Potential for sanity on Golden Mile

Stuff reports:

Wellington City Council’s outgoing transport and infrastructure manager, Brad Singh, has given one final briefing on the city’s most controversial project – the Golden Mile.

“At this stage, we will be anticipating that the contract – all going well – will be signed in November of this year,” Singh said.

His comment left a gaping elephant in the room – the election. With Tory Whanau no longer in the running for re-election as mayor, there is no certainty that a new mayor would support signing the contract.

We can only hope.

In principle rejuvenating the Golden Mile is a good thing., But there are two major issues around this particular project.

The first is the aspect which would ban cars from the Golden Mile, especially Lambton Quay. Proponents say it will be great for businesses as it will make it easier for people to come and shop by bus or cycle or walk etc. Opponents say it will kill off many businesses as people won’t shop somewhere they can drive to (or near) and park near.

As far as I can tell around 95% of building and business owners on the Golden Mile are vehemently against banning cars from it. They are convinced it will damage or destroy their businesses. I prefer their views on the impact to those of town planners and councillors who don’t actually lose a cent of revenue if they are wrong.

Basically listen to your customers.

If you remove the car ban, then the rest of the project is fairly uncontroversial.

The other issue is the cost. If rates had been increasing at say 4% a year instead of 20%, then nice to have projects like the Golden Mile would make more sense. Also if the Council didn’t have a track record of costs blowout that see projects come in at 100% or more over initial budget, I’d be more keen on it.