John MacDonald: Here's what we should do with Cathedral Square

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

Can you believe the audacity of the Christchurch Cathedral Reinstatement Project asking the Government for another $60 million?

Quite rightly Finance Minister Nicola Willis has said no and the Anglican Cathedral is now likely to be mothballed.

Which leaves us with the question: what do we do now with Cathedral Square?

There are two options, as I see it. We could leave it to linger as it has since the earthquakes. And keep tip-toeing around waiting for the cathedral to be finished. Which, let's face it, could be another 20 years away.

Or we could forget about what might or might not happen with the cathedral and just get on with redeveloping it. Fixing it up. Bringing the Square back to life. And that’s the option that gets my vote.

Because I think we should stop being hamstrung by the cathedral and get on with the job of making the Square somewhere people go again.

And top of my list, is getting a road going through there. Re-connecting Colombo Street and getting the area back to what it used to be in terms of vibe and energy.

I know that flies completely in the face of what all the urban development people say we should be doing in places like the Square. But what we need in the Square is people. And, in some respects, for the next wee while, anyway - we’re going to have to pretty much force people to go back there. And the best way of doing that, in my opinion, is sticking a road back in.

So we’d have Colombo Street going through the Square, and we’d have bus stops there. I know we’ve already got the new-ish Bus Interchange but I reckon buses going into the Square and having bus stops there would bring people into the area.

Because, if I think about how I want the Square to be in 10 or 20 years time, I want there to be restaurants; I want it to be the place for the kinds of events and activities that don’t need all the space of Hagley Park.

But we are dreaming if we expect hospitality operators to set-up shop in the Square the way it is at the moment. They’re the ones who have skin in the game, who take the risk, who put it on the line.

So the city needs to do its bit, and make the Square a place full of people again.

One of the barriers, at the moment, to having decent-sized events there is the way the Square sits at different levels in some parts - with little stairs. So, as well as bringing traffic back-in, I want to see it levelled-out and I want to see a lot more greenery there.

I’m not just talking trees - I’m talking about grass.

Because people don’t stop and put a blanket down and have lunch on grey tiles, do they?

People are attracted to green spaces. Something the Square hasn’t been for years.

Putting a road back in, levelling it out and making it greener wouldn’t necessarily come cheap. It would still be a decent amount of money. But the time for waiting for the cathedral to be finished is over.

I had a look at the weekend. And, if we wanted to keep the door open for the cathedral to be worked on over the next 20 years or whatever - the road couldn’t just run straight to link up Colombo Street, from where it stops on either side of the Square.

In fact, back in the day when there was traffic in the Square, the road curved around the front of the cathedral anyway. So I reckon we should do the same - but curve it out even wider to leave enough space for the footprint of the reinstatement work.

That way, the option would always be there for the work to crank up again. If that ever happens.

And by doing all this, not only would we have people going into the Square again, the cathedral would also become more of a curiosity than an impediment.

Because I know people bang-on about finishing the cathedral being important because it would be symbolic of a city’s recovery from a terrible natural disaster. But I think that, now things have dragged-on for so long with nothing else happening in the Square, it has become just a big advertisement for lack of progress.

It doesn’t say that we have triumphed over adversity - as much of the rest of the central city does. It just says that adversity has been the winner. And that won’t change, until we get over this idea that nothing can happen until the cathedral is finished.

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