Maytree Conversations

In September 2011, Alan Broadbent met with a number of civic leaders in New Zealand to talk about various urban issues.

He met with:

• Len Brown, the Mayor of Auckland, where they discussed transit funding;
• Bob Parker, the Mayor of Christchurch, where they talked about the rebuilding of the city following the devastating earthquakes (including funding for transit and housing);
• Roger Sutton, the CEO of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Agency, the national special purpose organization coordinating the response and recovery efforts; and
• Civic leaders from the Hawkes Bay Community Foundation, where they discussed a strategic approach to their work in the cities in the area.

Living legend Sam Strahan

Recently, we spoke to Alan about his trip.

Alan offers his insights and observations from his meetings, including the experience of being in Christchurch, as it starts to think strategically about rebuilding post-earthquake.

In addition to the above focus, Alan also spoke about Maytree’s relationship with New Zealand Tindall’s Foundation, ideas that have travelled from Canada to New Zealand (and some that might travel back), developing stronger urban voices and the importance of learning and sharing from other cities and countries.

Listen (21:29):

Related links:

• Living Legends – Rugby stars from the famous New Zealand “All Blacks” volunteering at local community projects (a good idea that could travel to Canada)
• Inspiring Communities – a New Zealand version of the Tamarack Institute’s Vibrant Communities project
• OMEGA – the TRIEC model travelled to New Zealand and was replicated locally as OMEGA
• Sustainable city development – the Stockholm example (PDF) – Alan mentions this example as something cities should look to for inspiration
• Cities of Migration’s Good Ideas in immigrant integration from New Zealand

(Living legend photo courtesy of Trevor Gray, Tindall Foundation)