Auckland Mayor Len Brown sits down with Herald journalist Corazon Miller to discuss how the Auckland suburb of New Lynn could be the road-map for the future, and the cities social connection problem.
As the Herald’s World Class Auckland series draws to a close we take a look at the lessons learned and present readers with a blueprint of what it would take to elevate the Super City to the top.
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? This week the Herald continues its 10-day series examining 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. In part 10 we look at the lessons learned.
As the Herald's World Class Auckland series draws to a close we take a look at the lessons learned and present readers with a blueprint of what it would take to elevate the Super City to the top.
Auckland is a golden sporting star, has ample green space, a growing creative scene, a developing public transport network and a school system that is among the best worldwide. But the city is yet to top global quality-of-life rankings.
It often ranks as one of the most expensive cities to live in globally, public transport is bulging at the seams, maths and literacy have declined, there's stark inequality between our richest and poorest schools, and the ever-growing urban sprawl is eating up our green spaces and limiting social connections.
Clearly there is no single solution, but hidden in Auckland's west is a blueprint suburb. While it's by no means perfect, New Lynn offers promise as a road map for future urban development that might just take us to the next level.
New Lynn's revival
When you mention New Lynn, there's a good chance anyone who hasn't been there for a long time will conjure up many thoughts - but none involving the phrase "world class".
Back in the day the mall was tired and far from a destination shopping centre. The cinemas shut down and moved closer to newer malls, pedestrians competed with motorists on cluttered streets, there were limited choices for a great meal or entertainment and the police helicopter visited more often than any resident would like.
But, as those who have been there more recently will know, those days are fading. The former "tired old town" is having a facelift costing about $400 million, complete with a well-oiled transport hub and a central entertainment and shopping precinct amid more affordable medium-density housing, great schools, office spaces, gyms, a library, a community centre and open public spaces.
New Lynn's growth into a vibrant suburb where locals can live, work and play locally has been the result of more than a decade of planning and public and private investment.
The initial vision was to create a sustainable community around a transit interchange, capable of drawing and maintaining a population of 20,000 residents and 14,000 workers.
Now, says Auckland Mayor Len Brown, the vision is becoming a reality.
"What was a tired old town with great roots has become a place ... with great liveable qualities."
The suburb's development has been largely based on ideas developed more than 10 years ago during a trip to Subiaco, Perth.
Following on from the Australian example, a robust development agency was created to drive the western suburb's development and the entrenched rail which opened up New Lynn for development.
Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse said what they saw in Subiaco was the potential such developments had in creating a self-sustaining community, with ample housing, retail and public space. "There was nothing like it in Auckland at the time."
The Merchant Quarter apartments in New Lynn. Photo / Doug Sherring
Laying down the tracks
As any Aucklander knows, transport is our biggest problem. Too many suburbs lack any real alternatives to cars and residents - many forced further out to afford a home - spend far too long on congested roads.
New Lynn is well on the way to changing that for locals. The bus-train interchange not only provides residents with public transport, it has also become a central hub for the community to develop around.
The $160 million railway, completed in 2010, opened the former run-down pottery and brick industry village to an ambitious $200 million town-centre makeover, including a 10-storey apartment block above its new bus-train interchange.
The trench allowed the removal of two rail level crossings, while an elevated road extension now steers traffic away from the town centre. That cleared the way for Totara St West to be turned into a shared driving and walking space.
New Lynn's train station is now Auckland's third busiest after Britomart and Newmarket, hosting 4260 daily passenger movements, while buses carry more than 7000 people.
The interchange is set to become busier from mid-2016, when a major overhaul of the bus network will bring increased services.
Whau Local Board member Derek Battersby expects traffic to ease around New Lynn and neighbouring Avondale from early 2017, once the $2 billion Waterview tunnels and related projects link the Northwestern and Southwestern Motorways.
Following the establishment of the interchange, continual development is transforming New Lynn into a central hub for the city's west, with its new Merchant Quarter, opened in 2012, featuring a public carpark, medical centre and apartment block.
The New Lynn Business Association's Tracy Mulholland says investment in the transport hub has paid off, bringing businesses big and small back into the suburb.
