Joel Cayford: elected Councillor in Auckland since 1998, after an international career in systems analysis and campaign media production. For the past decade active in Auckland Sustainability - water, transport, economic development, waterfront - first as North Shore City Councillor, and now Auckland Regional Councillor. Has chaired various committees shaping Auckland's infrastructure future. Pictured here addressing a Climate Change protest in Queen Street, Auckland.
"Excellence in leadership is the result of caring more than others think wise, risking more than others think safe, dreaming more than others think practical, and expecting more than others think possible."
Joel Cayford's interest in this project is intense. His Places4People website contains his 2007 responses to the excessively commercial development proposals for Western Reclamation and TankFarm. Here is the 19-6-2008 submission he made to Auckland City's Plan Change 4 hearing on behalf of the Classic Yacht Association of NZ, plus his presentation images, and here is his 31-7-2008 submission to the ARC's Plan Change 3 hearing for Wynyard Wharf & Wynyard Quarter, as expert evidence for the C.Y.A., plus the presentation images that went with it.
Check Joel's Media Release about the ARC's mega-regional-council proposals. "...ARC's submission to the Royal Commission is naive and theoretical, and if implemented would throw the baby out with the bathwater..." Q: What are your priorities now on the ARC? (Date: 30th July 2008)
A: "Auckland issues which I think need special attention:
The biggest by far is shifting Auckland's development from its current Houston USA sprawling development, to a compact European and more walkable form. But right now the ARC has gone into hiding because it doesn't want to upset the Royal Commission. It's not taking a leadership approach to this issue;
The first version of "One Plan" is an example of this - it's waffly, it's undeliverable (projects costed are unfunded), it makes no mention of the critical importance of staging rezonings of town centres & commercial centres to open up compact development, and it emphasises completion of SH20 including the Waterview connection - within a short time frame - directly contradicting priorities adopted in the 2005 Regional Land Transport Strategy;
The Tank Farm development of Auckland's waterfront is disastrous. This is public land. It is regionally owned waterfront land. Yet ARC is permitting it to be mostly privatised. It is being developed as a cash cow for other projects. The public have been manipulated to believe their hopes for a people's waterfront, an active working waterfront of character and authenticity, will be delivered. How wrong they are...;
Governance: while the cat's away the mice do play - this is exactly what's happening now in Auckland: the cat's the ARC; the mice include Ports of Auckland Ltd and Sea & City Ltd (doing the Wynyard Point development); these entities - supposedly controlled by ARC - are doing their own thing. ARC leadership is lacking. Public responsibilities abrogated;
Wynyard Point plan changes. Even before the commissioners have announced decisions - which might be appealed to the Env Court - Sea & City is forging ahead with detailed development plans for Jellicoe Street and North Wharf which ARC councillors have not even seen;
Climate Change adaptation is negligible in Auckland - the ARC needs to show the way forward. Serious storms will become more common, and storm surges, and weather damage. Auckland needs to plan for the consequences of this. Already coastal erosion is intesifying.;
Queens Wharf. Quietly - under the public radar - Ports or Auckland is encouraging a commercial project emphasising Cruise Ships - and again minimising public, elegant, fun, waterfront open space provision;
Marsden Wharf. Remember July 10th 1985? That's when a Western democracy sent Secret Agents to blow up an anti-nuclear protest boat moored at this wharf in downtown Auckland. That was 12 years after Norman Kirk sent a navy destroyer in protest to Mururoa - where the Rainbow Warrior had also been protesting against French nuclear testing. Ports of Auckland want to cut Marsden Wharf in half and incorporate it into its expansion plans. I think this is a special place for Auckland and for New Zealand. It's a big part of our international history. I want to see a big celebration there on July 10th 2010 - and it's not for more commercialisation;
Watercare can't be allowed to fill Puketutu Island's quarries with sewage sludge from Auckland's wastewater treatment plant. This is a potential park in the Manukau Harbour. It's a crazy cost driven idea that's third world - even if it creates a new park built on shit. This is another example of ARC's lack of care for urban public land (Wynyard Point, Pikes Point, Puketutu - imagine it permitting a residential subdivision on a few hectares in the Hunuas!?)). Auckland's toxic trade wastes must be kept out of our sewers, and biosolids composted with green waste to make soil conditioner;
More Government transport funding needs to be diverted from motorway projects to fund rail modernisation and electrification, so that Auckland Regional Council isn't forced to compromise Auckland's waterfront and allow the Port company to expand there - simply to optimise profits so it can plug the public transport funding gap. Auckland's waterfront is an issue of national interest.;
The New Zealand Transport Agency (formed through merging Transit and LTNZ) needs to emphasise funding for cycling and related infrastructure, so that cycling is much better connected to public transport services. Support for a cycle and pedestrian connection across the Harbour Bridge is a no-brainer;
Roll out the new Auckland Regional Land Transport Strategy which is now permitted to name specific projects and outcomes - which ARTA then implements.
