Hi there – and welcome to 2024, albeit I’m a month late. Reasons: sunshine, weather, fishing, aged parents, and a complete inability to get anything done when all of those former issues combine. Anyway, I’m here now, I think.
When this blog started, back in 2008, I think that the founders wanted it to be a place where Architecture, Urban Design, Photography etc all collided and were made to feel comfortable. Sadly, the photography aspect never really took off (more contributors always welcome!) and the original gangsters Maximus and Philip seemed to disappear after a while. Luckily Leviathan stepped (swam?) into the breach, and lasted for quite a while, until I got in my tiny submarine and started exploring a few years ago. So here we are, again.
While I would love to be talking about all the fantastic new building going on around the city, there really isn’t any. Well, not much, really. We’re still on that strengthen or demolish phase, and lately the news has all been about the sewer pipes or the cycleways, neither of which topic excite me much. But one place that I do take an interest in, is Courtenay Place, and so when WCC emailed me to say that there was now a Courtenay Place Precinct Plan in place, I got so excited that I fair spouted frothy foam from my little fishy lips and blew a bubble from my blowhole! Hooray! Courtenay has a Plan, at last. ….I think.
Man, was I disappointed. Go on – click on that link highlighted above and see what you think. To me, it is not so much a “plan” as a series of statements:
1 Strategic alcohol management Maintain and improve public order through responsible supply and consumption of alcohol, harm reduction strategies, and licensed venue management and processes.
2 Improved public space High quality and well managed public space, that meets the needs of residents and visitors and tells the history of the area visibly, including Te Aro Pā.
3 Diversify offering Offer alternative viable entertainment experiences that all ages can participate in and is not centred around alcohol.
4 Kaitiaki Adequate capable guardianship and harm reduction services available.
5 Promotion and reputation building Change in the perception of Courtenay Place is needed to support greater audiences to visit, residents to be proud of and to bring up confidence.
Yes, well, hardly inspiring, and tells us nothing really. So they go on and reinforce that, with these three “objectives for the Courtenay Place Precinct Plan”:
1 Improve experience on Courtenay Place so everyone can enjoy it safely.
2 Improve image and reputation of Courtenay Place.
3 Attract investment to Courtenay Place.
To me, still missing the How and the What. We all already know the Why. No doubt some consultants are already being hired. Let’s hope they hire some competent architects or landscape people this time.
Finally they ask us to be interested, by noting: “What part can you play in a reimagined Courtenay Place? Get in touch” poneke.promise@wcc.govt.nz
What do you think of their ideas? What other ideas can you suggest? Feel free to discuss it here as well as emailing them direct. It’s our front yard – let’s get it under control !
My own minor dealings with the Council over the last year have suggested a culture of contradiction and cross-purposes; front-liners enthusiastic about making things happen, but without any clarity from above. Ironically, as the front-liners and their projects have started to drop away, a unified message is emerging – right on the zeitgeist – “Sorry. Everything is broken.We’re broke.”
I can’t remember how long ago I first responded to a LGWM request to “get in touch’. What is there left to say?
Well, it was no doubt good of you to respond to LGWM requests, but as you know now, everything LGWM has turned to dust. I doubt that Simpleton Brown will have much to do with the detail, and there will never be a Light Rail, but does this also mean that there will be No More Buses? There will probably never be More Pedestrian areas, but almost entirely likely, just More Roads. It’s hard to know – Brown said that he would build a new Mt Vic tunnel for cars, but what effect would that have for Courtenay?
Looking at the “goals” – improved public space is something within WCC’s control and mandate. A lot could be achieved with regular thorough cleaning. Water blasting of the pavements would be a good start. In cities like Paris in busy entertainment precincts the streets are cleaned every morning. Maybe overkill for Courtenay Place but on my most recent visit from the suburbs (in 2024) for dinner and movie at the Embassy the overwhelming impression was that it was dirty. The paving is the same as Lambton Quay and Willis Street but it seems to have had a much tougher life.
I suspect that it is going to need a lot more than just extra cleaning. Lambton and Willis have a great regime of many people walking, while Courtenay probably has a greater proportion of night sleepers and teenage vomiting. To me it is the many down at heel shops that are the issue, more of which occur in Courtenay than Lambton end of town.
Unpopular opinion here but I suggest the best thing for Wellington will be to de-emphasise Courtenay Place. In spite of all the special treatment it’s had for the last 20-30 years (I’m thinking landscaping, lighting and general tarting up that other streets see nothing of, all the marketing of it as a party zone and closing it off for big sporting occasions) it has turned it into a ghastly entertainment ghetto while discouraging the development of alternative parts of town.
