Umamiblog

After publishing my last post on what I feel Wellington needs I came to realise that maybe I was being overly negative and saying Wellington isn’t doing enough to remain a competitive city. That definitely isn’t so. Following the last post’s formula here are three things, in my personal opinion and based on nothing more than anecdotal evidence, that Wellington has that helps make it a globally competitive and relevant city.

1. Internet infrastructure.
I remember when I used to live in Dunedin, we were terribly jealous of Wellington’s inner-city fibre loop. One of the things we couldn’t believe was that a council would have the foresight and the ability to drive something like this forward. It really is amazing. And people have heard about it all over the world, it’s kinda scary how much so…

Obviously Wellington lends itself really well to this kind of network as it is a compact city with a lot of high users in a small area but it still is an impressive accomplishment and asset while providing an excellent model for other cities to follow.

2. Transport infrastructure
While our transport network and infrastructure isn’t perfect (and a key focus of my last post) it is still very good compared to other cities especially in our corner of the world. Let’s recognise that a lot of good progress has been made, but let’s not stop or rest there.

A good friend of mine who recently moved to the Wellington region remarked firstly how good public transport was but how easy it made his life… that’s fantastic. Again, Wellington really lends itself to this kind of network as a compact city with a few corridors of population that can be efficiently and effectively served by public transport.

3. Compact village-city
One of things many people love about Wellington is it’s compactness. As an example, Wellington has the largest numbers of people who walk to work in New Zealand (11%). As Tom Beard has said: “Wellington is a city pretending to be a village”. It forces people to interact and come together in a really comfortable way. It saddens me to think humans couldn’t build a city like this unless forced by some limitation or factor. Wellington’s geography is the only real reason that this has come about; wedged together between mountains and sea. While urban sprawl does rears it’s head from time to time, it has been starved compared to other cities.

There are about 7 wireless networks I can detect from my apartment. Including:

In my personal opinion and based on nothing more than anecdotal evidence Wellington needs these 3 things to remain globally competitive and relevant in the next 100 years.

1. A longhaul capable airport
In New Zealand there are only 3 airports capable of landing a 747 and one of them is run by the (RNZ)Air Force, the others being Auckland and Christchurch. Christchurch has benefited greatly by having that infrastructure. Millions of passengers each year visiting the South Island disembark through CHC, their businesses have access to shipping direct to many of our largest trading partners. Those same businesses also have the benefit of being able to ship themselves directly or to have people (customers/colleagues/investors) arrive directly from major Asia Pacific transport hubs.

A proposal has been put forward to lengthen Wellington’s runway to accomodate the new Boeing and AirBus planes that are capable of longhaul on short runways. While this is definitely a step in the right direction, Wellington needs direct access to hubs like Tokyo, Dubai, Los Angeles, not just Singapore and the best way of accomodating this is with the 747-level jets, which is where most airlines have invested millions upon millions in their fleets.

One of the things I absolutely love about Wellington is that it’s airport is a stone’s throw from the city. This is a very real competitive advantage (and limitation). The ideal scenario would be to keep the airport where it is and lengthen the runway into the sea to cater for the longhaul jets. This would cost inordinate sums of money. Can we afford not to do it?

2. Light rail to the airport
Wellington is unique in NZ and most of Australasia in that it has a very good (by southern hemisphere standards) rail network. This network needs to be extended to the airport and in doing so it connects the majority of the CBD to the said rail network. This will increase patronage for commuters who are reluctant to either walk another 10-30 mins to work or to transfer to a bus. This will also make the network a Wellington thing, currently it is more of a satellite city thing. This move would also link up major transport assets in the urban area – needed with this is a review of the service provided (make it effective and efficient, read: cheap-ish and more often).

3. Adequate northern access
Cars, trucks, SUVs. Love ‘em or hate ‘em the reality is that we need to allow for their free and efficient movement. The fact that it takes 2 hours during peak time or that we are heavily reliant on a tiny 2 lane stretch of road is a risk that the city and region shouldn’t have to put up with. Transmission Gully has got the go ahead, but the evidence it will adequately solve this problem is scant (much like the inner-City bypass). Regardless, shame it will be 2020 before it is complete.

Hand in hand with this is a commitment not to allow residential development not inside the corridors of Wellington to Johnsonville to Porirua or Hutt Valley. Our compactness is an asset and will become more important in the future especially if we run out of cheap (sub $100/barrel) oil. We don’t need more SUV-loving sub-divisions.

Note: This post inspired by reading “Back on track: CBD light rail” on WellUrban

In the last few months it has struck me as to how much Wellington has been invaded by Dunedinites lately. This month I’ve been here for a year, maybe that’s got something to do with it

Seriously though, Dave my old iVISION business partner has moved up (with a newborn too). I noticed Chris Auld of Kognition fame (who incidently should win an award for the ugliest website) has made the move too. And I seem to have lots of old friends and colleages asking what the work environment is like, what the wages are like, what average rents are, what the nightlife is like, etcetera. Half of the people I went to University with are already here.

To be frank, and having made the move, the weather is better, the wages are better as is the work you are doing, the social/night life is better, and the city is easier to live in (purely subjective!) – its little wonder people are looking at jumping on up.

I can relate to what they’re probably thinking too. Most people from Dunedin are fiercely proud of the city and living there. Making the move actually involves reconciling yourself to the fact that you want to leave a city you love. It can be tough. The thought of Christchurch or Auckland is usually a little much for us Southerners so it often ends up being Wellington. That said there are some similarities between the two cities…

Boring warning: This is probably only of interest to people who work in IT in Wellington. And even if you do, its still no guarantee that its interesting!

Anyway, it popped up on Dave5‘s blog that today is his last day at Provoke. This is interesting for two reasons:

1. Whenever someone moves around its interesting to note.
2. More importantly, what is he going to move onto next? I’m eagerly awaiting that point. Especially after his series of blog posts titled: One of the Biggest Opportunities in History

Trade Me dad giving away $47m

I hope I would have the courage and the compassion to make the same or similar decision if I were in his shoes.

“Really? I’m buying it as a gift for someone who has been through this before and I don’t want to buy it if its not true.”

- Girl trying to buy James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces, responding to sales attendant’s caution. Melbourne International Terminal.

Bwhahahaha. I was happy man that day…

Some more piss take references:
Banterist: A Million Little Explanations
Mashup Mansion Tom Cruise on Oprah As It Should Have Been

So who is the VIP in town that needs to travel in a 7 car entourage with 2 police cars and needs to shut down intersections when travelling?

Sarah saw them last night at about 7:30pm, then I saw them on my way to work (running late at 9am) parked outside the Duxton waiting to pick up the entourage (I assume).

So who is it and why hasn’t there been anything visible in media? Could it be Bill Clinton? He was in Auckland last weekend for some junket thing.

/me goes to kick myself for not taking a photo…

For those of you who aren’t acquainted with Wellington Airport then maybe this video over at Wellingtonista would be a good introduction.

Amazingly, with a short runway and notorious wind I don’t believe there have been any serious accidents at WIA…

I’ve always loved the beautiful design that public transport maps seem to exude. Even Dunedin’s bus map’s look good.
However, I do love Wellington’s new (but around for a while) organisation (Metlink) and website. But my absolute favorite feature is the Google Map -like transport map available here.

I’ll be running this Sunday, how about you?

How very cool, Wellingtonista points out that there is now a Petone Ferry which leaves the Queens Wharf. Cool!

Am still yet to make it on the Eastbourne ferry though