Takapuna to be unlocked
In September last year the council created Panuku Development Auckland – a region wide urban redevelopment agency. In December the council’s development committee confirmed a range of potential locations where Panuku could be involved and one of those was Takapuna – which Panuku listed as an “Unlock” location.…
111 Comments Te Ara I Whiti from space
We’ve seen Te Ara I Whiti – Lightpath from the ground, we’ve seen it from the air and now we can see it from space. The desktop version of Google Earth gets updated fairly regularly with new satellite images – this one taken by one of the Digital Globe satellites (if you have the desktop version click the “show historical imagery” button and slide the date to the right).…
Stadium agendas
Debate about a new stadium in the city has once again reared it’s head
A new football stadium in downtown Auckland is back in play, a decade after the city’s politicians and rugby establishment said no to a stadium on the waterfront.…
Unitary Plan Fantasies
Introduction
In this post I discuss two related questions that concern common “fantasies” about the Unitary Plan, specifically: Question #1: To what degree has Auckland’s density changed during the last few decades?
Question #2: To what degree does the balance of brownfields/greenfields development in the Unitary Plan differ from the past?…
Patiki Cycleway Underpass Open
On Friday another piece in the upgraded NW cycleway finally opened, the Patiki Rd underpass. The old bridge over the motorway on-ramp was narrow and with tight corners that was far from ideal, especially if there were other people walking or on bikes going in the opposite direction.…
Rodney Hide’s bizarre rail rant
Rail has been on a roll recently, electrification has vastly improved the quality of our trains, patronage has been soaring – sustaining over 20% per year on year growth and as of January was at 15.5 million trips. Added to that the first stage of the City Rail Link is now under way and of course most recently the government got on board with starting the main works in 2018.…
Housing NZ’s Unitary Plan zoning
When the councillors voted to withdraw the councils Unitary Plan evidence three weeks ago, one of the arguments against doing so was that other parties – and Housing NZ in particular – were pushing for much greater density than what the council were proposing.…
Sunday reading 13 March 2016
And now for something completely different.
One of the best things I’ve read recently was Australian economist John Quiggin’s discussion of “peak paper”, which the world apparently reached in 2013. It’s an optimistic story: showing how the slow accumulation of efficiencies can result in a more sustainable economy.…
Mayoral Candidates views on transport
The two current main contenders for the Auckland mayoralty are still yet to release any policy but they are starting to make more noise. At a business association meeting in East Tamaki yesterday they talked transport with both leaving a lot to be desired.…
Clusterbus, Busageddon, Busapocalypse
It’s a perfect storm really. The CRL works plus other street and building works are combining with the recent sharp increase in pedestrian and bus numbers to pretty much infarct the Central City at any time of the day. The City-sandpit is not going to get better until the CRL is actually running in 2023, which seems a very long time away.…
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