NZ's 'abandoned city' hammered by 'wrecking ball' leaders

Friday, 10 November 2023

A travel vlogger was 'distressed' at how many empty shops and businesses were in Tauranga, as well as the amount of construction.

A travel vlogger has dubbed Tauranga, “New Zealand’s abandoned city” – “a ghost town”, with empty businesses and non-stop construction, which its MP attributed to the “wrecking ball” approach of the city’s non-elected commissioners.

YouTuber and TikToker, Curls, a Brit who vlogs about places he visits, said the amount of empty buildings in Tauranga was distressing, and it made him feel sad.

With its summer vibe, palm trees, dazzling waterfronts and beaches, Tauranga could be an Australasian Miami, he said, but he was puzzled at all the road cones and “ghost town” feel.

Visitors to Tauranga have commented on the number of empty shops and businesses

It’s not the first time visitors to Tauranga have been stunned by its empty CBD and endless roadworks.

In July, a video on TikTok went viral highlighting Tauranga’s “dead vibes”, showing abandoned businesses with windows decked in For Lease signs.

Last month, when television breakfast host Matty McClean visited the Bay of Plenty, he was “shocked at how bad the traffic was, how awful the road closures were and how utterly chaotic the city was”.

Connie Richards and George Gibson, co-owners of Elizabeth Cafe and Larder say the Cameron Rd construction has affected their business, leaving her traumatised at the sight of a road cone and fluorescent orange

Ongoing roadworks have caused jams worse than Auckland, and have won Tauranga the dubious crown of having the worst traffic in Aotearoa.

Connie Richards, co-owner of Elizabeth Cafe and Larder, says road cones and fluorescent orange now give her trauma.

Her café is on Tauranga’s main drag, Cameron Road, where construction has been going on all year. It has put customers off visiting, because roadworks are right outside businesses’ doors, she says.

“At one stage, if you wanted to come in, you’d have to drive ages up the main road, turn back round a roundabout and even then you can’t park – it’s too hard, especially for our elderly regulars, and people use all their gas driving around detours.”

The construction impacted business so badly that Richards had to work other jobs to pay rent, and drop staff.

“It’s our worst year ever. At weekends, we are down 78 %, and overall 35%. I’ve never been so sick – it’s stress, being in a constant dog fight with council, who just don’t care how this is affecting us all.”

Further up Cameron Road is Tauranga’s first ever Indian restaurant, Talk of India, which opened in 1993. Regular diner Josie Buchan urged locals to help.

Ash Gee, owner of popular cocktail bar and restaurant, Miss Gee's and chair of Downtown Tauranga presented a petition to council over the closure of a central city car park that businesses say will impact trade.

“I'm so heartbroken to hear that due to the ongoing Cameron Road roadworks, they are struggling to stay afloat. His words were, even worse than Covid times.”

More locals vowed to visit to support the much-loved family restaurant that they had eaten at over the years, berating council for “killing off” local business. One man even recalled his wife’s waters breaking in there and that baby is now 24.

This week, Ash Gee, owner of Miss Gee’s bar in central Tauranga, and chair of the local business association presented a petition with now more than 3000 signatures to council asking it to delay a $84m waterfront construction project that would mean a central car park would have to close.

“There’s overwhelming concern from the business community on the timing of the project. Running a business in a city that’s being torn apart and rebuilt is extremely tough.”

Tauranga City Council commission chair Anne Tolley

Gee also encouraged locals to support affected businesses.

Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell said the petition demonstrated “huge concern” about losing the car park.

“Many believe it will kill a number of already struggling businesses.”

Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell is concerned about the “wilful ignorance” of the city’s commissioners about how worried local businesses are, and says the city needs to return to democracy, so local body politicians can be held to account.

Uffindell laid the blame with the four non-elected Commissioners chaired by former National MP, Anne Tolley, who have been running the city since 2021, when they were appointed to replace a dysfunctional administration lead by former mayor, Tenby Powell.

“Businesses in Tauranga feel that the Commissioners don’t care if they go under. I find the Commissioners’ wilful ignorance of the concerns of Tauranga CBD businesses extremely concerning,” said Uffindell.

“Tauranga City Council is acting like a wrecking ball to many small businesses in the city and along Cameron Road. They claim to be working to restore the heartbeat of the city, but many of the businesses are on life support, and TCC is making it worse with their avalanche of impediments.

“The Cameron Road disaster, paid parking, closure of the Strand car park and reduction in nightlife hours just continue to hammer businesses.”

Tauranga City Council has a multimillion-dollar proposal to revamp the city's CBD, which includes a museum, library and new civic whare.

“This reinforces the need to restore local democracy in Tauranga as soon as possible so local people and local businesses can hold local body politicians accountable,” he said.

Commission Chair, Anne Tolley, said the waterfront car park closure had to happen to revitalise the waterfront with new greenspace that will bring more people into the centre.

“The transformation of our city centre is a once-in-a-generation opportunity, but it will mean that people may not be able to park in the same places they’re used to.”

Tauranga needed to go through this period to make it a great city, she said.

“With the upgrade of the waterfront reserve, Council’s $306 million investment in Te Manawataki o Te Papa [a new civic precinct] and an estimated $1.5 billion of planned private sector investment in the city centre, prosperity will return to what has been a neglected asset.”

The civic precinct will not be completed until the end of 2028.

While current construction on Cameron Rd is estimated to be finished by Christmas, locals may be surprised to learn that that was only Stage 1, with Stage 2 scheduled for 2025.

Tolley acknowledged the level of disruption the stage 1 works have caused for many businesses.

“More should have been done sooner to ease the problems being experienced… projects on this scale will inevitably cause some disruption, but the council understands its responsibility to keep that disruption to an absolute minimum.”

Council chief executive Marty Grenfell said “it’s clear that we need to do better in future and the business community and road users can expect to see that duty of care exercised and work-related disruptions minimised wherever possible.”

As for Elizabeth Cafe’s Connie Richards, her “dog fight” with council has resulted in a promise that the construction outside will end this month.

“But they said that last month, so we’ll see.”

With more construction pain to come, the trauma caused by the city’s road cones is the talk of Tauranga.