Editorial: Bringing back the bustle a big challenge for new mayor

Auckland's central city needs to be more of a draw. Photo / Dean Purcell

On an afternoon last week, the top of Victoria St in central Auckland was quiet.

Few vehicles buzzed past. The small clumps of pedestrians wandering by hardly constituted a crowd. There was no discernible vibe about to be part of.

Even allowing for the fact that the school holidays meant some city residents would be out of town, it's clear the pandemic malaise continues to plague the area.

Getting the bustle back into the heart of New Zealand's biggest city is part of the challenge for newly elected Mayor Wayne Brown.

It's a common problem for cities around the world, and without a doubt a factor - remote and hybrid working - is a trend that's here to stay. Once people have removed the stress, cost and time-wasting of the daily commute from their lives there's little appetite for it again.

Central shops need foot traffic and if there are fewer office workers and shoppers about, there need to be more apartment dwellers.

Longer-term, the midtown project as part of the City Rail Link will be a key driver in improving the look of the inner city and helping to renew the area in the coming years.

At the moment, construction work dominates and transport is an issue where Brown's win injects some uncertainty.

Brown campaigned on sorting out the city's finances and infrastructure projects, such as the City Rail Link. He said the main issues were transport, crime, unfinished projects, rising costs and council waste.

His victory has already started a shake-up with the chairwoman of Auckland Transport, Adrienne Young-Cooper, resigning.

Auckland is a geographically sprawling city of broad suburban areas, serviced by familiar shopping centres - that doesn't encourage one dominating focus. The harbour can be accessed from multiple points. People have their favourite eating spots in different suburbs. Events will draw people into the centre but not often enough.

For now, central Auckland is austere compared to the more warm and welcoming style of European cities with their extensive outdoor eating areas; richly decorated shops; hanging flower baskets, rows of plants and trees; statues and urban artworks; public squares; rooftop bars and cafes.

Life spills out onto the streets in such places. And they are places residents and tourists want to be in. People need areas to wander around, hang out and socialise and ideally live in - or if not, to be able to reach easily via public transport.

That's the push behind the renewal plans and Auckland has been making great strides in building up public transport links across the urban area.

Major world cities people take seriously have a mix of easily accessed and reliable options to get about, ranging from scooters and cycles to taxis, buses, metro, trams, inter-city rail and fast ferries, as well as private cars.

City Rail Link chief executive Sean Sweeney focused on the bigger picture: "People get really hung up on cost benefits and business cases and everything else, but there are certain fundamental building blocks you need to be a modern international city, and this is one of them."

The city's problems and challenges, including its flagging centre, a second harbour crossing, housing supply and intensification, infrastructure, transport, and tackling climate change, are intertwined.

In dealing with Auckland's daily headaches, the pace of transforming it into a truly modern city still has to be maintained.