Melissa's Hot Takes

I recently had the privilege of visiting Wellington from 15-19 March 2024 to attend the CAN Do Cycling Conference and visit my brother. Here are my reflections.

A Living City

It is impossible not to remark on how alive the city feels! Wellington, particularly the city centre, is focused on walkability, with wide, comfortable sidewalks and dense apartment blocks between office buildings and shops and restaurants (sometimes all incorporated together into one building!). Parliament building is right there, across from apartment blocks! The top floors of public service buildings are student flats! As a result, there are always people around. Walking beside you on the street, or milling through the shops and offices. Your mileage will vary, but it cannot be denied that it succeeds in bringing Wellington to life.

The streets and road network through this area have also been designed to prioritise the throughput of public transport, evident through the number of bus-only lanes, one-way streets, and even bus-only streets! Wellington is well rewarded for these efforts with the highest proportion of commuters getting to work by public transport and walking in the country. As a self-professed urbanist nerd, this design philosophy greatly appeals to me.

As part of the cycling conference, we got a tour of the city cycling network, including sharrows, new bike lanes and protected cycleways, and, my personal favourite, a cycling superhighway. This was a full lane of traffic on a main thoroughfare that had been rebalanced in favour of cycling. While bicycling is not as popular in Wellington as it is in Otautahi, it is clear that bicycling is growing in popularity, especially with the range of hire e-bicycles (and e-scooters!) available.

A City with Personality

Wellington is brimming with culture. It was as common to see rainbow pride flags as it was to see Free Palestine flags (here are some resources, by the way – shoutout to Dr Fatima). Wellington is not concerned with acceptability politics or neutrality. Wellington will tell you exactly what it thinks and how proud of that it is.

Buildings are covered in murals. There are political spreads, naturally, but there are also paintings of culture, history, and place. Funky sculptures. Portraits of Wellingtonians that deserve to be honoured. Things that just look cool. Even bus stops are given colour. In any direction, there is something to appreciate, and Wellington Council meticulously records all the murals across the city. In fact, I have it on good authority that the Boon Art Festival here in Kirikiriroa Hamilton was inspired by the street art found in every nook and cranny of our capital city!

A welcome change of pace was the countless cafes and eateries offering vegan food and non-dairy coffees and hot chocolates by default – without surcharging! It was liberating to enjoy a warm drink without worrying about whether it would make me sick later.

A City with Potential

Wellington is so close to being a great city. The main obstacle? Housing.

Despite an abundance of walkable streets, a population already attuned and accustomed to frequent public transport (including trains!), housing in Wellington is few and far between, and often of poor quality – especially housing for students. This breed of housing stock is so poor that mushrooms have been observed growing from the carpet. Wellington has an abundance of protections in place for character buildings. There is value in protecting the history and architecture of a place, however that should not come in the way of providing adequate, and most importantly, healthy housing for people.

Final Reflections

I must admit that each and every time I visit the beautiful Poneke Wellington, I am filled with an urge to pick up my life and move to the Windy City. Alas, while I am not in a place to do that at this point in time, as long as my brother continues to attend Victoria University, I continue to have excuses to at least visit.