He wants to open up more wharves for recreation, but the port that’s using them has no intention of just giving them away, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.

An ambitious vision of a waterfront open to all

There’s no timeline, or budget, or even confirmation that the land is available. But mayor Wayne Brown is charging ahead with proposals to open up more of Auckland’s downtown waterfront to residents. The details can come later, he says; for now, he wants Aucklanders to get excited about the potential for the space. Yesterday Auckland Council released a report by its placemaking agency, Eke Panuku, laying out options for Queens Wharf (which the council owns directly) and Captain Cook and Marsden wharves (which are owned by Ports of Auckland). Proposals include “an open-air seawater swimming pool, aquaculture, an exhibition centre and ‘Te Ao Māori showcase centre’, and an amphitheatre in the water”, writes the Herald’s Simon Wilson (paywalled), who was first to report on the plans.

Wayne Brown wants to get a move on

Brown loves the proposals and thinks work could begin in as little as two years. He tells 1 News he’s in a rush “to create a better downtown environment… so that when people come here on a cruise liner, they think: ‘Wow, that’s cool!’ Instead of: ‘Urgh, what are they doing there with that stuff?'” The idea is to wrest back the two finger wharves from Ports of Auckland, which is currently using them for vehicle imports and cruise ship berths, and figure out what to do with the rest of the port later on. The Eke Panuku plan proposes a “staged release” of the port’s 77-hectare commercial area over the coming decades, with the ultimate goal of clearing port operations from the area entirely. Eventually, the report suggests, “about half the land could be built on, for commercial and public uses, with the remainder retained for public open spaces and ‘infrastructure’,” Wilson writes.

Not so fast, says Ports of Auckland

Opening up more of the waterfront to residents sounds like a good idea – except to the people currently using it. Ports of Auckland chief executive Roger Gray tells Stuff’s Jonathan Killick and Todd Niall that any handover of wharves would be dependent on developing Bledisloe Wharf (the big one next to Marsden), “such as completing the northern berth and investing in additional cargo handling facilities”. The “northern berth” is a controversial plan to reclaim more land for the port area; it was dropped after an outcry in 2015. That year, then Metro editor Simon Wilson wrote that it would “vandalise the beauty of the Waitematā” and “turn the channel between Devonport and downtown into even more of a river than it already is”. Meanwhile the Maritime Union has rubbished Brown’s proposals for “pools and barbies on the waterfront”. It’s concerned not just about the recreational plan, but about news the council is considering selling an operating lease for the ports to a global operator. Together, the plans risk undermining not just the ports but the wider Auckland economy, national secretary Craig Harrison tells the Herald’s Bernard Orsman.

Aarhus shows Auckland how it’s done

Brown says his dream of opening up the waterfront to Aucklanders was inspired by a visit to the Aarhus Havnebadet, or Harbour Bath, the world’s largest seawater baths. Opened in a former industrial area of the Danish city in 2018, the complex includes “a 50-metre long pool, a children’s area, a circular diving pool and two saunas”, writes Lonely Planet. In its first week of operation more than 25,000 people visited Havnebadet, which does not charge an entrance fee but has occupancy limits.