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.…
44 Comments 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.…
Yes we can retrofit Perimeter Blocks!
This is a guest post by Alex Bonham, Yasmin Tapiheroe, and Nic Williams of Women in Urbanism Aotearoa. They make the case that permitting perimeter blocks in mixed urban housing zones will better provide green space, trees and safe access to play.…
Book Review: Human Transit: Revised Edition (2024)
This is a guest post by Transport Advisor and Town Planner George Weeks, reviewing the revised edition of Human Transit by Jarrett Walker. It is written in his personal capacity.
You can check out past book review posts here. Book review of Human Transit: Revised Edition (2024) by Jarrett Walker
In a sea of solutions in search of a problem, this digestible professional guide to public transport planning, now in its second edition, is a welcome arrival.…
The City Rail Link is a bargain…
Patrick Reynolds is deputy chair of the City Centre Advisory Panel and is running for council in the Waitematā & Gulf ward in this years local elections.
As the City Rail Link (CRL) nears completion amid talk of city deals and rates caps, I thought it worth looking at what that project can tell us about the nation-city relationship.…
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