And take a veeeeeery close look at multibillion-dollar infrastructure decisions being hurried through, before cheerfully pledging bipartisan “continuity” on what may be regrettable economic millstones for decades to come... www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2026/05/21/w...

Shinkansen goes zoooooooommm 🚄🚄🚄

Happy Friday, everyone! Here's our weekly roundup: a bumper selection of stories about cities and what makes them tick. Including: Budget 2026 transport outcomes • kids (and adults) on bikes • ferry good news • play streets • Greater Auckland in the news. www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2026/05/29/w...

Budget 2026 hierarchy: roads first, rail a distant second, general public transport, walking and cycling nowhere. $150m goes to fuel supply, but basically nothing to reducing oil dependence. My latest: theconversation.com/as-global-fu...

Up zone your city, and build more housing!

Obfuscated in the Budget today, is the Crown Loan for the Warkworth to Te Hana expressway, I don't know how much it is exactly, but it might be apart of the $1.46 billion allocated in 2026/27.

Why would New Zealand pour billions into tunnels for (more) Auckland traffic, when for far less—and sooner!—we could have a smart, iconic structure *and* full freedom of movement? Check out @nicolas-reid.bsky.social's "yes, and!" harbour crossing proposal: www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2026/05/27/b...

My comments in The Post today on behalf of @greaterauckland.bsky.social , talking about what we want to see (and don't want to see) in tomorrows budget! In short, don't sink billions into bad roading projects, but instead good normal sized roading projects, walking, cycling, and public transport!

Six hours for the rates rises to pass 15 for 7 against, 1 abstain lmfao...

The answer to this appeared to be because he didn't want to. Normally we ask for advice in advance so we can set a budget in late May. Rather than asking for the advice DURING the budget vote in late may. Yes there are already some cuts not identified in the budget but this is A LOT more.

Lotu Fuli asking - how much average household save by this amendment rather than the 7.9% (pretty sure) Staff - $80 a year or something (so $1.50 a week?) Fuli - what would this impact on local boards? Staff - would need to look into it

A small number of councillors rely on other councillors to be the grown-ups in the room; to do the work beforehand and on the day to vote through a viable budget. It puts staff in an awful position having to give advice on complex stuff on the fly. I believe this is not unique to AKL.

Why this matters is that it shows that those putting forward an "alternative budget" for Auckland Council today have not done the work to make sure it actually adds up, and has political support. It's what you do if you just want to signal to your base, not actually run a city.

Our man on the spot @connorsharp.bsky.social is also in the room and watching today's budget debate closely. bsky.app/profile/conn...

A thread to watch today, as Auckland Council votes on the city’s budget for the coming year. With a last minute amendment in the mix (which would effectively cut services and push higher costs onto future generations), it will get interesting. Useful context here: www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3610...

Shout out to @connorsharp.bsky.social who is also in the room and skeeting, also watching along from the media tables are @haydendonnell.bsky.social, Simon Wilson, Jonathan Killick and a few others I don't know names of. OneNews also seems to be filming on and off.

Don't know if I'll fully live blog Auckland Councils Budget and Performance Committee talking about rates rises and other stuff, but might put out the highlights. For context, the Mayoral proposal is of 7.9%, signaled three years ago, and has significant savings already.

If you are going to drop a major change to the council’s budget the afternoon before the vote, having not raised this through hours of budget workshops w all your colleagues, against staff advice, and ignoring the existing savings work of a committee you are on, you are not serious people.

People often ask us: who actually made Auckland’s game-changing City Rail Link project happen? Today, @connorsharp.bsky.social rates the CRL’s Top Ten Political Champions. Number 10 may surprise you… but the others will really knock your socks off! www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2026/05/25/t...

Top work www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2026/05/25/t...

Holy shit. This is quite serious. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

This is so fucked www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Another Saturday in our dead city centre surrounded by allegedly thousands of ghost people 🤷🏻‍♀️

It's been a BIG week here at GA HQ! Here's our regular Friday roundup of top stories about cities & transport – some of which we were directly responsible for 😎 (And a regular reminder that if you love our work, we can only achieve it with your support 🙏) www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2026/05/22/w...

Sooo lets see how the Minister of Transport, answers questions on Warkworth to Te Hana. @julieannegenter.greens.org.nz asking Chris Bishop some oral questions. First up, on the cost, reported to be around $3.5b-4b. Bishop refers to a 2023 rough estimate range....

The plan with this is to sign a contract before the election. We need a legal requirement that itemised estimates and BCR's be proactively released well ahead of contracts being signed off for projects costing 100's of millions let alone billions of dollars.

Herald is drilling it out of the park today - front page story tells the remarkable tale of how the "benefit cost ratio" for the Northland highway is apparently so bad that the Ombudsman won't release it because if it was public knowledge the project would be more likely to be cancelled.

