Editorial: City's still not moving, Mr Banks

John Banks became the Mayor of Auckland City on the back of two major pledges: he would get the city moving and he would make it safer. Later this year, the people of Auckland will judge whether he has achieved enough to warrant a second term. This, then, will be a colourful 12 months, with Mr Banks cheerleading for the city with even more gusto than usual. Yet, the local-body elections aside, this is a significant year for Auckland. In two areas associated with the strains of rapid growth - the intensification of housing and traffic congestion - it will be a pivotal period.

These issues will be on the minds of voters when they go to the ballot-box. Mr Banks appears well positioned, somewhat perversely perhaps, given that his pledges have, largely, been unfulfilled. His likely challengers are Christine Fletcher, his predecessor as mayor, and Bruce Hucker, the long-serving City Vision leader. Whatever Mr Banks' record, both struggle to match him in energy and enthusiasm. Yet he could still be derailed by an errant response to any of the problems facing Auckland.

Clearly, of course, the mayor has not succeeded in getting the city moving. His championing of the eastern highway delivered nothing of substance. Instead of being the subject of "good progress" by Christmas 2001, the much-needed thoroughfare became paralysed by analysis and the activity of a disaffected few.

Indeed, Mr Banks has won few battles in the transport arena. Just before Christmas he lost out again when the Government decided on the shape of the body charged with remedying the city's gridlock. The mayor wanted a separate authority; Wellington decided, quite rightly, that the Auckland Regional Transport Authority should come under the wing of the regional council. Mr Banks must accept that verdict, and turn his attention to ensuring that a cohesive and integrated approach to transport services bears fruit as soon as possible.

The mayor has enjoyed more success in creating a safer city. Indeed, his major traffic triumph might have been to drive boy racers from Queen St - even if they simply moved to suburban strips where the annoyance factor was, if anything, greater. Unquestionably, however, the city centre was reclaimed as a family destination on Friday and Saturday nights.

Yet what those families found was little to celebrate. Queen St has become the address for too many tacky, down-at-heel establishments. Few, if any, of these shops can be blamed on the high proportion of English language schools in the area. Quite simply, the city's premier street needs a major shake-up if it is to reclaim an allure, let alone its former glory.

The threat of slum-like apartment blocks concerns many in suburbia, as does the possibility that the city council will ride roughshod over community groups to achieve this. The new residential 8 zone makes many promises about high-quality intensive development in areas that can reasonably accommodate growth. It is not, the council says, a recipe for highrise buildings and nor will communities be caught unawares.

But there are grounds for scepticism. Will such a scheme adequately accommodate an estimated 141,000 more people within Auckland City's boundaries over the next 18 years? And will the council be prepared to insist on quality design and community involvement? Thus far, it has shown little aptitude for reining in the most haphazard and unsightly of developments.

Yet the governors of Auckland City have never been so far out of step with the community as those of the Auckland Regional Council. The regional councillors achieved widespread alienation with last year's rates demand; now they must regain ground. The Government delivered them a vote of confidence in handing the regional councillors a key role in solving Auckland's transport woes. Now they must justify this by starting to get Auckland moving this year.