The changing face of Courtenay Place

Saturday, 9 November 2024

Six years ago Take 10 safety zone workers were dealing with people being kicked out of Courtenay Place bars for drinking too much. Now it’s more likely victims of assault and those fearing for their safety.

Leigh Keown, the operations manager for the Vulnerable Support Charitable Trust which helps provide Take 10, says she sees this multiple times a night.

“Courtenay Place, as far as safety goes, is not a safe place and for us it has really changed.”

Take 10, a mobile truck partially funded by council, provides community support to young people partying on the weekends, including water, a phone charging station and medical support.

While the party spot had long been known for its buzzing hospitality and night-life scene, in recent years it has made the headlines for safety concerns at night, a lack of people in town, and for losing its spark.

The death of Luke Smith, 21, last month after he was assaulted on Courtenay Place amplified conversation about how the strip had turned into a crime zone.

The annual Residents Monitoring Survey, released in July, revealed how Wellington residents viewed the city.

The perception of central city safety has plummeted since 2019 ‒ from 76% of residents feeling safe in the central city at night to 43% in 2024.

During the day 86% of residents felt safe in 2024, compared with 98% in 2019.

Courtenay Place, Te Aro Park and Manners St were the top places people felt unsafe and the most common explanations were drugs and alcohol use, rough sleepers, and aggressive or intimidating behaviour.

Perception of the central city's liveliness was also worsening, down from 47% in 2021 to 37% in 2024.

Take 10 is parked at the Taranaki St end of Courtenay Place on weekends. Keown wants to see another one at the opposite end of Courtenay Place so people can access help faster. She also wants a bigger police presence and to have Take 10 staff roaming the streets.

She says she has contacted the Wellington City Council several times and is waiting to hear back from central government about scheduling a meeting about Wellington safety.

“They put new lights in, but something real needs to happen.”

She would also like to see a shift to more alcohol-free late night entertainment to make it a safer place ‒ such as late-night ice cream parlours and busking stations.

“It just isn't a vibrant place to be any more.”

In July police launched the beat teams appointing 18 officers to patrol central Wellington in pairs.

Wellington City area commander Dean Silvester said police wanted to remain visible and connected, and work alongside the community so people felt safe.

Hamish Knight, Wellington City’s police youth and community manager, said increasing visibility was a priority.

“Over the years police have tested and adjusted the response to meet the needs and demands of the community in and around Courtenay Place.”

With more people working from home after the pandemic, Knight said there had been a shift in the city centre’s dynamics.

With fewer people in the city, there were fewer “guardians”, or bystanders who could directly or indirectly disrupt crime.

People in the streets, as well as police, and community services such as Take 10, community patrols and Victoria University’s courtesy van fitted that role of guardians of the city.

A survey released by Victoria University of Wellington’s magazine Salient revealed more than 75% of students felt unsafe in at least one of Wellington’s nightclub venues.

Frequent incidents of harassment, groping, and assault were the reasons many felt unsafe, with one survey responder reported the situation had deteriorated over the years.

Another respondent described one Wellington night club, which The Post decided not to name, as a “cesspit of old creepy men”.

Libby Dearnley, who co-owns the nine Welly Collectives scattered across Wellington, including one in Courtenay Place, believed the area was safer than people thought.

While she had seen a visible increase in homeless people and a spike in theft, the increase in security made it feel safer.

“I wouldn't have a retail space here open till 10.30pm at night if I felt our team was going to be unsafe.”

Dearnley said the increased police presence meant quicker response times if something was to happen.

The Golden Mile project, bringing major change to the strip if it goes ahead in the council’s long-term plan amendment, was also on her mind.

She hoped the council would change tack following the disruption of Thorndon Quay’s revamp, including the removal of car parks which disrupted businesses and led to closures.

“There's a heck of a lot of learning opportunities they have right there and if they don't put that into place for the Golden Mile, that would be very surprising because they've got a fantastic opportunity there to turn things around.”

Road cones appeared on Courtenay Place last month and council spokesperson Richard MacLean confirmed they were linked to the Golden Mile.

