbury region from Wellington.
So, yes all for it. But the two region have distinct issues, with their own solutions, but they do have a common issue with the current Governments blinkered approach and “she’s right mate, no changes needed here” approach to managing the economy and economic growth.
As for Canterbury being able to have 2 million people in it longer term – 1 million in the “city” and another million around it from Timaru to Amberly – Got one word to say to that Lianne.
“You’re Dreaming”
Canterbury doesn’t have the water resources to sustain that level of exurban development, nor the transport infrastructure to sustain that kind of dispersed “village” model she proposes anytime in the the next 20-30 years, especially when climate change and carbon constraints are bought in.
Dalziel’s “master plan” overlooks the fact that for most of its life Canterbury has been a district subject to severe, prolonged water issues, with droughts being a common occurrence.
Yes tapping the artesian water sources that flow under Canterbury has allowed unfettered growth, but the limits of that are well and truly apparent now with most aquifers being well oversubscribed.
And as the source of the water is the snowfalls on the southern alps, any changes in the level of snowfall (which the Franz and Fox glaciers are showing to the world if that was needed, the effects of that snowfall reduction over the last decades), will cause those flows to reduce and many wells to run dry, requiring ever deeper wells to keep the water flowing.
Basically, Canterbury needs to rely a lot less on the “white gold” and switch to less water intensive economic activities. And the same goes for the lifestyles of the existing and new residents.
Thanks Greg. I think the 2 million people living in Canterbury statement is attention grabbing stuff. The real issue is we are growing strongly and we want to be treated seriously like you do in Auckland.
I think you are wrong about water being a constraint for population growth, Christchurch and Canterbury has far greater water sources than Auckland does, we have several large rivers that we can take catchment from and I believe the aquifers are closed for agricultural purposes so they remain a resource for households. We don’t need to import water from neighbouring provinces, from the Waikato for instance.
Humans consume a lot less water than cows and we clean up the water we use -sewerage treatment facilities, cows don’t.
Storing rain water and using ‘grey water’ should be encouraged for gardening purposes in Canterbury because we do have a dry climate.
Where water does play a part in this issue is it comes down to priorities and vision for the future. National keeps giving it away to farmers and have reformed regional government structures -Ecan so this continues . Basically Canterbury is being treat us as a country yokel province.
Some of us like Lianne Dalziel have a different vision and want structures put in place to achieve that vision.
We are trying to form alliances so this can happen.
“Where water does play a part in this issue is it comes down to priorities and vision for the future. National keeps giving it away to farmers and have reformed regional government structures -Ecan so this continues . Basically Canterbury is being treat us as a country yokel province.”
Agreed, but thats always been the case, ever since Canterbury was founded in 1850. The landowners have used the water in the rivers by right and left nothing for anyone else historically.
This is just more of the same.
No consideration is made if the use being made is the best outcome for NZ Inc or Canterbury Inc, Just whats best for the guy who owns the land where the dairy cows are.
As for the volume of water flowing in the ground, yes it is flowing, but 30-40 years of dairying has contaminated much of the lower water table with effluent and run off.
But park that for now a related bigger issue, is that within the next 30 years or so – based on historic data patterns now clear as a result on ongoing research.
The Southern Alps main fault will rupture, when it does, it will produce a major earthquake of up to 10 minutes long – depending on how much of the fault moves.
This is the next big risk for the south island, and probably parts of Wellington possibly too.
It will be the first Southern Alps Alpine fault ‘quake one since NZ was settled by Europeans.
Predictions are of a high 8 or low 9.0 magnitude event.
When it does go, a 10 minute long ‘quake will result in many buildings on the east coast of the South Island will be severely shaken, and damaged.
10 minutes is a very long time for any structure to withstand, even a Mag 6.0 quake as it would probably appear to the residents of Christchurch, Dunedin and points nearby (Queenstown?).
Yes the buildings being rebuilt in Christchurch now (which have base isolation) will be standing, but many of the other structures there won’t.
