City ‘blandscapes’ are not a sign of progress

I always muse at the catch-cry of so-called developers who consider their wrecking of a city’s long-standing heritage and character buildings that make a place what it is, is supposedly ‘‘progress’’.

This tends to come with a derogatory undertone to those who dare oppose.

If they could, their soulless, generic ‘‘blandscapes’’ of glass and steel and concrete would just about fill every square block of most places.

Scott O’Donnell tries to make some comparison with his Invercargill CBD ‘‘development’’ as progress being like jet travel, but surely, there is really not much comparison.

People travel to places in New Zealand that have their Kiwi character and identity that Mr O’Donnell and his ilk are so keen to get rid of.

Dunedin is a good example of what happens when you retain heritage, with now well over 140 cruise ship visits per season. One of the big likes of the passengers? Touring precincts of restored character buildings.

If these so-called developers’ mentality had been applied to, say, Britain all the years ago in the name of ‘‘progress’’, then most character buildings that people see, from the large to the small, would all be gone, and so would the tourism market.

While Invercargill is obviously not quite as well known as that, it had its classic Kiwi charm that he gleefully is seeing an end to.

As an example of this mindset, Hamilton went on a binge of destroying buildings many years ago, at a cost of its cultural identity.

In a few years time, the monstrosity taking over the lot will, in a few years, be classed as badly dated.

I’ve seen that with modern buildings put up in the last few decades, and now are the butt of jokes.

Sadly, it seems to be middle-aged ones (of my own age group) who should know better, that are behind this shameful, short-sighted mentality, and cannot see the bigger picture.

His idea of progress is surely a misnomer.

Paul Jeffery

Invercargill

Dunedin is a good example of what happens when you retain heritage, with now well over 140 cruise ship visits per season.

Mervyn Cave Manapouri