Nathaniel Herz Jardine: Christchurch City Councillor on the city installing $200k CBD mural

A Christchurch City Councillor says $200,000 to light up a CBD mural is money well spent - because small touches help bring people into the city.

The lights were installed on Press Lane to address concerns it felt uninviting after dark.

The Taxpayers' Union says the cash could have been better spent.

Councillor Nathaniel Herz Jardine says creating a vibrant city requires choices that cost money.

"The big problem with Courtenay Place, with Queen Street - partly, it's the pipes that are leaking - and also, there's no sense of fun. There's no sense of beauty and excitement in those cities." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Again. So the biffod that's happening in christ Church. Chrashier
City Councilor has spent two hundred thousand dollars on lights
and a mural for an inner city park in Alley,
and that's divided some opinion. The council says as part
of Press Lane, named after the paper back in the
old days, was uninviting after dark and needed lighting up.
The taxpayers Junior Knows said, you just spent two hundred
thousand dollars on these lights. That's successive and proof that

(00:23):
a rates cap is needed. So Nathaniel hits Judine as
a Krasher City councilor and he joins you, Now, hello, Nathaniel,
very good.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
How you doing? I'm good?

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Make Why did they have to put lights in there?

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Well's the thing you talk to anyone who's come to
visit christ Church. Took it from author to wone and
what attracts be able to christ Church. What everyone says
is it's beautiful, it's clean, it's a nice city.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
And that actually costs money.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
Right, there's actually lots and lots of little decisions that
we make every day to make the city look nice.
So the big problem with you know, with Courtney Place,
with Queen Street. Partly obviously it's the pipes, the leaking,
but it's also there's no there's no sense of fun,
there's no sense of beauty and excitement in those cities,
and there's something that crush.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
It's a big part of our strategy as the city
is to do that.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
So I was under the understanding the Press Lane needed
the lighting because it's a filthy hellhole full of bad types.
But you're saying it's for fun. Therefore, how do.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
You get that's the challenge, that's the challenge.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
How do you get from how do you get from absolutely,
you know, a filthy hell hole, a little lane that's dark,
that's dingy.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
That people don't want to use.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
How do you get from there to a lane that
actually is inviting, that brings people from all government building
on one side over at Isaac Theater ru on the
other side. So you know, you put a bit of
money into it, you make it look nice. You voted
for this, Yeah, I actually I think I'm not wanting
something it was.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
It was. I think it might have been unanimous or
close to unanimous.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
A council now one one one descent, there's just one,
one councilor one.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
But yeah, there you go.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
But the Taxpayers Union would be listening to you right
now saying we need to make the place fun and saying, well,
they just spend two hundred thousand dollars of hard to
earn rate payers money on it. And I have to ask,
was two hundred thousand dollars too much to make the
place fun?

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Was it too much for to pay for those lights? Yeah? Yeah,
I mean this is the thing.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
I mean, I'm not a lighting engineer, but like that's
the cost that was quoted to us. There are lots
of things that often cost a weirdly large amount of money.
I mean, everyone noticed this when they don't we're around
the house.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
David Seymour actually was talking to Mike Hosting this morning
and talking about this, and he says, you know, a
counselor might go, hey, we need to light up press Lane,
and he puts it over to the bureaucrat, and the
bureaucrat then says, I'm going to light up press Lane
and I'm going to give it a mural, and the
lights are going to be awesome and they're going to
be very pretty. And suddenly, you guys, end out with
a very expensive lighting system and we have to pay
for it. And of course you're looking at a rates

(02:45):
increase of seven point four percent and you might be
spending a hell of a lot more than you need
to lighting up a dingy little alleyway.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
Well, we're actually getting ourselves down to the full cent
ray cap within within three years of the upcoming autemps.
So we are planning to get within their government post ratecare.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
We are.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
We're doing all val into planning to get ourselves to
that point. But at the same time, it is really
important that we make the city look nice and to
do that you actually do need the nicer hat. It's
part of our strategy. I know what trategy is a
city is to bring in tourists. And people don't come
to a city because it has famously cheap lighting and
dingy alleyways. They come there because it's a place they

(03:28):
want to be.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
All right, Nathaniel, I thank you for your time today.
Nathaniel Hurts Jardine is a Christchurch City councilor voted for
the lights.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
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