Shopping and public transport: Westfield around the world
The conventional wisdom in New Zealand seems to be that people will always drive to go shopping, they won’t take public transport or cycle. It’s even spawned the term #Quaxing, named after your friend and mine, councillor Dick Quax. @lukechristensen @BenRoss_AKL @Brycepearce no one in the entire western world uses the train for their shopping trips
— Dick Quax (@DickQuax) January 3, 2015 I’ll talk about some UK and Australian examples of shopping centres below.…
104 Comments Energy in New Zealand 2015
Each year, the MBIE publishes a report called Energy in New Zealand.* Energy is a crucial input in all parts of our lives, powering our transport and our cities. MBIE’s report starts with an infographic showing various energy facts and figures: To pick up on one fact in this infographic, solar PV (photovoltaic, i.e.…
Movie Night: Wadjda
NOTE: post updated, the correct price is $25 or $15 for GA members.
We’re pleased to announce the third TransportBlog/ Greater Auckland movie night, on Thursday 1st October. The film is Wadjda. Once again, we’ll be enjoying the show from Capitol Cinema on Dominion Rd, with doors opening at 7:30 pm and the film starting at 8:30.…
Greater Auckland competition winners
As first announced by Matt, we had two copies of Britomart: The Story to give away to people who signed up as paid Greater Auckland members by the end of last weekend.*
We’ve been blown away with the response. Thank you to everyone who has become a member or donated. …
Development update: September 2015
I didn’t manage to get a “development update” post out last month, but I’ve now finished doing a pretty major update to the RCG Development Tracker page. Among other things, there’s been a new tranche of Special Housing Areas, a bit more info on things happening around Westgate, and I’ve updated a lot of apartment projects around the city (which ones have begun construction, expected completion dates, etc).…
Reminder for Greater Auckland signups
Quick reminder – people who sign up as paid members of Greater Auckland by Sunday will be in the draw to win one of two copies of Britomart: The Story, a beautiful hard-bound 228 page book with stunning photography from Britomart Group.…
Where are the big boys?
If you look around at the companies which are developing apartments in Auckland, or the ones who have in the past, you’ll see that most of them are private firms. This is a contrast from Australia, where there are a number of big, stock exchange-listed companies carrying out projects on a much bigger scale than anything we see here.…
Reminder: ‘Kiwis love their cars’, and other urban myths
This Thursday, John Polkinghorne will be giving a talk to the Reason and Science Society at the University of Auckland (Room 206-315, in the Arts 1 building – map here. This will kick off at 6 pm with time for questions afterwards, and wrapping up by 8 pm.…
Twiddling thumbs on climate change
Under the National government, being the Climate Change Issues Minister must be the easiest job in the world. Sure, Tim Groser does also have the more demanding role of Trade, but if I had to guess the number of hours each week he spends thinking “what can I do to help New Zealand reduce its emissions?”…
Development update: July 2015
This month I’m going to look at one of the fastest growing types of housing – retirement villages. There are often several different typologies in a retirement village, from detached villas to duplexes, independent apartments, serviced apartments through to rest home, hospital and dementia care – but let’s set that to one side.…
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