Category: Urban Planning and Design

Looking at Urban Planning and Design

The Geography of Tourism – Free Independent Travellers – Coming Up

·

Coming Up on Talking Auckland

 

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.

 

Related articles

Let’s Try This with Manukau

· 4 Comments ·

Start Small – Then Work to Large

 

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:

  1. 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)
  2. 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.
  3. 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:

  1. Te Papa Coming to Manukau – Auckland

  2. Te Papa in Manukau

  3. Why Te Papa North Should be In Manukau – NOT Wynyard Quarter

     

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).

 

The Auckland Transport Davis Avenue Project

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:

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.”

Click for full resolution
Click for full resolution

Courage to Ask for Help – Things I look for in a leader

·

Would you like me to help?

Or

Would you like to have a sook to the media (well try)?

 

I was going through the Auckland Council Shape Auckland website (that holds the Unitary Plan and e-maps) to get to the e-maps for another post when I saw these two tweets:

Bob Dey’s commentary at his own blog hits the nail on the head in regard to Palino crying foul over the Unitary Plan. You can see Bob’s commentary here. 

As for the Parking/Sleeping Tweet if I was to have a guess looking at it, it seem that particular person is either a Palino Sympathiser or an Anti Unitary Plan  person (usually a NIMBY). So best ignore whoever that person is.

As for Palino going: “When can I see the Unitary Plan?” this is where the difference between asking for help or having a sook to the media applies.

You see I was always taught “there is no such thing as a dumb question – as your dumb question is usually the same one everyone else is thinking but to chicken to ask.” And in life (and still do) I have asked some dumb questions. The thing is though is someone is lost I will always be compassionate and lend assistance (if they choose to accept it).

Even leaders like Mayors will ask the odd dumb question from time to time. And to that I am willing to lend assistance if they accept it. We are all equal in this and it shows me to that the leader actually has humility in them. Because and I also admit it does take a bit of squashing the pride down and plucking up the courage to ask that dumb question – at the risk of humiliating yourself in front of your peers (who should be themselves ashamed for not having the courage to ask in the first place too).

 

So humility is what I look for in leaders (civic, political, sports, business and military). Having a sook in the media over that “dumb” question will put me off you straight away. And Palino (although already having done so earlier in the piece) has put me (even further) off him with that article (sook).

Look if Palino had asked me nicely I would have done one of the following options (and I’ll also do so in reasonable request to others as I have done already):
1) Emailed a copy of the Unitary Plan Amended Clean Version
2) Linked to my blog site of the voting records on changes to two of the most pressing issues of the Unitary Plan – Density and the Rural Urban Boundary
3) Linked or asked Auckland Council nicely to the rest of the voting records with the changes – Auckland Plan Committee Agendas and Minutes (thanks to Auckland Transport Blog for reminding me there on that one)
4) Given him my Twitter handle where I have around 450 Tweets of “live” Unitary Plan happenings from the 5 days of APC proceedings

 

If I had the time available I could have even gone through the current version of the Unitary Plan with you. And I bet there will be something in there that will get me stumped resulting in me asking the planners what it means. Simple stuff folks.

I don’t want to delve into Palino’s sook too much more but Bob Dey did say this in his blog piece which is 110% correct:

The alternative to notifying the draft now for public submissions would have been to send it to a review by the second-term council, possibly resulting in different recommendations. Whatever the recommendations, post-notification the public has the formal opportunity to review the contents, and there will be many people, especially those with vested interests, who will do just that.

Meaning whatever new changes a new Council might throw in there might get equally rejected thus not show up in the operative Unitary Plan any how. Thus a waste of time and ratepayers money if Council tried to pull that (review) option. Oh and also the screaming hypocrisy to boot against the Conservatives who would try that stunt – after harping on about being financially prudent…

Formal submission time is YOUR time to submit YOUR requests on changes to the Unitary Plan. Not a second term Council going willy nilly on the false premise of a review – or Cup of Tea as Councillor Brewer said.

Oh and one other thing that I have to keep reminding people of and so put in this Tweet:

J. P. L. @yakmoose about 4 hours ago: next time you see a council candidate going on about the rushed unitary plan. remember, if they don’t get it through, government will decide

If that were to happen – pretty much all is lost for Auckland.

 

All in all though no one has been denied to the Unitary Plan. The version that will be used in the formal notification stage is still being compiled and assembled. It will be available (all going good) on September 30 for our consumption and reference point for our formal submissions. Those more keen on a bit of mouse clicking can read amendments that either did or did not go through here.

While the clean amended version before the amendments can be found here (warning there are adverts): http://www.filefactory.com/f/c610f210fe21fea0

 

So no one is being or should be denied access to the Unitary Plan. It is all there and the notified version will be with us at the end of the month. And no those trying to pull back the Unitary Plan for a “Cup of tea” are wasting effort and our money as we can put our changes through regardless in the notification stage. 

Not All Alone

· 1 Comment ·

Unitary Plan Formal Notification is Decided Today

 

Bernard Orsman said in his article in the NZ Herald this morning that Mayor Len Brown (who is seeking re-election) was “Brown all alone in action on plan.” Taking stock on the last three years as well as the next three years I wonder if it will be parts of the Isthmus and North Shore that will be left all alone in their Snow Globes.

I have mentioned before how the South and the West are preparing to march into the 21st Century with urban development while the parts of the Isthmus and North Shore will remain our err 1950 Snow Globe pieces.

However, despite all the banter, gnashing of teeth, shilling of the minority and (to be fair) some rational intelligent debate the Unitary Plan is set for formal notification today.

Here is the Agenda and Addendum agenda

The Main Agenda

 

The Addendum (Containing the Unitary Plan)

 

So two major items on the agenda today:

  1. Setting the date for formal notification of the Unitary Plan
  2. Preparing for the Special Housing Areas – which needs the Unitary Plan to be notified for them to become “operative”

 

And so the next stage of the “Long War” to bring Auckland into the 21st Century is about to begin. This stage being a three year “campaign.” It will not be easy as our Snow Globes resist the advancement with everything they have but it will be done!

 

As for Orsman’s article well I was taught in my Liberalism papers that ‘democracy often caters to the lowest common dominator‘. It was implying to shill politics adherent to democracy – as a negative of that particular system (all systems have positives and negatives). Unfortunately I have no confidence in Palino having a grip on the Unitary Plan otherwise he would have not made those remarks comparing L.A to Auckland. Shill politics folks…

 

As the Governing Body prepares for Unitary Plan formal notification I will be drawing up my own thanks with regards to the Plan

 

TALKING AUCKLAND

Talking Auckland: Blog of TotaRim Consultancy Limited

TotaRim Consultancy
Bringing Well Managed Progress to Auckland and The Unitary Plan

Auckland: 2013 – YOUR CITY, YOUR CALL