by Bob Pinzler
I often have told new Redondo Beach Councilmembers that for most every issue they will face, somebody, somewhere has already dealt with it and is willing to share the experience. This thought came back to me as I read a display while standing at the waterfront in Wellington, New Zealand.
Aside from being the capital of the country, Wellington is an important seaport. It is the transit point for all goods traveling between the North and South Islands by truck or rail. It is the second largest port in the country after Auckland.
Its waterfront, though, had been neglected for years. Much of it was swampy land that offered little commercial potential. Now, 30 years after a redevelopment project was started by a small group of citizens, fighting City Hall and the national government, I was standing at a gem of a waterfront, with walking trails, a busy small craft harbor, restaurants, and a large number of small companies offering sea-going activities.
As the display indicated, the process by which Wellington achieved this success was slow and not without its setbacks. Yet, this small group of visionaries persevered, and the project had gained the funding and, as importantly, the buy-in of not only the public but companies, many of whom were contractors to the national government, to not only move their businesses there, but also house their employees in the area.
The place is now not only alive with activity on a daily basis, but it has also become a prime venue for music festivals. One was in progress when we were there, bringing people from all over New Zealand as well as from Australia, a two-hour plane ride away.
I couldn’t help but recall a meeting I had with a colleague from Baltimore when I was on the Redondo Council in the 1990s and we were thinking about ideas for revitalizing our waterfront. Baltimore is probably America’s most successful waterfront reclamation project. As with Wellington, its waterfront was derelict. But it was transformed by public-private cooperation, headlined by the opening of the Camden Yards baseball stadium.
While the scale of Baltimore’s project was beyond our scope, the underlying work of the citizenry in making the project happen was absolutely clear. Public buy-in was essential. It was the case in Wellington as well, and they were also able to achieve tremendous success.
A common theme to both were that they understood that while governmental leadership and vision is important, it cannot exceed the desires of the people who are to be the consumers of the result. They have to want it as well. Redondo Beach lost sight of that as it moved headlong into a redevelopment project that the public didn’t want, but the city administration did. This vital resource has sadly languished because of that.
Hopefully, we have put that in the past. But, then again, maybe not. ER
