Wharf St's new dining precinct has opened and is already attracting plenty of punters. Photo / Jeremy Aubertin
Wharf St's new dining precinct has opened and is already attracting plenty of punters. Photo / Jeremy Aubertin
OPINION
Council coups, a shock mayoral resignation, petitions against nearly everything and now news that rates could go up by about 45 per cent over the next three years - it has been a long, strange and tough year for Tauranga.
But is the new $5.56 million Wharf St diningprecinct the tonic Tauranga needs right now? Yes, I think so.
No one can deny that 2020 has served us with unexpected events, some not particularly welcome.
Amid the chaos of Covid-19, Wharf St businesses have also endured invasive construction on their doorsteps as works to revamp the area into a pedestrianised dining precinct proceeded.
In recent months, I've visited Wharf St frequently for a bite to eat or drink. I've sat framed by construction site fencing, through vibrations of heavy machinery working and surrounded by the obnoxious noise of progress. I wanted to support those small business owners when it was so easy for other would-be customers to be put off.
I also felt the works were part of a greater good. This thought was solidified for me this week now the project has been completed.
On Tuesday night, Wharf St was vibrant and exciting, with crowds of people enjoying drinks and food while basking in Tauranga's evening sun. There was music, fairy lights, lanterns and above all, hope this year hasn't been all bad.
The dining precinct has been a long time coming and not without challenges.
Rotorua's Eat Streat, pictured in 2019, is a dining mecca for Rotorua. Photo / File
In 2015, efforts to create a former version of the dining precinct were hampered when a string of lanterns smashed to the ground, ripping a hole in the exterior of the Crown & Badger. In 2016, the council declined to fund the $54,000 needed to reinstall the lights, with then-mayor Stuart Crosby referring to the dining precinct attempt as a "kind of halfway-house thing" that had not "fired that well".
One would be forgiven for having reservations at another attempt.
Yet, it's not as though the hugely successful Eat Streat in Rotorua was without challenges when it began.
Not long after Rotorua Lakes Council and businesses shared the $80,000 cost to start the beginnings of their dining precinct on Tutanekai St in 2008, hospitality outlets such as Pheasant Plucker - located outside the pedestrian-only zone - complained of a drop in business due to the "uneven playing field".
You can't please everyone.
There are always going to be teething problems but I believe it has worked wonders for the city.
In the 2018/19 year, Eat Streat brought in just under $52,000 in revenue to the council, not including rates, against an annual maintenance budget of about $48,000.
