Nelson's seven-storey Civic House and the Elma Turner Library, right, on the banks of the lower Maitai River. A new library is proposed on a riverside site to the left of the current library.
Whether we like it or not, we are facing a low wage economy with wage growth lagging the national average; a declining working age population; too many people under-employed in jobs far below their ability; an increasingly low productivity economy which means we have less prosperity for all than we should have.
There is an ever-widening inequitable distribution of wealth that makes the city affordable and attractive for some, but not for others, and momentum toward becoming a geriatric city that has less and less room for the vibrancy of families or the energy of youth.