These include Mitre 10, which opened in early 2013, Bunnings, which opened in June, supermarket giant New World and the local icecream manufacturer Kohu Road.
"On what was once a largely industrial area, this has created a funky movement of cafe and small niche businesses, alongside the larger players," Ms Mulholland says.
A new $36 million precinct is also set to open by the mall this year, complete with a dining precinct and new Reading Cinemas multiplex.
Future plans include the Crown Lynn precinct that will include a mixture of homes, businesses and a park which has a stormwater pond, greenery and art trails.
The 1800-home Crown Lynn residential housing development proposed for New Lynn. Illustration / Ignite Architects
Community connections
Former Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey said the new entertainment precinct would add vitality to the area.
He added the suburb was "being looked after with love", with the constant police and Maori warden presence helping to reduce crime.
"Cities that have heart and spirit thrive, they feel connected to the space."
Helping to keep the suburb clean is a locally based organisation, EcoMatters Environment Trust, that has been co-ordinating community clean-up and awareness efforts for more than a decade, in a move that serves the dual purpose of beautifying the suburb while improving social connections and wellbeing.
Its major projects include the Wash Against Waste trailer, which was locally built in 2013 to reduce waste at events, a regular feature at the New Lynn Night Markets and local school fairs. It has also tackled water pollution in the Karekare, Piha, North Piha and Te Henga lagoons.
It has been a big part of local stream restoration projects, including Project Twin Streams - revegetating 56km of streamside throughout the Huruhuru and Henderson Creek catchments - and the Whau Sustaining Our Streams and the La Rosa Gardens Stream Daylighting Project, focusing on Parahiku and Waitahurangi streams.
EcoMatters chief executive Damon Birchfield said the green legacy left by the former council had ensured residents remained keen on sustainability.
Despite the evident community investment, the sluggish job market remains a barrier to achieving a fully sustainable community.
Ms Hulse said that even with the ample office and retail spaces available it remained a battle to get public and private businesses to set up shop in New Lynn.
"The West often lags behind as a place to invest ... but it's full of fantastic space, a diverse community and lots of opportunity."
Housing community
Housing is Auckland's other big issue and New Lynn has a good example of the kinds of alternative options, such as multi-density housing, that we need to accept if we are to be able to accommodate our burgeoning population.
The western suburb is earmarked for thousands of new homes in an urban regeneration project that aims to provide quality housing choices close to public transport links, workplaces, recreational and dining areas - encouraging local living, less travel time, a greater work-life balance and an overall happier community.
Already there has been a proliferation of medium-density terraced housing and townhouses, with 18-storey apartment buildings permitted near the transport centre under the council's proposed Unitary Plan.
The median sale price for New Lynn last month was $568,000, up from $444,000 in July 2014 - a 27.9 per cent jump.
The standard New Lynn home now costs $167,000 less than Auckland's median selling price, though Waitakere house price inflation is outpacing that in many other parts of the city as first-home buyers seek more affordable options.
Artist's impression of new terrace housing in New Lynn. Illustration / Ignite Architects
Education at hand
For young families living in these homes there is ample choice of quality education for their children.
The schools near New Lynn punch above their weight, with all three secondaries achieving excellent results in recent years and primaries now working together to share good teaching practice.
In 2014, Avondale College - the biggest school in the area with 2600 students - had 86 per cent of its school leavers achieve NCEA Level 2, and 68 per cent gain UE.
It also produced one of the country's top achievers, Ethan Sorrell, who topped the world in psychology and biology in the Cambridge exams, and went on win the $100,000 Sir Douglas Myers Scholarship.
Both Kelston Girls and Kelston Boys had more than 80 per cent of school-leavers gain Level 2 NCEA, and have now joined a "community of schools" featuring five primaries and an intermediate.
Kelston Boys principal Brian Evans hopes the school's great results will mean the community takes a closer look at its local schools.
However, more than 3000 students from West Auckland still travel into the city for school, contributing to traffic congestion on main arterial routes into town. Sending them to schools in the area instead would reduce traffic and further strengthen the local community. It's a big goal for all suburbs.
