Auckland Permaculture Workshop (APW) members Gary Marshall, Rilke de Vos and Finn Mackesy ran a workshop at the August Grey Lynn 2030 meeting. APW is a collaborative design, research and education initiative set up to explore and create innovative permaculture solutions for the Auckland bioregion.

The intention of the workshop was to expose Grey Lynn 2030 members to systems thinking, problem solving and community resilience through the lens of regenerative design. APW began by asking the community members at the meeting to name the major issues, concerns and opportunities of the Grey Lynn community today.  The task was for participants to apply design thinking to these issues to begin to explore appropriate solutions.

Each group was asked to choose two main issues from the original brainstorm to focus their design process. One group identified transportation and public space as the two issues they wanted to investigate while another group identified housing (quality) and Health as their two main issues for the community today.  Each group brainstormed what they thought the underlying issues were and their causes (survey) before beginning to explore the opportunities and constraints associated with those issues (analysis). Once each group had a clearer understanding of what the opportunities and challenges were and how these issues related to each other they began to explore possible creative integrated solutions for both issues. Each group drew and recorded their design process on A3 sheets of paper and presented their designs to the wider group at the end of the activity. This was followed by a group discussion on various ideas, challenges and proposed solutions that arose from the design process.

For more information on Auckland Permaculture Workshop visit their website:
http://www.aucklandpermacultureworkshop.co.nz/index.html

For more information on the design activity and proposed solutions to these issues contact greylynn2030@gmail.com

Clause 52 of the Resource Management (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Bill 2009, banning general tree protection in urban areas.

ACTION IS NEEDED NOW – IT IS REALLY IMPORTANT TO START WRITING NOW (if you haven’t already) and please pass this on to others who might be also be interested.

It is expected that the government will put this Bill through the final parliamentary process as soon as possible – possibly starting on Thursday 27th August, with the critical final voting stage possibly on the 8th or 9th September (there is a week’s recess in between).

We urgently need people to write letters NOW to MPs and to their local newspapers to help influence the final decision. There is also talkback radio.

The Labour Party and the Greens already oppose this Clause, so it is best to target National (in particular), Maori and United Party MPs. If you live in an electorate with a National MP, please write directly to them, voicing your concerns, saying you are a
constituent. It is really important to target National electorate MPs, in particular Nikki Kaye (Auckland Central); Paula Bennett  (Waitakere), and Sam Lotu-Iiga (Maungakiekie) as they are most vulnerable, with slim majorities.

PLEASE ASK THEM TO REMOVE CLAUSE 52 OR SUPPORT AMENDMENTS TO IMPROVE THE EXISTING TREE PROTECTION SYSTEM.

Here are some points you could include (a couple more added from earlier Alert):

• government ignored large proportion of submitters who objected to this Clause
• Options are available from the NZ Arboricultural Association that will save time, money and the environment without removing general urban tree protection (see below** for a broad outline as   conveyed to MPs at the Select Committee stage, but were ignored)
• once law, developers will be able to clear fell a site and not have to replace any lost trees through replanting
• many trees will be cut down as soon as it becomes law
• with development pressure so great in the Auckland region, there will be increasing number of sites with little or no tree cover for shade, screening or visual amenity – any trees planted will be of a size that will take    decades to provide such functions
• listing, or scheduling, of trees in the District Plan, as the only permissible means of protecting trees, is costly, time consuming and very limited
• listing, or scheduling, will potentially involve more cost and council staff time than administration of current tree protection rules
• the well recognised and diverse functions and values of trees, clearly identify trees as being of community value, and need to be taken into account as well as that of an individual property right
• NZ risks losing its international clean green image that it has worked hard to promote and could negatively affect tourism.

You can also look at The Tree Council’s pages for more comprehensive ideas.

**(from the NZ Arboricultural Association) Improvements to the  existing system (i.e. not prohibiting general urban tree protection) include:-

• Lifting the permitted baseline (requirement for a resource  consent) and allowing a higher level of activities ­ like pruning ­ to go ahead without the need for a consent (based on additional
• criteria, for   example, utilising Œapproved contractor¹ provisions or similar),

• Allowing a greater level of delegation, so that the appropriate council officers can sign off on the majority of consents, therefore reducing the level of staff involvement,

• Allowing on-site, instant, carbonated or electronic decisions,

• Standardising some of the rules (i.e. the ³super city²
  concept),

• Increased efficiency through a review of the internal council processes and administration procedures.

Here is a more comprehensive list of Auckland MPs than was sent in the earlier Alert:

Auckland MPs:- (you can cut and paste whole list)
Nikki.kaye@parliament.govt.nz; paula.bennett@parliament.govt.nz;
sam.lotu-iiga@parliament.govt.nz;
Jonathan.coleman@parliament.govt.nz;
Murray.McCully@parliament.govt.nz; Rodney.hide@parliament.govt.nz

Mental Speed Bumps – the smarter way to tame traffic

David Engwicht, artist, write, street philosopher, story teller, was in Auckland last week at the invitation of the council’s urban design group inspiring people to re-think their presumptions about traffic calming and their relationship with vehicles.

