Hard times in paradise

Kelvin and Sarah Syme with 18-month-old James at the walkover of the newly constructed Newmarket Viaduct, Auckland. Photo / Richard Robinson.

Even at the tail-end of another wet winter, the view from the Waiheke ferry of the unspoilt cone of Rangitoto is about as close as you can get in this world to paradise.

Langafonua Tasila, who came here from Niue 23 years ago and now lives in an Avondale boarding house, lapped up the soothing scenery alongside the lawyer and the businessman, the young backpackers and Waiheke's greenies, as he set out on a fishing trip last month.

But he was in anguish. Unlike two-thirds of the 300 Aucklanders questioned for this survey who rated the state of the city "good" or better, Tasila said: "For me, it's poor."

Tasila, 48, has been laid off twice in the recession - first from a shoe factory and then, three days after starting again, from a new job at a factory making products for The Warehouse.

"I've been looking for a job for one-and-a-half years now," he said. "It's very hard."

From Matakana to Waiuku, from Helensville to Howick, Aucklanders interviewed in the streets, in markets and at public events expressed dual feelings about this sprawling metropolis that is about to become officially one "Super City".

In our hearts, most of us love it. Even though in this survey two-thirds of us were born somewhere else, and most of us know people who have moved elsewhere, most of us who have stayed are here by choice.

"I'm going to England for four months but I'm coming back," said Devonport student Kate Wintle, 22. "This is the only place I'd live."

We love the beaches and the bush, the volcanoes and the parks.

"We use the parks, the museum, the zoo, the Waitakere Ranges, the beaches. We get out and about quite a lot. For us, it's a great city," said Remuera couple Kelvin and Sarah Syme, interviewed at the open day on the Newmarket viaduct with their 18-month-old son James.

Birkdale property manager Nickie Keene, caught in the Glenfield mall, said: "I've got a little one. There's loads of parks for him and lots of stuff for him to do, with the zoo and Motat and so on. It's just a good place for a child."

Despite all the arguments about the Super City, 79 per cent of us in this survey accept the label "Aucklander". Only a handful still insist on being "Rodneyites", "Frankliners" or "Westies".

But these are hard times financially. While dairy farmers and foresters have kept spending up in much of provincial New Zealand, Auckland has been hit hardest by the recession with an 8.7 per cent unemployment rate now second only to Northland's. It's the city's longest winter job queue since 1993.

Karl Allen, 25, finished an environmental science degree last year but applied for more than 200 jobs before finally landing a two-month contract in Pukekohe last month researching for Maori Television.

"I applied at the [Pukekohe Countdown] supermarket before it opened. They said they had stopped applications because they'd already had 180 applications after three days," he said.

Welding inspector Safua Fonoti, 35, sees the combined effects of unemployment and restricted tertiary education entry in the youth group he runs in Mt Roskill.

"Most of the youth haven't got anything to do since the universities are really fussy now about the people they are taking on board," he said. "But the desire and the passion in them is still strong, so they feel down about it."

Gajrath Singh, 56, a vehicle assessor from Fiji who brought his family to Manurewa five years ago, has been unable to get more than part-time work. His wife works as a caregiver.

"I can't get a job here. I've tried many times," he said.

Even with a job, shop assistant Ngaivi Williams, 20, and his partner and baby are living with his grandmother in Grey Lynn because they can't find a house to rent. His brother is out of work.

Out at the Kumeu livestock sales Shane Malloy, 45, is touting imported Chinese tools from the back of his van because his business building decks and retaining walls is "dead".

"It's tough out there. A lot of small businesses are going under," he said. "Last week a friend of mine, a digger operator, lost both diggers and his truck and his house because the bank foreclosed. After 20 years, he's back to nothing."

Other homeowners are struggling to pay the rates.

"I can't afford to live," said Jill Enevoldsen, 66, who still works as a telephonist at Middlemore Hospital to pay the rates on her Papatoetoe home.

"We're rating people out of existence in areas that they have lived in all their lives," echoes Helensville farmer Duncan McNab, 51.

Asked to think about the things that matter most to them about the current state of the region, a fifth of our sample nominated economic concerns such as jobs and living costs. A further 5 per cent mentioned rates specifically.