Other centres like Dunedin and Oamaru, Quuenstown will be even more badly affected.
The effects of this event to the SI (and possibly) Wellington and the wider NZ Economy and will dwarf the last 4+ years Christchurch has been through.
Thats the elephant in the room that Dalziel is ignoring with her grand plan for a high-tech future for Christchurch.
As a person from Christchurch myself, it pains me to say, that the future for Christchurch is not so bright.
I don’t disagree with your general thrust although I take a more optimistic view of peoples ability to adapt if given a chance.
I think NZ/ South Island should make an export industry out of building like this.
http://www.xlam.co.nz/
http://www.makersofarchitecture.co.nz/
Turn surviving the big one into a marketing tool!
Re the transport issue for Canterbury. Passenger rail from Ashburton to Amberley would be little different than from Upper Hutt to Levin. So if Wellington which is smaller and has slower growth can get this transport infrastructure why can’t Canterbury? In the bigger scheme of things it is not about money. It is about political priorities. Far more resources go into any one of social welfare (mainly Superann), education and health than goes into transport. Transport like education gives a positive return on investment, unlike the other two major forms of expenditure so it should be seen as an investment not a cost.
It is quite possible for just a modest redistribution of resources for both Auckland and Canterbury to be modern cities and provinces with first world transport infrastructure.
Given we contain almost half the population, probably more than half of the young folk and a big chunk of economic growth then why wouldn’t a country do this?
As I said above, its rearranging Deck chairs on the Titanic.
But yes, political will is whats needed, but the current Government sees nothing wrong that needs fixing or a different future that needs preparing for.
I had a quick read of both articles. I think a closer relationship a great idea. Also that rail link proposed has major merit as the main skeleton, do it asap.
Looking at what is working here in Auckland like rail especially. I studied civil engineering down there , had no car and cycled everywhere, so flat maximise that you should do better than Copenhagen.
One thing Brendon,
No one planned for Auckland to have 2 million people in it, they never planned for it to have even 1 million in it. and it shows, it badly shows.
And its happened in spite of 60 years of government policy to discourage growth on the basis that Wellington is afraid of Auckland getting too big.
Christchurch will suffer the same fate while the current governance structures for Canterbury remains.
You badly need a “Super city” – way more than Wellington does.
You need a Christchurch Transport to do all the province wide planning and delivery of transport to enable the growth to be managed.
You need a new way to fund all the needed infrastructure build.
Right now Central Government in Wellington just plays Ecan off against the city council – all the while it merrily goes on its own way with RoNS galore and same old same old like there is no tomorrow.
This government believes we are only one more free trade agreement away from Nirvana, this year its TPP, last time it was China FTA, before that … and before that … right back to when we signed up to Mother England as her food supply.
Will Christchurch get to 2 million people by 2050, will it have the growth and planning structures to manage it if it does?
Time will tell – but the past outcomes don’t predict it will, or that it will be managed properly to ensure it does.
Now of course, if a new Volcano erupts in the Auckland Volcanic field – especially if its an offshore one, that effectively ruins the Waitemata harbour for shipping, then you could find yourself the economic powerhouse of the country. Heck knows that Wellington can’t cope with that role, and that leaves either Tauranga or Christchurch as the next obvious candidates to pick up the mantle.
So the only thing standing between now and that future is none other than “geological and political events”.
And Christchurch needs to manage the sea level rise that will occur by 2050 – and thats now proven to be occurring at a far faster rate in recent times – the last 25 or so years – than ever before.
The pace of sea level rise will increase. That may mean that the entire east side of Christchurch is lost to encroaching sea levels. So a steady long march west for Christchurch is under way.
Good call by Dalziel. Current gov doesn’t understand the value of cities, good idea to join forces to push back against their over simplistic world view.
Auckland has been doing some serious progress in the 6 years I’ve been here. But there’s one thing Akl needs to do: conquer the fear of the dark. Closing down things at 6pm on a Saturday night is just too NZ.
