Sonya Bateson: Mount Maunganui’s parking has never been what made it attractive

Parking at Mount Maunganui's Main Beach may not be free for long. Photo / Alex Cairns

OPINION

I used to think of Tauranga as a highly cosmopolitan city.

For someone who grew up in Whakatāne and spent their young adult years in Rotorua, Tauranga always seemed like the Big Smoke.

It was where I’d spend my school holidays, where I’d save up money and go on shopping excursions with my friends, where I’d go clubbing, where I’d drive when I wanted to just get away from it all.

Part of what made it feel so cosmopolitan to us small-town folk was, I think, how much busier everything always seemed in comparison to Whakatāne or Rotorua.

The beach was always pumping in summer. The mall was always chaotic. The city centre was thriving, and car parks were, even then, hard to find.

It’s a similar story to today, really, except magnified. Everything is busy. Everything except the thriving city centre at least.

I mean, goodness, I used to be able to spend an entire day there browsing the shops and sitting down for coffee and meals. And look how crazy the nightlife used to be – I can remember the long queues at the entrances to the nightclubs and the heavy police presence between 1am and 4am.

These days it’s the kind of place you really only go if you have a destination in mind such as an appointment somewhere or a lunch date with a CBD worker; there’s not a lot of reason to aimlessly idle away a few hours there and spend a bit of cash.

What happened?

Many long-standing retailers have firm opinions on what caused the CBD’s downfall and many of their lists would be headed with one major complaint: Paid parking.

Why does the Tauranga City Council charge for parking only in the CBD, they ask. People won’t want to pay to park here when they can park free at a mall. It’s an unfair advantage, they say.

But is that the true reason behind the demise of a once-thriving central business district?

Personally, I don’t think so.

My inexpert opinion, based on what I’ve seen and read in my former life as a local journalist, is that it has a lot to do with our CBD’s aging buildings requiring a lot of earthquake strengthening work, the loss of Kmart as an anchor tenant, stricter laws for hospitality businesses, high commercial rents, and retail competition from malls.

Parking does seem to play a part but, in my opinion, it’s more of an “icing on the cake” situation rather than the core cause of the city centre’s demise.

And now the council is considering paid parking in Mount Maunganui’s town centre and beachside car parks, causing concerns for some locals.

Business owner Matt Hayward, who was a member of Downtown Tauranga when parking restrictions were introduced there, said charging for parking “killed” city and town centres.

I respect Hayward’s opinion; it clearly comes from a place of experience.

But I truly find it hard to believe that Mount Maunganui, one of the busiest holiday spots in the country, would be too impacted by parking charges.

Anyone who’s ever been to the Mount on a weekend knows exactly how hard it is to find a car park.

I mean, it’s one of the reasons I avoid the area: The endless circling around Pilot Bay and Marine Parade hoping someone, somewhere, will eventually pull out and free up a space.

It’s painful. And it’s even worse for the people that work there.

My husband worked a hospitality job in the Mount CBD five or six years ago with early morning starts. During Christmas and New Year’s, the parking situation was so dire that he’d often have to park his car a 20-minute walk away – at 5am. Can you imagine being late for your dawn-break job because of parking?

The Mount has a lot going for it, the obvious being Mauao’s walking tracks and the beautiful beaches - 129,818 people climbed to the top of Mauao from December 1, 2016 to January 8, 2017, and 39,461 walked the base track.

And it also has lovely shops and eateries, facilitates such as the golf club and the Mount Hot Pools, and it has a large number of the city’s overall accommodation beds.

In other words, I don’t think the Mount is going to face a shortage of visitors any time soon, even if paid parking is introduced as proposed. In fact, I think a deterrent to reduce the number of people driving to the Mount would be a good thing – it’s still going to be hugely popular, but it might make a difference to the turnover in car parks.

And perhaps there’s potential for the council to only enforce the parking charges between, say, October and March.

Regardless, the Mount is popular for a reason — and that reason clearly does not include its parking availability, else people would have stopped going there long since.

Unlike Tauranga CBD, Mount Maunganui has attractions outside its retail and food offerings, and that means people will continue to go there.

It’s a destination.

Sonya Bateson is a writer, reader, and crafter raising her family in Tauranga. She is a Millennial who enjoys eating avocado on toast, drinking lattes and defying stereotypes. As a sceptic, she reserves the right to change her mind when presented with new evidence.