Today’s scoop (viz: did officials maybe finally say the quiet bit out loud, re the staggering unjustified cost of mega-motorways?) has really hit a nerve! If you value our work daylighting info in the public interest, we’d *love* your help to do even more: www.greaterauckland.org.nz/support-our-...

I don't think it's going too far to say that NZTA has managed to hoodwink the Ombudsman. This dwarfs any other current story about government spending and it should be making much bigger headlines than it currently is.

Connor notes that this road, constructed as a PPP, would cost the public about $12 billion from now into the 2050s. It's equivalent to committing most of our discretionary transport funding for that time to one road. But NZTA says that we can't be allowed to know what benefits that cost would bring

The latest from @connorsharp.bsky.social on the RoNS boondoggle is extraordinary. NZTA has successfully fought to avoid releasing the BCR for Warkworth to Te Hana – on the argument that PPP bidders might pull out if they knew how bad the project was. www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2026/05/21/w...

“Transport advocate @connorsharp.bsky.social, who requested the information [under the OIA], opined there was only one way to read that. ‘The implication is that the BCR is so bad that if it were released, it would be untenable for the Govt to go forward,’ he said.” www.1news.co.nz/2026/05/20/p...

“If the project was good, they’d be saying ‘here’s what the Benefit-Cost [Ratio] is’ - they’d be waving it around and saying ‘look how awesome this road is’.” A BCR is just a yardstick for viability. So why hide it from the public, asks @connorsharp.bsky.social? www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/...

Billions of dollars. The costliest stretch of mega-motorway ever proposed in New Zealand. And so wildly over-scoped that simply *letting the public see the benefit-cost ratio* might be the end of it? Another major story broken by @connorsharp.bsky.social: www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2026/05/21/w...

Public realm is the space between buildings, where life happens. Want more life? Make it easier to get to and nicer when you're there. Te Komititanga, in central Auckland, is an archetype of the genre. ▪︎ beautiful ▪︎ complements existing buildings ▪︎ welcoming to everyone #UrbanDesign #Auckland

Email 1 to Steve Abel. Green.

But see it's not realistic if you just don't want to. We saw today pretty much the full range: - I don't dispute it's real I just don't care (Williamson) - I maybe do dispute it's real but it's not convenient & clashes w my ideology (Newman) - I don't think it's real (Turner)

Here's a little good news. The Environment Court has overruled the bizarre decision by a hearings panel that frequently flying a helicopter into your back yard is a normal permitted activity under the Auckland Unitary Plan. www.nzherald.co.nz/business/opp...

thankfully the economy is back on track because otherwise I'd be pretty worried about these guys just going straight to Australia or into long-term unemployment

When farmers have a better idea of whats needed for Northland than the New Zealand Transport Agency: “Instead of doing the roading, they should do something about the rail ... or just put an extra couple of lanes on what’s there now. www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-adv...

You’d think a 20% rise in cycling trips from April 2025 would be headline news. 309,197 cycle trips in April, 1.30 million YTD, and 3.48 million over the past 12 months. Amid surging fuel prices, Aucklanders are finding cheaper, healthier ways to get around. More data at: cycleway.tfwelch.com

I presented to the council about bike lanes yesterday, and yes I did try to make it funny so councillors would remember it after 9 hours of submissions www.youtube.com/live/d-kSnIb...

Maybe we shouldnt go forward with building what would be the most expensive road ever built in New Zealand - Warkworth to Te Hana A road that that NZTA can't even justify through their own business case work! Turn it into something practical instead www.1news.co.nz/2026/05/14/f...

It's amazing the extent NIMBYs will go to prevent new housing being built. Like you want to set on fire $100k in a court battle to try and get rid of an acclaimed economist from an independent panel, because he believes in supply and demand? Go find a better hobby omfg

Every single decision now seems subject to "what will play with a specific group of voters we need to win over in a few months' time, regardless of whether it is wise, sensible or in conflict with our previous positions".

We don't view motor violence like all the other violence, Exhibit 746 www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Remember when Simeon Brown and Cabinet signed off a rule, where if speed limits were lowered because of schools, they had to be increased back to unsafe levels? And this resulted in over a 1000 roads in Auckland having speeds increased, including outside a school for the blind?

How many focus groups did it take for David Seymour to come up with the quip about focus groups that he repeated like 5 times lol?

As David Seymour accuses the Greens of designing all their policy by focus groups, Chlöe Swarbrick yells across the House: “We can’t afford focus groups like you can!”

Big ups to #bikelifecollectivenz organiser Kimami Ngaluafe 👏 Describes safety briefing to riders, addresses lack of helmets (no $$) plus responds to Lisa's query if it's possible to keep the riders in bikelanes - "not all road have bikelanes"... #saferinfra #nzpol 🚲🥷😄 www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...