My very first e-bike
You never forget your first e-bike ride. Mine was a test ride with Big Street Bikers at the Viaduct Harbour, sometime around 2017. I started slow, along the calm streets. When I cranked up the battery assist I was almost flying along – it felt scarily fast so I backed off quickly.…
57 Comments Everyone Should Care About Urbanism, and Here’s Why
This piece was originally written for Fightback magazine. They challenged me to explain why Greater Auckland’s policy goals – intensification rather than sprawl, and better active and public transport – are relevant for everyone. I was imagining an audience of working-class families in car-dependent suburbs.…
Nothing is happening in Auckland’s city centre
I hope everyone is doing OK out there in level 4 lockdown. My walks and bike rides around the city centre in the last week remind me of the original lockdown 17 months ago. Some things have changed since then, but most things haven’t.…
NIMBY Bingo!
While I get my thoughts in order for the ‘Housing 2020’ programme which has largely spilled over into 2021, please enjoy something from the unwritten archives.
There are a few common elements when people complain about new housing. You see the same arguments raised, and often the same photo of dour residents with their arms crossed.…
Household Emissions in NZ (part 2 – transport)
This is part 2 of a 3-part series on household emissions in NZ. Part 1 looked at whole-of-life emissions from housing, and this part does the same for transport. Part 3 will tie them together.
Last time, I started with a graph showing the carbon footprint for an average New Zealand household, with transport very much in “big toe” position: Stats NZ have kindly provided more of a breakdown on the transport figures, letting me make the new graph below: An average NZ household creates 5.2 tonnes of ‘direct’ emissions a year from using petrol and diesel, with another 0.9 tonnes of ‘indirect’ emissions coming from the supply chain.…
Household Emissions in NZ (part 1 – housing)
This is part 1 of a 3-part series on household emissions in NZ. This part looks at whole-of-life emissions from housing. Part 2 will do the same for household transport, and part 3 will tie them together (the implication being: it really matters where we build new homes).…
Who’s afraid of the big bad body corp?
I’m going to say ‘body corporate’ and ‘bodies corporate’ a lot below, so let’s shorten it to ‘BC’ and ‘BCs’ right off the bat.
BCs often get a bad rap in New Zealand. They can be seen as expensive, unwieldy, unaccountable, or stopping you from doing what you want with your property.…
Sunday reading on housing 5 July 2020
It’s been almost two years since we had a ‘Sunday reading’ post – Matt has been doing his ‘Friday roundups’ instead – but with everything I’m doing on housing, I thought it was worth bringing a few pieces together this week.…
The Housing Continuum
The “housing continuum” has become an important idea in NZ policy. Here’s the image used by Auckland Council in their Auckland Plan 2050, and Community Housing Aotearoa has written a good summary of what it all means: Emergency housing: The only short-term housing category, defined as stays of up to 12 weeks but often intended to be much shorter than that.…
The Framework for Housing Quality
The Covid-19 lockdown showed us all how important housing quality is. Some homes were uncomfortable or got cold. Some homes were fine physically, but not well suited for how they were used over lockdown. For me – a numbers-focused economist type guy – it’s a crucial reminder that it’s not just about the quantity of our housing and whether we’re building enough.…
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