Vertical Voice
The Aaiotanga Trust proudly promotes the Vertical Voice as one of the best and most readable sources of local information for apartment dwellers.
Sent out monthly by email, it is free and easy to receive.
Founded and produced by local Mik Smellie for three years, this much loved publication has now been picked up by another much loved city centre local Antony Phillips!
The Vertical Voice seeks to amplify the residential voices of our city and build a sense of neighbourhood and community in the City Centre.
It features residents voices, local stories and grassroots information, events and other opportunities, relevant to those of us living in apartments locally.
Vertical Voice is funded with contributions from Waitematā Local Board, Department of Internal Affairs and Aaiotanga Trust.
2024
- Community Safety
- Art Exhibitions
- Cycling challenge with a difference
- A K’ Rd icon: George Courts Building
- Music in the Parks
- Community building at the library and Auckland Art Gallery
- Colour in the city
- Lighting tips in the apartment
- Anniversary Weekend free events
- Pride Month prep
- Opportunties to Play: outdoors and Mahjong
- Amusement Parks and tunnels
- Spongey Cities and Vertical forests
- Community notices: City centre picnic in Emily Place, Balcony to Bay, Tai Chi classes
- Emily Reserve Summer Picnic
- Tai Chi class intake
- Final week of Neighbours’ month
- Writers’ Festival
- Supporting our urban bee population
- Art classes (clay and painting)
- Along with: Axe throwing, an interesting apartment storage solution and a cool way to recycle your Samsung devices.
- Introducing: Antony Phillips - new VV Editor
- City Mission Foodtogether weekly Fruit and Vege Pop-Up
- Wynyard Crossing Bridge: Update
- Free Soil Saturday
- You’re invited: Te Ara Tukutuku April workshops
- Recipe of the month (from the family recipe books)
- Lime Scooter wardens
- Opera in The Strand
- Repair Cafes popping up in the City Centre
- Kapu Tī with Antony (new monthly column)
- Recipe of the month - Seed Crackers
- Matariki events and art installations
- New feature: Getting Local with Yael Shochat of Ima Cuisine
- Exclusive offering for City Centre locals (starting 27 July)
- Local Gardening: Daldy Street Community Gardens and event invitation
- Composting
- City Centre Heritage
- and so much more!
2023
- The Pinching of Pots in Myers Park
- PRIDE the Census and more are coming
- Sirens Odysseus would have dodged
- Community Connection and Your Health
- The Harvey Tree shall return!
- & plenty more within...
- A Memorial Beacon returns
- Sneaky Electronic Billboards
- Garry the Cat
- HomeGround - the book
- Pediments of Customs St East
- & plenty more within...
- Locals in Rotterdam
- Budgeting - participatory
- A Festival of Play
- Lewis Eady
- Scrapping with Food
- A funky new building on the horizon
- Spoon Boiling - it's a thing
- & plenty more within...
- A Rangatira retires
- Queen St 1996
- Urban Doom - not on your nelly, thank you
- Pencils & Ponies
- Eat like an Egyptian
- & plenty more within...
- Public Benches - the people's seat
- UFO's - of the unfinished object kind
- A Tree Planting & a Pomegranate Found!
- Art, opportunity & repairs
- Robotic rubbish bins & a clock lurking on Fort St
- Romans - don't talk to them about spalling
- & plenty more within...
- Matariki
- What do families want in an apartment?
- Chat with the Chair of the Local Board
- Spongier - one roof at a time
- National Volunteer Week
- Unit Titles Act changes
- Urban Sparrows - yes they are getting louder
- & plenty more within...
- Gardening in the City Centre
- Local Board Plan - give it a whirl!
- Apartment Design - snorkel inclusive
- 139 Greys Ave and an old windmill
- Safety around gourds
- plenty more within...
- Emily Place - Concept Plan for feedback
- Hoop to the Hula
- Auckland Central Candidates - come meet them
- Random Acts of Kindness Day
- Is your washing machine in league with Roger Waters?
- Te Mātāwai - 139 Greys Ave - something special
- Raising balcony cattle
- plenty more within...
- The invitation of Apihai te Kawau
- Gargoyles holding Court
- Repair Cafe & Lemur Blessing
- Safety Hubs
- The Corkscrew of Scotia Place
- Meet our Candidates
- plenty more within...
- Photography gracing our walls
- Emily Place Improvements Project
- Pilgrims of Aotearoa arise!
- Cool Umbrellas
- Auckland Central Chess Club
- Circus in the Park - Meyers Park
- plenty more within...
- Heritage hikoi
- Community Gardens
- Unfinished business
- Being alone in the midst of the 'crowd'
- Blue Christmas
- plenty more within…
2021
- Emily Place Workshop - this Wednesday
- Greys Ave - an innovative build
- Te Komititanga
- Young families group
- Festivals & Escalators
- Pride!
- Neighbourhood Schooling
- Buildings that howl uncontrollably
- The Year of the Ox
- Understanding Queen St
- Make your own trousers
- and more...
- Balancing Budgets
- Save Merge Cafe
- "Bags of Beans" - Neighbours Day
- Rooflines & Recycling
- Argus House & the link to Passion Fruit
- and more...
- Local walking tours in May
- New Ukulele & Spanish classes
- Opportunities to express your opinion on neighbourhood trials, proposals and changes
- Scooters
- Tom of Albert Park and other local Elephants
- and the rest...
- Urban Farming - yes here
- Feedback on Freyberg (audio)
- A compass, a lamp, a mural & the law
- Alcohol Licencing
- New Courses - Placemaking & Shiatsu
- Goats of the Neighbourhood
- and the rest...
