This is a transcript of Simon Wilson’s weekly newsletter Love this City – exploring the ideas and events, the reality and the potential of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. To sign up, click here, select Love this City and save your preferences. For a step-by-step guide, click here.
More news from the cone wars - Simon Wilson
Subscribe to listen
Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber? Sign in here
Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
Who doesn't love to hate cones? Now Auckland Transport is trying to do something about them. Photo / Dean Purcell
Opinion by Simon Wilson
Simon Wilson is an award-winning senior writer covering politics, the climate crisis, transport, housing, urban design and social issues. He joined the Herald in 2018.
Learn moreAdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
AT boss Dean Kimpton reported to council on Thursday that for 35% of the cones, they had no idea where they came from or who put them there. He also noted that while many people think AT is responsible for all the cones in Auckland, in reality 70% of roading projects, and therefore 70% of cones, are not AT’s at all.
It’s Watercare, Vector and other agencies doing most of the disruption, and they don’t always tell AT what they’re up to. Albert St in the central city, Kimpton said, has roadworks underway that AT had no idea were going to happen.
Councillors cocked their eyebrows. “Why didn’t you know?” asked deputy mayor Desley Simpson. There’s a citywide “dig once” policy: how hard can it be in a digital age for all the agencies to co-ordinate?
Harder than you’d think, apparently. AT executive Tracey Berkahn reported that software was developed after the Christchurch earthquakes to do this, and making its use mandatory is being “actively discussed with government”.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
“Tracey is being very nice,” said Kimpton, “but we’re deeply frustrated.
“We’re the roading authority and we want to be able to say to anyone working on our roads, ‘you have to load up your plans’.”
But they need Government to change the rules.
AT has a new policy requiring organisations that take a road lane for construction to pay rent, but what they really want – and don’t currently have – is the ability to fine them for taking too much road space or, imagine it, leaving the cones out when they don’t need to.
Berkahn also reported they’re using AI and other digital tools for some nifty outcomes. One is to find abandoned road cones and send someone out to remove them. Another is to identify unexpected traffic congestion, so trouble can be resolved more quickly. And a programme to improve the phasing efficiency of 250 sets of traffic lights is underway: they’ve done half so far.
The big social housing rethink
I was at the public meeting in the Lesieli Tonga Auditorium in Favona before the last election, when Nicola Willis, in front of about 500 people, signed a pledge to deliver 1000 new social houses a year in Auckland.
The occasion was the launch of Te Ohu Whakawhanaunga Tāmaki Makaurau, an umbrella organisation for social housing groups.
But since then, most of Kāinga Ora’s social housing projects in Auckland have been paused and Housing Minister Chris Bishop has announced a cap of 78,000 state houses nationwide for the next 30 years. A mere 145 new homes, net, will be built this year before that cap is reached.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
Has the Government broken the pledge? Although Willis signed it, she made it clear at the time that National wanted to rethink the provision of social housing.
“We don’t think social housing should just be provided by Kāinga Ora,” she said. “We want the Salvation Army and Habitat for Humanity and other community housing providers to be much more involved.”
Willis and Bishop are now in the midst of announcing how that might work. But the Salvation Army itself is not impressed.
Ian Hutson, director of their social policy unit, says they are “hugely disappointed”. Whatever extra support they get, he says the decision to end state-house construction “is a failure to address the crucial poverty our country is dealing with at the moment”.
Sister Margaret Martin of the Sisters of Mercy in Wiri wrapped up that Te Ohu Tāmaki evening. “So, political leaders,” she said, “be forewarned. We will hold you to account”.
Meanwhile, Simon Moutter, the new chair of the Kāinga Ora board, was in the Herald this week defending KO staff and tenants.
“As a newcomer to public sector governance,” he wrote, “it’s been a real eye-opener to see the difference between the perceptions of Kāinga Ora (and the tenants we house and support) and the organisation’s realities.”
Translated: People think the staff and tenants are all useless wastrels, but they’re really not.
“From everything I’ve seen, Kāinga Ora is full of passionate New Zealanders supporting other New Zealanders. I can say with confidence they genuinely care about people in need and want to do the best they can for tenants and the taxpayer.”
He acknowledged KO has some bad tenants and said they were working out how to manage that. But: “The vast majority of Kāinga Ora tenants are everyday New Zealanders who just struggle financially, lack family support or suffer from conditions which limit their ability to live well independently.
“So, on that note, I ask, respectfully, that New Zealanders reconsider their attitude to social housing providers and to the people who live in the houses we provide.
“The need for social housing in New Zealand to support those who can’t live independently without help is a societal problem. It will not be addressed by wishing it away, ignoring it, or thinking that social housing is okay so long as it is not in my street or neighbourhood.”
“Communities need to be more supportive of people in social housing and we need to change some of the rhetoric around Kāinga Ora tenants.”
He couldn’t possibly say it, but his comments also apply to Government MPs, some of whom campaign actively against KO developments in their suburbs, and to ministers who have created the idea the outfit is useless.
The most walkable city in the world
A company called Sony Computer Science Laboratories, in Rome, has calculated the walkability of more than 10,000 cities around the world, including 14 in New Zealand, and ranked them.
The results are presented in the magazine Nature Cities, where the global map is interactive, gets down to individual street level and is fascinating.
A walkable city is defined as one where suburbs are peppered with shops and cafes. Most people can walk to the local schools, parks and a good range of other services and facilities.
