'If you want people to come back to the CBD you need to give them easy access and good reason.' Photo / Michael Craig
A lament for Auckland’s CBD
It will be a great sadness for Auckland if the iconic Smith & Caughey’s closes in early 2025.
A retail stalwart that has survived world wars, the Great Depression, pandemics pre-Covid and many many recessionary economic cycles. Sadly it could not survive the years of damage that Auckland Council has inflicted upon Queen St and the CBD.
For the first time in years I visited Aotea Square in the April school holidays. I was so taken aback by the lack of pedestrians at the once-bustling intersection of Queen and Wellesley Sts that I took a photo.
It struck me that Auckland’s CBD is more and more like, for example, downtown Atlanta, an area you would avoid with few redeeming features and somewhere you wouldn’t recommend to any out-of-town visitor. Auckland Council and Auckland Transport should hang their heads in shame at the legacy they have created.
Your correspondent, Simon Wilson, believed that a pedestrian and cycle-friendly CBD would lead to a vibrant area for businesses and people alike. His view, from months ago, that landlords should be lowering rents to fill vacant shops still remains detached from reality.
If you want people to come back to the CBD you need to give them easy access and good reason. Restricting vehicle access, removing parking, and hindering east-west thoroughfare have made the CBD an area that I, clearly like many others, choose to avoid in favour of suburban malls.
Michael Locke, Mt Eden.
Swiping our money
Contactless credit and debit fees are the scam of the decade (Weekend Herald, May 25).
When you consider that swiping or inserting a card is no less taxing than the tapping of said card, there is no justification for an additional fee. The terminal still sits there, quietly, taking our money via the same ethernet cable.
Those fees added up annually will not be insignificant when money is tight. Could we see a resurgence in transactions via cash or coin? It sounds like cash could revolt against the plastic, except banks don’t like seeing real people anymore.
They often charge us for the physical labour of handling said cash, so we really are being done over either way. We must be well-informed of any charges, failure to do so could be considered misleading, fraudulent even.
John Ford, Taradale.
Drilling down on scams
I will always have sympathy for those who are victims of scams as it appears the scammers can be entirely convincing. However, the article of the woman being scammed by a US oil rigger (Weekend Herald, May 25) shows her not to be the victim of this crime but her father.
The small detail embedded within the article without much elaboration shows she had power of attorney over his account, the money from which she used to fund her romantic delusions.
Surely this shows a gross breach of trust when her father had given her responsibility to manage his money. Has he been told of this breach by his daughter? If so, how does he feel about it? Nothing is said of this. I’m sure he would be devastated if he did know.
Also, to claim the bank had responsibility is to just shift blame. Surely it is an act of gross ignorance to transfer large amounts of money offshore to the account of someone posing as an eligible oil rigger from the US who is looking for love and that you have only met online.
Banks should not have to protect people from their own stupidity and gullibility.
Bernard Walker, Mt Maunganui.
Power of oversight
Regarding the story of the woman who sent $580,000 to a scammer. I’m sure she feels terrible as well as foolish.
Of course the Banking Ombudsman is dismissive. But this case is much worse I realised reading on, as it wasn’t even her money to lose. It was her father’s money and she was his power of attorney.
Perhaps in these cases banks should send statements to the actual account holder as well as their power of attorney. That way her father would likely have caught the scam in its early stage.
In fact this case is a lesson to all older people who have a family member or other as power of attorney and with so many entering retirement villages, the villages all require to know the new resident’s representative upon entry as well. Some also require a second contact person for the resident’s health.
It is obvious that the real account holder should be kept aware of their account activity and balance via mail, especially when elderly people frequently don’t use online banking.
Colleen Wright, Botany Downs.
Queen St decline
When I arrived in Auckland 55 years ago from the UK, Queen St, the Post Office, La Boheme and Gourmet restaurants, the Civic and Smith & Caughey’s made me realise I really had arrived in a world-class even if slightly “unmodern” city, but certainly one that everyone would want to live in.
It was even pretty good during the days of “City of Sails” but why could anyone be surprised at the Caughey’s decision today? Queen St is an embarrassment, populated by banks, bling shops, insurance companies, souvenir outlets and at the bottom a cluster of super-expensive Louis Vuitton-type emporiums catering almost exclusively to cruise ships.
