This video tells the story of what happened in Copenhagen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rstEWMD89L8(9.50mins)
The story is very familiar to whats happening now in Wellington. But from the 1960s!!!

Because Wellington has high patronage on public transport and high density in the CBD, pedestrianising the golden mile can be a successful. I cannot see parking buildings making the central city a better place. Thanks to Bob Jones experiencing Europe and bringing many of these ideas to Wellington, we will become a forward thinking city. As long as the council encourages cafes and on street activities, the mall shall work successful.

Do you also think that rent prices will drop? Why? By predestrianising the golden mile, it will allow more people to use the route at a slower rate (the slow people travel, the more things they do on there way). It will also improve access to Kirks for those people who are walking along Lambton Quay (as most people walk along the western side).

Kris K: I hope not. Buses would (in my opinion) run along the quays

I think both the above proposals are just plain dumb. The Quay is just too much of a main arterial feed for that end of the city, with no alternative to replace it should it be lost.
And meanwhile the WCC wants to remove the people friendly area of Manners Mall which functions so well in conjunction with the adjacent Cuba Mall – dumb, dumb, dumb.

My memory of Wellington tells me that there was a street parrallel to Lambton Quay [ on the Harbour side ] and anothe likewise to Willis Street which ‘curves’ around to parrallel Manners/Courtney Place .. if there is a will there is a way.

Ponsonby? Tauranga? Newmarket? Whitianga? Napier?

No, Wellington the countries largest coffee shop for public servants.

Parking buildings are not attractive at all. Normally you can’t walk from a parking building straight into the building you want to shop at – you have to go outside. Maybe cross a road or 3. Brave the wind and/or rain. Not pleasant. Far better to drive to a mall, park close the entrance near the shop you wish to go to.

Plus malls have food halls where, once the location of the food hall is discovered, buying an assortment of food for all the family is relatively easy. Can’t do that in Wellington, you have to go traipsing around to try and find a cafe with food everyone likes.

Malls will win in the end, much to the consternation of the supporters of the “golden mile”.

In Wellington there have been relatively few shopping alternatives to the central city because of geographic restrictions. With such an artificial “monopoly” you can perhaps understand why some people think they can dictate to shoppers. In Christchurch, for example, where there are plenty of alternative places to shop, the central city has died for retailers since this kind of social manipulation tactic was tried from around the 1970s. People simply went where there was car parking for shopping, and shrewd developers built more and more such places. Folks, they are called Shopping Malls. In Christchurch there are a ton of them. Wellington has been a late starter down this trend. Watch out if you head down this long outdated public policy path. In the US the devastation of inner city precincts caused by this past policy has become a huge issue over the past decade. For goodness sake, be careful you don’t make well known and old mistakes.