I'll be applying my energy in these areas to attract public interest and support, and win regional support. (30/7/2008)
Joel snapped this Bryde's Whale between Mangawhai Heads and the Hen & Chickens this Christmas.
Click to see North Shore cyclepath
While safe cycling is a passion for Joel, he's still embarrassed by some of the cyclepaths that were built in Devonport - where he lives - before he was elected to Council. "Cycling makes cities civilised places to live. We need cyclepaths that make it a safe and attractive mode of transport. I want to see cycling across the Harbour Bridge."
Q: What are your main achievements during your years in Auckland local government? A: First, I acknowledge the support I've had from other councillors. Without majority or consensus votes my advocacy goes nowhere. The biggest achievement in my first term (1998-2001) was triggering Local Government Act reform to provide for Developer Levies. (Herald Article, Herald Article, Release). I've always pushed to improve governance of transport in Auckland - especially to develop public transport. ARTA was established in 2004, along with a greater commitment to public transport, through new legislation and funding. (Herald Article, Curitiba Conference Paper). (2001-2004) During my term as Chair of the Transport Committee at ARC, we led the development of a new Regional Transport Strategy calling for a big shift in spend from motorways to public transport. But government wouldn't support it, so the whole ARC got into campaign mode! Herald Article. Finally came the big vote of support for rail from Government. After a lot of debate. There's been more, but these are highlights. (2004-2007) All of these achievements required me and the ARC to work closely with our Government and Members of Parliament. I hope that the work achieved in the Auckland Region will be respected by the incoming Government (November 2008). Tread softly - because you tread on our dreams and our future...
Click to play great cycling video
Cycling has long been a passion for Joel. His first change action on North Shore City Council was to get a budget for cycle infrastructure. But it's been hard to get bike lanes and good infrastructure built. He visited Copenhagen to film how well they do it.
Places4People
Defining and delivering attractive compact urban design is becoming more important in Auckland, as councils struggle to ensure urban development creates great people places, and is not dominated by car traffic, sprawl and poor energy efficiency. Joel has concentrated on finding exemplars - here and abroad - of all that is best and all that is worst: 'Places4People.org.nz' is a website he publishes about this.
A typical suburban rail and bus station in Hamburg.
Click to see Oamaru case study clip
Joel makes educational resources about environmental issues. He directed, filmed and edited: 'Sink to Sea' in New Zealand. The extract here is about foreshore pollution in Oamaru.
Q: When did you become conscious of Environmental issues? A: After I'd lived and worked a few years in Britain during my O.E. Before then I had no real idea - thought nuclear power was the best thing since sliced bread after my education in Oamaru and Canterbury University. I became a mainframe computer simulation expert, and was retained in a project by UK's Ministry of Energy to assess the reliability of contamination predictions produced by the SYVAC simulation of underground nuclear waste disposal. I interviewed US nuclear energy engineers who built and used SYVAC. A Dames & Moore engineer in L.A. told me his job was to signpost disposal sites. He told me, "signs have to last 50,000 years, be readable, be understood by another civilisation. Sphinx have only been around 3,000 years. Human civilisation might not exist. The English language might be extinct. Signs have to indicate danger - don't dig here...". Experiences like these were part of my rethink. Q: Were you active in the UK? A: This was Thatcher's Britain and Reagan's world. There was a lot of activism in London. Concern about limited theatre nuclear war in Europe. I got interested in film and video and worked with others to make campaign videos. We made a drama against Trident modernisation of Polaris for CND. It went round a lot of schools. We made a video with Greenpeace against Sizewell B - a new nuclear power station. I directed and produced some of these campaign videos - including for trade unions about the effect of robots and computers in the workplace, and film for Amnesty International about human rights. It's where I learned how to campaign and how to commmunicate...
Click to see Ngati Whatua DVD clip
Another DVD kit Joel Cayford directed, filmed and edited is about the impact of Mining on the Environment. The clip here is from the Ngati Whatua story of what happened when the Government tried to allow ilmenite mining to be prospected in the Woodhill State Forest.
KingFish caught off Mangawhai Heads this Christmas.
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Coding and on-site content copyright (c) 2004 Joel Cayford Box 33/546 Takapuna, Auckland New Zealand ARC email
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