Three ideas for building the future cities we need

3 ideas for building the future cities we need

Reproduced by permission JLL New Zealand - www.jll.nz August 2021 Managing Director Todd Lauchlan Head of Research Gavin Read Auckland 09 366 1666 Wellington 04 499 1666 Christchurch 03 375 6600

As a real estate consultancy, our focus on Future Cities, rather than Future Buildings or Sectors, is an acknowledgement that great cities are so much more than the sum of their parts� Real estate has a hugely influential role to play in the way we develop and experience our cities, but its potential can only be fully realised if it interfaces with the full gamut of physical and social infrastructure that supports their people� At our Auckland and Wellington events we heard from Mayors, business leaders, corporate occupiers, and developers, as well as in what sounds like the opening to a bad joke, an economist, an urban designer, and a KiwiSaver provider� All of our speakers and panellists had a vision for what our two biggest cities could and should look like in the future, and how we might get there� Here we’ve picked out three key themes that resonated…

1.Cities and towns are only great when they’re designed for everyone

Women in Urbanism Aotearoa’s Emma McInnes used this Jane Jacobs quote to underline that our cities still have a long way to go to meet the needs of all their people�

For example, with public transport services primarily designed to service commuter needs, the more complex needs of parents and primary care-givers – which still today tend to be women –are largely unmet. This leaves little choice, at least for those that have access to one, to resort to private vehicle use – thereby defeating one of the core purposes of public transport which is to reduce congestion and its social and environmental impacts�

The argument that cities are designed for men by men is given further credence by a look at the line-up of Auckland’s decision-makers� And while not as binary, the make-up of those helping to inform the decisions and decision-makers could and should be more diverse� At local government level in New Zealand, women make up only around a third of city councillors, a quarter of regional councillors, and a fifth of district mayors, while drilling further into the urban professions, women only represent 14% of engineers and 29% of architects. Similar, if not greater, inequities would doubtless be found when examining the wider inclusivity challenge of Maori and Pasifika.

But McInnes says it doesn’t have to be this way� Stockholm’s even gender balance of councillors is reflected in truly inclusive city building, such as what is happening in the community of Hammarby where well-planned inclusive design and gender sensitivity has created a safe, vibrant community� This gender sensitivity stretches across Stockholm, where public transport is enabled – and free – for caregivers with prams; something that not only gives the caregivers a sense of dignity, but also helps the network to run on time�

2.People need to come together for the future of mobility

As Uber’s Lewis Mills pointed out, our future transport needs will not be met simply by more on-demand, electric vehicles and services� Rather, as our cities’ populations swell, the solution will require a more seamless coordination of public and on-demand transport to reduce the number of vehicles clogging up our roads. Our daily journeys must be shared, multimodal, and integrated�

In Auckland, the CRL promises to be a gamechanger for reinvigorating and reconnecting areas of the city, but it is not the panacea alone� From the scooters and e-bikes of today, to the autonomous helicopters of the future and whatever might be imagined beyond these, servicing our core public transport infrastructure with first and last mile solutions will be integral to realising its full potential –which will need to see service providers like Uber being embraced as a complement rather than competitor� The end game here is to connect people with place with as little social and environmental impact as possible�

3.We need to talk about finding a home at home for KiwiSaver money

Simplicity’s Sam Stubbs anticipates that within the next 10 years, the pool of our retirement savings will have reached $400 billion – and as one of the leading KiwiSaver managers, he’s intensely frustrated by the lack of domestic options available to him to invest New Zealanders’ money back into New Zealand�

Invest our money in Australia? No problem� Stubbs says he currently has the pick of six toll roads he could invest in there right now, while at the same time we continue to plan for tomorrow’s growth with yesterday’s infrastructure and invest only in whatever’s required to hold it together. While councils point to their levels of debt and reliance on rates to fund improvements, Stubbs says the solution is staring them in the face�

“The top ten KiwiSaver managers will invest $10 billion each here in New Zealand over the next ten years, and yet do you think there is any dialogue with central or local government about where that money goes? Zero� And yet the sort of things we need right now: wastewater pipes, public transport … all of these things I’d love to invest in, because they’re just tolling operations … a fantastic investment, and yet of the $72 billion currently in Kiwisaver, 60% is getting invested overseas� ”

With council debt essentially maxed out, no access to water and the electricity grid sold, Stubbs says the only New Zealand infrastructure investment available is buying or developing buildings