For too long, Auckland has been a collection of suburbs connected by congestion.
We’ve treated our inner-city gems like Ponsonby as museums rather than the beating heart of a growing metropolis. That needs to change.
I live in an apartment in Ponsonby. It’s a mix of people - expensive units, cheaper ones, young families, professionals and old buggers like me. You see the same faces in the lift and people keep an eye out for each other. That’s what makes a real city work.
It’s also why the debate about housing intensification matters. At a recent council meeting we agreed on the principles that will guide Plan Change 120 and how Auckland meets the Government’s housing targets.
There’s been plenty of noise about this, some of it fuelled by misinformation and political point-scoring, but the basics are straightforward. We need intensification in the right places – along major transport routes, where we’ve already invested in infrastructure, and away from floodplains.
Also, Auckland should be shaping Auckland’s growth, not a cabinet in Wellington. Ponsonby is exactly the kind of place where this makes sense. It’s close to the city, well serviced, and about to benefit even more from the City Rail Link. Yes, that project cost too much and took too long, but we need to make the most of it. The new Karanga-a-hāpe station will make this part of Auckland far more accessible.
This suburb has always evolved. From early villas and cottages, to Māori and Pacific families bringing new life into the area, through to the cafes, restaurants and apartments that define Ponsonby today. That mix of people, housing and activity is its strength.
Cities around the world work best when people live close to where they work, study and socialise. Without new housing, many of our inner-city suburbs risk slowly turning into giant retirement villages. Young families will simply look elsewhere – further out in Auckland, or worse still, across the Tasman.
We already see too many young Aucklanders heading overseas. We like to call it an OE, but the reality is that many of them aren’t coming back.
A city that sprawls forever isn’t really a city at all. It’s just one big soulless suburb with longer and longer commutes.
Done properly, growth doesn’t destroy character, it strengthens it. More people means more customers for local businesses, more life on the streets, and safer, more vibrant communities.
Projects like Te Rimutahi on Ponsonby Road show we can do this in a way that respects the past while building for the future.
But a growing suburb also has to function properly. That means safer streets, tackling retail crime, and getting the basics right on transport and parking so people can actually live, work and shop here.
Auckland is growing up and Ponsonby is currently proving that we can respect our past while building upward.
We can have both. By finishing what we’ve started—from the Leys Institute restoration to the new developments at Three Lamps—we aren't just fixing a suburb. We are building a city that finally looks and functions like a city.