these men are turning in their graves! we havent designed and built anything like our grandparents generation did. just look and see from 1920 to 1970.. in that 50 years how much was build in such a small time with a small population. and today we have the biggest housing crisis in the world, we have the largest housing shortage in the world for our population. house prices are at impossible prices which means most kiwis cant afford one, so businesses will buy them and rent them to people. our governments dont know how to design, plan and build new roads, towns, and houses... we have managed to destroy in one generation what our fathers build! what a shame!!!
Our Govts don’t want to grow a country they want to import a country which means people come in and boost the economy but we are always playing catch up with infrastructure like health care and housing predominantly.
Spent first 8 years of my life in Linden, was a small community where you knew lots of people and you had the freedom to roam safely (including eeling up in the hills, something my older brother was keen on).
How surreal it was to see me and my mum at 9:07 after all these years. I have many memories of J'ville mall. I think I wore that outfit with swagger! Thanks for the upload and memories!
"Continuous suburb is a horrifying thought." So true. I just finished my architecture thesis which explored New Zealand's suburban centres and how investigating the urban design of medieval towns in Europe may help us re-design the suburban public realm.
In other words. You do not like what people want to chose and think you should choose for them? They moved from those ‘tightly packed areas’ in to suburbia because they liked the space. Obviously that thesis didn’t include common sense.
Loved growing up in a suburb, best time of my life. When I have kids we will be living in a suburb. Who wants to be living in a tiny box where everyone can look into your window. Sounds awful.
@@goarmysleepinthemud. There is plenty of room. Don't worry. We just need to spread out employment into the suburbs. So people can buy housing close to where they can get work. The only reason people come into the city and sit in a tiny box for 8-10 hours a day is because the office jobs are there. People want the status of working in a CBD when it's crap. You spend most of your time sitting in a chair looking at a screen. Working from home is a step in the right direction. People need to get to know the people living around them and find friends.
Some great footage here. I grew up in Wellington in the 60s and 70s. Fascinating to hear the views of Martin Hall (minute 27:00 +) about developing housing around shared gardens, and understand how the developments by Ian Athfield and Roger Walker (Thornton/Hataitai) were as radical then as they would be today.
Thanks for posting, David. Bit sad that there was a wealth of wisdom on town + transport planning available even ~50 years ago which was ignored! In fact low-density suburban sprawl is still the norm for new houses throughout NZ. See also this gem from 1978 which takes a similar 'paved paradise' viewpoint, particularly about 'suburban neurosis' (great contemporary NZ footage too) www.nzonscreen.com/title/johnstones-journey-episode-five-1978
I missed your reply until now. Thanks for the link, that was a really good programme. It also brought back some memories for me as it was made during the time that I lived in NZ. It really is remarkable how these obvious problems are seen by many, but addressed by none. I had a look around Massey on Google Maps. It looks horribly car dominated, which of course is sadly exactly the outcome we had to expect.
Which part do you miss that people like this? Why do you imagine they are just yearning to be crammed into tiny places packed together like their grandparents lived all over again?
Amazing, my dad lived there on Taranaki Lane. When I went to live with him ( he worked for the city council) lived on Rintoul St, Newtown i loved it😊. Then Berhampore Flats, Adelaide Rd then we got our house High St, Island Bay❤ my first job KFC Kent Tce.😅
There's also a blog post about this:, pointing out how Wellington (and thousands of other cities worldwide) could have chosen a different path: www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2015/07/notes-on-city-how-problems-which-could.html
This inadvertently ends up being a really fascinating look at how certain kiwis used to speak even as relatively recently as 50 years ago due to all the interviews - virtually no one nowadays talks remotely like how any of these people do anymore.
Alot of issues could have been releaved if they didnt centralized office jobs. Everyone wanted the status of working in the CBD. Should have spread them out, if they didn't need to actually to be in CBD. If they had more offices, shopping, entertainment shared around the suburbs especially Govt clerical work people would have bought up housing close to work. Them they would mostly come into the CBD for events in Wellington on the weekends.
