Auckland and its Growing Pains

 

 

The Herald this morning is running four (sorry not five as I earlier stated in an another post) on Auckland, our rural communities, and the pressures both face.

You can read each of them by clicking on the respective links below:

• City bursting at its seams, rural areas struggling
• Devastation in wake of urban drift

• Estelle Sarney: Sense of community lost as rolls expand

• Ministers without a clue

 

No need to go on about the last piece which is from Matt McCarten, but you can gather a sense on annoyance some in the city would have in two South Island Ministers dictating to the largest city of NZ how it should go.

For the other three they go about Auckland’s expansion at often the expanse of the regions (the rural sectors) and the apparent loss of community the city will face as the city grows.

I am not going to quote verbatim those articles (meaning go read them yourself) but more draw on interpretations from what the articles were trying to draw on.

 

Rural and Auckland

 

The rural centres are crying out (again) that they are suffering from loss of population while Auckland continues to grow at admittedly rather formidable speed. You will hear about the consequences both social and physical this kind of situation entails but it is nothing we have not heard nor seen before. New Zealand has gone through three phases (the third is still pretty much happening) of this large rural-urban shift and it happens else where in the world. The first shift for us would have been the 1950’s and 1960’s (our Golden Age) as New Zealand enters the post-modern age with massive science and technological advancements occurring. At the same time there was a baby boom as a result of the conclusion of the Second World War and both this and science would have compounding effects in the first wave. People moved from the country to the city as advancements made agriculture and horticulture more productive and less labour intensive. At the same time we had a mass surge in manufacturing (the blue-collar worker) which all bring people to the city; with the rewards and utter misery it would entail. This was the first phase of the great country-city movement.

The second phase of the country-urban shift arguably came in the 1980’s as the manufacturing sector declined and the service/professional sector (white collar) took off. While we still had technological and scientific advancements, the advent of what would become the digital and professionalism ages would cause more people to come to the city to chase those opportunities (and again the misery and rewards it would bring). The rise of centralisation, rationalisation and globalisation (as it would be termed in the 1990’s and 2000’s – so the Neo Liberal agenda) would have been a catalyst again as farms merged and often became corporate factories (as such) for the second wave of people movement.

The third phase of the great country-urban shift is currently under way and is a legacy of the second wave. You could argue that it is still the second wave but a new aspect has cropped in – and no it is not immigration as that has been there since 1840. This aspect is Critical Mass and Auckland has pretty much hit it. Critical Mass is when a city grows to certain size where resulting growth is from the perpetual motion of growth feeding in on itself. Auckland is just shy of 1.5 million people and due to hit 2.5 million by 2040 at current speed. It means Auckland can house up 40% (currently 31%) of the nation’s population by 2040 and this brings in new dynamics to the game. Auckland continues to draw in from the rural and manufacturing sector from outside its borders, but the city’s sheer size and mass means it becomes recognised internationally and attracts elements not possible while smaller. Heavier and larger manufacturing, more global and larger professional services become attracted to Auckland because of its population and existing services and this fuels population growth. More people leave the rural sector as opportunities dwindle and see out what the big city has to offer (and again the rewards and misery this brings). We are seeing this now as The Third Wave as Auckland has hit critical mass and now grows upon itself in a non-stop perpetual motion. Auckland is now a world major city!

 

Auckland as a Major City

 

Auckland is deemed a major city – more to the point according to Wikipedia:  Auckland was classified as a Beta World City in the World Cities Study Group’s inventory by Loughborough University.^[6]

A Beta World City is (I’ll put all the levels there for a comparison):

• Alpha++ cities are New York City and London, which are vastly more integrated with the global economy than any other cities.
• Alpha+ cities complement London and New York by filling advanced service niches for the global economy.
• Alpha & Alpha- cities are cities that link major economic regions into the world economy.
• Beta level cities are cities that link moderate economic regions into the world economy.
• Gamma level cities are cities that link smaller economic regions into the world economy.
• Sufficiency level cities are cities that have a sufficient degree of services so as to not be obviously dependent on world cities.

 

You can check where Auckland sits and who our Beta neighbours are by clicking the Beta World City link above.

 

But what it shows is that Auckland is no longer that gangly teenager of a city most of us are used to city. Auckland is growing and maturing into its place as an adult playing with the big boys in the Global City scale. We are no longer a small little backwater village or even “hick” village that one might have seen in the 50’s and 60’s. That era has long gone and is well behind us although looking at the NIMBYism lot you would not think so. Auckland is playing with the big boys now on a world stage and there is simply no way of stopping it. As a result Auckland must allow progression through the life of the (progressive) Unitary Plan and live up to the ranking we have been given as a Beta Level Global City. This does not mean we go down the mega tower road of our northern neighbours. No Auckland is still Auckland and is unique. But it means we must be prepared for perpetual growth and progression and all it brings with it – bad and good. We can mitigate the bad and encourage the good but; it must be done right with the right mind frame that we are no longer hicks in a village nor the little kid in a big room full of adults. We Auckland are a young adult maturing into an adult-adult and we play with the adults now – not the kids. Our Unitary Plan and the people must recognise this if we are to go forward.

BR:AKL recognises this and writes the submission to The Unitary Plan reflecting the situation before us. The rest of the city needs to realise the situation too. And again it does not mean we lose our uniqueness and who we are, but it does mean we are adults on a global state thus act like adults on a global stage. Not some kid throwing their toys out of the sandbox…

 

BEN ROSS : AUCKLAND