Hard not to get lost in fantasy

Imagine an entire street dedicated to shopping and shoppers, separate from this, a restaurant and nightlife district; One motorway right up the middle of the country; Electric transport: buses, tram, rail lines. One big parking lot charging reasonable, affordable rates; better living i.e. affordable, bigger than mouse-hole apartments and homes, more accessibility to gyms (price wise and location wise), No more GE everything home grown; more health conscious eateries.

So now consider these three terms: Affordable, accessibility and better living and think about them in relation to New Zealand, in particular, Auckland.



Did you draw a blank? It’s likely. If Auckland going to keep growing like it is it’s going to need to build its bridges not burn them. It’s great and all to build the cities image, but image isn’t what keeps the city functioning. Think of Queen Street for instance: Why put all the money in to presentation when the serious issues are still causing complications? – Don’t just widen the footpath, take away the cars completely it’s basically a shopping mall anyway – pedestrians only! Eliminating traffic on Queen Street would mean no: traffic jams, accidents involving both other cars and pedestrians; decrease in pollution for pedestrians and local shops, shops would become more accessible (no fear for having to cross the road.) If transport from top to bottom is an issue a free tram could be put into place like back in the day, even a monorail.

Why not go crazy, let’s eliminate all the cars from City centre: no cars on High Street or down by the viaduct. Create a space especially for people. Shops and malls on Queen Street, Convert Customs Street and the waterfront purely into restaurants, cafes and nightlife. Make the area around Aotea Square and sky city the entertainment centre: St James, sky tower, Imax complex and the convention centre. Turn all the tiny, apartments on Queen Street into business offices and create living spaces in Nelson, Hobson and up by the universities.



When it comes to being eco friendly are we really making that much of an effort to lower carbon Emissions –Why bother when half the population smokes! I mean are buses really any good: more buses to accommodate more people means more carbon emissions in replace of the cars not on the road. I mean if you can invent an electric car or solar car why not a bus? Plus prices are so ridiculous and over populated buses aren’t much encouragement for using public transport. I mean they have enough to paint the buses why not also make them comfortable as well.




The need for more gyms has become apparent with the ever increasing obesity rates. More affordable, 24 hour gyms would accommodate to everyone especially the night owls (there is a successfully established one already running on the coast). Provide affordably, healthy food instead of this instant everything consumption. I’ve spent most of my lunchtime life absolutely confused about what to eat – there’s either too much bread (the salad sandwich has become some sort of a joke) or pastry or meat or just sugar and fat in general... “Pleasure to the lips forever on the hips”, and half the times the foods not even a pleasure at that.




Go back to the five day working week- run the malls through Saturday but there’s no need for people to be working Sundays! They say New Zealanders have become extreme workaholics.





I mean the weathers not the only cause for the high rates of depression in this country it’s the lifestyle. We need to stick to our image if we want to survive a little longer...Clean, Green.