The narrator saying the teenagers from Wainuiomata should go more into Welly to art galleries,etc! Most of them were working class kids and wouldn't be seen dead doing that sort of thing. If their mates found out... Their parents, except maybe Mum would not see an "arty" stuff being important. If you were interested you kept it bloody quiet! Even serious educational aspirations was viewed as trying to be better than your family and stiill is thought the same in certain stratas of society.
Say what? Stay at home mums community orientated suburbs populated by wholesome pillars of the community where we all lived a jolly good life. Somebody pinch me I must be dreaming...😴
This might have been before they arrived in the suburbs? There were a lot living just down the road in the railway settlement in Ngaio, I went to school with their children.
23:20 Is that Sturdee St? If so, it became part of Victoria St extension. And it was originally Quinn St or Quin St. I'm 99% sure in the video it's Sturdee. Well before my time. Obviously before the radicals banned vehicle parking from the CBD. 1970s was a huge decade of change in the capital. Lucky anything is left anywhere.
Spent first 8 years of my life in Linden, was a small community where you knew lots of people and you had the freedom to roam safely (including eeling up in the hills, something my older brother was keen on).
Oh wow. There were a couple of shots of my long-departed mother. So many memories for me in this. 😪
these men are turning in their graves! we havent designed and built anything like our grandparents generation did.
just look and see from 1920 to 1970.. in that 50 years how much was build in such a small time with a small population.
and today we have the biggest housing crisis in the world, we have the largest housing shortage in the world for our population.
house prices are at impossible prices which means most kiwis cant afford one, so businesses will buy them and rent them to people.
our governments dont know how to design, plan and build new roads, towns, and houses...
we have managed to destroy in one generation what our fathers build!
what a shame!!!
Our Govts don’t want to grow a country they want to import a country which means people come in and boost the economy but we are always playing catch up with infrastructure like health care and housing predominantly.
Spent first 8 years of my life in Linden, was a small community where you knew lots of people and you had the freedom to roam safely (including eeling up in the hills, something my older brother was keen on).
How surreal it was to see me and my mum at 9:07 after all these years. I have many memories of J'ville mall. I think I wore that outfit with swagger! Thanks for the upload and memories!
You were looking cool. Glad to hear you liked the video.
"Continuous suburb is a horrifying thought." So true.
I just finished my architecture thesis which explored New Zealand's suburban centres and how investigating the urban design of medieval towns in Europe may help us re-design the suburban public realm.
In other words. You do not like what people want to chose and think you should choose for them? They moved from those ‘tightly packed areas’ in to suburbia because they liked the space. Obviously that thesis didn’t include common sense.
@@xr6lad Yeah well 9bn people in the world and only a finite amount of space we can't all be greedy guts.
Loved growing up in a suburb, best time of my life. When I have kids we will be living in a suburb. Who wants to be living in a tiny box where everyone can look into your window. Sounds awful.
@@goarmysleepinthemud. There is plenty of room. Don't worry. We just need to spread out employment into the suburbs. So people can buy housing close to where they can get work. The only reason people come into the city and sit in a tiny box for 8-10 hours a day is because the office jobs are there. People want the status of working in a CBD when it's crap. You spend most of your time sitting in a chair looking at a screen. Working from home is a step in the right direction. People need to get to know the people living around them and find friends.
Some great footage here. I grew up in Wellington in the 60s and 70s. Fascinating to hear the views of Martin Hall (minute 27:00 +) about developing housing around shared gardens, and understand how the developments by Ian Athfield and Roger Walker (Thornton/Hataitai) were as radical then as they would be today.
Thanks for posting, David. Bit sad that there was a wealth of wisdom on town + transport planning available even ~50 years ago which was ignored! In fact low-density suburban sprawl is still the norm for new houses throughout NZ. See also this gem from 1978 which takes a similar 'paved paradise' viewpoint, particularly about 'suburban neurosis' (great contemporary NZ footage too) www.nzonscreen.com/title/johnstones-journey-episode-five-1978
I missed your reply until now. Thanks for the link, that was a really good programme. It also brought back some memories for me as it was made during the time that I lived in NZ.
