The newly upgraded section of Federal Street near SkyCity in Auckland. Photograph by Dean Purcell.
Feels like spring arrived, with September, in Auckland this week.
A friend txted, Lunch at Depot? So we did, almost but not quite basking in a watery sun outside the bistro on Federal St.
Where I hadn't been for quite a few lunchtimes.
Don't know about you, but jackhammers and concrete saws don't enhance the ambience or conversation.
But they've trucked off to somewhere else and there's a nice, fresh, flagstoned "shared street" - that perfect marriage of Auckland taxi or white-van drivers and ambling pedestrians - overseen by charming steel-and-glass skeletons of airbridges from one SkyCity property to another.
The Herald reported last year that SkyCity would pay $5.5 million and Auckland Council $4.5 million to transform the street into a more pedestrian-friendly environment.
Next, the Herald reports, our city's most philanthropic "entertainment group" is planning extensive outdoor dining on the street.
The public's rottweiler - the council - notes it has "received a resource consent application for new outdoor dining and seating areas within the newly-developed shared space on the public road."
Given its long and proud record of protecting public land and heritage over the interests of corporates, the ratepayers can rest easy. Nothing to see here (Note to editor: please use Sarcasm font in this paragraph).
There's a wee disconnect between Barker and Associates, consultants for the project, who say the outdoor areas will form part of "SkyCity's entertainment precinct," and SkyCity CEO Nigel Morrison's worldview.
" ... It is about playing our part in making Auckland a vibrant and exciting place in which to live, work, and visit. For Auckland to appeal to international tourists, we need world-class restaurants.
"Our restaurants are all viable businesses in their own right and add to the attraction of staying at SkyCity Grand and SkyCity Hotel."
"SkyCity is currently going through the standard resource consent process all organisations are subject to after identifying some time ago, along with Auckland Council, the potential for Federal St to become another of the city's highly successful shared-space projects.
"With summer around the corner, more al fresco seating on Federal St will allow for more public enjoyment of this central city space. This is just one part of SkyCity's contribution to making Auckland the world's most liveable city."
Problem Gambling Foundation chief executive Graeme Ramsey has a rather different view. "It looks to me like they are building a spider's web with the casino at the centre.
The Federal St entertainment hub looks like it's all about getting local people close to the casino. We know there is a clear link between proximity and gambling problems," he told the Herald.
I strolled the "public road" with my friend after lunch. Ramsey is right: what was once a city street is now a ratepayer-funded plaza for SkyCity's various enterprises - and those include the restaurants, "viable enterprises in their own right" with the casino owners as big players.
If you're not there to eat at the present and future outdoor restaurant tables, your choice is a couple of artistically expensive black-and-white stone benches with no shade in the summer or shelter from the weather for the rest of the year.
This is Auckland, selling out again. A major corporate getting its way with the active acquiesence of the public watchdog.
We shouldn't be surprised: that's another rich tradition in our town. The "Father of the City" was a brewer and liquor importer, property speculator and mortgage magnate at the same time he lorded over local and national politics (his business practices survive in the trust board's approach to the rents on his former estate around Cornwall Park).
The present mayor has had an uncomfortable relationship with SkyCity. The Prime Minister traded a convention centre for rather more than 30 pieces of pokie machines.
Guess we shouldn't be surprised at the loss of a street. Just wonder what will happen now that "our" council and "our" city planners have also given away Aotea Square to the privateers.
* Ewan McDonald is founding editor of The Aucklander.