I Hate Auckland

Don’t get me wrong, I love my friends and family and the memories of Auckland, but our infrastructure is slowly sucking my will to live.

Now I know, you’ve heard this sentiment one thousand times over this year. It’s an election year; everything that is wrong gets dredged up, and we’re all reminded of how much everything is an issue. But it’s so goddamn frustrating how there has been a lack of any meaningful change in how the city is planned. The way that regional and central government wants to deal with Auckland’s housing and transport issues is laughable. Lack of housing? Build settlements in Kumeu and Pokeno! Because that won’t further burden the snail race of the southern motorway. Need better train systems? Build a loop around the CBD, that will shut them up!

There are so many things that I think Auckland needs to prevent it from seriously imploding within the next decade. We need to accept that we must build up and increase our housing density (sorry central Aucklanders), to justify more rails lines to alleviate the abysmal rush hour traffic. We can’t continue this idyllic conceptualisation of Auckland where large detached houses and big back gardens are the norm. I’m not sure about anyone else, but I don’t want to get myself in debt for over a million dollars to live a half an hour drive out of the city on a good day just to have a back garden. I want a terrace house with a courtyard or a large apartment with a balcony conveniently located near a transport hub. Wouldn’t that be dreamy? Then why the heck can’t we encourage building higher density housing?


When I interviewed dentists last year for my masters one remarked to me ‘the government’s been holding back the development of Auckland since the 80’s. We’ve all seen this coming’. We need to look past the 3-year election cycle and seriously put in place a long-term plan for Auckland’s development. Because living in Hamilton is not a solution. More motorways are not a solution. 

Something’s got to give, and that’s how we organise our housing.



PS please don't forget to enrol and vote this September 23rd!

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