Conven-19: A disaster Wellington saw coming
While the Government’s response to Covid-19, particularly Jacinda Ardern’s leadership, has been the subject of worldwide adulation, the Financial Times, Guardian, Washington Post and CNN have been astonishingly quiet about Andy Foster’s proposals for free city parking.
I blame party politics. Seriously though, you would think there were more important things to consider when there is a worldwide pandemic and many of the city’s businesses face a perilous future. And why put a motion on the table that you knew you were going to lose?
Just by looking at Twitter the day before the meeting, I knew at least eight councillors opposed the free parking plan put forward by Foster. Some of the eight even warned him beforehand.
What I didn’t know was that Sean ‘‘dump sewage in the harbour’’ Rush would also vote against free parking. Though he believes Foster ‘‘is doing a great job under extraordinary circumstances’’, Rush saw no evidence that free parking in the central city would increase the number of people shopping. He and ‘‘Blue-Green’’ councillor Jenny Condie are hardly playing ‘‘party politics’’, as some have alleged those voting against the mayor’s free parking motion were doing.
Does Foster’s public loss over this issue mean we’re in for an unstable next couple of years? Not necessarily. Losing a vote can even be a good idea if you know you have considerable public support for your position, as it can embarrass those who voted against you.
But apart from the old-school Chamber of Commerce and a few retail businesses, few seemed to care about Foster’s parking policy, especially in these times when bold action is needed over much bigger issues. Councillors voted to get rid of free weekend parking before the election, so we knew their views and voted accordingly. To ask councillors to throw out a lifetime of environmental activism to do what the mayor wants, all for a ‘‘show of unity’’, is ridiculous.
But one thing that seems to have united Left and Right this week is the convention centre. Many Wellingtonians have been saying for years that it’s a dog – an outdated waste of money. Sadly, none of the naysayers have been Wellington city councillors, who’ve voted almost unanimously for the various incarnations. Now the Covid-19 pandemic has made it even more of a dog.
In 2019, Justin Lester and council chief executive Kevin Lavery could see the writing on the wall as negotiations over the film museum broke down. They knew then that it would not be sustainable, and a massive financial risk to the council if they agreed to Sir Peter Jackson’s terms.
That would have been a great time to call the whole thing off. But no, Lester was under pressure to ‘‘deliver’’ in an election year, so a revamped plan got railroaded through council. His own councillors were either blinded by over-optimistic business cases or too scared to oppose their boss, or both. Now we have a $200 million Conven-19 disaster under construction that no-one wants.
Even former mayor Kerry Prendergast, who knows from experience the challenges of getting large-scale projects to be financially viable, has called for the building to be repurposed as a public library. Many are saying that, because contracts are signed, and construction has started, it is too late to do anything. Perhaps, though I suggest that councillors should still go through every clause of every contract to see if there’s any way out.
The city council’s response was to call Conven-19 ‘‘shovel ready’’ – though I prefer ‘‘waste-bin ready’’ – and list it as a project that could be funded by central government in a job-creation response to Covid-19. That’s the local body equivalent of a teenager wanting to be independent by going flatting but asking Mum and Dad to pay the rent because the student allowance was spent on a flat-warming party.
As a taxpayer, I sincerely hope that Finance Minister Grant Robertson tells the council to get lost and fund its own Conven-19, and instead funds other far more worthy projects on the list, including the Parade Upgrade, which would see the completion of the Island Bay cycleway.
As we eventually get back to work, I suspect cycling will surge as an alternative to crowded, germy buses. Current councillors, including the mayor, voted almost unanimously to finish this project in 2017. The New Zealand Transport Agency won’t fund it until the Newtown Connections project has been completed – in 2022 at the earliest – so getting central government to fund a few shovels directly could be an excellent move. I’m sure that the Island Bay Residents’ Association will throw in some pickaxes for free.
The council has a lot of tough decisions to make in the next few months, including the size of the rates rise, having ruled out a zero increase. Let’s hope the mayor starts to look for common ground with his councillors, and that these councillors are open to good suggestions for working together.
I suggest that councillors should still go through every clause of every contract to see if there’s any way out.