In this episode, we speak to Adrienne Young-Cooper. Adrienne is a currently a full-time, non-executive company director and trustee on a number of entities and organisations. This follows a leading public-sector career and running a medium-sized consultancy. She has specialised in transport (land, aviation and maritime) sectors, social housing and urban and property development and investment.

In this episode, Adrienne shares her belief that Auckland’s city centre would benefit from two things: increasing its residential population and turning it into the economic heart of the country by making it the primary location for our biggest companies.

As someone who spends time outside the city for work, she also acknowledges that the rest of New Zealand see that if Auckland does well, then the whole country benefits.

(0:00) Introduction
(1:16) Our issues are the same and they are very different
(3:51) What we can do to increase City Centre residents
(8:26) Why resistance to change is the same everywhere
(12:41) What solutions were there for homelessness in the City Centre
(15:36) How there is scope for more solutions to homelessness
(16:39) The solutions go beyond housing
(18:03) Where specialist governance can be successful
(23:25) How other parts of the country see Auckland
(26:49) Auckland’s conditions demand different aproaches
(27:56) The economic priority for Auckland City Centre
(30:57) Farewell