A poll of Herald readers has found an overwhelming majority regard Auckland’s central city as an uninviting place full of anti-social behaviour.
More than 6100 people responded online to the question on our site: “Do you believe Auckland CBD has become an uninviting destination for the public beset by anti-social behaviour and neglect?”
And 97% responded yes.
The informal poll of readers follows a survey released last week of Auckland central businesses that found owners and offices believe homelessness, too few police, neglect and disorder and “frightening” anti-social behaviour are crippling their trade.
Among the most dire findings in the Heart of the City survey of 102 business owners were 91% saying that rough sleepers and begging were affecting their business, and 81% believing the city centre was not in a good state to attract significantly more people and investment.
Not enough was being done to ensure existing laws and bylaws were being enforced by police and Auckland Council, according to 72% of survey respondents.
Proprietors in the Auckland CBD whom the Herald spoke to, painted an ugly picture of the day-to-day trials of working in the central city.
Perpetual Guardian chief executive Patrick Gamble oversees an office of more than 100 staff in the company’s Queen St high-rise.
Gamble said staff had witnessed confronting scenes outside their office block, including public sex and frequent drug use.
Most alarming were several occasions when staff were assaulted.
“It’s obviously an extremely harrowing thing for those staff to go through. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen at night, it happened during work hours, broad daylight, every single time it’s happened,” Gamble said.
“Predominantly people coming from and going to work, or people out on their lunch break. For the staff members involved, it’s obviously extremely difficult.
“For us as a business, it’s very concerning that we need to put staff, to some extent, in harm’s way to use the city at the moment.”
Paul Ewing owns United Coffee Nation on the corner of Victoria St West and Federal St. The coffee shop faces onto a square outside SkyCity casino.
The block is well-known for a regular congregation of rough sleepers and public drinking.
Ewing said there had been many physical altercations over the years, with people sent to hospital, bitten, infected with hepatitis C or jailed – and hundreds of trespass notices issued.
“It scares people. People are not going to bring their families up. You wouldn’t bring your kids up here to have to pass all that nonsense outside. It’s very intimidating for normal people.
“So we’ve got security coming up three, four, five times a day to address all this anti-social behaviour. It’s made myself and my staff and my customers feel very very unsafe and highly intimidated on a daily basis.
“It’s difficult enough to run a business in this city in the current economic state.”
Heart of the City chief executive Viv Beck said the associations own scathing survey was “reluctantly” released to increase pressure on the Government and Auckland Council to improve the state of the central city ahead of the opening of the New Zealand International Convention Centre and the City Rail Link (CRL) in 2026.
Ewing says he hopes the central city is not beyond redemption by the time the CRL opens and the construction beside his store is finally cleared.
“It’s been a long journey. All the construction, all the public infrastructure, has really decimated the city.
He points to Smith and Caughey’s: “An obvious icon, a well-loved brand, gone.”
“I mean, we’re spending billions of dollars on infrastructure, yet there are so few people in the city. It’s quite a conundrum. A total juxtaposition. So yeah, I hope it does help. I hope these businesses will be able to survive to when it [the CRL] does open.”
Members of the public have also contacted the Herald to raise their dismay at the state of the central city.
Barbara Callaghan and her husband are in their 70s and have for many years travelled into the central city to dine with their adult children after they finish work there.
Their favourite restaurants include Ahi, Origine and The Nightcar.
But what they’ve encountered on the streets too regularly has stopped this CBD dining habit.
“Many are those who live on the streets, and their anti-social behaviour increasingly trends toward vile and violent. Many are drunk. Perhaps meth-fuelled rage is the cause of violence I’ve seen directed at apparent strangers refusing money or cigarettes,” Callaghan said.
“Smelling excrement and vomit on the streets is bad enough; seeing it is worse. Vomit splashing your feet is worse still. We don’t go to town any more.”
She said good restaurants had lost good customers, and the customer experience was “ruined by matters totally beyond the restaurants’ control”.
Auckland-based businessman Josh Comrie says he has worked in the city centre for 25 years. In a LinkedIn post last week, he gave a similarly bleak description of a recent incident on the streets.
“This morning, my 17-year-old terrier was attacked by an off-lead dog on Queen Street, belonging to someone from the growing transient population in our CBD. That’s not all, I’ve witnessed regular intoxication, meth use, fighting and abuse of passersby. It’s a symptom of a larger issue we need to address.”
Tony Smith has worked in Queen St for more than 30 years, and says the issue of homelessness has grown since the early 2000s.
Smith says he has witnessed public urination and defecation, “people comatose on the streets in the middle of the day,” and “people appearing to be in the middle of a psychotic or drug-related episode, screaming and yelling profanities”.
“I do feel sorry for these people as they were once someone’s cherished child, and from my experiences, none of them are bad people; they have just fallen on bad times, but it is time to get these people real help and off the streets for their own well-being,” Smith said.
“Accordingly, I would ask the Government to address the issue of this type of homelessness by reinstating the halfway houses that can treat the drug and alcohol abuse and mental health institutions to help people access the care they need.”
Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson earlier told the Herald that she understands the concerns of city centre businesses.
“We share the desire for a safe, welcoming city for everyone and agree with business leaders that government leadership is essential,” Robinson said.
“We’ve repeatedly urged ministers [Chris] Bishop and [Tama] Potaka to change the emergency housing criteria so those most in need can access support and while recent steps are welcome, much more is required to truly address homelessness in Auckland.”
Robinson cited the Government’s call for greater discretion when officials assess emergency housing applications, as the number being declined rises, as a “step in the right direction”.
Another result of last week’s Heart of the City poll was that 77% of members believed more police were needed in the city centre before the CRL opens.
Auckland City District Commander Superintendent Sunny Patel said the Auckland Central Police Base on Federal St was officially opened in July and provides a public-facing presence back in the heart of the city centre.
Despite businesses feeling there are not enough officers on the beat, Patel said police have been working hard on increasing their presence in recent years and they have received encouraging feedback.
“Our message to retailers is to ensure they continue reporting to us. It’s essential to ensure we have the full picture and can prioritise prevention activities where there are trends emerging,” Patel said.
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