The Auckland Plan

This video from Auckland Council explains in very basic terms what the Auckland Plan is all about. The Auckland Plan, now adopted, is the first time that all of Auckland has ever had a unified vision and a plan for how to get there. I posted earlier videos about this in October of last year.

Auckland’s rightwing politicians are dismissive of all the aspirations in the plan. The say, for example, that we cannot possibly afford the City Rail Link in particular. Their predecessors said the same thing about rapid transport decades ago, and got their way—and we’re still suffering from that colossally stupid and myopic view. We mustn’t make that mistake again. The debate shouldn’t be about whether we build the rail loop, but how we pay for it.

The rightwing is especially dismissive of the goal of making Auckland the world’s most liveable city. I say, why not? It’s a tall order and an unimaginably big challenge. So? Why shouldn’t Auckland reach for that goal? If we don’t try, it’s guaranteed we won’t reach it—but what if we do succeed? Even if we only partly succeed, things will be better for us all, so why not try?

The bottom line is that, despite what our conservative friends think, not everything comes down to money. However, even on those issues for which money matters a lot, there are ways to make aspirations reality. The key is, we have to try.

The Auckland Plan is now adopted. Now we need to move on and make it happen.