The cost of RoNs<\/p>\n
Matt was on The Detail this week discussing the unaffordable cost of the Northland Expressway<\/a>.<\/p>\n There is an argument that it\u2019s Northland\u2019s time for some road security, but advocates such as Greater Auckland director Matt Lowrie says it\u2019s a lot to pay for a road that will carry less traffic than most of Auckland\u2019s arterial roads.<\/p>\n \u201cWe simply can\u2019t afford to be spending $15 to $20 billion on a single road that carries on average 10-15,000 vehicles a day,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to find solutions that can provide improved quality service \u2026 but should it be straight to a large four-laned highway or should we look at other options first? That includes easing corners, putting safety measures in place, putting more passing lanes in place. Those are the types of things we used to do quite regularly along large parts of our network.\u201d<\/p>\n In other unaffordable expressway news\u2026<\/p>\n Transmission Gully has been in the news (again), with some not-so-good updates (yet again) regarding the need for $32m more<\/a> from NZTA to fix issues with the road. As this op-ed <\/a>puts it:<\/p>\n Trying to make the situation sound like business as usual, Waka Kotahi says that \u201cevery year we undertake a large road renewal programme to maintain and improve state highways across the country. This year that includes a significant amount of resurfacing and drainage work in Transmission Gully\u201d.<\/p>\n Wait a minute \u2013 didn\u2019t we just buy the bloody thing brand new for $1.25 billion a few years ago? I expect a bit of \u201crenewal\u201d on my dunga of a car I bought over a decade ago, but if I\u2019d paid top dollar for a brand new one just a few years ago, I\u2019d be furious that it needed \u201csignificant\u201d maintenance. Under the Consumer Guarantees Act, I\u2019d probably have the right to get the car replaced or at least refunded.<\/p>\n Inside the Canadian apartments redefining indigenous housing<\/p>\n Lovely long write up in The Spinoff by Joel MacManus about his visit to the First Nations-led Sen\u0313\u00e1\u1e35w development in Vancouver<\/a>. It\u2019s a fascinating read, and perhaps has lessons for New Zealand for iwi-led development.<\/p>\n Sen\u0313\u00e1\u1e35w (pronounced\u00a0seh-nauq) is being built on a federally-recognised First Nations reserve with several millennia of history. Under Canadian law, reserves are exempt from city zoning bylaws, meaning the tribal authority of\u00a0S\u1e35wx\u0331w\u00fa7mesh \u00daxwumixw\u00a0(Squamish Nation) decides for itself what can be built there. And they set their sights sky high.<\/p>\n These three towers will eventually become 11, containing 6,000 apartments and at least 9,000 residents. When it\u2019s complete, it will be the most densely populated new development in North America; the population of Morrinsville in a land area smaller than five rugby fields. The tallest tower will be 171 metres tall, the same height as the Vero Centre in central Auckland.\u00a0It\u2019ll be a massive influx of housing in a city that desperately needs it \u2013 and an enormous monument to indigenous ambition in the modern age.<\/p>\n Sen\u0313\u00e1\u1e35w viewed from the Burrard Street Bridge. Photo: Joel MacManus<\/p>\n Joel also has this interesting article<\/a> looking at some recent data on how (and where) our population has been growing.<\/p>\n Well, it\u2019s a bit unclear. The five fastest-growing council areas by total population are Auckland, Christchurch, Hamilton, Selwyn and Waikato. But the way that growth is happening is completely inconsistent. Auckland and Hamilton have negative internal migration, meaning people are leaving those cities for other parts of the country; their growth is driven by international migration and a high birth rate. Meanwhile, Selwyn and Waikato have negligible international migrants and are booming due to internal shifts: people are moving there from other regions of New Zealand. Christchurch is a rare example of a city that is succeeding at all three forms of growth.<\/p>\n \u2026..<\/p>\n While Auckland is one of the fastest-growing cities, when you split it out into local board areas, you get a more complex story. Howick, Papakura, Henderson-Massey, Maungakiekie and Whau are all in the 10 fastest-growing council areas nationally, but Waitemat\u0101, which covers the city centre and inner-city suburbs like Ponsonby and Parnell, and \u014cr\u0101kei, which covers inner eastern suburbs like Remuera and Saint Heliers, are the second and third worst-performing areas in the country, behind only Wellington City.<\/p>\n \u2026..<\/p>\n And just in case there could be some city-specific factors at play, here are the numbers for each of the Auckland local boards since the creation of the Supercity in 2010.<\/p>\n Making room for urban rivers<\/p>\n Also in The Spinoff, a great piece by Shanti Mathias on the tricky trade-offs in making room for rivers in the city.<\/a><\/p>\n Christchurch is a city of three rivers: the \u014cp\u0101waho (Heathcote), winding around the hills, the \u014ct\u0101karo (Avon), threaded through the central city, and the oft forgotten P\u016bharakekenui (Styx) in the north of the city. Each of these rivers has stream tributaries, too, but for the most part, they\u2019re underground, channelled into pipes and culverts.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is one of the\u00a0most polluted<\/a>\u00a0waterways in the city,\u201d says Nick Moody, who was recently elected onto Environment Canterbury, the regional council. He\u2019s looking at Hayton\u2019s Stream, a waterway he\u2019s very familiar with \u2013 as a pollution officer at ECan, he spent three years working with this stream, trying to reduce its pollution.<\/p>\n Today, it\u2019s cloudy and grey, the product of recent rains. \u201cThere will be lots of sediment washed off the road, probably some of it bound to zinc from car tyres,\u201d says Moody. He looks at the mouth of the pipe the stream is emerging from. \u201cThis is an industrial area, so there will be some contamination coming from the factories, from people cleaning their cars.