Written By: - Date published: 8:55 am, June 17th, 2014 - 107 comments
Almost a week after last week’s storm, some people in West Auckland are only just getting their power back on, while others are still without hot water. Some parts of Auckland’s west are becoming increasingly neglected under John Key’s watch, especially since the centralising-moves following Hide’s blueprint for the “supercity”.
Written By: - Date published: 7:24 am, May 4th, 2014 - 27 comments
An NZ Herald article about Mai Chen’s book on Auckland Council, supports big power, big money, big competition, and economic activities focused on anything but the production of material needs and wants. It ignores the struggling precariat living with housing, income, transport and energy poverty.
Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, March 30th, 2014 - 62 comments
Three interrelated articles dealing with how far from Scientific Reality Republican Politicians are, how peak oil may just be around the corner and how deconstructing motorways can improve inner city areas.
Written By: - Date published: 1:08 am, November 26th, 2013 - 99 comments
Ok, I know this image has a lot of issues. It is a 256 color animated gif. Dithered to hell. Bad colour balance, tilt and even a moving focus point. But it certainly makes its point about what kind of road space we’re paying for to inefficiently fill with cars? Have the idiots at NZTA and in this incompetent National government not read their own statistics? Roads aren’t filling up. Public transport does.
Written By: - Date published: 6:24 pm, October 22nd, 2013 - 22 comments
Cunliffe talked of moving from a “from a cost-based to a values-based” strategy. We need a new narrative: valuing all, including children of those on benefits; about long term benefits for all of less inequality & poverty, and more affordable housing & better public transport, & more.
Written By: - Date published: 8:16 am, October 13th, 2013 - 115 comments
Yesterday was a very good day for the Greens (and the left). Congratulations! It’s hard to predict outcomes for next year’s parliamentary elections based on local elections, especially when the voter turnout is so low. But the left does get a boost from the results. Local councils need to be improved so that are more democratic. [Update: Clow (Labour) for Whau- preliminary result. Waitakere Ranges Board]
Written By: - Date published: 10:44 am, September 19th, 2013 - 46 comments
National is now ‘officially on board’ with getting the Auckland City Rail Link built. But they won’t start building it until 2020 at the earliest, and there’s no government money actually budgeted for that. Why not start building in 2015, like the Council wants? Maybe because that would mean committing actual funding. It turns out the Nats’ 5-year delay will cost $500m.
Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, August 5th, 2013 - 16 comments
Campbell Live last Wednesday focused on transport: funding & Auckland versus the regions; public transport & roads; the revolutionary Congestion Free Network plan. City Vision (supported by Labour & the Green Party – with a major focus on transport) & 2 Future West candidates launch their Auckland council campaigns.
Written By: - Date published: 4:15 pm, August 1st, 2013 - 70 comments
A message from Generation Zero about their campaign for the Congestion Free Network – much cheaper than motorways…
Written By: - Date published: 10:35 am, July 25th, 2013 - 17 comments
Generation Zero are running petition targeting the Auckland transport system. You can sign it here.
Written By: - Date published: 9:26 am, July 1st, 2013 - 41 comments
John Key’s u-turn on Auckland City Rail is all smoke, mirrors and sleight of hand stealth of the common good. Phil Twyford and the Auckland Transport Blog are skeptical. Funding? Roads over public transport? Asset sales?
Written By: - Date published: 9:47 pm, May 29th, 2013 - 8 comments
“The Auckland that never was” in my view is the most interesting chapter in Chris Trotter’s “NO LEFT TURN”. It details the Ministry of Works’ post-war plan outlined in a document The Shape of Things to Come that was scrapped by the Sid Holland National party. Now we see history repeating itself. In what Labour accurately describes as a “War on Auckland” Key, Joyce and Brownlie are following in the footsteps of the much unloved Sid Holland.
Written By: - Date published: 4:00 pm, May 29th, 2013 - 11 comments
The draft unitary plan, while not perfect, is a key part of making Auckland the most livable city. The plan is a progressive document: we know urban sprawl hurts the poor and creates worse health, social and economic outcomes. Generation Zero have put together an easy quick feedback tool so that you can submit on […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:22 am, May 6th, 2013 - 12 comments
It’s UN Global Road Safety Week, with a focus on pedestrian safety. NZ statistics for pedestrian injuries and deaths are sobering. Children are especially vulnerable to careless driving practices. In the interests of our people and environment, walking and cycling need to be less dangerous, and more fun.
Written By: - Date published: 9:27 am, May 3rd, 2013 - 61 comments
Today’s NZ Herald editorial on Auckland’s up-coming mayoral election campaign, says Brown has vision, but Minto and Williamson lack it. What sort of vision should the left provide in the up-coming local authority elections around NZ, and in NZ’s parliamentary elections in 2014?
