The need for speed in reviving city centre
On any given Friday during May, between 500 and 600 Auckland Council staff were at desks in the city centre headquarters.
It may seem an unremarkable statistic, but it is just one of many pointers as to why Auckland’s city centre – especially the ‘‘goldenmile’’ Queen St – is a shadow of its former self.
Dozens of shopfronts are empty after two pandemic years which closed the door on tourists, cruise ship visits and foreign students.
Reviving the ‘‘beating heart’’ of Auckland will not be easy, but there is a chorus of calls to restore a sense of vibrancy, safety and lure.
Waiting for theworld to return to the way it was pre-Covid is not even amedium-term option.
The 500-600 in the council’s Albert St HQ is relevant because the 28-storey building is ‘‘home’’ to 3500 staff and there are (mostly hot) desks for 2500.
That means on the traditionally quiet working Fridays, as few as 22% of the council HQ staff are actually in the city centre all day.
It peaks at 1000, or 40%, midweek.
This is not to point the finger at the council. It is the only employer obliged to make public such information – and anecdotally, similar work patterns exist in the private sector.
The downtown business promotion agency Heart of the City said foot traffic was up 19% in amonth – but tellingly, it’s still at 55% of pre-Covid May levels and spending is at 70%.
The call to come back to the office and spend is problematic. Partial or complete working from home suits many employees and employers and in a tight job market, compulsory office could be a risky call.
So what will revitalise the city centre? Probably something radical, quick and transformative.
Urban designer Emma McInnes told the Auckland’s Future, Now conference no new ideas are needed – there are plenty of good plans that exist and just need implementing.
To make the city centre enticing, we need to ‘‘pedestrianise it’’, she said – make it as safe and easy to cycle to and through as smaller centres where parents with kids on board cycle now.
The city centre needs to be a uniquely fun, safe and interesting place to go on weekdays and not just the odd weekend.
This can’t be a project in the traditional council sense – that might take years to roll out. Strong visionary political direction and a bit of courage should do the trick.
Breathing life back into a city centre does not need infrastructure or large sums of money, just flair and a sense of purpose.
But longer term, some changes also need to happen. The best needs to be made of the huge sums spent upgrading the lower city centre.
One example is the spectacular Te Komititanga square, which was immediately blighted by Auckland Transport planting a big ugly black bike shed on one expensively paved corner.
Quickly reviving the city centre is the kind of challenge the council has not faced before and it needs to find a lever it has not pulled in the past.
The lever is a sense of fun, simplicity and daring, led by those elected by Aucklanders to do the best for them.
As another speaker at the Auckland’s Future, Now conference pointed out, it’s 100 days until the return of the first cruise ship since Covid-19 shut down that industry.
Not the most important event on the calendar, but there’s nothing like a deadline to sharpen the focus.