#RIPJonah – A Hero of South Auckland (and the World)

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A massive hole left in the South Auckland Community from the passing of Rugby Great – Jonah Lomu

 

The news of the passing of Jonah Lomu is being felt world-wide but even more so in South Auckland where he grew up, resided and inspired a then downtrodden community to be all they can be today, tomorrow and beyond.

 

Others will give their accounts of a man who brought rugby into a new age and who inspired a many legion of fans here in Auckland and around the world.

But his inspiration to the people of South Auckland who in the 1990’s was downtrodden and treated with disdain by others. I would have been 10 when he scored that try we all now know in the 1995 Rugby World Cup. But that try and its impact would and could be felt through the people of the South.

Having lived in the South for most of my life and still do I no longer see a community downtrodden but a community inspired and inspired to do great things

RIP to a man who brought the hits to Rugby

Who his rivals respected

Who inspired those of South Auckland

Rest Easy Now Jonah as your job is done. May those you inspired continue your legacy forever more

#RIPJonah

 

Announcing the publication of ‘Suburban Urbanities’ with UCL Press

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The Metropolitan Centres as we know as in Auckland or Metropolitan Suburban Centres as this post and new book calls them.

What are the roles of these Centres and are we as both citizens and planners underestimating the potential of these Metropolitan Centres that have been there as long as the modern city has been?

(sub)urbanite's avatarTowards Successful Suburban Town Centres

The edited collection, Suburban Urbanities: Suburbs and the Life of the High Street was published last week with UCL Press.

The main impetus for publishing this edited collection, was to bring together the core findings of seven years’ worth of research into London’s suburbs, funded by two UK Research Council grants: Towards Successful Suburban Town Centres and Adaptable Suburbs. In doing this, we sought out a comparative set of examples from outside of the UK, which were first presented at our closing conference last year. The intention of Suburban Urbanities is to consider the suburb as an aspect of urban spatial-social complexity, rather than subordinate part of the city. We argue that attempting to define an urban particularity entirely without reference to the suburban is almost certain to fail. Instead, using spatial analysis, historical and ethnographic perspectives the book counteracts the binary opposition between city and suburb and challenges…

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