Mike Lee:
FINAL The elitist ‘City Centre Master Plan’ is killing Queen Street
The closing of Smith & Caughey’s with the loss of 98 jobs after 145 years as Auckland’s premier department store is a crushing blow for the city centre and once proud Queen Street. Stylish Smith & Caughey’s has long evoked Queen Street’s golden age, a time Auckland was the envy of the nation and Aucklanders boasted about their city. Its decline and fall I believe is symbolic of a wider and deeper malaise.
Admittedly there were broader economic factors in play here which I have discussed in other articles, but most of the damage has been done by ill-conceived, ideologically-driven council policies, especially the ‘City Centre Master Plan.’ This intended to transform what was called a ‘car-dependent 20th century Queen Street’ to an assumed superior ‘21st century Queen Street’ - essentially by banning cars in the hope to make the city centre more ‘people friendly.’ But it’s doing the opposite – turning people away, hollowing out the city centre and progressively strangling the life out of city centre retail. Last year it was reported foot-traffic in the CBD was down by 50,000 per day compared to 2019. This year the decline continues - 3.8% down on 2024, with vacant shops up a record 10%. In 2021/2023, at enormous expense and disruption, the council narrowed Queen Street to two lanes, now dominated by mainly empty buses, and a cycleway; the enlarged (and already grimy) footpaths the home of beggars and rough sleepers.
Smith & Caughey’s closure announcement put it bluntly:
“The city centre has also faced significant disruption and change in the form of ongoing roadworks and the slow progress of CRL causing traffic congestion. Similarly, perceived safety issues, a large decline in foot traffic on Queen Street, and an increase in parking costs, have all continued to impact the economic position of the business.”
Things are set to get worse. In 2022 Auckland Transport quietly set up what they call an ‘AVO’ (authorised vehicle only) zone, essentially a ‘revenue trap’ between Wakefield and Wellesley Streets. At last count 100,000 unwitting Aucklanders have been hit with $150 fines collectively amounting to some $20m. AT supported by Master Plan zealots in Auckland Council/CCO middle management, unfazed by the harm this is doing, is pushing ahead, determined to extend the AVO blockade from Mayoral Drive to Victoria Street. This, in Orwellian ‘Master Plan-speak’, is part of an ‘A4E’ (Access for Everyone) project, intended to turn Queen Street into a ‘ZEA’ (Zero Emissions Area) and ‘low traffic neighbourhood’.
A recent analysis described the City Centre Master Plan as: ‘Elitist Disconnect: an undemocratic agenda overtly hostile to the practical needs of ordinary Aucklanders, including families, tradespeople, delivery drivers, the elderly, those with mobility impairments and retailers battling to survive. The breathtaking lack of concern that Queen Street’s ‘aesthetic transformation’ is turning out to be economically and socially destructive, frames these people as pursuing a niche vision at the public's expense.’
I met with Smith & Caughey’s management just a few days before the store closed for the final time on 31 July for a debriefing. In the company boardroom, watched over by portraits of former board chairs (what would they think?) going back to the 19th century, CEO Matt Harrey told me the unsustainable decline in foot traffic and therefore sales revenue was a key factor forcing the decision to close. That very morning, he told me, a customer had complained to him about receiving a $150 AT fine. After seeking out and thanking the shop assistant, an American lady called Julie Walker, who so carefully wrapped my wife’s birthday present just two days before she learned she and her workmates would be losing their jobs - one she was so obviously dedicated to - I was surprised how sad I felt. Walking out of the nearly stripped and emptied store, I felt like it was if I had visited a hospice to say goodbye to a dying friend.
As I have agreed to stand for council one more time, lifting the destructive blockade of Queen Street and restoring free access to Queen street, is one of the key policies I will to be campaigning on. I hope Aucklanders will join me in this cause. (MIKE LEE)
www.mikelee.co.nz
