CITY LIMITS

During the next two decades, 700,000 more people will live in Auckland. Already, for every Aucklander who leaves, another five take their place. Although Covid-19 may slow this influx of people to the country’s biggest city, there’s no indication the flood will halt.

Auckland was already intensifying pre-Covid – there are nearly 100 cranes in the CBD alone – but the trend was not confined to Tāmaki Makaurau. The regions were booming, too. It’s said more than 80% of the New Zealand population now live in cities and towns.

For many, what Covid has done is kick-start a conversation they were already having about how cities work and what we want from them in the future. Some, though, want more than a conversation.

Some say Covid is the chance to push the reset button on how we live and work, and they are worried that as a largely Covid-free population gets back to business as usual, we will miss that opportunity.

In Auckland, where the future may hold fewer cars, more bikes, much higher population density, more diverse communities and better transport systems connecting the sprawling metropolis, the post-Covid trend will probably be new patterns of people movement.

Instead of workers heading into the CBD in droves each morning, many will move outwards and across the city to new zones of activity, or they will just stay home. In other words, the suburbs are tipped to come into their own as businesses look to relocate from the centre and more people embrace