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WellUrban / May 2007

Personal reflections on urbanism, urban life and sustainable urban design in Wellington, New Zealand.

June 2007 | April 2007
    • Manhattan roundup
      • My month of Manhattans didn't unearth quite as many highs and lows as my Martini explorations, partly because life's too short to try bad cocktails from every crummy bar in Courtenay Place, and partly because it's harder to get wrong.
      • Tagged as:
      • restaurants-and-bars

    • Competitive memorial
      • The Ministry for Culture and Heritage has done the right thing and called for a competition to design the Buckle St New Zealand Memorial Park that I mentioned last month. It's not a completely public competition like the original Waitangi Park design process, so don't rush out and send in an entry unless you've got a good architectural CV to your name.
      • Tagged as:
      • architecture

    • Taxing times
      • I'm not entirely convinced that a regional petrol tax is the way to go: I think a targeted congestion charge for the CBD and major arterials might be a better way of fighting congestion while funding public transport.
      • Tagged as:
      • congestion-charge

    • Back on track: catching up
      • It's been a while since I've had the occasion to write a "back on track" post, but there's been a recent spate of good news for public transport users. Most of it has been signalled for a long time, and it's generally just catching up with maintenance that's been deferred for decades, but it's worth celebrating nonetheless.
      • Tagged as:
      • trains

    • Promenade
      • The promenade between the Chaffers Dock complex and Chaffers Marina is finally open, after being closed for construction for a very long time. It's still not possible to walk from the eastern end directly to the Overseas Passenger Terminal, as they're still asphalting that part, but you can now at least walk along the waterfront edge of the buildings then along the eastern side to Waitangi Park.
      • Tagged as:
      • waterfront

    • Distant hills
      • Some ambiguity and a touch of hyperbole in my post about targeted infill led some commenters to think that I was suggesting all of Karori and Churton Park were "distant hills" with "two buses a day if you're lucky". That's not quite what I meant to say, but I stand by my assertion that the outskirts of these suburbs (and many others) have poor public transport service, and thus poor public transport use, meaning that infill in those places would just result in more people driving to work.
      • Tagged as:
      • transport

    • Chews three
      • Retail space has been tight in Wellington for quite some time, especially along the Golden Mile. That's led to some retailers worrying about being "forced out of the CBD" by high rents, and while some are certainly having to move away from Lambton Quay and Willis St, that's not entirely a bad thing.
      • Tagged as:
      • retail

    • Ten of the best
      • As a follow-up to their ten worst buildings article, today the Dominion Post finally got around to publishing the Architectural Centre's list of the ten best buildings in Wellington, or at least those built in the last 60 years (the time that the centre has been active).
      • Tagged as:
      • architecture

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