In the Weekend Herald there was extensive coverage relating to revitalising the CBD, particularly Queen Street. I should say I rarely venture into Queen Street for two reasons: I have no need to and, perhaps more importantly, I have no desire to. This is a far cry from when I was growing up in the ’50s and early ’60s. It must be remembered this was well before the shopping malls hit the suburbs, and Queen Street was a vibrant shopping hub as was Newmarket.
As many will recall, Friday late-night shopping was the ‘event’ of the week, particularly in the days of restricted weekend shopping. Queen Street was thronged with people, cars and trams. This was in the days when people actually used public transport. Trams were great people movers and they came constantly. Some of the parked cars with their Brylcreemed owners looked like they were straight from the movie American Graffiti. Queen Street really was the place to be.
Not now. Over the years it has become a shadow of its former self. The council took no interest in it for decades until relatively recently. To me now it looks like a mishmash of trying to please everybody: pedestrians, traffic and public transport. I agree certain things haven’t helped – the disruption caused by the CRL and more recently Covid lockdowns. However, those things shouldn’t detract from the longer-term vision of what Queen Street could and should become.
Back to the Herald. Simon Wilson contributed an article “The Queen Street we could have”. As readers might be aware from some of my previous articles, I’m not exactly a trailblazer for many of Simon’s excessively green concepts. However, I think Queen Street could qualify as an exception. He cited as a comparison La Rambla in Barcelona. I looked up Barcelona to find it had a population in 2018 of 1.62 million within its city limits. The temperature in winter is similar to Auckland but does reach 30 degrees in summer. It is not dissimilar to Auckland on a monthly basis.
I must admit there was quite a lot to like in Simon’s article. La Rambla and Queen Street are similar, as Simon points out, in that they both curve gently to the sea, with a public square at one end, historic wharves and a beautiful harbour at the other. He also points out there are still some lovely buildings: the Ferry Building, the railway station, the Dilworth, Smith & Caughey’s, the Civic and the Town Hall among others. Simon says Commercial Bay and Britomart are very fine and mentions the potential of High Street with Freyberg Square at its heart, Fort Street and Federal Street.
Simon says, and on this occasion I completely agree with him, that if you want crowds you can’t have cars. If Queen Street is to become something akin to La Rambla, cars will have to go. Which raises the question, what are the alternatives? Apart from service vehicles I would bring back two tram services. I would have one operating the current inner link bus service taking in Parnell, Newmarket, the CBD and Ponsonby. The other I suggest would run from the Wynyard Quarter, taking in Queen Street, Karangahape Road, Greys Avenue, back down Queen Street and along Tamaki Drive to St Heliers. These could serve both the domestic and tourist markets.
According to Simon, Barcelona is full of apartments and 40,000 live in the Auckland CBD. Remove the cars and, as Simon says, you have other options, such as outdoor stalls, cafe seating street-side, fountains, street entertainers, souvenir kiosks, etc. He talks about daylighting the Waihorotiu, a stream that runs down the Queen Street valley. He points out La Rambla was built over a stream. That would be one Big Idea, which Simon says you need if restoration and renewal are ever going to work.
I think Simon is on the right track, but it all has to be paid for. How? For a start there’s about 30 to 40 billion dollars available if you scrap the stupid tram to the airport. Simon probably wouldn’t agree, but if he had to prioritise he might. This is where, in Simon’s case, I smell trouble because lefties spray money around with no regard to the economic consequences. Simon makes the point in his article that empty shops won’t help the bounce-back. If the landlords need to pay people to open them they should just do it. Does that mean no rent payable? Not only that, but the landlords who are seeing the value of their properties going down the toilet should contribute to finishing off the Queen Street upgrades.
I am scratching my head as I try to logically work out how landlords would actually fare if they put Simon’s ideas into practice. It would appear landlords would be devoid of rental income but expected to somehow find money for rates, insurance, building maintenance and council street upgrades. All I can see is more empty shops. This is a good example of left-wing economic thinking, where implementing something to sort a problem has the opposite outcome to that which is intended.
To give Simon his due, his ideas should be taken seriously as should how they might be paid for. That is for Auckland Council to sort out, not CRL and Covid-hit landlords. On this occasion though, well done Simon!