\u201d<\/p>\n Potential Christmas gift? Mr Ward\u2019s Map<\/p>\n Intriguing book coming out next week by Elizabeth Cox on the detailed maps of Wellington made by Thomas Ward in the late 19th Century<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 1891, a remarkable map of Wellington was made by surveyor Thomas Ward. It recorded the footprint of every building, from Thorndon in the north and across the teeming, inner-city slums of Te Aro to Berhampore in the south.<\/p>\n Updated regularly over the next 10 years, it detailed hotels, theatres, oyster saloons, brothels, shops, stables, Parliament, the remnants of M\u0101ori k\u0101inga, the Town Belt, the prisons, the \u2018lunatic asylum\u2019, the hospital and much more, in detail so particular that it went right down to the level of the street lights.<\/p>\n Is a city stroll as good for you as a nature walk?<\/p>\n Lovely piece in Stuff on some recent research regarding the benefits of urban walks<\/a>.<\/p>\n Walking in nature has been shown<\/a> to boost physical and mental health, lowering stress and restoring attention. But researchers are finding plenty of mental-health benefits to walking in urban areas, too.<\/p>\n You just have to find\u00a0the right path<\/a>\u00a0and pay attention to your surroundings.<\/p>\n What is the right path? Well for one, it needs green.<\/p>\n \u201cLook at the green,\u201d said Whitney Fleming, an environmental psychology researcher at Bangor University in Wales. \u201cMost cities have greenery. No matter where you are, you can find a nice tree.\u201d<\/p>\n One lively plaza of our own \u2013 Te Komititanga<\/p>\n The quietly successful approach of CoHaus<\/p>\n OurAuckland released an interesting article yesterday taking a look at the sustainable CoHaus development in Grey Lynn<\/a>.<\/p>\n Cohaus, a 20-unit resident-led development on Surrey Crescent, shows what happens when architecture, community, and sustainability come together.<\/p>\n Grey Lynn is no stranger to tension between its historic villas and demand for new housing. Yet Cohaus has proven that intensification can be beautiful, respectful, and enriching. Its\u2019 understated street presence conceals an inner world of courtyards, communal gardens, and light-filled apartments. The original villa on the site was retained and refurbished, anchoring the development in heritage while welcoming new life.<\/p>\n Architect and co-founder Thom Gill says this development is exactly what Auckland needs.<\/p>\n \u201cDensity doesn\u2019t need to mean compromise. With the right design, we can add homes without losing the character people cherish. Cohaus proves that medium-density housing can lift a neighbourhood.\u201d<\/p>\n Community garden shared by residents of the Cohaus development in Grey Lynn<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Government quietly announced weaker climate rules\u2026<\/p>\n As Henry Cooke reported these changes were put out quietly on Tuesday<\/a>, despite their major ramifications\u2026<\/p>\n The Government quietly announced a\u00a0huge shift in climate policy on Tuesday evening<\/a>, including a 25-year delay to a public sector climate goal and the de-linking of the Emissions Trading Scheme from the Paris climate pact. The Govt quietly announced a loosening of climate rules at 8pm last night:- Decoupling the ETS from Paris- Shifting ETS resets to every 2 years \u2013 Delaying the public sector target by 25 years- Removing CCC advice from *before* emission reductions plans:www.thepost.co.nz\/politics\/360\u2026<\/p>\n \u2014 henry cooke (@henrycooke.bsky.social)<\/a> 2025-11-04T22:26:53.485Z<\/a><\/p>\n Get your crash framing right, media\u2026<\/p>\n There has been some shocking reporting the last few weeks on a number of incidents involving electric buses in Auckland. This piece by Emma Ricketts was quite good in clarifying the facts:<\/a><\/p>\n Sutcliffe has analysed footage of all three Auckland incidents and said at least two had nothing to do with the batteries.<\/p>\n As above, FENZ has confirmed that in the T\u0101maki Drive crash, it was the fuel-powered car that caught fire. The fire then spread to the bus. \u201cWhen people describe seeing smoke at a crash scene, it can actually be anything from glass shattering to air bags deploying. There was nothing there to indicate that the batteries caught fire or were damaged in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n Inquiries into the latest incident, involving the overpass, are still ongoing.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom the images, we can see that the battery pack was obviously damaged. But we cannot see what we call \u2018thermal runaway\u2019,\u201d Sutcliffe said.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, it\u2019s a lot easier to stoke fear and misinformation than it is to correct misapprehensions. And this reflects a longstanding issue with reporting on crashes, which tends to downplay the role of vehicles (and their drivers) in causing entirely preventable harm. (And based on recent reporting, it seems the ones powered by fossil fuels get special treatment\u2026).<\/p>\n Fixing the New Old Hutt Road Path<\/p>\n Cycle Wellington is calling for improvements to a shared path on Old Hutt Road.<\/p>\n Cycle Wellington is calling on Wellington City Council, Waka Kotahi and KiwiRail to improve the shared path on\u00a0Old Hutt Road<\/a>. People who will be using the soon to open\u00a0Te Ara Tupua<\/a>\u00a0coastal path need a safe and attractive continuation of this soon to be iconic seaside path. This section needs to complement the quality and vision of the\u00a0Great Harbour Way<\/a>\u00a0linear park around our beautiful harbour environment.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2025-NZ-Largest-population-growth.png\")
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The changes were included at the bottom of a press release put out at 8pm on a Government website but not emailed to all political journalists, as ministerial press releases generally are.
Overall the changes to the\u00a0Climate Change Response Act<\/a>\u00a0loosen the rules that prior governments have set in order to force future emission reductions.<\/p>\n
In the train station incident, witnesses reported seeing smoke after the bus crashed into a shelter. Sutcliffe said this could have been caused by any number of things.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Crash-Framing-Comic-837x1024.jpg\")
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