The problems of a burgeoning population are always preferable to the reverse, but that is cold comfort to Aucklanders facing increasing traffic congestion, a shortage of affordable houses and a water supply that partially failed in last month's heavy rain.
These, and the sewers that overflow into drains and close some for the city's beaches after rain, are signs of a city creaking at its seams.
Many a letter to the Herald pleads for Auckland to be "closed" to further immigration until the infrastructure can catch up.
That is a solution that would stackthe reverse problems of stagnation.
Life is never static, a place that stops growing soon finds business and jobs contracting, shops closing, vacant lots appearing, people and services drifting away.
