It has been three years since I left and graduated from the University of Auckland as a Geography and Political Studies graduate. Who knew three years later I would be going through the Uni library database again to find academic material.
Well trawling through the database gathering materials on The Geography of Tourism is what I have been doing.
Coming up on Talking Auckland: ‘The Geography of Tourism – Free Independent Travellers‘
Why (using academic research) Te Papa North in Manukau WILL work compared to placing it in Wynyard Quarter. How do Free Independent Travellers “work” when visiting a foreign city. And how the joint initiative between; Te Papa, Auckland Museum and the Art Gallery not only benefits Southern Auckland but wider Auckland and the northern Waikato.
This will take about two weeks to write up as I will be writing it pretty close to academic level – something I have not done in while. However, I will keep you posted of findings and progress as it happens.
As we know, Manukau is in the pipeline for receiving Te Papa’s Auckland facility after a joint announcement by the Minister of Arts and the Mayor of Auckland. Interestingly enough the harshest of critics towards the facility in Manukau would be the ones who would naturally support – although apparently they prefer Wynyard Quarter.
However, their claims can be easily refuted by either (or all of) one of three counter-claims:
Perceived inaccessibility at Manukau compared to Wynyard Quarter– when they have no qualms in travelling to malls and beaches from far-flung places in the sprawling city. And travelling cross city should be efficient and seamless once the Congestion Free Network is up and running (also see Point Three in regards to independent tourists who love to explore entire cities – not just the CBD Tourist Trap)
People seeing South Auckland in a negative light – e.g Auckland’s poor “ghetto.” Umm no. South Auckland is a culturally rich and diverse place with great people. Yes some are less well off than others monetary wise but the South as noted is one cultural melting pot. I also live in South Auckland and have no qualms being here.
Concentrate everything in the CBD at the detriment of the suburbs. For heavens sake there is more to Auckland that the CBD and as both experience and Geography have taught me, Free Independent Travellers (locals and tourists) travel. So when they travel – they will naturally trundle down to Manukau to explore because that is what FIT’s do – EXPLORE!
I have further commentaries on the positives of Te Papa coming to Manukau in my respective three posts:
Just a reminder to readers that the Te Papa North Facility is not just housing Te Papa. It is in fact a joint facility with: Te Papa, Auckland War Memorial Museum, and The Auckland Art Gallery all operating out of the Manukau facility. I also believe there will be storage and research operations carried out at the facility as well.
So with Te Papa North on the way to Manukau this might be a good time to really start looking at restoring the love to the Manukau City Centre area.
Urban Renewal in the Manukau (Super) Metropolitan Centre – One Step at a Time
Those following the Manukau Super Metropolitan Centre concept commentary know that there are active efforts (from my end at least) to bring the Manukau City Centre out from its 1960’s auto-centric past, into a 21st Century people-centric city.
Te Papa North is another cog in the great machine to “restoring the love” (as Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse said) to the heart of Southern Auckland and my home (probably why some of the more astute readers can see an emotional attachment from me here).
But no amount of urban renewal in Manukau will work until we get the place flipped over from ‘Car-First’ to ‘People-First.’ By that I mean making the streets people (and cyclist) friendly.
To flip streets over into people friendly shared spaces can be done in small steps on bit at a time. Auckland Transport are already starting with Davis Avenue in making that pro-people (rather than pro-car).
Once Davis Avenue is done my next recommendation would be Ronwood Avenue that runs east-west through the heart of the Manukau City Centre Area.
This gallery shows what I am referring to:
Manukau City Centre Area
Manukau City Centre Area Davis Avenue
Manukau City Centre Area Ronwood Avenue West
Manukau City Centre Area Ronwood Avenue East
Te Papa outpost site
You can see narrow lanes going each way with on-street parking and very wide grass centre medians on Ronwood Avenue. Traffic volumes vary depending what is going on at the two roundabouts at the west end and in the centre of Ronwood Avenue.
Basically what you do is transplant what Auckland Transport has done to Davis Avenue over to the entire length (except for the small piece at the Great South Road end which can stay as is) and drop the speed limit to 30km/h. If you go one step further you could turn the pieces of this upgraded Ronwood Avenue in to Shared Zones like Fort Street in the CBD. One thing though is that depending on the new bus routings from Auckland Transport, Ronwood Avenue might need one or two bus stops to allow buses to exchanges passengers who might not want to go to the upcoming Manukau interchange.