The worst example fortunately never actually happened, but the first draft of the council’s local alcohol policy proposed a rule that only Courtenay Place businesses would be able to get late alcohol licences. Imagine being a property owner there if it literally became the law that bars hoping to stay open late had to be in that precinct. Some of us talked the Council out of that idea (and the whole alcohol policy got vetoed anyway) but it reflected the reality that operators and landlords there are in a spiral that drives everyone down-market.
So the best thing that could happen to Wellington (and, in the long run, Courtenay Place) will be if we see more little hospo precincts in other parts of town.
Actually, I kind of agree with you. I’m not so concerned about the spread of alcohol licences, but I would quite like the upgrade of shop-front properties to spread! Better lighting for humans, not for cars. Wider footpaths and less cars. Personally, I’m in favour of that, although loss of car parks always gets some people’s goat…
+1 Dominic. Everything you’ve written rings true.
Perhaps a bit harsh. I have fond memories of whole days of Film Festival in the 2000’s based around Courtenay Place. Meeting friends upstairs in the Paramount, scooting from the Embassy to Te Papa to the Film Archive to the City Gallery and back to Paramount sometimes just staying and getting a ticket for the next film without knowing what it was going to be. Lunch in one of the little cafes. Compact, safe and great for serendipitous meetings. There were no people sleeping on the footpath or begging as you went past. And similarly memories of dropping teenagers to paint models at Games Workshop in the Reading Complex or to birthday parties at Laser Force. I even took my children to a science class for a few terms in an office above the Westpac Bank. So much of that has gone so now really only attractive to young drinkers.
Part of the problem is that there is conflict within the council about what they should be doing,
Let alone other governmetn agencies like the Ministry of Health and Police, all who are active in preventing new licensed premises
They produce a flashy “plan” like this one, but have a licensing arm that objects to new establishments, ( even if its just replacing “like for like”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/wellington-bar-owner-fighting-for-liquor-licence-on-courtenay-place/ETYLA6RVANB3HL7YHUFMOGG5PU/
Coupled with the conflict over Alcohol licenses, is the issue of who in their right mind would want to live in an apartment in the middle of that zoo. The sound of drunken girls and boys emitting their loud jagermeister-fueled mating calls is amusing for a fleeting instance the first time you hear it, and just banal and irritating every subsequent time after that. Living in the city means you have to expect some of that – but you also have to have some quiet time, and the pleasant melodies of cop sirens and ambulances, mixed with incoherent school-boy war-cries signifying “I want to get my end away tonight” tends work at opposition to that.
It will be interesting to see what happens once the new (and laughably named) Hyde Lane ? Hyde Park Lane? ex-McDonalds site in lower Courtenay opens, and another 300 tiny apartments (supposedly upmarket, but I really doubt it) have immediate access onto Courtenay Place. I hope they have got good acoustic dampening in the walls and windows!
Don’t forget the garbage and recycling trucks – the glass ones in particular. They certainly know when they’re backing up. :D
They used to bother me years ago when I lived very centrally, but they don’t seem to do it quite as much these days. Or is that just because I’m getting deaf ?
Just in – a sensible headline. Why has it taken the Council soooooooooo long for it to make this obvious decision?
“Council looks at deferring Golden Mile to fund the pipes”
https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/350161363/council-looks-deferring-golden-mile-fund-pipes
“The council is considering deferring half of the Golden Mile revitalisation in order to fund $1.1 billion of investment in the pipes over the next 10 years. On Wednesday afternoon staff presented councillors with several options for investment, including a new reservoir, water pressure valves and water metering.
A potential rates increase of 15.4% was also presented to councillors. The briefing comes as the council is under pressure to show how it is responding to Wellington’s water infrastructure crisis, which has led to water restrictions across the region this summer. Deferring the Lambton Quay half of the Golden Mile project would free up $16 million over the next three years, but the council would still begin the Courtenay Place revitalisation on time, staff told councillors. The Hutt Rd half of the Thorndon Quay project, another project the council inherited from now-defunct Let’s Get Wellington Moving, is also on the chopping block to save $10m.”
26/27 is beyond the next council elections… that’s basically never in council timing….
That’s the perfect time in terms of being a Councillor. Avoid making any sensible / unpopular decisions now, put it off until you have retired and then it is someone else’s problem. That’s the attitude that got us into this shit in the first place..!