- Matariki
- Much ado about Pedestrians
- Myers Park Caretakers Cottage
- Markets
- Much needed public space
- Muck munching mussels
- Much more...including things that don't endeavour to start with "m"
- Air Quality
- The Gates of Queens Wharf
- Light Rail & Bus Plans
- Phoenix-Fig hybrids
- HomeGround
- Early morning pea shooting
- the rest...
- Random acts of kindness & tofu
- Local coal-fired power station
- Wanted - local volunteering opportunities
- Bench seats & a mural
- The local sound of music
- WRUFFS
- a gentle request
- & all the rest within...
- Locals speaking the vertical truth vertically
- Te Ha Noa - the Victoria St Linear Park
- Good Citizens - identification
- Sorting the scooters from the walkers
- City Centre Residents Group - CCRG
- Steepest street in the 'hood
- St James Theatre
- Fishing from your balcony
- and the rest...
- A touch of Spring for Freyberg
- The solution to a wet bench
- Loneliness - a little local research
- Vampires on the balcony
- Support Local
- Midtown - transformation in the wind
- Parking in the Albert Park Tunnels
- & all the rest within...
- Bells a' pealing throughout the neighbourhood
- Artworks galore - Karangahape & Nelson
- Covid & Apartments - zoom this Friday
- Ka Hao Te Rangatahi: The new net goes fishing
- Shopping Locally - good for everyone
- A ram, a cat & a shortage of Birkenstocks
- & all the rest within...
- Neighbourhood waterways
- Good Citizens - definitely lurking among us
- the Call of the Cornely
- Urban Bananas & Mouse City
- a Specialist in Happiness
- the Great Metropolis Tinsel Swizz
- & all the rest within...
2022
- The Artists Way - kickstarting creativity course
- Hats off for shade!
- Market Square 1921
- The Guild of the Feijoa (AKL)
- Electric Car Charging
- The Desert of Dingleflimble
- & all the rest within...
- Green Fingers on Daldy St
- Show Hospo' the Love
- Calling anyone handy with a Phillips Screwdriver
- Where should the Rates Dosh be spent?
- The Return of Winky
- Apartment life in Melbourne
- Pot Throwing & Ukuleles
- & plenty more within...
- St Matt's Community Garden
- Aaiotanga Community Weaver
- Pete the Cat & Crazy Clay-Making
- Te Ha Noa - Victoria St Linear Park Feedback
- City Centre Residents Group - CCRG
- Rocks & Guava with a purpose
- Special Request - feedback for the Vertical Voice
- An exceptionally large pair of specs
- & plenty more within...
- Electronic Waste Drop Off @ St Matt's
- The Sicilian Defence
- Pooch 101 @ Myers Park
- How Far is Too Far?
- Bamboo Bikes & Bokashi
- Phones for the Soul
- Historic Blanket Labels
- & plenty more within...
- Electronic Waste Drop Off @ St Matt's
- The Sicilian Defence
- Pooch 101 @ Myers Park
- How Far is Too Far?
- Bamboo Bikes & Bokashi
- Phones for the Soul
- Historic Blanket Labels
- & plenty more within...
- Matariki Celebrations
- A viaduct over Queen St
- Neighbourhood Picnic - Emily Place
- Noise & Composting (separately)
- Children in Apartments & Play
- Sir Bevis Hampton of the 1300s
- Lorne St bits and bobs
- Snap Send Solve
- & plenty more within...
- A Neighbourhood Picnic - you're invited!
- Shop Fronts - getting their groove on
- Urban Design - from Tech to Tree
- Federal Street - a tui, a pump & feijoa
- an unintentional focus on Romania
- E-Waste Collection
- a heavy flying coat (June 1937)
- & plenty more within...
- The elections are coming - meet your candidates
- Raupo Rap - a big hook
- Vocal Chord extension - a new choir
- Fale in the 'hood - Samoa House
- Job Opportunities with Census 2023
- Holes in the ground and a whopper on the horizon
- & plenty more within...
- Vote - democracy is depending on you
- You can't grow concrete
- Te Rerenga-Ora-Iti
- "Unbelievable" activity for kids
- Myers Park Cottage
- Free Soil - make your pot plants all loamy
- Local Livestock - "The Guv" & 150,000 Rescue Bees
- Are you a walking smombie?
- & plenty more within...
- the mechanics of collective living
- corporate art requires your gaze
- workshops - dumplings and more
- sedate vs zippy - footpath styling
- found then lost - an anchor
- & plenty more within...
- Angels in Auckland
- This Vibrant Life
- Insurance & Security
- Community Garden Workshops
- The Inspector of Nuisances
- & plenty more within...
- A Memorial Beacon returns
- Sneaky Electronic Billboards
- Garry the Cat
- HomeGround - the book
- Pediments of Customs St East
- & plenty more within...
2020
- City Centre Residents Group - election meeting
- "The Artist's Way" - a course to ignite your creativity
- Aaiotanga Community Space
- The African Snuff Box Tree
- Art, Public Space and more..
- Local groups & activity
- Music & Cheese Makers
- Children & the neighbourhood
- Innovating Streets & Coffee Froth
- Bees at altitude
- New Saturday morning fresh produce market @ Freyberg Place
- Sing your heart out at St Matt's
- Emily Place - tactical urbanism opportunity
- Wooden cheese boards with Warren - its a neighbourhood woodworking workshop!
- Have you discovered CCRG?
- and the rest....