David was given an enthusiastic reception by the 70 people who turned out on Saturday afternoon at St Columba church community hall to hear his presentation about alternative ways to calm traffic. Grey Lynn 2030 was the only community group lucky enough to host David during his time in Auckland. After hearing David’s ideas many locals (and those who had travelled long distances to the meeting inspired by David’s interview with Gordon Harcourt in the morning on National Radio) made personal commitments to take actions that will result in traffic calming.

Here is an attempt to summarise David’s presentation.

David’s has discovered that “the speed of traffic on residential streets is governed, to a large extent, by the degree to which residents have psychologically retreated from their street”. So the less activity and uncertainty that occurs on the street the more likely that motorists will be speeding and present a danger to residents. This happens, for example, where residents build high walls at the front of their home, don’t use their front gardens – to relax, eat or play – and park their cars off the street thereby creating an environment that “invites” the motorist to go faster.

Communities can reverse this retreat with low cost solutions and without the need to wait for the installation of road signs or speed bumps. David suggests that, in the first instance, neighbourhoods should look to take personal responsibility for traffic calming rather than wait for the council to take action. For example, we can all be positive citizens who can rebuild lost community connections just by getting to know our neighbours and walking to local shops.

Where communities have put David’s ideas into practice they have found that the dynamics of the street change. A motorist is far more likely to drive slowly where they know the neighbourhood children and expect to see them playing and their parents socialising on the street.

He also asks residents to consider their own behaviour when they get in the car and become “motorists”. We are probably all guilty of driving like the stereotypical Aucklander whose time is suddenly more important behind the wheel and is not tolerant of cyclists and pedestrians. He suggests a friendly wave at the speeding or inconsiderate motorist rather than an angry fist.

David calls for an “outbreak of civility” as the first step to transforming Auckland!

After his presentation, David asked what actions we were now going to actually follow through with. The responses included organise a street party, talk to the local children, and plant veges in the berm.

His ideas really resonated for many involved in Grey Lynn 2030 because of a common vision seeking to create vibrant, positive and connected communities. So we definitely don’t want to lose momentum now that David has filled us up with fantastic ideas and possibilities.

This is also a great opportunity to officially launch the GL2030 traffic calming group which will operate as a “support group” to foster and encourage any initiative that contributes to calming the traffic. We would like people involved who are keen to be part of the solution and want to take practical steps. It really can be as simple as talking to a neighbour for the first time.

We will keep a register of actions on the website and post photos of traffic calming measures (like street parties and re-designed front gardens). If you would like to be on the email contact list for the traffic calming group please send an email to greylynn2030@gmail.com.

If you would like to read more about David check out his website http://www.lesstraffic.com/

An event was organised on April 9th by Community Waitakere to Discuss and scrutinise the Government’s decision on the Regional Governance model or Supercity

From this meeting a new group has formed – Community Coalition for Auckland Region.

For mor further information contact

pam@communitywaitakere.org.nz;

ph 09 838 7904

Do you have sheep or cattle which you would like to graze on paddocks alongside Kelmarna Organic City Farm in Herne Bay?
There is currently approx 1.3 ha, which includes six fenced paddocks, of pasture for grazing.
If interested & you have queries please contact:
Lynn Green greenly@xtra.co.nz
Kelmarna Community Garden Trust Inc
P 376 6376

Come and hear Gary Marshall,

Local Landscape Architect and Urban Designer speak about
Inspirational, International City Designs -inspire the future of Grey Lynn

Gary presented this talk at Waitakere City Conference – WICI (Waitakere – Inform, Challenge, Inspire), August 2008.  The brief he was given was to ‘Present an Inspiring Account of the Future City’.

The resulting presentation pulls together a range of examples of ‘sustainable design ideas and interventions’ and includes both New Zealand and international examples.  It is in four parts – Recover, Create, Adapt, Integrate –

Here is an extract from the introduction -

Gary will be presenting a variety of projects, both real and imaged through four ‘lenses’ that are useful to understanding the nature of design in the contemporary city.

They are – Recover, Create, Adapt, and Integrate.

• Recover – Implies the reappearance into our cultural sphere and built environment ideas and practices that have been neglected or approached with indifference in recent times;
• Create – Looks at how human ingenuity and innovation can harness art, science, and technology to overcome some of the issues and challenges we face today;
• Adapt – Is concerned with how we creatively respond to change, and how we can design and retrofit our cities with technologies and innovations, both old and new; and
• Integrate – Investigates how all the pieces of the city fit together and how they interact with one another.

The presentation is very visual – Gary has about 80 slides of some pretty ‘weird and wonderful’ ideas he has come across.

To find out more of this topic, take a look at some of these sites:

Congress for the New Urbanism

http://pruned.blogspot.com/

http://urbanpalimpsest.blogspot.com/

http://peakenergy.blogspot.com/

http://landscapeandurbanism.blogspot.com/

which shows you how city design is important for people to be able to live with less energy.

Monday 9th Feb, 7.30 pm

Venue: Grey Lynn Community Centre – 210 Richmond Rd

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