Quit whining, Millennials, and save for a home!
The other week, BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander put out a statement chastising young people for not saving harder to buy a home. As I pointed out, his argument was based on a pile of untrue assertions and misleading data. Others also expressed similar views.…
No, Boomers, it’s not like it was back in the day
Last week BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander was in the paper with some stern words for young people trying to find somewhere to live in a city that doesn’t have enough housing to go around. As reported by Susan Edmunds:
Think your parents got an unfairly great deal when they bought their house for $40,000 – or thereabouts – 30 or 40 years ago?…
The politics of Auckland
Elections last year in other English-speaking countries got me thinking about the urban implications of political geography. The US presidential election and the UK’s Brexit vote both featured large divides in voting patterns between big cities and rural areas and small towns.…
New data on cycling
We’re always on the lookout for interesting new pieces of transport data. Smartphone apps and automated trip counters provide an increasing amount of usable, timely data that can tell us how, where, and (at times) why we’re travelling.
Moreover, transport agencies are increasingly open about publishing their data and opening it up for others to analyse.…
Get in quick to open up our government and government data!
This is a guest post from reader Isabella
Have you ever wanted a government organisation to be less opaque?
Or thought “if only we could get the data on that…”?
Or admired some gorgeous datavis and wanted more?
Now’s your chance!…
Congestion in large Australasian cities
Is Auckland abnormally congested?
I occasionally hear people bemoaning that Auckland is one of the most congested cities in the world, or at least one of the most congested cities for its size.
I’ve previously taken a look at this from a few angles – looking at trends in traffic delay in Auckland and average commuting time in large cities around the world.…
Growth in cycling on new separated cycleways
Last week, Auckland Council unanimously voted to approve the construction of Skypath, the long-overdue walking and cycling link across the Waitemata Harbour. (There is still the hurdle of a potential Environment Court appeal by opponents.) Well done to all the councillors, some of whom had previously expressed scepticism – the city will be better for their votes, and their willingness to rethink an occasionally contentious issue.…
Are Aucklanders paying too much in rates?
Aucklanders (and, I suspect, people in general) complain about high and rising property taxes. But are our rates actually too high? Compared to what?
An article last year reported on what ratepayers are paying in each of New Zealand’s territorial authorities:
Not surprisingly, rates in the most sought-after areas are also high.…
Is public transport an “inferior good”?
I’ve recently been taking a look at Statistics NZ’s Census data on car ownership in Auckland. One interesting observation is that low-income households are considerably more likely to not own a car. One implication is that minimum parking requirements, which require everyone to have carparks (or pay for their provision every time they go to the shops), are a quite regressive policy.…
Opening up the data
An interesting TED Talk on opening up data from cities
City agencies have access to a wealth of data and statistics reflecting every part of urban life. But as data analyst Ben Wellington suggests in this entertaining talk, sometimes they just don’t know what to do with it.…
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