Yeah this shocked me about henderson, I went there at 7 and it was dead since the mall and sorounding shops close at 6 most days…? Like whats up with that?
Happens lots of other places too it seems.
Staff have lives as well. I remember when shops were open M – F with a late night. Guess what? We coped. I refuse to shop on Sunday and Public Holidays, even Saturday afternoon is an effort. I refer to when shopping wasn’t an outing.
And life can’t happen between 9am and 5pm weekdays, so that’s the only time anyone can work? Pretty old school view of the situation. What about all our tertiary students, their not allowed to work on evenings and weekends?
Policy. It’s by policy that a city becomes great or not for its citizens and guests. Contrast two North American cities made rich by being at the heart of great energy industries, Houston and Calgary:
http://nextcity.org/daily/entry/calgary-streets-pedestrian-biking-planning
Yes, it’s like that everywhere. You have a handful of large retailers who remain open (Warehouse until 8pm; K-Mart until midnight), but for the most part it’s all over come 6pm. Backwards once you see how many people are out and about at those times, especially during these summer months.
Public transport isn’t much better, with services slowing to a crawl from 7pm, and becoming borderline nonexistent after 10pm.
I was talking about these public events, last night everything was shut at 6 pm even the dj at silo park and the only beer truck had to stop selling with hundredsof people around. I mean i was out with my 1 yo son and couldn’t get a beer.
A big thank you to the organizers. I took my 3 kids by electric train Manukau to Britomart. Step out station to a different Auckland able to walk around enjoy the history tour. Even Ports of Auckland coming to the party with added attractions
The kids enjoyed it so did I. Put my 5 cents worth on the white board about skypath, protected cycle, two lanes for public transport, no cars Queen St and CRL.
Sounds great Stephen…. +1000
Yes despite our above mentioned issues with our journey to and from, we really enjoyed the day. This should be the norm for the waterfront not just special events.
Indeed, it felt like a very well run event.
It is just too hard to find out when exactly trains are running and what information is reliable. For instance for the Western Line the online journey planner says trains depart Britomart at 22:07 and 22:37, the special Auckland Anniversary page on AT’s website however – the link to this is on the journey planner site – links to a timetable that says the last two trains leave at 21:54 and 22:24. Look at the previous two commenters, I’m sure they got their info from one of the AT sources and their info on the Southern and Onehunga lines contradict the info I just found on the journey planner and timetable. Not helpful if the same search comes up with different results depending on what AT source you use.
Thoroughly enjoyed both saturday and sunday. We drove to Orakei and got on and off there on both days. We live near Remuera station and could have walked to that station but she who must be obeyed did not want to walk in the scorching hot sun.
Auckland was beautifully presented on the waterfront over the weekend. Dinosaurs like The Real Matthew will hopefully die off soon enough.
The only issue was that after the fireworks display, I had to line up for a ticket home and out of the 3 ticket machines available, only 1 was working and the people using it appeared to be taking an age to work out how to use it. Everyone in the line were obviously not regular users, and I feel AT did not seem to plan for the larger crowd that an event like Auckland Anniversary would bring to the city. The staff office was closed as well. The queue rapidly increased to about 30m long on both floors, as widespread panic set in that people were going to miss their trains home (especially the poor folk on the western line still having to use the old diesel trains). Finally, one of the officials on the floor just yelled out “everybody just get on the trains!”, much to the relief of the crowds who then moved like a tsunami towards the escalators down to the trains. It was very much welcomed, but I feel whoever was running the trains that night seemed to not have foreseen that there would be a big crowd of people using the trains on this weekend!!! Reminds me, albeit on a much smaller scale, of the total shambles on world cup opening night.
The electric trains are magnificent and very comfortable. I can’t wait until the CRL is finally built. It will make living in places like papakura and beyond so much better because the travel times will be cut dramatically. However, small organisational stuff for event days still need to be sorted out.