It really is remarkable how these obvious problems are seen by many, but addressed by none. I had a look around Massey on Google Maps. It looks horribly car dominated, which of course is sadly exactly the outcome we had to expect.
Thanks @@DavidHembrow I'm optimistic that NZ policies are improving, if slowly...
Which part do you miss that people like this? Why do you imagine they are just yearning to be crammed into tiny places packed together like their grandparents lived all over again?
Amazing, my dad lived there on Taranaki Lane. When I went to live with him ( he worked for the city council) lived on Rintoul St, Newtown i loved it😊. Then Berhampore Flats, Adelaide Rd then we got our house High St, Island Bay❤ my first job KFC Kent Tce.😅
Very interesting. I grew up in Wellington and had just started work in the city at that time. All the best from Sydney Australia 🇦🇺
Very interesting, I lived in Wellington for many years and enjoy learning about the history. LOL 32:10 that would be illegal now :)
Thanks for posting! Cheers from Vienna!
Great video, thanks for sharing.
Even 52 years ago they were talking about a direct rail between Porirua and the Hutt Valley.
At least Wellington
Well, this explains a lot about my city and region
Nearly four decades on and we still have the same problems 😂
There's also a blog post about this:, pointing out how Wellington (and thousands of other cities worldwide) could have chosen a different path: www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2015/07/notes-on-city-how-problems-which-could.html
This inadvertently ends up being a really fascinating look at how certain kiwis used to speak even as relatively recently as 50 years ago due to all the interviews - virtually no one nowadays talks remotely like how any of these people do anymore.
Hi David - you should rename this Notes on a New Zealand City, the original title. That might make it easier to search!
Thank you for that suggestion. I've re-named the video.
@@DavidHembrow
Alot of issues could have been releaved if they didnt centralized office jobs. Everyone wanted the status of working in the CBD. Should have spread them out, if they didn't need to actually to be in CBD. If they had more offices, shopping, entertainment shared around the suburbs especially Govt clerical work people would have bought up housing close to work. Them they would mostly come into the CBD for events in Wellington on the weekends.
In U.S.A. they are defining a city by saying: "A city is a place where you store cars."
@20:40
The narrator saying the teenagers from Wainuiomata should go more into Welly to art galleries,etc! Most of them were working class kids and wouldn't be seen dead doing that sort of thing. If their mates found out... Their parents, except maybe Mum would not see an "arty" stuff being important. If you were interested you kept it bloody quiet! Even serious educational aspirations was viewed as trying to be better than your family and stiill is thought the same in certain stratas of society.
The Alpine Fault will fix Wellington
Say what? Stay at home mums community orientated suburbs populated by wholesome pillars of the community where we all lived a jolly good life. Somebody pinch me I must be dreaming...😴
The stay at homes did not sound to thrilled. Don't blame them.
@goarmysleepinthemud. My wife loves it. Gets to raise the children without state interference. Not a bad gig for a woman in her mid 20s!
Where are all the Maori families???
Good question.
This might have been before they arrived in the suburbs? There were a lot living just down the road in the railway settlement in Ngaio, I went to school with their children.
Petone & the gear works , Was wine waiter at the Waterloo , Fancy hotel at the time .
Obviously this was made before it was ghettoised
I lived in Warspite ave. 73. between there and cannons Creek we all were.
23:20 Is that Sturdee St? If so, it became part of Victoria St extension. And it was originally Quinn St or Quin St. I'm 99% sure in the video it's Sturdee. Well before my time. Obviously before the radicals banned vehicle parking from the CBD. 1970s was a huge decade of change in the capital. Lucky anything is left anywhere.
Spent first 8 years of my life in Linden, was a small community where you knew lots of people and you had the freedom to roam safely (including eeling up in the hills, something my older brother was keen on).