Greater Auckland’s Matt Lowrie looks at the hidden benefits of rail outlined in a 2016 NZTA report released just this week, which transport minister Phil Tywford says was intentionally sat on by the previous government. For the last few decades, we’ve treated rail in New Zealand quite differently to the way we treat roads. Rail has been considered … Read more
The new coalition government has made a start on addressing the housing crisis with the just-announced independent housing review. But Jenny McArthur warns that Labour’s proposed KiwiBuild policy could risk adopting solutions that actually fuel the problems they claim to solve, reinforcing inequality for decades to come. After years of futile policy interventions, it’s time … 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
Unlicensed course materials and substandard teaching at a private tertiary institution connected to New Zealand’s education royalty have left students indebted and fuming. Don Rowe investigates. Take a look up any side street in any main city in New Zealand and you’ll find one: the ‘International College of This’, the ‘New Zealand National Academy of … 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
There’s a lot of trouble in Auckland right now. Homelessness is growing. Many mostly-young or poor people are facing the prospect of never owning a home in the city. But this week the media has highlighted the plight of another group of Aucklanders who are doing it tough: people whose houses are making too much … 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
Does your house earn more than you do? For almost every Aucklander the answer is yes. So, asks Don Rowe, what sort of job would you need to do if you wanted to earn as much as the home you live in? With the new property valuation figures released today by Auckland Council, we now … 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
In our video series Kiwis of Snapchat, comedian Tom Sainsbury sources exclusive Snapchat footage of Kiwi citizens and luminaries making the news. Today, Kenneth has a message for Auckland – stealing road cones is not OK. OK? Click here for all our Kiwis of Snapchat videos
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
Give me a transport crisis and I’ll give you a thousand ways to solve it, said no mayor ever. But the ideas are out there. Carpool campaigner Paul Minett explains why he thinks we should pay people to ride. This is about an innovative idea for reducing the traffic. The idea, simply put, is to … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, staff from The Spinoff gorge themselves on giant pieces of fried chicken. Before you read this review, go somewhere you can listen to this at the same time. Trust us. Today The Spinoff lunched on more than $50 of … 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
Jihee Junn takes a look at some nifty graphs from ATEED’s latest report and gleans some interesting insights about the city’s economy and future. *Update: a previous version of this article used outdated information from ATEED regarding Auckland’s ethnic makeup. ATEED has now updated the graph and figures in its report. Last week, Auckland Tourism, … 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
Shobhana Ranchhodji runs a florist’s shop in one of the most difficult locations in the city: right by the Albert St tunnelling project for the City Rail Link. Simon Wilson went along to meet a retailer who’s determined to keep making her customers happy. There are orchids in a corner, lying in a box, their … Read more
Is Auckland in crisis over transport, housing, schools, you name it, or are we heading in the right direction? The answer, says Simon Wilson, is yes. The city voted both ways. Here’s what it really needs from the new government. We are two cities living as one, and each of those cities sees the place … Read more
Winston Peters has ideas about what should happen to the Auckland port, but this week the Auckland Council took matters into its own hands. Simon Wilson was there and reports on the latest round in the battle of the Auckland port. Fifteen months ago the council received a report from a Consensus Working Group that … Read more
$760 for half an hour of illicit car parking? Seems steep. Rebecca Stevenson investigates how the clamping industry operates. They are back at it again. Bashford Antiques, the clamping company hiding in plain sight as a second hand shop, audaciously claimed $760 from a punter who parked in its Ponsonby car park. It seems like a lot … Read more
Auckland’s newly refurbished Freyberg Place is a wonderful new public space, says Simon Wilson. Except for those times when it isn’t. I sat on one of the big concrete steps in the newly refurbished Freyberg Place on Tuesday evening, watching a man covered in tin cans beating sticks on a blue 44-gallon drum. A little … Read more
A year into the job, Mayor Phil Goff is having big problems with his budget. And with water, transport, housing, the America’s Cup, the rest of council and the whole of government. And he’s still trying to beat up on the city’s tourism and economic development agency, ATEED. But somehow, says Simon Wilson, he also … Read more