Written By: - Date published: 10:52 am, May 1st, 2013 - 32 comments
To the Herald the Fourth Estate must be a greenfield development on the outer margins of Auckland: a Dickensian space, hiding the poor from the upper middle-classes. The Herald lacks critical balance & equal weighting for diverse views: it scaremongers about the Akl Unitary Plan & undermines public transport.
Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, April 22nd, 2013 - 8 comments
The draft Auckland Unitary Plan is massive and complex. The Auckland Transport Blog helps in untangling issues around intensification vs sprawl. The government & some right wing councillors want sprawl & to delay implementation. The Akl Council website has some cool videos visualising the planned developments. And social housing?
Written By: - Date published: 2:15 pm, April 16th, 2013 - 48 comments
The Greens and Labour are planning a joint announcement on their policies on power prices. Both parties want to bring down costs of electricity. The policies of the two parties will also have some differences. How will it mesh with Green Party policies on sustainability?
Written By: - Date published: 10:44 am, March 17th, 2013 - 39 comments
The Draft Auckland Unitary Plan has much to commend it. It focuses on resource management, responds to the reality of climate change & aims for a more dense but ‘liveable’ city. It has weaknesses, embraces destructive “growth” and raises questions: e.g. about affordable housing & environmental management.
Written By: - Date published: 12:57 pm, March 14th, 2013 - 49 comments
Phil Twyford is the Labour MP for Te Atatu, and Labour’s spokesperson on Housing and Auckland Issues. He is also asking the same questions that many Aucklanders keep asking as they watch a succession of government ministers trying to valiantly advance backwards into Auckland’s past with no obvious purpose.
Written By: - Date published: 10:54 am, March 7th, 2013 - 53 comments
Nick Smith, of the forked tongue, is challenging Auckland council’s plan for affordable compact housing. It will do nothing for housing affordability, transport, the environment. It is undemocratic, over-rides the council, and will enrich developers.
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, February 26th, 2013 - 41 comments
A wheelchair got caught in the rail tracks, resulting in critical injuries. Pedestrians are low priority, and people with disabilities even lower, making them/us vulnerable: poor pavements, hazardous road crossings, some inaccessible public transport… and more.
Written By: - Date published: 12:05 pm, January 30th, 2013 - 54 comments
Debates on the PM’s statement to the House show that this do-nothing government needs to go. Plenty of good ideas from opposition MPs. An excellent speech by Genter against Joyce’s ‘Roads of Madness’ & for public transport.
Written By: - Date published: 12:41 pm, January 29th, 2013 - 42 comments
The Greens, I’m in for the Future, is a promising initiative. The Greens’ focus on Auckland transport will be a great start. To end the “neoliberal” dominance, it is necessary to apply pressure from below. What can we learn from Canadian anti-“neoliberal” groups like Common Causes & Idle No More? [Updated]
Written By: - Date published: 8:58 pm, January 3rd, 2013 - 38 comments
Federated Farmers pushed out a press release the other day calling for NZ to both have more population and to stop spreading urban areas out over farmland. MrSmith has a view on it.
Written By: - Date published: 3:54 pm, June 15th, 2012 - 11 comments
Iain Lees-Galloway has been leading an admirable campaign to keep Palmy North’s Capital Connection.
His latest effort is to have petition (online & offline versions) to present to Parliament at the end of the month. It has to be then, because it’s expected that the government (through NZTA) will cut the service in July or August.
Written By: - Date published: 6:10 pm, April 26th, 2012 - 73 comments
I have and still do deal with quite a lot with systems in my day-job. But this…. I’m aghast at the self-evident stupidity. A power outage has shut down almost all train services across the Auckland region. The fault at KiwiRail’s National Train Control in Wellington, which controls Auckland signals and radio control, occurred about […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:19 pm, October 30th, 2011 - 130 comments
Labour has just over-shadowed Key’s big smile and wave show today – where he is expected to reannounce spending – with another big policy. Labour will cancel National’s Holiday Highway. With the money saved, they will make the existing road safe, and go 50-50 with the Auckland council to fund the CBD rail-loop and get Auckland moving sustainably.
Written By: - Date published: 2:04 pm, September 27th, 2011 - 24 comments
Nick Smith is looking at issuing a “Government policy statement” to ensure that the Auckland Plan complies with their agenda. They may ban the urban limits that are proposed to keep green, productive land around Auckland and help ensure rates stay low and public transport works in a more liveable city.
Written By: - Date published: 10:24 am, September 11th, 2011 - 92 comments
McCully is Minister for the RWC. He claimed the government had done “their best” and assured Auckland that the transport systems were ready to go. He was wrong in every respect. In the aftermath of the fiasco McCully now needs to front up and get three things right…
Written By: - Date published: 1:27 pm, September 10th, 2011 - 111 comments
The RWC public transport fiasco was not a good look for our biggest city, and not a great advertisement to the world.
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