Imagine, a city
This summary of where we’re at was originally presented at a City Vibes event run by The Urban Room on 9th December 2025, and like all our work, is brought to you by the Greater Auckland crew and made possible by generous donations from our readers and fans.…
55 Comments Lightpath and the Lost Decade: Super-city or Slumber-city?
This guest post is by Tim Adriaansen, an advocate for accessibility and sustainable transport. Te Ara I Whiti, or Lightpath, turned 10 years old last week.
This stunning photo has popped up all over the internet since it was first uploaded for royalty-free use by Dan Freeman in 2017.…
It’s time to stand up for a better Queen Street, again!
Here we are again. For the umpteenth time, more changes are being proposed for Queen Street (and Midtown).
Unfortunately, these are not good changes, and they include pouring traffic back into the short section of Queen Street that’s currently car-free, between Wakefield St.…
Local control of transport: huge room for change?
The governance reforms of transport in Auckland are set to become law early next year. A great deal is changing, but to most people it likely feels all very abstract and distant. So, in this post I want to take a look at a tangible, practical example of the positive potential this law change could unleash.…
Wayne Brown vs Wayne Brown
Recently, under its new Mayor Andrew Little, Wellington City Council voted to delay the Golden Mile street project for yet another review.
This is despite the Golden Mile being well supported in (repeated) consultations, with a benefit cost ratio of 5.8, and with millions of dollars of central government funding sitting there ready to use – plus the obvious fact that this part of Wellington really really needs the spruce-up.…
Accessing the Acropolis
Tāmaki/Auckland only has a few public institutions of national significance: the Art Gallery, the Museum, and Auckland University, each housed in nationally significant buildings. Plus only a few truly high quality landmark buildings of similar value: Waitematā Station, Customs House, Ferry Building, West Plaza, and the Sky Tower, say.…
How to buy a home in a warming world
This is a guest post from Wellington-based Kasey McDonnell, which originally appeared on their blog threesixtysix,. It is republished here with kind permission.
Kasey’s story is grounded in Whanganui-a-Tara examples, but of course we’re keen to hear from our readers with similar experiences in Tåmaki Makaurau.…
Wayne Brown wants Auckland to be an efficient, green city
Stopping sprawl and turning Auckland into an efficient, green city? Sign us up, Mayor Wayne Brown!
On Friday 31 October, the Mayor and councillors were officially sworn in, and the Mayor made a speech outlining his priorities for the coming term.…
Manchester: an urban renewal case study
I lived in the UK in the 1980s, so whenever anyone describes the Auckland city centre as “dilapidated” (as the Herald did in an recent editorial), I can’t help chuckling. While we do have very real problems, we have nothing like the complete physical ruin of whole areas and communities on the scale that was so widespread in post-industrial Thatcher’s Britain, especially in the north where the Industrial revolution began, like Manchester below.…
Pre-Rapid Transit
A clear game-changer for Auckland would be the earliest possible completion of the long-planned Rapid Transit Network. We have a growing and improving bunch of lines, on a long held and evolving plan, but as yet not enough of the whole to gain the great multiplying benefit of the network effect.…
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