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You know that beautiful girl in the teen flick who doesnât know sheâs beautiful and so wears thick milk-bottle glasses for most of the movie?
That girl is Auckland.
Blessed with natural beauty. Side-lined by her own lousy style choices.
âIf you ask anyone whatâs beautiful about Auckland theyâll say volcanic cones, the harbours, the West Coast beaches,â Patrick Reynolds says. âAll the stuff that nature did.â
Reynolds is a bunch of things that would qualify him to make such a statement: Heâs a native Aucklander and a well-known photographer of architecture. Heâs the son of two late and âcivically mindedâ architects John and Marilyn Reynolds. And heâs a core member of Greater Auckland, a group of advocates for thoughtful urban planning, particularly around transport.
Although Reynolds describes advocates as âlobbyists who donât know how to invoiceâ, the group is anything but ineffectual. Its site gets about 5000 page views a day and a couple of its transport plans have been directly taken up by the government.
And things are changing - the number of people who jump on a bus, ferry or train in Auckland has almost trebled since the mid-90s when the figure was 33 million rides per year.
Public transport might seem like a dour passion for Reynolds, an artist, to embrace. But he has a poetic vision of its possibilities.
âTransport is merely a tool to create a better city and greater social equity. Itâs an enabler,â he says.
It was while living in London in his 20s without a car that Reynolds first saw the possibilities of a mature transport system. But he returned to an Auckland that had appeared to have given up, with almost 100 per cent of the transport budget spent on roading and cynical politicians literally sniggering at suggested plans for alternatives to cars.
âThe orthodox view was that it was too late,â he remembers. âThe other lazy line was that New Zealanders are different, they love their cars.
âBut you shape a culture by what you offer. No one can catch a train that isnât there.â
When it comes to the uglification of our city, Reynolds points to the post-WWII period where construction was planned by civic engineers with cars as their focus. âItâs not that they were bad people, they were just tasked with moving bits of tin.â
Two examples of this are the unromantic Hobson and Nelson streets which blast through the cityâs centre. âThey took city streets and tried to give them the quality of a motorway. It has lowered land values and led directly to the kind of buildings there, no money spent, absolute basement stuff.â
He contrasts that with the attractive, people-friendly east-side streets such as Kitchener and O'Connell. "There was a plan in the 1960s to smash a highway through there too, but luckily we escaped that one."
Bad memories, but good times ahead, Reynolds says.
âI believe weâre hitting a real sweet spot. Weâre getting into really big stuff done, with the CRL (city rail link) being built. Proper money is being spent.
âA city is never finished,â he says. âBut If you put one foot in front of another you can change a place.â
NEWS - RUNNING - DATING
A West Auckland woman was "shocked" by a job refusal email in which the company openly [told her it had opted to hire a man](. Jessica Barnes applied for a job at Ecostore, but it "ended up hiring a male who [was] suited to the role really well", the email said. Ecostore has since apologised, saying it did not give Barnes a "valid reason" for turning her down and would be speaking to staff about the importance of diversity.
I've had my fair share of [horrific dating experiences](. A silver lining to this, however, is that I've become somewhat of an expert at identifying What The F Is Actually Going On in other people's love life dramas. While I know you've probably heard of ghosting, I've compiled [a helpful glossary]( for the fresh hell that is dating in 2018, so you too can figure out what special kind of emotional torture you're being subjected to.
Sunday is your last chance (for this year anyway) to [run over the Harbour Bridge](. The Auckland Marathon is on, and while the 12km Traverse is sold out, there are still entries for the marathon and half marathon (there are also spots for the 5km and Kids' Marathon, which are solely on the city side of the bridge). For Auckland road runners thereâs nothing as stunning as crossing the harbour - do it! [Enter here](.
Enjoying this email? [Check out Stuff's other daily and weekly newsletters](.
NEIGHBOURLY - FOOD - WHAT'S ON
"It's an accident waiting to happen" is the line being screamed across Neighbourly as members watch people fly past on Lime e-scooters. In one post, a member talked of a lady using the scooter on the pedestrian side of the footpath. When he suggested she should be on the other side of the path, her reply was: "This isn't a bike!" Others are panicking over the risk of children being hit. [What are your thoughts]( Are we overreacting or justified in this outcry?
Where to eat, what to drink and what's new? Tell us what you need - we're the agony aunt of Auckland's restaurant scene. Email your food and drink questions to your09@stuff.co.nz. A reader writes: We like to go for Sunday drives out of central Auckland and would like some recommendations of places to stop for sustenance. [Check out our answer here]( - we've got just the thing for a day by the sea, river or ranges.
Get the whole family together for Butterfly Creek's Halloween Dino Fright Night. Explore Dinosaur Kingdom in the dark, ride the spooky train, and snap up a spot prize for the best Halloween costume. The event runs from 6.30pm-9.30pm Saturday at Butterfly Creek, Tom Pearce Drive, MÄngere and is suitable for all ages. It's free for kids under 3, $13 for kids aged 3-15 and $19 for adults. [Get your tickets here](.
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