We’re the generation who’ve been there and done that and earned the right to what we’ve got, but the flip side to the freedom that comes with being the boss of me is selfishness, writes NZ Herald’s Simon Wilson in this Herald Premium article. At a business conference in the Aotea Centre earlier this month, … Read more
How come New Zealand’s transport planning isn’t keeping up with the ideas now transforming the cities of the world? Not radical ideas, just orthodox planning ideas. Like: banning cars from the middle of town. This article was originally published in April 2017. Here’s a pretty good list of cities. Madrid, Paris, Vancouver, New York, Oslo, … Read more
Bauer has announced the closure of Paperboy, its acclaimed ‘freemium’ Auckland magazine. Former Metro editor Simon Wilson laments the passing of a brave experiment and wonders why its publisher let it fold. What sad news, that Bauer Media has pulled the plug on Paperboy, and especially sad that it comes little more than a year … Read more
Simon Wilson came back from a visit to Paris filled with enthusiasm for ways to make Auckland better. Here’s the first: a great big bike share scheme. First published on 15 June 2017. Ten days ago I rode a bike around the Place de la Concorde. It’s that roundabout in Paris with about 10 … Read more
Simon Wilson eats at Pasture, the restaurant that cooks with fire and fermentation and a very singular vision. First published on 11 November 2017. This is what obsession looks like. Five very small, thick oval slices of a bird’s breast, skin on, in a row on a large plate, with a leg and a large … Read more
This year we had the most extraordinary election. Simon Wilson looks at where to now for the new government and the new opposition. Earlier this year Spinoff writer Simon Wilson scored an unusual double in the Canon Media Awards: he won the politics and business category awards for both long-form feature writing and opinion writing. … Read more
How can Auckland create a bigger, stronger and more rewarding night-time economy? Simon Wilson sets out a plan. Partner content in association with Heart of the City, who are interested in growing the vibrant night-time experience in the city centre. In the new year we’re getting lights on the harbour bridge. It’s a great initiative. And … Read more
Simon Wilson wanted to like Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and some of it he really did. But then there was the rest. And, yes, there are MANY SPOILERS. You can read The Last Jedi as the story of two sisters who, if this were not a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, … Read more
What exactly, asks Simon Wilson, has the council decided to do about kauri dieback? Why did the Māori board members contradict themselves and which trails have been closed? The Auckland Council voted on Monday to substantially increase spending on the environment, including the fight against kauri dieback. Surprisingly, that’s a first. But it turned down … Read more
The Auckland Art Gallery is under threat – from a council that ought to know better. Partner content in association with Heart of the City The formalities at the opening of the Lindauer exhibition were, as you might expect, highly ritualised and extremely moving. A gallery connected to the culture of its place. I think … Read more
The council has voted to close tracks in the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park and spend a lot more money trying to stop the spread of kauri dieback. But, asks Simon Wilson, is it enough? It’s quite good to think of kauri dieback the way you think of Alien, or The Walking Dead, or any other … Read more
Auckland Transport is busily wrecking the suburbs of the city’s inner west. Simon Wilson takes a good hard look at the plans – and at the protests about those plans. Just look at what Auckland Transport has done to the West Lynn shops. A new bus stop sits right in front of a pedestrian crossing, … Read more
Is it 1.4%, 2.5%, 6.2%, 9% or something else? Simon Wilson explains how much Auckland rates are really going to rise under the mayor’s new proposal – and wonders why some of the reporting has been so confusing. This afternoon Auckland Council debates the draft 10-year budget proposed by mayor Phil Goff. They may have … Read more
Last week Auckland Council voted to build an extension on Queens Wharf: a fixed walkway to two moored “dolphin” buoys, stretching 80-85 metres further into the harbour. Simon Wilson was at the meeting and asks, how the hell did that happen? The Golden Princess was in Auckland on Friday. A modern cruise ship, new to … Read more
