Peter Grant: City's beauty going to waste

Like me, Auckland is growing up. Just as I have shed my puppy fat, Auckland is slowly shedding its provincial image, starting to take wing and gain its independence.

Gone are the grey, mock-Georgian edifices of the 1900s, swapped for larger, although not entirely elegant, concrete edifices. Gone, too, are the trolley buses and Model Ts of the 50s and 60s, traded for German diesel buses and pre-loved Japanese transport.

I have also moved from the countryside to the city and flexed my wings. I've dropped the training wheels and let go of my mother's apron strings. Moreover, I have swapped the wine gums for wine drinking.

But that is where the similarity ends. For Auckland is getting stuck. I can claim to have progressed further, to be an author, a broadcaster, a traveller and so on.

But there is a problem with Auckland's future for it is clipped in its growth - like a rose not allowed to bloom, like a magnificent batsman nailed to his crease.

For some peculiar reason, probably known only to the civic rulers of this city, old rules and regulation of yesteryear are being allowed to stem its prosperity and hamper its growth.

Auckland is by anyone's observation a beautifully positioned city. Its immense rolling province is nestled beside sparkling blue sea and it benefits from a warm, semi-tropical climate. A paradise, no less.

But Aucklanders are excluded from most of it. They can't use it and they can't see it. Admittedly, they can walk up and down the beach, sit on the sand on Christmas Day. However, in their everyday working and social life they are pretty well excluded from it, barred from enjoying the attractions of their stunning city.

Where, for instance, can they go to buy a cup of coffee, have a beer or go to a pleasant restaurant and see the sea or enjoy a magnificent city view? Apart from a few exceptions, the beauties of this city are hidden from its people. We should be falling over nice little restaurants and cafes as we walk along our beaches and parks.

Go to other world cities, such as Paris or Dublin, and you get a very different picture. There, the city rulers ensure that communal fabric and facilities are for public use, not just the booty of the wealthy and privileged. They have moulded their cities into user-friendly environments for everyone.

So why not here in Auckland? Why can't I find a selection of restaurants offering fine dining coupled with harbour and city vistas? Why, if I want to go to a pub, do I have to drive to an industrial complex and spend my evening squashed between a panel beater's shop and carpet warehouses?

And why, if a kid wants to buy an icecream when he's on the beach, does he always have to cross a busy main road to get to the lolly shop?

In Takapuna, where they have the most delicious beach and sea views, the best locations are reserved for the public urinals and the car parks. Why?

Along the Northern Motorway approach to the city is the most spectacular view of Auckland, which is solely privy to motorists rattling into town. Surely that is an area crying out for cafes, restaurants and walkways.

Auckland is covered in reserves. Why not develop them for public entertainment, open air concerts, places for people to eat and enjoy their city and to be neighbourly.

So many places, so much potential, but the place is hamstrung by obsolete rule and outdated bylaws.

Zoning and economics dictate this status quo is maintained. It echoes our colonial past and reflects our liking for Soviet-styled officialdom.

Objectors to such improvements would cite every excuse in the book to impede development, lack of parking, insufficient toilets, too close to residential dwellings, hooligans, health and safety, and environmental issues.

But that is yesterday's world and this city needs to rise above that. Auckland must be a world city, a luscious, vibrant place for people to live, to love, to work and develop their rich lives, and not be hampered by outdated bureaucracy.

* Peter Grant is an Auckland writer