Boris' plan for London

Boris Johnson's pledge to make London the "best big city on earth" - a capital where "every lamppost, every bus stop" would offer wireless internet access by 2012 - inevitably grabbed headlines.

But his latest iteration of the London Plan is a model of simplicity and light years away from the stodgy words that imbue most spatial plans.

The flamboyant Boris (hardly anyone uses the Mayor of London's surname) urges his citizens to "try googling our city with one of those satellite maps" and "zoom in and out of London from on high" to understand what needs to be done.

"You will see how the world beneath you is divided into two categories. There is private space - that is, homes and gardens occupied by individuals and their families.

"But more than half of the London landscape - by area - is shared space: roads, parks, canals, rivers, squares, shops, piazzas, malls, stations, monuments and museums. This shared space is a vast and complex environment in which millions of perfect strangers must move, meet and negotiate.

"What is it like in that shared space? Are people stressed, tense, crowded, unhealthy, unhappy, snappy or even downright hostile?

"Or are they relaxed and good-humoured, surrounded by things of beauty both natural and man-made?

"The genius of a big city lies in the way it organises that shared space, for the benefit of visitors and inhabitants alike."

The challenge for the first Mayor of Auckland is to develop a spatial plan that its citizens - just like London's - can understand and also demonstrate some genius in organising it.

* From the New Zealand Herald feature, 'Project Auckland - our city'