Asked to choose three from a list of 20 possible priorities for the new Super City council, a third (34 per cent) chose "keep rates down" as one of their three.

Unsurprisingly, given all other recent polls of Aucklanders, an even bigger public concern was transport.

"Economically, it [the region] is going alright, socially it's pretty good, environmentally I love it because of the parks," said Te Atatu finance team leader Dave Baird, 42. "Obviously there is the transport issue. That's the main problem."

We are frustrated, angry and ashamed about our transport system. A 27-year-old woman from Browns Bay said: "My husband hates the traffic situation here, he finds every time he drives it's stressful - he doesn't want to go out."

South African immigrant Nola Baylis, 42, said the roads were "a huge issue. It's worse than Durban, and that's in a Third World country."

An Epsom company director, 57, said: "I've been in more than 70 countries and the only one that beats it is Bangkok."

Transport is not such a big issue in poorer areas, mentioned by only five of the 18 people interviewed in Otara and Mangere.

But it was mentioned by everyone in richer areas such as Newmarket and Ellerslie, and by 72 per cent of the whole sample at some point.

Slightly more than a third (35 per cent) chose improving public transport as one of the top three priorities for the new Super City and 25 per cent picked "improve the roading system to reduce congestion".

Moreover, 53 per cent would be happy for rates to increase to help pay for a rail line to the airport, 45 per cent would pay more for an inner-city rail loop and 31 per cent for expanded ferry services.

Our support for public transport is almost entirely because we hope it would reduce the traffic jams. Nobody talked about carbon emissions and only 5 per cent would give priority to more cycle lanes.

The other big issue that concerns us is our fraying society, as evidenced particularly by crime.

Asked about the things that matter most about the state of the region, a sixth named crime and safety concerns. Three of our top six priorities were cracking down on graffiti, gangs and crime (29 per cent), reducing liquor and gambling outlets (24 per cent) and reducing the gap between rich and poor parts of the region (18 per cent).

Crime and its lubricant, alcohol, are the mirror image of transport - much bigger issues in poor areas. Ten out of 18 people in Otara and Mangere talked about crime and eight mentioned alcohol. In Newmarket and Ellerslie only six out of 17 Hard times in paradise

mentioned crime and the only one who referred to alcohol was a doctor working in South Auckland.

"Auckland is a very violent place," said Misi Toumoua, an artist who sells home-made pillows at the Otara market.

Amee, a 20-year-old Botany early childhood teacher, said: "I'm scared to walk at night."

Dylan Deverick, a 17-year-old from Drury interviewed with his mother, said he would not walk alone on the street, even in daytime.

"If you walk by yourself and there's two of them they will jump you," he said. "If you go to Rosehill [College] it's, 'You go to Rosehill, faggot, let's jump him!"'

Retired Manurewa coachbuilder Denis Duffield, 79, laments the change he has seen in his lifetime.

"I'm not keen on where Manurewa is going - all the crime and the low-life that live here. It used to be a beautiful place," he said.

"We've had five burglaries in my street, the first time ever. They reckon unemployment is causing it, but when we get all these gambling casinos, what do you do?"

In Mt Roskill, Safua Fonoti fingers gambling and alcohol as the main triggers of family breakdown.

"If we look at the roots of the whole problem we find the parents are into liquor and gambling," he said.

The harder issue, of course, is what to do about it.

Although transport planning is clearly within the new Super City's ambit, strengthening our weakened economic base and creating a more caring society are mind-stretching challenges for politicians more accustomed to thinking locally.

This survey suggests the public would support using the council's powers under planned new liquor laws to apply the same kind of "sinking lid" policies to liquor outlets as some have already applied to pokie parlours.

In the end, whatever the new council does to promote jobs or social equity will need to be done alongside business and the community.

Our wealth will depend on our smart ideas and productivity, and our social health will depend on people like Fonoti, whose Tiare Aute youth group started as a cultural troupe but is now responding to the need to give skills to youngsters shut out of tertiary institutions.

"Since I'm a welding inspector, I train some of these kids in welding," Fonoti said.

"We need to target the school-leavers, the youth."

What do you want from the new Super City? Email your ideas to weekend@nzherald.co.nz