Urban Legend - Sir Dove-Myer Robinson

One of New Zealand s most popular and colourful local politicians, Dove-Myer Robinson (1901-1989) was the longest-serving mayor of Auckland city, holding office for 18 years between 1959 and 1980. A controversial figure during his time as mayor, Robinson has today taken on iconic status largely because of his ahead of the times vision for Auckland.

URBAN LEGEND explores Robinson s life from his hard days growing up in a working class Jewish family in Sheffield to his reluctant retirement from Auckland local government in 1980. It looks at how Robinson emerged as a prototype Green long before the word was coined. His most important environmental success was his decade-long campaign to prevent the Brown s Island drainage scheme: a plan to dump the city s sewage off Brown s Island into the Waitemata. A vocal opponent, Robinson became leader of a council group who in 1953 enjoyed the balance of power and used it to implement an oxidation system at Manukau, saving the Waitemata.

He followed this political upset by taking the mayoralty in 1959 to the shock of the Citizens and Ratepayers Association. Robinson was given an extremely hostile reception by the political establishment; URBAN LEGEND examines his turbulent personal life that others used to try to discredit him (three marriages before he became mayor).

During his first two terms as mayor, his greatest political success was implementing the Auckland Regional Authority, a forerunner of the Supercity. He used the ARA as a way to implement goals such as creating regional parks but unfortunately failed to get it to establish rapid rail.