Liveability a lifeline for city

• Date: 05 March 2021
• Published date: 05 March 2021
• Publication title: New Zealand Herald, The (Auckland, New Zealand)

Typically, at this time of year, the city is buzzing with an influx of international tourists — many of them older, wealthier cruise ship passengers focused on eating, drink and shopping the downtown district.

Meanwhile, Uptown the international students return, bring youthful energy to the spaces around the city’s numerous cheap and cheerful eateries.

Compounding Auckland’s CBD woes is the timing of several major infrastructure projects which are congesting traffic, messing up the streets limiting foot traffic for many retailers.

Major works include the Quay St and Karangahape Rd enhancements, the SkyCity Convention Centre build and of course, the massive City Rail Link (CRL) construction.

For anyone taking a stroll around the CBD for the first time in a while, it can all look a bit shocking.

Auckland also faces the additional challenge of being the city of lockdowns.

Its status as New Zealand’s primary international arrival point puts the city at the frontline of virus control and it is taking a toll in the form of regional lockdowns.

We can acknowledge the macro-economic view that lockdowns have done less damage that first expected.

As economists have pointed out, there has been a strong post-lockdown rebound effect.

Consumers have simply delayed spending or diverted to other activities, often closer to home.

So the net loss to the economy isn’t so bad.

But that view tends to average out the pain across sectors and regions.

For some businesses — particularly those in the CBD — the damage will be permanent.

There have been and will be more economic casualties, a fact to which empty downtown stores bear testament.

In the most recent ASB Regional Scoreboard — for the third quarter of 2020 — Auckland slipped two positions to rank as the 13th worst performer of 16 regions.

Only Southland, Canterbury and Otago were in worse shape.

In a commentary (headed up: “City of Cones”) ASB economists noted the result wasn’t surprising, given the move up to Covid Alert Level 3 during the quarter.

The region was also last in the country for consumer confidence, and one of the weakest regions for employment and retail trade (though it still enjoyed a lift for the latter).

Westpac, in its Regional Roundup, took a more optimistic tone.

It emphasised that the red-hot housing market was likely to ensure an ongoing Auckland recovery.

The Westpac report acknowledged the loss of foreign visitor arrivals as “a big deal” for Auckland which is a major tourism region.

The situation...