Sunday Reading 21 August 2016
why Welcome back to Sunday reading. This week, let’s start with a look at one of nature’s hardest-working organisms: the urban tree. In the New Yorker, Alex Hutchinson asks: what is a tree worth? The emerald ash borer, which has killed a hundred million trees across North America in recent years, offers a grim natural experiment.…
22 Comments A wheely suitcase in Europe #4: Llanca to Zaragoza
Leg four of our journey took us from Llanca to Zaragoza, as illustrated below. Compared to previous journeys (here, here, and here) this one was relatively straightforward: We caught a train from Llanca to Girona, and from there caught our ride share direct to Zaragoza, as illustrated below. …
2016 Rail and Busway Station Boardings
The biggest driver of public transport ridership over the last year has been on the Rapid Transit Network (RTN), which consists of the busway and the rail network. Over the 2015-16 financial year both grew an astonishing 20.6% after each also grew by over 20% in the 2014-15 year.…
A wheely suitcase in Europe #3: Cassis to Llanca
Our third major sojourn (if you’re only tuning into these rants now you may want to read day one and two first) took us from Cassis, France to Lllanca, Spain.
Llanca is a small village located on the Mediterranean Sea about one hour north-east from Girona, in a famous part of the country known as Costa Bravas.…
Local governments’ democracy problem
Local governments have a responsibility to represent the interests and desires of their constituents. That idea is written into the oath that elected representatives swear when taking their seats: I, [full name of mayor, councillor or board member], declare that I will faithfully and impartially, and according to the best of my skill and judgment, execute and perform, in the best interests of [name of region, district, city, local or community board], the powers, authorities, and duties vested in or imposed upon me as a member of the [name of local authority] by virtue of the Local Government Act 2002, the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987, or any other Act.…
Development update: August 2016
If you’re not one of the avid followers of the RCG Development Tracker – “Trackies”, as they like to be known* – you might have missed a few tweaks I made last month.
The Tracker does a good job of showing discrete, one-off projects, but it’s a little harder to represent major long-term developments.…
Unitary Plan Passed
So they did it, the council actually passed a reasonably good Unitary Plan, a feat that just six months ago seemed so unlikely. This represents a fairly historic moment for Auckland as for the first time, the region will have a single set of planning rules that enable the city to grow and are also aligned with the policies and goals of the region.…
A wheely suitcase in Europe #2: Annecy to Cassis
Having enjoyed our four days in Annecy, it was time to heard further south and continue our search for sun. Next stop: Cassis.
The route we took from Annecy to Cassis is mapped below. It consists of three legs: 1) Annecy to Lyon Airport via rental car; 2) Lyon Airport to Marseille via TGV (high speed train); and 3) Marseille to Cassis via Uber (NB: Mapped using Rome2Rio, which is my favourite website after TransportBlog).…
The New Old World Order
The demolition of the Downtown Centre for the start of the CRL and the replacement of this 1960s structure by Precinct Properties’ Commercial Bay office and retail development is an important moment for Auckland on many levels.
Along with the obvious boon of the actual beginning of the CRL there is also something deeply symbolic here.…
Sunday reading 14 August 2016
Hi, and welcome back to Sunday Reading.
The 25th of July marked the 100th anniversary of zoning. Increasingly zoning is being attributed to a growing number of city ills including low productivity, segregation, and reducing economic mobility. Just as conventional traffic engineering (eg.…
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