But it was 'exploratory' pipe work to check the state of the pipes and would have to be done regardless of whether The Golden Mile revamp proceeded.

For Tasting Room co-owner Duncan Gillespie, it was “the unknown” that worried him the most about the Golden Mile construction.

With no concrete information available about how long construction would take or what it would look like, Gillespie feared it could drag through to next summer ‒ the money maker for hospitality.

“There's some businesses that are only just holding on and this does have the potential to tip some over,” he said, adding that it had the potential to decimate at least a year of trade.

“We have bread suppliers, meat suppliers, juice suppliers … that impact ripples out way more than people could ever imagine.”

Buying the business only four months before Covid-19 hit in 2020, he had learnt a lot about business and said he stopped viewing his competitors as competitors.

“Having people open, that's what makes Wellington hospitality healthy.”

Gillespie hoped more businesses would encourage workers back into the office to bring back the vibrancy.

“I used to live in Auckland and I’d come down to Wellington and I’d sort of joke, once you’ve done Te Papa and Wētā Cave, what do you do? You go to a bar or a restaurant.”

While Gillespie had seen the level of crime grow, and said emergency housing in the city had brought a different dynamic, The Tasting Room had been largely “immune to it”, which he attributed to early closing hours.

Wen Song, the owner of Asian fusion restaurant Hideout, has been working in the hospitality industry for more than 10 years, first on Manners St before opening on Courtenay Place.

He described the scene 10 years ago as being ”absolutely packed and busy. Everyone was everywhere”.

The disappearance of offices on Courtenay Place ‒ like the top floor of Reading Cinemas ‒ meant there were fewer lunchtime customers. He had witnessed neighbouring businesses come and go , and felt it was “a weird time”.

He believed taking car parks out of Courtenay Place would steer people away from the restaurants, especially if it was a rainy night, and he instead wanted to see more security cameras, lighting, police presence, events and retail shops.

One supporter of the area, Michelle Backhouse, believes it is changing for the better.

That’s why she moved her furniture shop to Courtenay Place side street Allen St, opening as part of The Exchange building, a walk through space with restaurants, a coffee shop and offices.

The family business, Backhouse Interiors Limited, opened on Alpha St in 1948, and she said the business was returning to its roots.

“Courtenay Place feels authentically Wellington, you've got a bit of grunge down here, which I love.”

Backhouse hoped to see the precinct shift to a place to go during the day, with coffee shops, small business retail shops, creative hubs and galleries to bring back the vibrancy.

She is not the only one giving Courtenay Place a chance, with the prospect of several bars opening within metres of one another

The party strip will be closed to traffic on New Year’s for a street festival, the first time since 2019. With all attending council members voting in favour, mayor Tory Whanau said the council needed to “pull every lever to help the businesses”.

MacLean said central city safety, particularly in Courtenay Place has been a priority for the council ‒ with the establishment of the $7.7 million Pōneke Promise in 2021 and the development of the Courtenay Place Precinct Plan in collaboration with businesses and residents.

The Sexual Violence Prevention roadmap and action plan, funding Take 10, installing targeted lighting in known pre-drinking hotspots and installing more Know Your City Limit signage were other ways the council had taken action.

“Creating a sense of safety is also about more than just police presence and physical changes to the built environment,” MacLean said.

An urban design hīkoi in 2022 revealed “the power of a good atmosphere” was the answer to the discussion of what makes young people feel safer in Courtenay Place.

The council was supporting new art projects, greenery and street activations including music and amenity lighting, “to bring entertainment, creativity and joy” to the street and change the atmosphere.

Looking ahead, the council would focus on central city revitalisation with the Golden Mile Courtenay Place Upgrades aimed at improving the physical space and making the area more people-friendly and attractive.

Social grants had also received an extra $500,000 a year in the council’s current long-term plan.

“Long-term changes won’t happen overnight, but together with other key city leaders, we continue to work towards the common goal of making Pōneke safe, vibrant and welcoming.”