The NZ Herald has an article today quoting various political figures claiming that Auckland needs to become a single city (a single local government) in order to become a “world class city.”
I have no problem with the idea of a consolidated government (hey I know – let’s call it the Auckland Regional Council. It could even have its own website, like say – www.arc.govt.nz), but I get pretty annoyed when people throw around this term ‘world-class’ without saying what it really means (imo, without knowing what it means).
Cities are complex systems and imo Auckland is a fine one. If these people can’t tell me what they think a world-class city is then I’m inclined to think they use the term just as a way of hiding their own insecurity about whether they are as good as they think other people expect them to be.