Which has led to a seemingly endless number of "good ideas" being promoted, and implemented, without robust examination as to whether they are in fact good, or serve the needs of residents as best they should.
Sure, in some small things Napier gets it right: the sea-themed murals; the quirky jazzing-up of public spaces; the deco-centric events.
But larger projects like revamping the museum - sorry, MTG - or the war memorial - sorry, conference centre - or the skatepark or the marineland it replaced, or basic infrastructure like the still-woefully-inadequate sewerage system, it trips over itself to get wrong.
Good intentions don't cut it. And while I'm not sure if the citizens don't get involved enough in council processes, or do but are ignored, or simply aren't given the chance to have their say, there's a fundamental disconnect evident between what staff and councillors dream up and what residents actually need.
Take the latest idea: to reconfigure and expand the Onekawa aquatic centre. Okay, firstly, congratulations on finally grasping that the most serious deficiency in public sports facilities is not a velodrome but a lack of swimming pools. Great.
But as obvious as this need is, given the treacherous nature of most of the coast of Hawke Bay, you would think that the emphasis would be on providing pools for everyone to learn to swim, train to swim better, and stay fit while staying safe in the water.
No. Of the four options presented for public discussion, only one includes a full-size (50m) pool to replace the one they failed to maintain - whereas they all include a gymnasium, hydroslides and a "lazy river" and other child-oriented elements for "water fun".
Sorry. There are plenty of rivers, lakes, and estuaries - provided they're kept free of pollution - in which children can have fun naturally.
Lazy rivers aren't needed at a swimming facility; all they engender is a false confidence that will be ripped away at the first ocean beach visited.
Besides, when Hawke's Bay can barely sustain one such fun-park, why try to duplicate Splash Planet? How about a second pool - at, say, Taradale - instead.
The rationale, as for every facility, seems to be making it attractive for genteel family outings. But most folk who might otherwise use the MTG or the skatepark are put off by the ridiculously-high charges, so the whole concept fails - to everyone's cost.
Get real NCC: A pool is for swimming; a skatepark is for skaters; a museum is for history and culture; a war memorial is sacrosanct!
All public facilities that should, foremost, be fit for purpose to meet the public need - and that does not mean adding frippery and then gouging people who utilise them.
That speaks to me of a culture of snobbish superiority that needs to change.
Such a change must start at the top in pursuit of knowing how best to engage at the bottom.
• Bruce Bisset is a freelance writer and poet.
• Views expressed here are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's.
