COMMENT: Back in the early 1990s, Napier City Council was trying to decide how to rejuvenate its inner city, which had become tired and which was not keeping up with modern retail trends. The council considered a number of options and settled on one which would have turned Napier’s main street – Emerson Street – into a full mall based on Rundle Street Mall in Adelaide.
As a very young, newly elected councillor I had a ring side seat to proceedings and was strongly of the view that a full mall wouldn’t work in Napier and would actually kill the inner city – a view which wasn’t shared by any of my fellow councillors and for which I received considerable criticism and pressure to conform.
Faced with this intransigence, I elicited the support of the public and local businesses and eventually managed to bring the council back to the table. To their credit, they reviewed their original decision and, instead, settled on a hybrid design which still allowed traffic to enter and park in the street while giving it a much greater pedestrian feel. Almost 30 years later that design has stood the test of time as a testament to common sense and the victory of public sentiment over officialdom.
This story highlights the ever-present balancing act faced by local authorities – the desire to drive constant improvement and change versus the need to remember that the residents of our towns and cities most often rely on familiarity and consistency.
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We often don’t notice the role played by councils because it is so enmeshed in the mundane activity of our everyday lives – but when councils get it wrong, the consequences for business and the community can be devastating.
Take Wellington, for example. Granted, the city has been battling the effects of the Kaikoura quake since 2016, but most of the problems which now beset the capital are largely of its own making. It’s insane central city layout and roading system is the poster child for decades of poor civic leadership, and Courtenay Place, once the Jewel of the City and the host of international movie premieres, is now a seedy third-world retail strip lacking the energy it once exuded. Meanwhile, Wellington Council turns a blind eye and instead debates spending almost $200 million on a library and refurbished Civic Building. Wellingtonians deserve better than this.
The plan to pedestrianise Auckland CBD at the corner of Fort and Queen streets. Photo / Supplied
But when it comes to poor leadership and its effect on the lives of businesses and the community, Auckland Council is in a league of its own. As our only international city, Auckland has a particular responsibility to present itself in a way which meets the needs of both locals and visitors. Instead, the city is currently a confused jumble of constant road works. Inner city parking has been sneakily eroded, and now, there’s a plan to close Queen street to through traffic.
This level of commercial disruption would be commercially catastrophic at any time, but for reasons known only to themselves, our civic mothers and fathers have chosen a time when inner city businesses are on their knees due to Covid to bring together a perfect storm of distractions which, between them present the Queen City in its worst state in living memory.
Frankly, it’s a small blessing that Covid has limited the number of people who can come to New Zealand to watch the America’s Cup because, while the Cup facilities are outstanding, the city on their doorstep is a deep embarrassment to those of us who call Auckland home.
Admittedly, some of those projects (the CRL comes to mind) are designed to improve the city in the medium term, but others, such as the Queen Street closure, are simply exercises in social engineering in which Aucklanders are being treated as lab rats. Drastically reducing parking, the pedestrianisation of whole streets, and changes in traffic flows might tick a box for the egos of councillors and bureaucrats, but they also play dice with the lives of our retailers and the amenity value of the city that Aucklanders love.
So, as a former local body politician, former CEO of the Newmarket Business Association and former CEO of the Property Institute, I’ve some free advice for the Pollies and Bureaucrats at Auckland Council and AT. Your responsibility to serve those who elect you is more important than ideology and your desire to establish your legacy through vanity projects. Your plans to improve the Auckland CBD won’t work. Instead, they will continue to strangle this once great business district and drive even more Aucklanders to malls in the suburbs.
If that’s your plan you should be honest about it. If it’s not – there’s still time to change.
- Ashley Church is a property commentator for OneRoof.co.nz. Email him at [email protected]
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