20/20 Vision on Housing

Over the years, Greater Auckland has become well-known for its work on transport. We’ve also published some fantastic articles on housing, but these have tended to be one-offs; we haven’t had a clear editorial direction on housing.* In transport, we carved out a unique position saying constructive, evidence-based things that others in New Zealand weren’t saying, based on international best practise.…
120 Comments

City centre employment keeps growing

Hottish off the press: there are now more than 120,000 people working in Auckland’s city centre,* making it the biggest hub for employment in New Zealand. Almost 3,000 jobs were added in the last year. That’s based on a fairly typical definition of the city centre, stretching from Wynyard Quarter to the eastern end of the ports, and inside the motorway noose (plus the western end of K Road).…
33 Comments

Flashback Saturday: Why I love intensification in my neighbourhood

Every weekend we dig into the archives. This post was first published in May 2013 as one of John Polkinghorne’s first guest posts. Six years on, John has never quite gotten used to referring to myself in the third person. He’s still living in Auckland’s city centre, albeit with a much worse commute – it’s gone from a 10 minute walk to 15 – now has an actual baby rather than hypothetical kids, and a much larger apartment.…
26 Comments

Wind, Water, Heart!

Some news recently bought a smile to my dial. Mercury Energy has pushed the “go” button on a major new wind farm near Palmerston North; work begins in August and the farm will start operating from late 2020. Mercury has committed to the construction of the first 33 of 60 consented wind turbines at Turitea near Palmerston North, representing a key milestone in New Zealand’s renewable energy development.…
53 Comments