Hamish Bidwell: Free parking not the solution to CBD's problem

Hamish Bidwell says he doesn't feel safe in Hastings CBD. Photo / NZME

It's not about the parking. Nor is it about the shops or green spaces and art installations.

No, it's about the feeling of safety that Hastings shoe store owner Janette Caplan bravely brought up to council on Thursday.

First it was a meeting of the Hastings City Business Association on Tuesday, where Caplan described the Hastings District Council's attempts to improve the CBD as "putting lipstick on a pig".

Caplan then spoke to council on Thursday, with councillors unanimously voting that parking would be free in the Hastings business district for the month of July.

Look, parking is simply not an issue as far as I'm concerned. It's cheap as chips and your biggest worry is catching Covid while you type in your vehicle registration.

The issue here is the one Caplan spoke about, namely that she feels unsafe in her shop and walking down Heretaunga St.

The free parking is a nice gesture but, as Caplan added "I would rather see the money going towards keeping the people in town safe".

I always remember travelling up from Wellington a few years back, with my club cricket team. We'd come to play Cornwall in a pre-season game and were staying at a motel in Hastings.

After the match, we asked the Cornwall lads where we might go in Hastings for a drink.

Their reply was that you don't go out after dark in Hastings.

Well, I had to do some shopping on Heretaunga St West a couple of Sunday afternoons ago and I didn't feel safe in the daytime either.

Not sat in my car and not walking to and from the shop I needed to go to.

Hamish Bidwell

Now I'm a bloke of near 50, of pretty big stature and not especially cowardly. But if I felt uneasy there in broad daylight, then I can't imagine how some of the women who were shopping alone felt.

You can have all the Blossom festivals you like and you can do up old buildings and tenant them with all the groovy businesses in the world, but you can't change the people who are cruising around.

I don't like to say that. Heck, I don't even like to think it. But I know it.

I know that people are sometimes frightened to go about their business in Hastings and no amount of free parking will alter that fact.

I shouldn't be too flippant here. I do actually applaud the attempts to rejuvenate and revitalise the CBD.

I also love food and beverages as much as the next man, if not more.

But as potentially enticing as some of the soon-to-open establishments sound, I'm not sure they'll be enough to entice me to the CBD.

I don't know Caplan. I haven't been to her store and I'm not aware if she's someone with a barrow to push.

But I applaud her for giving voice to something that I know that people think, but are generally unwilling to say.

I don't know what the solution is here. I don't know how we change people's perceptions and instil in them the confidence to walk the city freely.

As much as anything, I also worry business owners will lose their shirts trying to make the Hastings CBD a hub for arts, culture and hospitality.

The intention's laudable, it's just that the location's probably not.