A model for the future
Sudhvir Singh of Generation Zero said the revitalised suburb offered potential as a case study for Auckland's future development.
"New Lynn offers a model for the new Council Development Agency to follow to rejuvenate town centres across Auckland by combining smart transport and community investment with new housing."
AUT University's Human Potential Centre research leader, Professor Grant Schofield, said that while New Lynn wasn't perfect, it showed how high-density living options could offer a good quality of life.
"You can accidentally bump into people, you will be more active, which is better for your overall health, and you don't have to drop your children off, they can walk."
Mr Brown agreed the suburb held potential as a prototype for future developments.
"People want to be close to the action both in their younger years and their older years. They want to be closer to the library, to their churches, the retail, their parks and reserves, all close to railway and train connections."
Something, he said, that New Lynn did well.
What's happening in New Lynn:
Word on the street
The Herald spoke to people around New Lynn yesterday about what they liked and didn't like about the suburb.
L-R: Kahsay Gebre, Russell Rigby, Bryce Mason, Kris Burrows.
Kahsay Gebre said most of his Ethiopian and Eritrean community in West Auckland send their kids to Avondale College as it has a good reputation. He went there and now his younger brother Simi, 14, is too.
Russell Rigby uses the train and bus connections at the public transport hub regularly and hopes a similar "facelift" will happen elsewhere in Auckland soon. New Lynn is a "very good centre for the west", he says, and more parks, seating areas, and other free recreation options would make it even better. "I think we live in a city where we need to keep on building brighter centres for the population - places that are sociable."
Bryce Mason welcomes the proposed housing developments in New Lynn and says the area has the "capacity to go up". He said it is already a good centre with the train station, shopping centre and supermarkets, but could do with more community spaces like parks and a swimming complex. Mr Mason said a more "vibrant sort of nightlife" could also be achieved with the introduction of boutique bars and restaurants.
Kris Burrows said there is a sense of community in New Lynn with a good local library and weekly events like the ethnic food fair on Thursday evenings. She enjoys the diversity of the people living in New Lynn and is a regular user of the new electric trains at the transport hub. Ms Burrows said the area could improve with more green spaces, pedrestrain roads, a swimming pool and housing. "To me, houses are more useful for people than big shops."
L-R: Toko Tali, Franky Feng, Narelle Byrne, John Paiti.
Toko Tali went to Kelston Girls College and said there were a lot of good local schools around New Lynn. She lives in Henderson and works in Ponsonby, but stops most days in New Lynn because of the transport hub, shops and library. Ms Tali, 20, said she could see herself living there in the near future with the introduction of new housing.
Franky Feng has owned a bakery in New Lynn for eight years and said while the future of the area was quite good, it still had a long way to go. He said there had been "huge" changes during his time there, with lots of new buildings and roads going in. The area was now looking very fresh, Mr Feng said, and this had the potential to draw in a lot of people. However, he believed more development was needed to keep people in New Lynn for longer. "I think it's a good area, but it's not enough." Mr Feng said his business had diminished over the years and he had little hope that it would improve. But there was a good sense of community in New Lynn, with the library and community centre, he said, and he hoped the new cinema and entertainment precinct would encourage more foot traffic.
Narelle Byrne lives in Piha but comes in to New Lynn to visit her doctor. She said the area had a good public transport system and with the electric trains and new train station it was a lot nicer and safer. Ms Byrne had noticed a big difference since the investment into New Lynn and said, as an area, it had good potential. She occasionally makes the most of the hospitality options on offer and has lunch with friends who work nearby. However, she felt New Lynn could do with a bigger security presence. "They probably need to have just a little bit more security around the area, because sometimes it can be pretty rough, especially late at night."
John Paiti lives in Mt Roskill but sends his son Jacob, 15, to Avondale College. Jacob is Mr Paiti's youngest of four children - two boys and two girls - all of whom went to Avondale. "For me, it's a good school...and also it's easy and handy for us to drop them off and pick them up after work." His kids enjoyed their time there, he said, and he preferred sending them to a good local school. Jacob also attended Avondale Intermediate next door.
