Zoe Hunter: CBD business owners deserve more accountability on crime

Nectar restaurant on The Strand in Tauranga had to lockdown after a gang incident. Photo / Alex Cairns

OPINION

A city restaurant is locked down after gang members chase a man into a chiller as he screams “they’re going to kill me”.

It sounds like a movie plot.

Unfortunately, it is not. The Bay of Plenty Times reported last week that gang members chased a man into Nectar on The Strand on a Thursday afternoon. Staff had to lock the Tauranga restaurant down to stop them from getting inside and later found a “terrified” man cowering in their chiller.

It is not the first time businesses in Tauranga’s CBD have had to deal with this sort of disruption.

Nectar’s owner Jessica Mackenzie has described the state of the city as “a joke” and I agree.

Other CBD businesses say there is a big problem with high and drunk people in the area and that has worsened in the last 10 years.

This is unacceptable. Hospitality has had it bad enough during and after Covid, and having to deal with this kind of antisocial behaviour is way outside their job description.

Owners say there is nothing they can do. It has gotten so bad businesses have taken matters into their own hands.

Downtown Tauranga’s new initiative to help monitor and prevent the issues businesses are having and its plans for a platform where businesses can fill out incident reports for police and the city council are commendable.

This is a proactive approach.

Police have acknowledged people under the influence in the CBD can cause disruption and say there’s been a general drop in issues since the bus stop was moved from Willow St to Durham St.

But they say they respond to calls on a “priority basis” and work with partners to find solutions as it is “not solely on police to solve the issue”.

Well, whose job is it?

Rotorua businesses are facing similar issues. The Rotorua Daily Post has recently reported on two shops being ram-raided in an hour and concerns about public behaviour around central city homeless motels including people “peeing” on office windows, fighting, and swinging baseball bats.

Police in Rotorua, alongside the council, have set public goals to halve violent crime and antisocial behaviour in Rotorua’s CBD by 2026.

It is great to see them working together, taking charge and being accountable to residents by committing publicly to this goal.

Someone has to take responsibility for antisocial behaviour in our CBDs.

Zoe Hunter is an assistant news director covering business and property news for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She also writes for NZME’s regional business publication Money and has worked for NZME since 2017.