EDITORIAL:

Well, it's done and its dusted. 

The biggest decision Wellington has made in years has finally been made, and the Golden Mile, as we knew it, is effectively dead. 

And before anyone starts celebrating too loudly, let me say this: I think it's the right decision, right now. 

I think common sense has prevailed. 

I think if the council had pushed ahead with years of construction through Courtenay Place and Lambton Quay, there would have been a trail of closed businesses behind it. Not a few. Not one or two. Dozens. 

I've spent my entire working life around hospitality and retail. I know how hard it is right now.  

Costs are through the roof, customers are watching every dollar, and many businesses are still hanging on by their fingernails. 

You only have to walk down Courtenay Place in daylight hours to see it. 

Empty shops. For lease signs. Businesses trying their guts out to survive. 

Then imagine putting that area through years of roadworks and disruption. 

Nine out of ten businesses wouldn't have survived it. 

So yes, stopping the project was the right decision. 

But here's the part nobody should be celebrating. 

This wasn't a decision about Wellington's future. 

This was a survival decision. 

That's the difference. 

A city that is not confident, not growing, is a city under financial pressure. 

It starts cancelling projects because it simply can't afford them. 

And that's where Wellington finds itself today. 

Because let's be really honest. Courtenay Place is a mess. 

It's grotty. It's tired. It's dirty. 

I have a business on that street.  

I know landlords who have spent millions of dollars, in some cases more than a millions dollars, into strengthening buildings, upgrading premises and trying to create something better. 

But there are landlords that have done nothing, that have land-banked and its time the council put huge pressure on them to do their bit and do something. 

Yesterday I walked through Courtenay Place and counted 26 people loitering around, not a good look. 

We used to talk about street kids. Now we've got street adults. 

 Fighting. Yelling. Drinking. Defecating in public spaces.  

Intimidating people trying to walk down the street, do a bit of shopping, have a drink or go to work. 

You can spend $100 million on footpaths and bus lanes, but if people don't feel safe, they won't come. 

That's the reality. 

If somebody handed me the job tomorrow and said, "Nick, fix Courtenay Place", the first thing I'd do wouldn't be redesigning intersections. That would be the bottom of my list.  

I'd clean up the social disorder. 

The moving in laws have to come in so we can move on.  

Because until people feel safe walking the street, until businesses feel supported, until customers want to come back, nothing else matters. 

The Golden Mile might be gone. 

But the challenge remains. 

Wellington avoided a potentially disastrous contract.  

Now the hard part starts. 

Because Courtenay Place still needs fixing. 

And unlike the Golden Mile, that problem isn't going away. 

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.