Labour + Greens should steal Hooton’s urban renewal idea before National do

Of course National are going to u-turn their urban intensification plans, of course they are!

Hooton makes the devastating case here…

U-turn season starts with housing intensification – Matthew Hooton

…but it’s his inner city urban renewal concept that Labour and the Greens should seize upon…

National strategists say they realise the two million figure has become a lightning rod for criticism. They say a live option is to allow Auckland Council to include new capacity in the CBD, which is excluded for complicated legal reasons, in its growth projections. That, they argue, would have the net effect of lowering the intensification required in the suburbs and requiring it more in the areas that most people agree makes greatest sense. Others suggest that plans to extend the city’s boundaries with more greenfield developments are also likely to be dropped.

National and Wayne Brown would then be able to position intensification as being mainly about the central city’s rejuvenation when the new City Rail Link opens later this year – the construction of which has done so much to trash the central city’s economy and community over the last decade.

Bishop’s programme could then be positioned as being about developing the CBD into a lively, high-population, low-crime inner city, as found in most developed countries, while protecting the Kiwi way of life in the suburbs. That would also support Brown’s vision of progressively redeveloping the waterfront.

…our Central Business Districts are dying because work from Home is a white collar privilege that has permanently shut down foot traffic for many businesses.

That’s not changing.

The Government should be looking to provide incentives to build rent to own apartments for young families and owner occupiers to bring more stability into the inner city populations and allow young families a legitimate step onto the property ladder.

If they are going to let the propertied boomer class get away with keeping their multimillion dollar villas, then open the inner city up to building occupier owner rent to own apartments throughout the inner city and revitalise it that way while providing entry level pricing for home ownership.

Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.