World-Class Auckland: How to improve New Zealand's largest city

Auckland consistently ranks highly in lists of the world's best cities but is never number one. So what would it take to turn Auckland into a first-class city?

The Herald's World-Class Auckland series examines some of the biggest hurdles Auckland faces, from housing and transport to entertainment and education. We look at what we are doing, what we need to do, and why Auckland's success matters to the rest of the country.

PART 1: HOUSING
• How to make houses cheaper
• 14 years on, family still saving to get deposit
• Editorial: World-class Auckland: much at stake
• Gareth Kiernan: We're too poor to afford the quarter-acre dream
• Angela Maynard: Why tenants need a better deal
• Sudhvir Singh: Why red tape is suffocating our city

PART 2: THE ENVIRONMENT
• Urban sprawl our biggest challenge
• The greenest city: What we can learn from Vancouver
• Q&A: Dr Marie Brown on Auckland's environmental issues
• Going green - one Aucklander's story
• City streams brought back to life
• 10 ways Auckland can clean up its act

PART 3 - EDUCATION
• World-Class Auckland: Education - where are we going wrong?
• The school that started with a murder
• Ordinary school shows how aiming high can be extraordinarily successful
• Cathy Wylie: Making more of our education strengths
• Peter O'Connor: The case for local schools
• Catherine Delahunty: Community hubs making education available
• Auckland's universities on the ball
• Targeted courses key to saving dropouts

PART 4 - RECREATION
• World-Class Auckland: What price a night on the town?

PART 5 - EVENTS
• Give us a sporting chance
• The future convention centre

PART 6 - TRANSPORT
• Traffic hell - Is there a way out?
• Transport options across the city
• Putting a price on fares
• Vancouver's road lesson for Auckland
• Why Auckland should banish the motorways
• Asian influence may fix Auckland's traffic woes
• Highway upgrade 'has to happen sooner'
• How can we fix Auckland's transport woes?

PART 7 - SOCIAL CONNECTEDNESS
• Has Auckland lost its sense of community?
• $30m civic hub a new heart for Otahuhu
• Hobsonville Point: Suburb of the future
• Giant noodles? It's a taste of city's street art
• How well do you know your neighbours?
• Margaret Devlin & Judy Blakey: Make Auckland an age-friendly city
• Growing a sense of local community in Auckland
• Lee Beattie: Retrofitting suburbia for the 21st century

PART 8- OPINIONS
• Well-known Aucklanders: How we can make Auckland No 1

PART 9 - COMMUNITY ACTION
• Dramatic learning aid leads the way nationwide
• Housing plan hits brick wall
• Low cost homes give birth to community
• Ad men in bid to change the world 'one Friday at a time'
• More protection needed for urban trees
• Looking to the younger generation

PART 10 - LESSONS LEARNED
• The way forward
• Model for success lies out west - look at New Lynn
• Almost 2000 new homes to be built in New Lynn
• Your views

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