Best in the world: Milan, where the average walk time to key amenities is 6.4 minutes and 97.5% of residents can walk to them within 15 minutes.
Copenhagen, Turin, Dublin and Lyon rounded out the top five. The top 13 all had more than 90% of residents living inside the 15 min mark; almost all the top 50 had at least 75%.
Perhaps surprisingly, given the supposed supremacy of the car culture, Auckland was our most liveable city. The average walk time was 14 minutes: just inside the goal of a 15-minute city.
The best of the rest were Wellington and Hamilton (16 minutes) and Napier (17 minutes).
Strange but true, Auckland gained the same walkability score as Venice, where unless you take a boat, you have to walk. Venice may also be the only city in the study where it takes more time to ride a bike than to walk. This is because there’s no room for them.
The CRL’s Day 1 tease
“Day 1”, the first day of public service on the city rail link (CRL), is getting closer now. The first train went through the tunnels on Wednesday night, at a tentative 5km/h. Don’t worry, it’ll be faster than that by the time we get to ride.
There’s a video on social media and when they do an open day at the stations, don’t miss it. It’s exciting and this thing is really starting to happen.
Day 1 is a near-mythical concept. All the planning – all the rail closures last year, over summer and for 96 days this year, all the training, all the fretting over timetables, everything – is designed to ensure that when the tunnels open for public use, nothing will go wrong.
There’ll be 1200 “train training movements”. Every driver will need new training. Everything that could possibly go wrong with the trains and tracks, in the stations, in the control rooms, will be planned for.
The platforms at Karanga-a-Hape Station are the equivalent of six storeys deep: what would happen if [insert crisis of your choice]?
“The way I look at it,” said council exec Barry Potter this week, “we’re testing to fail - not to pass.”
Trying to break it, to see if it will break.
And, he added, “We’re opening on target in 2026, that’s our consistent message”.
When exactly is that target? KiwiRail exec Jon Knight let slip to council that some of the prep work they’ve done on the tracks is ahead of the Day 1 schedule.
That suggests they have a date, so I asked him.
“We have been given a date,” he confessed, “but I’m not going to tell you what it is. Some time in 2026”.
First half, second half?
He reached an arm out, friendly-like, and put me in a kind of neck lock.
His colleague Jo Reeves said no date was announced for the Sydney Metro until three weeks before. “And even then they had to change it.”
HomeGround turns 3
A fortnight ago, at 8.30am on a Wednesday, I was with 60 people crowded into a room in the Auckland City Mission’s HomeGround building, which sits between Hobson and Federal streets.
The chairs had been stacked to the side and we shuffled ourselves roughly into rows. There was a karakia, a few words of welcome, and then a guitar. Words flashed up on a screen at the front.
It was HomeGround’s weekly waiata singalong, the first of the new year. Tenants in the building, staff and volunteers, casual visitors in for a feed, all in together, smiling, welcoming each other, cracking jokes.
The second song was a mōteatea, a semi-chanted waiata in traditional form, written specifically for the mission. If there’s another song more difficult to sing, I haven’t heard it. All around me, voices rose to the challenge.
One bloke dressed top to toe in yellow was bubbling with enthusiasm. Another leant on his walker by the wall, watching quietly ...
It was HomeGround’s third birthday this week and that’s the start of my story on some of the people who live there. You can read the whole thing this Saturday, online and in the Weekend Herald.
“This place stands for possibility,” says city missioner Helen Robinson this week. And for achievement, in my view.
No challenge to higher speed limits
Auckland Council has voted not to ask the Government to delay the return of higher speed limits, which is set to take effect from July 1. This undermines two unanimous decisions by the same council in 2023, before and after the election, to proceed with lower speed limits.
At the council meeting on Thursday, Richard Hills and Angela Dalton put up a motion to ask for a delay. Their main arguments:
- The lower limits were introduced after considering the safety evidence and clear public support for lower speeds on each affected street.
- They have saved lives.
- The changes will put an $8.8m hole in AT’s budget.
- A judicial review of the Government plan is underway and if it succeeds they might have to change things again.
“I’m scratching around to find $50,000 to fund a bus service to Piha,” said councillor Shane Henderson. “And we have to spend $8.8m pulling out signs to make the roads less safe?”
The argument against was led by councillor Maurice Williamson and Mayor Wayne Brown. Williamson said:
- The election in 2023 clearly showed Aucklanders wanted a return to higher speed limits.
- The motion for delay was improperly presented at the last-minute.
- Council had already registered its support for lower speed limits so why do it again?
Nobody argued for higher speed limits per se, or against the road-safety arguments for keeping them lower.
Mayor Brown said negotiations with the Government to establish an Integrated Auckland Transport Plan were at a “delicate” stage and there was “not a lot of upside” to a delay, but there was potentially “a big downside” if council angered the Cabinet.
Dalton responded, “I don’t care about pissing the Government off. This is about people. People who have pleaded with us for safer streets. I’m thinking about the kids”.
The vote was close, but Government supporters won the day.
The week ahead in Tāmaki Makaurau
BNZ Auckland Lantern Festival: Manukau Sports Bowl, February 13-16.
Z Manu World Champs: Dive bombing championships for all! The Auckland regional comp is this weekend and next, after which 130 of the best from around the country will compete for the title. February 15 – March 1.
Splash Landing: A weekend of water-based family fun at Okahu Bay, with chances to try out sailing, waka ama and kayaking. February 15-16.
