A Low Traffic Neighbourhood by any other name…
The quiet streets of Level 4 are here again. City-dwellers are waking up to birdsong and falling asleep to rare silence. People who need to drive for essential reasons are enjoying magically congestion-free journeys. And in our neighbourhoods, we’re once again seeing the everyday world through different eyes.…
63 Comments New in the Neighbourhood
This is a guest post by Konrad Kurta. This was originally published by Konrad on the Mangere Bridge community facebook page, when he and his family were preparing to move into their new home, in a development of new townhouses on Taylor Road.…
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.…
Regional Streets for People
Today, Auckland Council’s Environment and Climate Change Committee is meeting.
One item on the agenda is titled the Regional Streets for People Programme. This low-budget Councillor-initiated programme deserves scrutiny because it offers opportunities for jump-starting climate action AND it reveals systemic barriers to progress.…
Towards a Compact City, with Glorious Trees
Two things are happening currently which could help us create a compact, liveable, green city: Tomorrow, the Planning Committee will discuss the Council Officers’ proposal for incorporating the next section of the National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD) into our Unitary Plan.…
Artistic licence: framing the future
Artist’s impressions do a lot of work in city-building. Those colourful images in consultation material – with people-like-us carefully drawn or photoshopped in – help us see how change might look and feel.
Sometimes, the impressions accidentally highlight a problem with the design.…
Urbanism for women: what is, and what could be
This is a guest post from reader Daphne Lawless. An earlier version was first published in Fightback. It is a review of Feminist City by Leslie Kern (Verso, 2020). Images added by Greater Auckland.
I forget the source, but I remember a socialist writer saying something like “the middle class are the vanguard of living well under capitalism”.…
Innovating Streets, inviting perspectives
Waka Kotahi’s Innovating Streets pilot has seen dozens of tactical projects appear around the country, and the initial programme is now complete. Some projects will stay in place and evolve along a “pathway to permanence”, while others have reached their conclusion for now.…
Papakāinga and the future of housing on Whenua Māori
This is a guest post by Hope Puriri. Hope’s whakapapa is Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Whātua Ōrakei, Ngāti Awa and Tūhoe. She is a spatial designer at Matakohe Architecture + Urbanism in Whangārei.
Featured image from Matakohe Architecture + Urbanism.
He aha te hau e wawa rā, e wawa rā?…
Urban Playground: the child-friendly city
This is a guest post by Alex Bonham. Alex is doing a doctorate on play and the city at the University of Auckland and has a book on the subject coming out on the 13th of July. She is also Deputy Chair of the Waitematā Local Board.…
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