It was one of several recent examples of Beck using her platform at the head of the business association representing the city centre to highlight what she sees as its failings. Even as the council and businesses have scrambled to pull the area out of its post-Covid slump<\/a>, she\u2019s complained in the media about its street design and levels of homelessness, while offering comparatively little public commentary on its selling points. Now some politicians and officials seem to have had enough. They\u2019re worried her commentary is hurting the place she\u2019s supposed to promote. If things don\u2019t change, it could see some tough questions asked about Beck\u2019s role, and whether her organisation is providing value for money for the millions of dollars in council funding it receives.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a statement to The Spinoff, Beck defended her media commentary as an effort to ensure that the \u201cvoice of business is heard\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have had to highlight persisting issues in order to create positive change for the city, the results of which we are starting to see,\u201d she said. Beck said she sees Auckland as a \u201cvibrant city with a bright future\u201d and noted that Heart of the City regularly promotes the city centre through its social media channels, runs events like Restaurant Month and plays a key role in bringing in attractions like the giant Christmas tree in Te Komititanga.<\/p>\n That explanation isn\u2019t convincing to everyone. Mayor Wayne Brown, when told by The Spinoff that some businesses and politicians appeared to be fed up with Beck, replied with \u201ceveryone is\u201d. His response hints at the growing frustration over Beck\u2019s media appearances. She has regularly criticised the council\u2019s plans<\/a> for the city centre and opposed its proposed sale of the downtown carpark building<\/a> despite the fact that Heart of the City\u2019s single-largest member, Precinct Properties, was looking to invest $1.5bn into redeveloping the site<\/a>. The exasperation came to a head last October, when Beck released what the Herald billed as a \u201cscathing\u201d Heart of the City survey of city centre businesses<\/a>. The story, which came out ahead of the Black Friday and Christmas shopping periods, painted a picture of a \u201clawless\u201d area overrun by homelessness and drug use.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Spinoff understands Heart of the City\u2019s board didn\u2019t approve the survey\u2019s release and were blindsided when its results were sent out to the media. The story\u2019s timing caused consternation. Businesses rely on Christmas sales to see them through the year and headlines about drug use and crime don\u2019t exactly paint the picture of an alluring shopping destination. There have also been questions raised about the survey\u2019s methodology. A Heart of the City statement said it sent its questionnaire out to 500 businesses of \u201cvarying types and sizes in and around Queen Street\u201d and received a \u201cstatistically sound response rate of 18%\u201d. But those 102 respondents only make up a sliver of the 15,500 businesses in the area Heart of the City is tasked with representing.<\/p>\n KPMG manager Malcolm McCracken was voted in as Heart of the City\u2019s board chair<\/a> on February 13. He replaced former chair Martin Snedden, who quit unexpectedly in October, days after the survey\u2019s release and a year before the end of his term. When approached by The Spinoff, McCracken declined to comment on Beck\u2019s performance or discuss the survey, saying he still hadn\u2019t had a chance to meet with her. But he pointed out that Heart of the City services a wider area than Queen Street. \u201cBeing in the city every day, and having done so for nearly a decade, I am personally seeing more and more evidence of a city on the move. There is no doubt that there is always more work to be done to improve things, as with any of the best cities in the world, and it\u2019s important we don\u2019t become complacent.\u201d McCracken said he would be further investigating concerns raised by politicians over Heart of the City. He invited those who wanted to discuss the organisation to speak to him directly.<\/p>\n Beck said the survey had driven meaningful change. \u201cSince the survey, there has been an improvement in multi-agency collaboration to address both social and economic issues, and this work continues. We appreciate the support we have received from business, social agencies, policymakers and government,\u201d she said. Heart of the City\u2019s work was aimed at ensuring Auckland was \u201cvibrant, accessible and safe, and a great place to do business\u201d.<\/p>\n Despite that, some officials appear to believe the survey has put people off visiting the city. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment\u2019s Auckland policy office chief Michael Quinn highlighted the impact of Beck\u2019s commentary in a briefing document sent to Simeon Brown, the minister for Auckland, ahead of his meeting with the Heart of the City chief on November 12. The document noted Beck focused regularly on homelessness and economic challenges in the city centre. Under the heading \u201cRevised public narrative for the city centre\u201d, Quinn wrote, \u201cWhile these concerns remain valid, continued emphasis on homelessness and safety issues risk entrenching negative perceptions. Quinn suggested Brown remind Beck she could voice her frustrations in official channels rather than the media.