Chlöe Swarbrick: For Mayor Wayne Brown, a list of options for fixing central Auckland

Opinion

OPINION:

Tāmaki Makaurau has a new Mayor who has promised to fix things. I'm looking forward to my first official meeting with Mayor Brown, where I will propose that near the top of that list are tangible, practical and immediate solutions to some of the challenges we face in Auckland Central.

Ten years ago Council signed off the City Centre Masterplan, with overwhelming support from our local Business and Resident Associations. The plan promised a vibrant, people-friendly, tree-filled city centre that made the most of the Waitematā Harbour.

Ten years on and Council and its delivery organisations have been consistently bullied into taking, at best, baby steps, consistently compromising for cars in outcomes that satisfy no-one. Meanwhile, on Friday last week, 22,000 people stepped their way down one side of Queen St.

That's 10,000 more people than a sold-out Spark Arena. It's greater than the number of people who voted to elect every ward Councillor this local body election, bar Cr Desley Simpson, who received a stomping 24,000 votes following her term chairing the Finance and Performance Committee (which, by the way, in 2021 vetted and signed off an overdue $133 million to upgrade city centre amenities).

If we want to fix Queen St, it's time to commit to pedestrianisation and unleashing public space for food trucks, activation and engagement.

Mayor Brown has disclosed that he lives in an apartment off of Karangahape Rd. He's made no secret of his personal wealth, so the choice to live in the city centre when he could have been anywhere means he personally understands the value of dense housing and access to amenity.

The legacy of having built a better Auckland is at new mayor Wayne Brown's fingertips. Photo / Alex Burton

He must then be rationally concerned by news that since the 2016 Unitary Plan, the majority of new homes consented in our city have been more than 11kms from the city centre and all of that amenity.

We've sprawled outwards across productive, food-making soil, costing more in infrastructure and carbon emissions while baking in car dependency.

I wonder whether the Mayor walks the 15 minutes to work at council offices. Maybe he busses. I wonder if he's interested in the strongest business case for getting Aucklanders around the city: Light Rail.

If he's after less waste and better outcomes, he could choose to strong-arm Wellington to change their decision to underground Auckland light rail to bring it above ground, in turn delivered quicker, cheaper and with less embodied carbon (such was the preference of Establishment Unit Board Member Ngarimu Blair). Doing so would offer Mayor Brown a legacy in line with the one and only Mayor Robbie, who fought unsuccessfully throughout his political career for precisely that rapid transit network.

Want to fix the waterfront? It's going to take more than moving the Port. It's going to take a commitment to and investment in people-friendly spaces, such as in the vision presented by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei.

Meeting with Mayor Brown while he was a candidate (and Auckland Central constituent), I told him that approximately half of my electorate workload is trying to make council do its job.

If we want an inclusive, low emission, liveable city for all of us, I'll be doing everything with my power to ensure this council lives up to Mayor Brown's campaign promise to fix things.

• Chlöe Swarbrick, Green Party, is the MP for Auckland Central.