Without Kerry Prendergast’s campaign being launched, there are scant few things to look at when deciding if you want to re-elect her. So while digging around this internet, I stumbled across this…
The Eye of the Fish, a Wellington based urban design blog, has recently had a comment from Kerry Prendergast who was defending her leadership against a statement by the blog: “It is increasingly difficult to write about design in a city which pays only lip service to it”
Kerry’s response is a pretty thorough list of ways in which her council has engaged with good design. For the most part she lists signing up to protocols and providing “strategic leadership”, but she does also list some very tangible things, such as holding design contests to revitalise some of our public spaces and nurture Wellington’s design community.
The response in the comments from the design buffs is pretty harsh. Some see Kerry’s response as a cynical attempt to woo voters, and the rest get sidetracked into discussions about road planning. Sigh.
I’m sure most Wellingtonians are reasonably proud of how our city looks and works. I have no idea how much of that is because of Kerry, but I’m sure like most Mayors she is keen to leave behind a positive and tangible legacy.
Does Kerry really care about good design for Wellington, or is she simply paying lip service to a vocal minority?
WCC Watch 
Why the sigh over road planning? Roads require an awful lot of prime real estate, not to mention all the car parking structures they then require. We are talking about urban design here; infrastructure, buildings and public places. Roads are not the most effective way to move people around, you can’t live on them and you sure don’t want to hang around them.
What is so tangible about design competions, when in almost all instances where they have been run, there has been no built outcome?
As for leaving behind a positive and tangible legacy, well, I guess you have the three parks in three years. However, in my view the refurbishment of Glover and Cobblestone parks is a tragedy (the latter, it should be noted, only bears a superficial/passing resemblance to the competition outcome after the bean-counters had their way). Courtenay pocket park is also a little mean, but at least of the three parks, it is the one that is better than what was there before…
If we are going to encourage these insiid new apartment buildings all around the city (and surely most Wellingtonians can’t be ‘proud’ of those??), then we need to address the lack of quality urban park space to accommodate these residents (you know, like any cosmopolitan city). The Waterfront is simply not the sole answer to this issue…