It is not a particularly pleasant walking mall in spite of a cluster of unhappy-looking native trees and is regularly inhabited by some pretty ragged waifs and strays begging for sustenance.
It seems likely that department stores are a historical anomaly the world over, but until 2024, Smith & Caughey’s gives Queen St its final burst of distinction.
Robert Burrow, Taupō.
Soft sentences
So often, and as was mentioned in the Budget, the focus is on the police force to reduce our rising crime statistics.
But to me, far too often the police do their job admirably only then to come up against a roadblock which is the court system. Here the games really begin with sentences reduced, heavy discounts given for cultural reasons and the standard remorse excuse to the point where all of the work done by the police is almost irrelevant.
It simply must be soul-destroying and it’s time it was stopped, with realistic punishment being given where appropriate. It’s high time judges actually earned their substantial perks.
Paul Beck, West Harbour.
Budget reactions
It is so disappointing to observe the Budget response by some political parties.
I think some so-called politicians forget that when everything is said and done, it is taxpayers’ cash and the government of the day tries its best to be fair to every Kiwi when distributing.
There is only that much cash available and one cannot just keep on borrowing to please some sections of society. That borrowed cash, at the end of the day, the taxpayer will have to pay back.
To come up with high power and hateful wording, inciting and protesting is not the way to move forward. I can’t believe how and why some segments of society firmly believe that they have more right to taxpayer cash than other Kiwis.
It is 2024 and all Kiwis are equal. God has blessed us with such a beautiful country and diverse society, let’s move forward as one people and celebrate diversity.
Ashley Mall, Mt Albert.
What do we really need in our country? Not tax cuts and job cuts - they are a crude and destructive way of solving our problems. We must clearly see what we need, rather than what we want. We must prioritise our growing deficits in health, housing and education for a better future. Greater investment is badly needed in these areas, not less. Every day we hear members of the public crying out for better healthcare, housing and access to education. To improve these, we must fund them. A healthier, happier society is likely to mean less crime. Surely we must face up to our real needs rather than building mega prisons.
Margery Rennie, Whakatāne.
Would it not be easy to do what Ireland did years ago to fund their hospitals? They ran the biggest ongoing lottery, the Irish Sweepstake, and raised billions. How about 10 per cent of our lottery (Lotto), goes to St John? No one would complain, as the prizes would still be high, or is this too easy to contemplate as simple solutions seem to elude our leaders.
Tom O’Toole, Taumarunui.
When the nationwide emergency test message was sent on Sunday evening I was in my daughter’s home surrounded by iPhone owners whose devices squawked and squealed at 6.10pm. My Android phone did its thing a full 10 minutes later. As my daughter says, iPhone users get a 10-minute headstart to escape whatever is about to befall Android users. Device discrimination?
Chris Grantham, Grafton.
I have gone to the online Budget tax calculator. I earn $48,000 per year, so a low-income earner. I will be $2 per week better off. Winston Peters was very disparaging about the “packet of chewing gum Budget” some years ago. This refund means I can’t even afford that.
Ian Hambly, Massey.
Apart from a small Māori minority, nobody could possibly accept the biased, untruthful, racist, aggressive and unparliamentary post-Budget speech given by Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi. He called for a revolution and the destruction of every aspect of NZ life as we have known it. An unprecedented and frightening parliamentary presentation.
Hylton Le Grice, Remuera.
Great win by the Crusaders over the Blues. Perhaps coach Rob Penney should have called a TV journalist “that word” earlier in the season?
Phil Chitty, Albany.
So the Government can find $48.7 million for the Te Matatini kapa haka festival but not a few million for cancer drugs for those dying as promised pre-election. Perhaps a minute’s silence at the next festival for those who have passed.
Ross Allen, Rotorua.
Being an 88-year-old pensioner, $2.25 a week is an embarrassment when Winston knows it would only buy one cigarette and spending the total amount on cancer treatment would save people’s lives - has compassion gone forever?
Bob Marks, Te Aroha.
If I read the Budget correctly, a pensioner in my position will be able to buy the equivalent of one extra loaf of bread a week. Is this something I should be celebrating?
John Allum, Thames.
I note the usual suspects are complaining about the disruption caused by the “carkoi”. Where were they when all the farmers and utes were doing the same under the Groundswell banner?
Geoff Leckie, Flatbush.
Former Act president's lawyer claims sentence was too harsh, calls for home detention.