All posts in the topic City Mall Redevelopment (Short link)
Summary
- There are 4 posts — by 3 authors — in this topic.
- Latest post made by Dan Randow at 2007 Jun 13 10:26 UTC
We recently interviewed Paul de Spa on Plains FM mornings about his survey indicating that most retailers in the mall do not want the recently approved through road as part of the new development. In the interview I asked why he thought the road was approved despite this resistance and he said he thought that the retailers were repoesented by people that DID want the road depsite their members wishes. A podcast of Pauls' interview is at http://www.plainsfm.org.nz/Podcasts/programmes - go to Mornings and scroll down. Tomorrow on Plains FM at 8.10 am Plains FM speaks to Anthony Gough, the Chair of the Central City Business Assoc. and a supporter of the road concept. The interview with Anthony will be up as a podcast tomorrow after 10.00 a.m. at the same link.
Chair of the Central City business Assoc., Anthony Goff was interviewed on Plains FM this morning about his support for the through road proposal in the City Mall. The core of his comments were that this road is not really a street but really an access way. He seems to think opponents to the idea are misinformed about the nature of the proposal.Full interview at http://www.plainsfm.org.nz/Podcasts/programmes scroll to "Mornings" and click "show programmes".
I attended yesterdays presentation to council. The city mall plan falls way
short on being an improvement. It had no information of the integration of
traffic movement in and out of cashel/oxford (no direction available as it
depends on implementation of a possible tram) nothing on cashel/columbo and was
absent any planning on traffic management around the 'hack circle' or the
Square end of High Street at Hereford St.
The 'hack circle' appears as an entertainment/speaking podium 'amphitheatre' on
the less prejudiced original Mall plans, I cant help think this 'new found use'
nomenclature carries an anti-youth imperative. I was sitting with two ECAN
delegates who found the comments by planners regarding youth opinions
purportedly from consultations on the Mall space utilisation, laughable and
unbelievable...
The traffic corridor is being sold as a tram carriageway (absent any specifics)
and further carries a mobility liability of 100mm step the length of the Mall.
(some suggestions of different coloured tiles delineating the traffic way from
walking is only more evidence of moving the priority from people towards
transport. No parking specifics or provisions were offered. Most of the
overheads avoided traffic imagery, with only one or two cross sections of the
mall showing any vehicles... (no parked ones!, no service vehicles.. all
compacts!, and certainly no stinky diesel trucks, motors a running!)
Lighting options were at best unimaginative.
My biggest beef was the glib treatment of traffic at the so called 'entrance
ways' to the Mall space, and its impact on existing traffic provisions/design
and pedestrian utilities are. Appalling design omission. (skip the tough,
expensive, and strategic to mall success stuff!)
I hope we don't have to pay for this....
While I'm being "Topic Cop", I'll re-post Natalie's post from Guest Speakers http://forums.e-democracy.org/r/post/47gO4qCmQPiMf72ZxdKfMr to this topic. Even though Natalie, you do say "The bigger issue for me is that CCs don't actually 'listen' to the voice of the people." your main topic does seem to be City Mall. Dan . . . . . Hi Bob, Great to hear that you've been at this a while and thinking about it... What is your answer to those concerned citizens who do NOT want a road through Cashel Mall. I actually don't understand the reasoning for tearing the city mall apart to put in a road. It seemed that the City Councillors (CCs) beleived that tearing up New Brighton's (NB) inner road to put in a road will 'solve' the low tenancy rate in that part of the city. When I visit NB now, I still see shops that are empty. It hasn't resolved the issue. There's only one way of getting shops to fill up, and they didn't go for this strategy... The bigger issue for me is that CCs don't actually 'listen' to the voice of the people. There was an outcry at doing this. There is an outcry in tearing down Cashel Mall. CCs have a hearing problem. Thomson Park's trees were cut down a few years ago. CCs said that they 'consulted' with the people, but what actually happened is that the CCs had a plan, were going to go ahead with the plan no matter the outcome of their 'meeting with the neighbourhood'. The greater issue in my opinion is that consultation APPEARS to take place without it actually being done. SO, to go back to my original issue and Pauline's original question, what is your opinion about the 'tearing down', the 'ripping up' of Cashel Mall? Are you for it or against it? Lastly, do you hear voices? (grin)