Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown at the launch of the State of the City report. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Retailers say it is the City of No Sales, productivity is wasted sitting in traffic and much of the inner city is broken. Does Auckland have better times ahead?
Auckland has been labelled the City of Fails after its annual State of the City report, which highlighted glaring issues with the city's economy, productivity, innovation, education and more.
Its flagging GDP, city sprawl, reliance on cars, a lack of walkability... the condemnation goes on.
But it was not just this one report. Other issues have been regularly highlighted this year - the sudden increase in homelessness; endless road works and construction from the City Rail Link development; gaping holes where CBD developments have just stopped, the cranes in cold storage.
All this while the South Island and rural communities are showing sparks of coming out of recession in a post-Covid era - it is a tale of two different economic recoveries.
The Detail looks at what is wrong with Auckland, what is right and what needs to be done to make it better.
Auckland Business Chamber chief executive Simon Bridges has been pushing the government to come to the aid of the city, where he is seeing the results of weak economic growth, a lack of investment and flagging retail trade.
He says he has tried to put politics aside but, yes, it is possible his former job as leader of the National Party has helped his advocacy.
"I think central government is listening," he says.
"I think what we need to see now is just a bit of urgent action. If you think about Auckland, we've had several years of difficulty and you might say well, what's several more months? But the reality is even if things do get a bit better next year, there's a lot of pain out there.
"I've put forward some ideas of things that could be done, but I don't have a monopoly on the answers. Ultimately what we want to see happen is stuff that is going to improve the sentiment and get some spending happening, because if Auckland was a business it would be a business with a cashflow issue."
So far the government has not raced in to help with any short-term stimulus.
Prime Minister Chris Luxon told RNZ he would "keep looking at what we can do", but an "Auckland-specific stimulus thing is quite difficult to do ... I don't know how you'd go about doing that".
Bridges has given him a bunch of ideas, including relaxing visa requirements for Asian tourists to make it easier for them to come here, encouraging international students and letting Mayor Wayne Brown have his bed levy as a way of increasing council income and bidding for more big events to come to the city.
"We're not rich enough that we don't need that money swilling around at a time when, in Auckland at least, hotel rates - occupancy and so on - is very bad. Worse than last year actually."
There are some bright lights on the horizon, including the scheduled opening next year of the long-awaited City Rail Link, and the International Convention Centre.
However, the infrastructure pipeline behind that is looking bleak, especially with government moves to cap rates rises, block councils from using other methods to raise money, and now the introduction of some hasty rules telling councils what they should focus on and how they should behave.
The Local Government (Systems Improvement) Amendment Bill - which councils have just four weeks to submit on - tells them to stick to core services like roads, rubbish and water, and get rid of spending on cultural, community and environmental things - the nice-to-haves. The things the city is measured on internationally.
North Shore resident Hayden Donnell is a senior writer for The Spinoff.
He thinks the city is improving, and can list a raft of places in the CBD where it is lively, pedestrian-friendly and full of great cafes and restaurants.
Donnell talks to The Detail about the good and the bad, including beaches, buses and bad planning rules.
"I think we probably are a little bit negative about Auckland," he says. "Maybe we do undersell the fact that we have this beautiful natural environment, there's a lot of places that are going really well.
"At the same time I think it's true ... there are lots of areas where we could improve, where the rest of the world has caught up with this thing called 'walkable areas' and 'pedestrian malls' ... that kind of vibrant shopping that you can go to Europe and experience doesn't really happen here to the same extent.
"But we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that we're very fortunate."
Something Aucklanders do have is Auckland FC, which has lit the city up with its nearly-all conquering ways this year, breaking A-League crowd records in its debut season.
Auckland Football director Terry McFlynn grew up in a little village in south Derry, Northern Ireland. He has lived in Perth, Sydney and London. Now he lives in Auckland.
"There's a lot of people that take a lot of pride in Auckland as a city and want to see it progress, and want to see a vibrant city, which I believe it is.
"I think the restaurants and bars and that lifestyle that Auckland can give around the viaduct and down by the harbour ... you know it's second to none in the whole world in my opinion."
Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here.
You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.