<\/p>\n Heart of the City board member Les Morgan told The Spinoff he had seen first-hand how much some of the city centre coverage had impacted people\u2019s perceptions. Though he works in the city as chief operating officer at Sudima Hotels, he lives in Pukekohe. His wife went for a stay in town recently with friends. \u201cThey decided to go out of the hotel for dinner, and they were both clasping my wife\u2019s arms,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople out here are afraid of the crime.\u201d Auckland Central MP Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick, meanwhile, recounted a conversation with a Wellington Uber driver. \u201cHe said \u2018you\u2019re from Auckland central. Isn\u2019t it dangerous?\u2019.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Morgan and Swarbrick paint a far sunnier picture of the city centre. Though homelessness has risen \u2013 attributed to a mix of a nationwide recession and the government\u2019s emergency housing policy<\/a> \u2013\u00a0places like downtown\u2019s Te Komititanga<\/a> and midtown\u2019s Freyberg Square are thriving both economically and culturally. Precinct Properties is investing around $2 billion into the area. The City Rail Link is set to come online in the second half of this year and the NZ International Convention Centre has already opened its doors<\/a>. Browny\u2019s pool<\/a> is busy. The waterfront and Wynyard Quarter have been transformed<\/a>. Morgan said he wished Beck and others would dwell more on what he sees as a plentiful supply of good stories to tell about the city. \u201cI think if the interested parties took a more positive view on the city centre, then that would help us all.\u201d<\/p>\n Swarbrick said she had regularly told Beck that contributing to a media narrative of the city centre being all \u201cchaos and crime and knives and guns\u201d resulted in less foot traffic, less vibrancy and less safety. \u201cI have personally contacted Viv and spoken to her at a number of meetings about how I think that her approach, or I guess you could plausibly call it a strategy, is hugely detrimental to the city. I can\u2019t make heads nor tails of how it is supposed to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n Auckland Council\u2019s planning committee chairman Richard Hills echoed the sentiment. \u201cIt constantly makes me confused that someone who is in a position called CEO of Heart of the City, which is about promoting how great the city is, usually does the opposite,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Hills said his confusion was compounded by the amount the council was investing in Heart of the City. It received $5.9 million from Auckland Council last year, most of which was levied through a targeted rate on central city businesses which is meant to go toward efforts to \u201cdevelop economic activities\u2026 and provide value to the business community<\/a>\u201d. According to Heart of the City\u2019s audit report<\/a>, the largest share of that funding went towards events and advertising, but the organisation has nine staff members<\/a> and a wage bill of $1.59 million. That averages out to $180,000 per employee, though The Spinoff understands some staff are part-time. \u201cThe public and especially the city centre residents and businesses are investing significant amounts of money into promoting positive things in the city. So when it is undermined, sometimes on the day that money is being spent, it does call into question the return on investment,\u201d Hills said.<\/p>\n Beck seems undeterred. Recently she\u2019s been helping out a new incorporated society set up to represent lower Queen Street businesses. The Spinoff understands the society\u2019s goals include restoring car parking outside luxury stores like Louis Vuitton and Dior along that stretch, which could mean scaling back some of the council\u2019s pedestrian-friendly upgrades to Queen Street. In a text to The Spinoff, Beck said she was working with the group \u201cand will continue to support them as we do with other precincts\u201d.<\/p>\n The woman in charge of the city\u2019s premier business association appears to be set on doing things her way. As she\u2019s said, it\u2019s the best method she knows to achieve change. But that approach is meeting increasing friction from the politicians with a strong interest in the city centre and potentially some of the people who govern her own organisation. Profound change is on its way to the city centre. There\u2019s a chance it may even happen within Heart of the City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The chief executive of Heart of the City is meant to be luring people into Auckland\u2019s city centre.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[160493,109243,111794,492,42,57108,43,135,160494,40,38,41,39,160495,18130],"class_list":{"0":"post-289009","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-auckland-city","9":"tag-auckland-city-centre","10":"tag-chloe-swarbrick","11":"tag-comments-enabled","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-heart-of-the-city","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-richard-hills","17":"tag-top-news","18":"tag-top-stories","19":"tag-topnews","20":"tag-topstories","21":"tag-viv-beck","22":"tag-wayne-brown"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A selection of recent stories feature Viv Beck.<\/p>\n
A reader poll embedded within the Herald\u2019s story on Heart of the City\u2019s survey.<\/p>\n
An excerpt from the briefing to minister Simeon Brown.<\/p>\n
An excerpt from Heart of the City\u2019s 2025 audit report.<\/p>\n