Variables relacionadas con el paciente (cualitativas y cuantitativas)

The narrowness and intimacy of the lanes, in contrast to the wide and traffic dominated streets nearby and more typical of Christchurch, was also a factor and reflective of new urbanist thinking. The Lanes were seen by interviewees as something of a refuge or oasis, offering the possibility of shelter from noise and weather and an “alfresco” CBD experience, especially in summer. This was seen as a marked contrast to the large scale and visually dominant “corporate” style of modern CBD retailing and, more especially, enclosed suburban shopping malls as revealed by the comments below.

Bob:

Being tucked down a back street away from fast moving traffic so we thought it had potential for an outdoor seating area, it sounds crazy now but we thought people would kind of discover the area, you know, if they went down a back street they would think this is kinda cool.

Dave:

Little industrial laneways …tucked away … made for other purposes, not hospitality but ended up being perfect for it.

As discussed earlier, the historic architectural style and in particular the intimate and varied indoor and outdoor areas this generates have been identified as important by authors such as Moe and Wilkie (1997), Dane (1988, 1997) and others. These environments lend themselves to bar type uses as patrons often seek a human scale environment and the ability to “bar hop” within a short distance to venues with different styles.

During the observation of public meetings exactly the same type of comments regarding history, mix of uses, scale and architectural style arose, both from invited speakers, in particular the architects, planners, historians and property owners, and also from many of those taking part in the general discussion.

A common observation was that the lanes were “hidden” and while initially a weakness it later became strength, allowing the area being “discovered” by customers. This was seen as a positive experience, promoting user loyalty and giving customers an element of surprise then exclusivity – being “in the know”, fashionable and discerning.

Ivy:

Yeah, you walk along the shops and there is a sense of discovering something and I remember feeling really proud talking about my business and people would say, “where’s that?” and I say, “it’s (in the Lanes area),”

Gemma:

There was something romantic about narrow lane ways and probably still is… cos we loved just that laneway area anyway…. I went out with the girls and we stumbled across the Poplar Lane area ………we went in and I just instantly fell in love with it….those little areas were just exciting to us.

This reflects Jackson (1984) who, along with many other authors, such as Jacobs (1961), Gehl (2011), and Whyte, (1980) talk about the narrow street as a public space blending domestic and public life - where interaction takes place. The street is no longer just a utility, (as is the case of the one way street system of Christchurch nearby), but its small scale encourages random interaction. Jackson saw cities tending towards returning to a medieval scale with a rejection of the squares and parks of the 19th _{and 20}th _{century. This also ties in with the new urbanism movement and authors such as}

Duany and Calthorpe discussed in Chapter 5, who promote the somewhat chaotic arrangement of old cities as being more conducive to human interaction than the grand designs that have dominated in more recent times.

This resonates with Christchurch, where the once popular Cathedral Square lost popularity with the public, despite repeated and expensive redesigns over the last forty years.

Kate had an interesting observation on the differences in retail customers between Auckland and Christchurch. In Auckland, “finding the hidden” was a well-established retail ritual but it was new to Christchurch and made life more difficult for retailers.

…. one of the first things I noticed is, in Auckland you’ve discovered somewhere after you’ve walked down three set of steps and you’ve gone over a couple of streets and you’ve gone through a building that you probably shouldn’t have ‘cos you couldn’t be bothered walking all the way round, and then you’ve gone up a dark dingy alleyway you’ve turned left and there’s this place you’ve discovered, and you tell all your mates about it, “oh this great brunch place or this great whatever,” and you really feel like

you have discovered this buried away hidden secret….and in Christchurch getting some of your friends to go down an alleyway is like trying to send fifty sheep in the same direction. Sometimes it happened but not so often, it was crazy.

Cath:

To be honest I hadn’t been down the Lanes before, but my husband had been to the bar before and he said the area is up and coming.

George:

As people sort of became more interested in discovering new places then the Poplar Lane took off as well.

Owen had an interesting story about introducing his business partner to the lanes area.

And he was not convinced about Poplar Lane because the Poplar Lane he remembered was the Poplar Lane where people used to be robbed and so on. And I said to him, let’s go out and walk and I will take you there, and when he like, came to the area, he said this is totally different from what I imagined, but he had never gone to Poplar Lane even being from

Christchurch. He had not been to Poplar Lane in the last 10 years.

This has strong parallels to Ferguson, Miller, and Liston (1996) and Porter (1997) who found the belief that limited markets and high crime exist in the inner city is a significant obstacle to new commercial activity, even when those conditions no longer exist in reality.

Three other interviewees mentioned that there were elements of excitement or even danger in the narrow lanes, especially in the early days of development. Bob was a first stage “coloniser” he commented on the early public perception of the area which his business was later instrumental in turning around:

Bob:

Many people shocked when we said that was where we wanted to go,

(they) said it’s a dump and you’re likely to get mugged going down that

back street.

Alan:

Alleys (were) foreboding especially at night. So (the area was) very experimental as far as retailing and hospitality concerned.

This attitude reflects the work of Moore (1999) and Grogan and Proscio (2000) discussed in Chapter 4. They found poor physical condition tends to attract disorder and criminal activity depressing rents and increasing vacancies, but often perception is worse than reality.

Lower values can also lead to less tax revenue and difficulty in raising finance. This can make refurbishment uneconomic but can also establish “rent gap” opportunities, as identified by Smith (1996) and discussed in more detail later.

An alternative viewpoint is put forward by Florida (2002). He maintains that members of the creative class are often attracted by difference, new experiences, the edgy and even risk. Inner city areas often display all these characteristics and thus are attractive to creative class members. Some of the interviewees’ comments above and in other parts of this thesis reflect these attitudes.

According to Suchman (1994) the Urban Land Institute emphasises using gateways and recurring design themes and symbols to redefine a previously blighted area and create a clear identity. While a consistent Victorian industrial motif was generally applied to the subject area, there was some concern at confusion over the “name” of the area. It was called both Lichfield Lanes (the Developer’s preference) and Poplar Lane by members of the public, and could also be confused with a similar but subtly different area nearby called South of Lichfield or SoL Square.

Though important, it was more than just the architectural style that attracted people to the Lanes area; it was the interaction with other visitors, business people and residents. This was well summarized by Owen below.

And when I first decided on that, it was not because of the…. yes we liked the brick building and architecture yes we liked this….. but the true thing was business wise, we had parking nearby, but it was not there, we didn’t like the shopping centre type of setup, it was pedestrian life, and it was pedestrian life what really appealed.