Liveable Auckland Heralded

Today's Herald kicked off a 10 part series on what needs to happen in Auckland. This will come from a variety of perspectives, so we won't all agree with everything. As my father used to say, wisely, you can please some of the people all of the time, you can please most of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time.

I was surprised to see a view given prominence today, that Auckland should aspire to/learn from Houston, Texas. This is a city of almost 7 million situated in topography that is very different from Auckland. And that's the start. I'm enough of a planner to know that it is risky to make statements about a city without having lived in it for decades, just as it is difficult and risky to compare cities. But one thing I have been taught is that most of the designs and thinking that went into Auckland - after the Second World War, and after we got rid of the trams - was driven and influenced by the American Dream.

If you look at this picture of Houston with your eyes a little bit squinted you can easily see Auckland's Spaghetti Junction of motorways wrapped round and feeding into the CBD, and severing the rest of the city from it.

This sort of motorway treatment at the urban/rural edge of Houston is very like what we are doing to the North and the South of Auckland. Utterly motorway influenced. Trying to curb urban sprawl, by encasing it in motorways, but actually driving more sprawl....

And here is a Houston equivalent of Sylvia Park. Praised in some planning quarters, but dominated by a motorway and free of good quality green open spaces and parks. Yes - the people live in nice green tree lined properties with stand-alone houses - but not a lot of medium density here. And don't try and take my local amenity away from me. Easier to take my gun!

I didn't have to look hard using google earth to find urban landscapes like these. They are typical. This one is reminiscent of SH1 passing up between Takapuna and Glenfield. You've got the motorway, a large arterial intersecting, and then a bunch of local streets allowing access to neat rectangular sections with stand alone single houses. Again, not a lot of evidence of local communities, and limited provision of public greenery and urban squares. You need a car here to get anywhere - but when you're in that car - you can go places....

And here's more of a close-up. I had to look a little harder for this. Trying to find a bit of mixed use in walking distance of residential streets. But again there is the empty provision of car-parking. Houston is one of the most car-oriented cities in the USA. Why would we want to hold it up as an example for Auckland - other than to justify growing Auckland outward to house 5 million plus citizens. I think, if we want to look to Texas for a model, then I'd choose Austin Texas any day, over Houston. It is similar in scale to Auckland and it offers the most live music venues in the USA - I understand. This is what makes Austin liveable - it houses and parades its diversity and culture.