Palmerston North suburb Kelvin Grove lacks a soul: Dave Mollard

Kelvin Grove is a sprawling Palmerston North suburb yet its community centre is as close to Roslyn as you can get. Photo / Judith Lacy

OPINION

I live in Kelvin Grove, a sprawling Palmerston North suburb that I jokingly call “the suburb with no soul”.

Many a true word is said in jest and I’m sure not many people driving through our hood have their hearts moved by the place.

There is nothing wrong with my neighbourhood other than it does not have a central community hub. Its borders are the cemetery, a state highway and a railway line. Our community centre sits right on the border, just the train tracks separating it from Roslyn. Probably the closest thing to connection for most of us is queuing up at the self-checkout line at Woolworths on a Sunday afternoon.

Kelvin Grove has two distinct personalities. Nappy Valley huddles closer to the city, filled with three-bedroom weatherboard and corrugated iron houses built in the 1980s as an oasis for first-home buyers with very small kids, hence the diaper reference.

The newer section is a result of the building boom of the past decade, brick and tile four-bedroom castles with garages so stuffed full of sporting goods and boys’ toys that cars can’t be parked inside in this middle-class paradise. Its nickname could be Tradie Junction based on all the signwritten utes and vans parked outside. Big, wide, meandering streets that without the help of Google Maps can trap you in their maze.

I have experienced both sides, living for 10 years in the old part and then six in the new. My son jokes that I will spend the rest of eternity on the same road as I will be buried a few hundred metres down the street in the cemetery.

Despite its lack of heart, KG has plenty going for it: beautiful reserves, sports grounds, two wonderful kura, a supermarket and a Chinese takeaway that sells the best sweet and sour pork in the city. It just lacks the community connections other more established neighbourhoods have.

I’m not sure how to grow these connections but I imagine it’s like the trees that new homeowners planted when they first moved in; it takes time to establish roots (especially in the clay surface we have here) before the foliage can flourish. But like planting a tree, it is a deliberate act, the act of getting to know your neighbours, rather than shutting the garage door behind you every day.

Do you know your neighbours?

Dave Mollard is a Palmerston North community worker and social commentator.