Team New Zealand manager Grant Dalton didn’t turn up to today’s council meeting to decide where the America’s Cup syndicates should be based. As Simon Wilson reports, he already knew he wasn’t going to get his way. The writing was on the wall at the start of the meeting. Team New Zealand, insistent at every … Read more
Auckland Council meets today to debate where to site the America’s Cup syndicates. Simon Wilson has five questions he’s hoping someone will answer. There’s no perfect answer to the question of where to site the syndicates that will compete for the America’s Cup in 2021. There’s not even a good answer. Still, we want one … Read more
Auckland Council has released the city’s new property valuations and some people who should know better have taken the chance to say all sorts of stupid things. Simon Wilson sets them straight. Jo Holmes from the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance was on RNZ’s Morning Report today saying that Aucklanders will be paying “thousands of dollars” more … Read more
After the disappointments of West Lynn, Simon Wilson proposes some principles to help the council with its suburban town planning. The possibilities for Auckland are no better expressed than on Great North Road: that wide slow slope down the ridge from Karangahape Road to St Joseph’s, the views across to the upper Waitemata and to … Read more
The council has been remaking the West Lynn shopping village on Richmond Rd in Grey Lynn, putting in bike lanes, calming the traffic and, they say, enhancing the shopper experience. What, asks Simon Wilson, could possibly go wrong? You can’t laugh. It seems pointless to cry. But Auckland Transport (AT) has just spent a couple … Read more
Radical populism arises on the left, the right and in the centre. In this essay, from the newly published Journal of Urgent Writing, Simon Wilson makes a radical proposal for New Zealand. It was a time when New Zealand was sick of being New Zealand. It was the 1980s, a high old time, a time of … Read more
Hosting the America’s Cup should be the perfect event for a sailing city like Auckland, shouldn’t it? So why, asks Simon Wilson, is there a risk it’s going to wreck the surrounding area? Something has gone seriously wrong with waterfront planning in Auckland and the America’s Cup is threatening to make a bad situation even … Read more
Simon Wilson has been eating at Pasture, the restaurant that cooks with fire and fermentation and a very singular vision. This is what obsession looks like. Five very small, thick oval slices of a bird’s breast, skin on, in a row on a large plate, with a leg and a large piece of skin. The … Read more
Simon Wilson sat down to pick the five shows he was most looking forward to in the 2018 Auckland Arts Festival next March. Here are 10 of them. And a few more. A new festival, a new director, a new music venue, a new look and some new ideas to guide it all. Change is … Read more
Ports of Auckland has released its brand new long-term plans. Simon Wilson is impressed, but also not impressed. The cars are moving off the finger wharves. Hallelujah. And instead of spreading over every inch of available wharf space, most of them will be contained in a remarkable, brand-new carpark building. With a green park on … Read more
Mayor Phil Goff has announced the results of his first round of spending cuts and, as Simon Wilson explains, they’re full of surprises – not least for him. Phil Goff is not going to slash and burn the council’s spending on promoting Auckland to the world. That’s despite a good deal of gnashing of teeth … Read more
Simon Wilson called the play Te Pō “a masterpiece” when it premiered last year. It’s back for a short return season and he went along to see if he got it right. There’s a moment late in the play Te Pō when the actor Carl Bland stands alone on stage and bawls out his grief that … Read more
Auckland has a new bike share scheme! Or does it? Simon Wilson investigates the strange case of the bumblebee bikes in the central city. Seen the brand new OnzO bikes all over central Auckland? Two by two, like animals from the Ark, gleaming black with shock-yellow wheel rims, they’ve turned up suddenly at almost every … Read more
The Herald says communications spending at Auckland Council is out of control, but is that true? Simon Wilson looks at what council comms should be doing and why. The water went off in parts of Auckland yesterday. But Watercare didn’t post anything about it on its website and it put out no information on social … Read more
New plans for transport and housing, sure, but the government’s coalition and support deals promise much more for Auckland than that. As Simon Wilson reports, there’s even a big win for Metiria Turei. Arise the other Phil: we have a new Mr Auckland Rumours the new government is going to change the name of Auckland … Read more