Subscribe to RSSGraffiti Crackdown Welcomed
Good to hear whispers that the new Mayor is going to announce soon a crackdown on tagging, graffiti and do something about the appalling neglected building in Albert St, that has been mentioned on here a couple of times.
Apparently agreement has been reached between the owner, Harbour City, and Auckland Council, to see the removal of graffiti and the site made secure.
In April last year, this site said the disgraceful building was testament to a comment made by then Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey : “On one of the world’s greatest landscapes, we created a mess. Basically, Auckland is a dog.”
Auckland’s Mayor has done well to put graffiti and the preservation of heritage buildings high up on his list.
Under Len Brown’s leadership at Manukau council, the team reduced the incident of graffiti in the city by 70% in two and a half years.
The Manukau council was spending $100,000 annually on graffiti investigation, in addition to its graffiti eradication, education and beautification initiatives.
Brown at that time said that behind the drive to “rid ourselves of graffiti and to be clean and tidy” is a more important community theme.
“We are defining our community’s boundaries of responsibility. We are making it clear what we will and will not accept in our community and that united we can deal with these problems, overcome them, and add to our pride and our positive perception of our city.
“These boundaries also set social parameters for our young people to see, acknowledge and accept. We have complimented these boundaries of behaviour by stating a clear vision for achievement for our young people based around a number of aspirational markers.
“We have taken a whole of community approach by emphasising education and working with the educational community in ensuring the very best of opportunities for our children.”
We look forward to hear him implementing the same message for the whole of Auckland.
Let’s hope the Mayor’s work includes the graffiti problem we mention often - along the Auckland rail corridor including near stations like the new Newmarket one (below)
9 Comments
More landscaping / creeper plants would help, especially along rail corridors. Then you don’t have to paint out so much stuff all the time.
The buildings on Albert look like they do because the owner of the site wants to demolish them, and the council doesn’t want to let them. So before the council is blamed for this how about asking the developer why they’re going out of their way to make this site look as unappaealing as possible? The answer is simple, if they wait long enough the building will be so wrecked they’ll be demlishing it through neglect - typical Auckland developer if you ask me, only interesting in maximising their own profit.
Playing devil’s advocate, you could argue that it IS the Council’s fault, for trying to limit the developer’s rights to his own property and to do with it what he wants.
Note that I normally come down clearly on the “let’s heritage protect them!” side of the equation - but I am not sure that I agree these should be protected. Not when we are failing to protect much more important buildings.
Plus, dereliction (or at least empty spaces where no tenant can be found) in the CBD isn’t exactly rare at the moment. Look at Ironbank on K’Road. Awesome design, prime location, several architecture prizes, and a year after completition it is still at least 2/3rds empty. Bad times right now.
how about that ghastly parking building next to victoria market? would look much better covered in graffiti!
maybe the council should have a design competition to find a good/affordable idea to do something creative with it
What about the tagging across the entire rail corridor?
It is easily the biggest eyesore in Auckland by a country mile.
RTC hit the nail on the head.
When I see these pictures I can’t help think that people on benefits could learn a few painting / glazier skills to help them on the road to employment?
Personally I can’t stand the building discussed here and I walk past it every day, I can see some potential in the facade but surely that could be integrated into a new building.
I also look out over the roof of it which is just ugly and it seems like a perfect place to redevelop with a taller building. After all isn’t CBD intensification what we are talking about needing more of with the CBD tunnel study
A lot if you mention graffiti in the rail corridor. As someone who travels the southern/eastern line daily I can honestly say that the graffiti is in the old Auckland city sections of track. The old Manukau City council did an awesome job as throughout Manukau the corridor is graffiti free. Now that Manukau now runs Auckland too we should see a graffiti free corridor. Good on you Len.