What do you think?

 

After reading this piece on Quay Street what do you think of the project as Expressions of Interest are called for it.

From Stuff

The long-awaited Quay St revamp is a “waste of money” and should be put on the back burner because of the city’s growing debt, Cameron Brewer says.

Quay St has been earmarked for change and ideas put forward include creating a boulevard for shared pedestrian and vehicle use.

Outdoor dining and recreation is also likely to be enhanced along the corridor which connects the central city to eastern areas like Parnell and Mission Bay.

The idea is outlined in the City Centre Masterplan, a blueprint for Auckland’s business hub created by a group of stakeholders including Auckland Council. Nothing is set in stone and any proposal will be subject to feedback from Aucklanders.

The Orakei councillor says the future of Quay St is not a priority considering Auckland’s financial circumstances.

In the next 11 months the city needs to find more than $2 billion of savings in order to keep rate rises at 2.5 per cent.

“I can’t believe that tens of millions of dollars is going to be spent on prettying up Quay St when council is facing a big budget blowout,” Brewer says.

“With council turning Quay St into a more pedestrianised boulevard and giving Customs St greater bus priority, where on earth will the 30,000 daily cars go?

“It’s a critical east-west link and let’s not forget the years of construction and added disruption for a City Rail Link.”

Brewer says the project is not a priority for ratepayers right now.

“Most days it’s a pretty hostile wind tunnel, it’s never going to be much of a place to eat your lunch and sun your legs.”

 

But councillor Mike Lee says Quay St should be a funding priority and believes undergrounding traffic should be revisited.

Putting traffic underground and leaving the street as open space was investigated in the 1990s during Les Mills’ turn as mayor.

Rick Walden, of the City Centre Integration group, says the legacy council proposal would be taken into consideration when Quay St’s redevelopment goes out for consultation.

Walden says expressions of interest for designing a new Quay St are being sought. A report on Quay St will return to the Auckland Development Committee by August.

….

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/east-bays-courier/10268660/Divided-opinion-over-Quay-St 

 

From what I have seen from comments both on Facebook and Twitter the views can differ but are reasonable to what as been presented on both sides of the debate.

I will post my own thoughts on this tomorrow