Making the Most of Auckland [2003]
The Movers and Shakers of New Zealand need a focal point for their international version of our "can do" culture. Wellington has in recent years been the headquarters for Early Adopters in New Zealand.
But Auckland has the advantage over the capital in terms of economic growth and it is beginning to usurp Wellington in its responsiveness to the emerging social environment. It's a bit younger and a bit less smug than Wellington, with more diverse opportunities.
Though they may not think so everywhere you go, New Zealand is lucky to have Auckland. It's big enough to attract people to it and to sustain them when they get there.
Provincial New Zealanders migrate to Auckland because its critical mass provides a level of financial and job security that would elude them in smaller centres.
So of course they spend all the extra money they earn on housing and cars and entertainment. But look. If we didn't have Auckland we would awl huv to tawlk loik theess. Because we'd be in Sydney or Melbourne.
Economically Auckland matters. Not just as a market or a source of jobs - it provides 35% of all jobs in New Zealand.
But Auckland has a concentration of clout - more than half of the top 200 firms are headquartered there, including most of the foreign led firms.
What's more, the city is a magnet for young internal migrants, foreign migrants and short term students.
Until recently Auckland has struggled to know what it is and has seemed not to know how to make the most of its opportunities. It has been alienated from the rest of New Zealand, even as it dominated the distribution of imports to them.
According to commentator Rod Oram, has been static over the past decade while competing cities like Singapore and Sydney have soared. It was big, but not quite big enough. Adelaide has the same problem.
The malaise is as much psychological as physical. Windshift's qualitative research suggests that a lack of cohesion and self-belief has crippled Auckland far more successfully than any lack of talent, money or infrastructure.
The rise of globalisation and the city's consequent transition from big fish in small local pond to tiny fish in an international pond has seemed too much for it. Though bent on fragmenting into even smaller pieces, it has sought only the largest and grandest solutions to its problems.
Clinging to its reputation as one of the best places in the world to live and do business, the locals have failed (until recently) to ask themselves what kind of business they were doing there and how they could add more value to it.
Auckland seems to have found the spark again, though whether it can fan the flames is another matter. The city is now a growing source of transcendent performance - though not necessarily in its cautious head offices or its easy going small businesses.
It has somehow reintegrated itself back into the story of New Zealand - with internal migration, the America's Cup and some successful sports teams - to the extent that people in the rest of the country will now pay more petrol tax so Auckland's vehicles can move a little faster.
Auckland's prime opportunity to contribute to New Zealand's future lies in building on the unique qualities of its younger, more educated population and the greater integration of new and second generation migrants.
A form of cultural fusion is emerging in the city, combining Anglo, Maori, Pacific and Asian qualities, that simply does not exist in as strong a form anywhere else in the world.
Not everyone appreciates it, but it will be useful - especially if the city can identify itself more closely with other similar East meets West cities of the Pacific Rim such as Honolulu (which has similar cultural diversity), Seattle (where it also rains a lot), Portland, San Francisco, Sydney, Brisbane and Vancouver.
It will be in the region's interests to create distinctive images of "culturally fused" high energy, smart, widely experienced young Aucklanders and to give life to these images by expressing its own style and way of doing things.
This is especially pertinent in the field of hospitality, the commercial arts and entertainment - from music and film to fashion and design. All knowledge industries, by the way.
This focus on style may seem quite ephemeral and unimportant, compared to real factories producing child-proof medicine bottles and disposable syringes, but New Zealand needs a city that wants to amount to something more.
Creating higher expectations of Auckland is actually a vital piece of cultural engineering towards that end. It's the urban equivalent of towering mountains and pristine lakes - a brand that will resonate well wherever it is experienced, that draws people towards it, [despite the distance] and that enhances a broad range of commercial opportunities. It worked for Paris and New York!
In his "postcard from Auckland" mentioned previously, Rod Oram notes that Auckland lacks leadership and a passionate champion. If John Banks is as close as it gets, Auckland may have a little problem, since cultural resonance is not something you would routinely accuse him of.
His focus seems to be mostly on traffic and money, which is a very important part of creating a well-oiled machine, but not enough on its own to transcend the current state. Passion for Auckland and the desire to foster a charismatic but credible image of the city will be critical elements for the people who take on the task of helping this city to achieve its potential.
"If we didn't have Auckland we would awl huv to tawlk loik theess. Because we'd be in Sydney or Melbourne."