Once Ronwood Avenue is complete with its upgrade my next choice would be Sharkey Street that connects to Ronwood Avenue (and Cavendish Drive). After that then we can look at some of the rat-runner roads like Cavendish Drive and Lambie Drive and get them more transit and people friendly then they are now. After that I think we start hitting some of the existing building sites in the Manukau City Centre area and bring those sites into the 21st Century as pro people not pro car sites.
One small step at a time. While others might have abandoned Manukau for flights of (elitist) fancy such as Wynyard Quarter and dumping literally everything of worth and value in the CBD, small steps are being taken in restoring the jewel in the crown of Southern Auckland – the place its people call “home.”
Work Carries on Behind the Scenes An update of where things are heading with advancing a #SuperManukau With the Local Government Elections under way until October 12 (election day) … Continue reading Update On #SuperManukau
What Might This Mean With the Unitary Plan now set for formal notification and the Special Housing Areas also now being prepared, attention can go back focus on other … Continue reading Te Papa in Manukau
Good News Everybody! Well if you are one that can see beyond the extremely narrow line of everything must return a MONETARY profit. I notice while having my breakfast … Continue reading Te Papa Coming to Manukau – Auckland
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I will post a full update tomorrow on Day 4’s proceedings which did not even get to the Rural Urban Boundaries.
In short after the gains we made getting Auckland to the 1970’s on Friday, Councillors and Local Board Chairs (some in each category) managed to send Auckland straight back to the 1960’s (it would have been 50’s if Councillor Brewer’s last amendments did not get defeated).
And so the question to those Councillors and Local Board Chairs: Where are the houses going to go? Because they will not all fit in the 160,000/40% Greenfield allocation within the Rural Urban Boundary – less Manukau, New Lynn and Albany can get some impressive 26-36 storey towers to take the brunt…
My report (scathing as that will be) will be up tomorrow. None the less it has given an extreme sense of urgency to the Manukau Super Metropolitan Centre and getting that set up for the South.
Things are “quiet” at the moment as we head towards September 5 – the day when the Governing Body (Council) either: sets a date for formal notification for the Unitary Plan or sends it back to the Auckland Plan Committee for more refinement after the elections (October 12).
Prior to September 5 though we have the final Auckland Plan Committee meetings to be held 28-30 August. These meetings will formally decide what from the 7000 pages of “tracked changes” made to the Unitary Plan goes into the next version of the UP that will be decided for notification. Of course I will be at the Auckland Plan Committee meetings running live commentary as the proceedings happen. Also once I receive a copy of the tracked changes I will see if I can upload it for those who wish to view it.
While we wait for all this to occur, feel free to brush up on the latest in the run up to September 5. As we call for level heads as the Councillors make these big decisions, a reminder what is at stake can be seen in these two posts:
Mayor Len Brown has met with representatives from Generation Zero and Auckland Transport Blog to discuss the overall narrative of the Congestion Free Network alternative (to the 2012 Integrated Transport Program). You can read ATB’s report on it here: Len Brown and the Congestion Free Network
Talking Auckland is supportive of this move and will be keeping a close eye on this as preparations are made for the 2015 Integrated Transport Program. Of course I wonder if they should be adding a line to Manukau from the south as the South Link continues to build momentum. The report on the South Link is due around November and I will be keeping tabs with Auckland Transport as time draws nearer.
Manukau Super Metropolitan Centre
Work continues to advance on restoring the love in Manukau. TotaRim and stakeholders are working together in preparing to draw up plans to present to Council on both the “theory” and “practical” fronts.
The theory front is getting the Super Metropolitan Centre definition inserted into the Unitary Plan. This is important for two reasons. First reason is that the SMC definition has wider implications to the city and allows Albany to be upgraded to that definition when they are ready to do so. The second reason is that the definition gives weight to the emphasis on social planning as well as physical planning. No point building a grand physical city centre if people identify it negatively now is there.
As for practical, this mean getting an Area Plan drawn up for Manukau and to be executed through the life of the Unitary Plan.
This brings to a close this round of updates. Talking Auckland will post the tracked changes of the Unitary Plan if possible to do so as soon as I receive a copy.
Talking Southern Auckland 