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    • Characterful medium density housing!
      • Who else is having conversations where someone goes “ooh but it’s all leaky soulless apartments, we don’t want that”? Here’s a feast for your eyes and balm for your worried soul Welcome to Talk Wellington’s random collection of neat medium-density examples to cheer you up, to show your friends, to tell the council you want … and to inspire density skeptics (presuming they’re in good faith, not just being awful). (Images’ links are in the image, caption or the text – click for more.) Enjoy! Characterful, “old”… medium density Montréal has a LOT of medium density residential neighbourhoods. They’re super liveable and beloved, and they are home to numbers of people that would sort out many of Wellington’s classic woes. Here’s some pretty historic-y medium density which has actual awesome neighbourhood vitality and character by the bucketload, for everyone. Medium density can be… no more than two storeys, with lots of mixed use and features like shop-top housing! No offence, Mt Vic / Khandallah / Thorndon / Woburn, but your neighbourhoods can’t hold a candle to the Castro for real liveable character, not just visual character. So leafy! Apartments you rent short-term: this is the Garden Wing of Singapore’s Shangri-La Hotel. It was built in the 1970s! Lush az. This is all open air How ’bout indigenous character! The stunning medium-density Utukoia replaces two detached homes on traditional quarter-acre sections with 14 new terrace homes (53 bedrooms total), communal facilities and a range of private, shared and public spaces. Phwoar. Check out the Auckland Māori Design Hub for more delicious stuff There are some smart folks stimulating Māori design and innovation at the Āpōpō accelerator right here in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, run by the Indigenous Design and Innovation Aotearoa / IDIA team. How about some modern character? Check out the beautiful high density of the Urban Habitat Collective, coming soon right in Newtown: Or the beautiful CoHaus (read their amazing story here) Even ol’ Kiwibuild is finally doing lovely stuff in Onehunga: How about the spaces in between the housing? Density done well brings your laneways to life as a part of people’s backyards, as in Queensland… Go large We really need comprehensive, multi-block developments to sort out whole areas of our cities. You can do ’em on something that’s underused space like… a golf course? Or even as a regeneration of… ooh, maybe a large area of detached housing, hello Kāinga Ora. So check out this thread on Vancouver’s Regent Park development. Hello #densitydonewell: a big uplift in density is helping fund all sorts of fantastic public amenities for the residents of the varied and accessible apartments: green space, schools, lovely public realm, community gardens, people-friendly street grid… That fourfold increase in density has helped to pay for generous public realm and community facilities including parks, athletic grounds, and an amazing aquatic centre #torontotweets #densitydonewell #citiesforall pic.twitter.com/cCy2dYq6V5 — Stuart (@HoughtonSd) September 11, 2018 Be still, our beating hearts…. And finally… DensityNOTdonewell While we tend to agree with Bernard Hickey that the battle over densifying suburbs is the battle of our generation, there’s plenty of reasonable property-owning folks who are genuinely, good-faith worried. They’re worried that crappy, ugly things will be built – and are vulnerable to being scaremongered by wild claims about housing values (hat tip Property Investors Federation). And let’s be honest: NZ has strong historical form in doing medium density badly – especially badly in construction, which means bad financially for those who bought in them. The cars seem to have the best of this bargain… And bad design is far from history: there’s still plenty of crap designs out there, thanks to our unfamiliarity with good-quality medium density. Here’s one example of rubbish medium density that appears to deny its residents most of the benefits of density done well like access to green space and social connection. So let’s also be clear: nobody wants crap design or construction, and we absolutely don’t have to accept it “because housing crisis”. So let’s get more and more people on the bandwagon for good medium density, #densitydonewell! What other examples of great (or grotty) medium density do you know? How do they make you feel and why?
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        • Thorndon, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Minutes of the March 2020 Meeting
      • Minutes of the Newtown Residents’ Association meeting 16th March 2020 Present: Rhona Carson (Chair), Steve Cosgrove (Minutes), Leonie Walker, Jane Patterson, Jill Ford, Alison Borbelly, Keith Powell, Tom Law, Don McDonald, Warwick Taylor, Peter Frater, Effie Rankin, Faye Tohbyn, Lyn Morris, Sam Somers, Eileen Brown, Neville Carson, Kevin Lethbridge, Graeme Carroll, Merio Marsters, Marion Leighton. Apologies: Paul Eagle, Dom Shaheen, Steve Dunn, Martin Hanley, Anna Kemble Welch, Jan Gould + Marion Leighton(for lateness)Noted that Paul apologised because MPs have been advised to stay away from community meetings due to Covid-19 risks..  Rhona welcomed everyone to the meeting. Newtown Festival Rhona thanked all the marshalls and other volunteers for helping. The meeting made an enthusiastic  vote of thanks and appreciation to the organisers for another very successful Festival.Sadly there was one violent event later in the evening; this seemed to be the result of a personal conflict between two visitors to Newtown. The Police and Community Patrol were involved. Don asked what the noise policy is, as he worries about how loud the Festival is.  Tom Law outlined the Council policy. Wellington City Council Consultations Parking Policy.  Consultation opened today and will run till April 14th. WCC had a traveling road show on the subject in Newtown Mall this morning. It wasn’t widely advertised and no one at the meeting knew it was going to be there, or attended.Rhona noted that the policy is very high-level at this stage. We recommend that people look at the material on the website.  The questions on the web site are quite general so Newtown-specific concerns would need to be added in narrative form.Some general issues were discussed.We will consider different things we can agree on, such as further communication with WCC to develop a Newtown-specific plan, and sensible Residents’ Parking areas and fees. Planning for Growth The WCC Consultation Team were to have a Newtown Festival stall but cancelled because they were not quite ready to go.  Next consultation meeting is on 26 March at Prefab – Jane and Rhona  interested in going. No one had any further comment: Rhona suggested reading the web page and keeping up-to-date with progress on the development of a proposed spatial plan for the city.District Plan Review – this is beginning at the end of this year or early next. Water Warrick is concerned that water metres are coming back into discussion.  This has resulted in some suggesting we ‘need’ water metres to pay for replacement of aged infrastructure.A number of views were expressed regarding the pros and cons of water metering. COVID-19 Eileen Brown is working for the Council of Trade Unions developing plans and consolidating ideas for “managing the risk and flattening the curve”.The current situation was outlined, along with common narratives being used to describe the situation and management options.  Eileen described then distributed some information.Marion Leighton (Consultant Physician at Wellington Hospital) arrived during this discussion, having been at a hospital meeting on the same topic. She outlined the hospital’s plans for managing an influx of seriously ill patients and also answered questions. Most important thing is to wash hands frequently and thoroughly, cough and sneeze into your elbow or tissues, don’t touch your face, avoid physical contact with others and self-isolate at the first sign of any symptoms. We are in this for the long-term, so make sure you have a reasonable plan. Emergency Management Discussion Neville Carson outlined his background in Civil Defence (previous name for Emergency Management, and introduced “Wellington Conversations” – facilitated conversations on various topics which have been running in Newtown and elsewhere for several months.Neville is organising a meeting to discuss Emergency Management issues on 31 March, 7:30 to 9:30, at Newtown Hall, using a model based on Wellington Conversations. Circus Performers – Steve informed the meeting that on Wednesday evening (18th Mcaarch) in Carrara Park circus performers will be performing with LED Hula hoops. Meeting ended at 8:58
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        • Newtown, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


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