The heart of our city, downtown Tauranga, has been undergoing a steady decline over the past decade. The bustling centre that was once filled with vibrant activity is now experiencing a significant slump. The challenges are multifaceted: new infrastructure projects creating a temporary upheaval, parking concerns, safety issues, and the social burden of crime and troublesome behaviour. However, this period of transition offers a unique opportunity to reimagine and revitalise downtown Tauranga.

Over the last few weeks I have been carefully listening in to public forums which aim to collect ideas and move forward with repairing Tauranga City. With a negative story popping up in the media almost monthly around vacancy, rising crime and struggling businesses, there’s no argument against a much needed change. The question is how.

How Branding Can Help

When we think of branding, it's easy to imagine a logo and a typeface, but in reality, branding reaches far beyond visual aesthetics. It's about envisioning a future, encapsulating the spirit of a place, and embracing a way of life that aligns with that vision. The process involves detailed research, empathy, and a deep understanding of the people who breathe life into a place. Successful urban transformations, such as Times Square in New York City and the rebrand of Brisbane, have used these brand principles to effectively shape their evolution.

Case Study: Times Square, New York

Times Square in New York presents an inspiring case study of urban transformation. Post World War II and the Great Depression, Times Square had declined into a notorious hub for adult entertainment and crime, a far cry from its earlier glamour. Its revitalisation was not merely necessary, but critical to the overall image of New York City.

The massive revitalisation happened in the 1990s. A concerted effort by city officials, business owners, and the Times Square Alliance resulted in a complete overhaul of the area's image and offerings, transforming it into the bustling tourist hub we know today. Branding played a significant role in this turnaround. The introduction of bright neon signage and big-name businesses helped to redefine Times Square as a vibrant, family-friendly destination.

The revitalisation process was multifaceted, addressing crime, introducing zoning regulations for aesthetics and building usage, and inviting reputed businesses to the area. The transformation was guided by a vision of Times Square as a global icon of entertainment, which influenced every branding decision, from its vibrant, 24/7 advertising billboards to the promotion of Broadway as a world-class theatre district.

To dive into this deeper, below is a recent 30 min documentary definitely worth a watch.

Against All Odds tells the story of the economic transformation of the famed 42nd Street in New York City, which in a matter of decades devolved from being the heart of the city’s thriving theater district to the city’s center of vice and crime, recently popularized by HBO’s hit show, The Deuce. Against All Odds tells the story through interviews with the people who made this transformation happen—project leaders, real estate developers, architects, law enforcement officials, and historic preservationists.

As Tauranga looks for inspiration and ideas on how to revitalise it’s image and city centre, case studies like these can be a gold mine for ideas, insights and ways to make change. The team that worked on the Times Square project have put together ‘20 guiding principals for change’ which I have listed below.

20 Guiding principals for change

The transformation of Times Square offers valuable insights that we can adopt in downtown Tauranga's revitalisation, here are 20 of their guiding principals to creating place change that we can learn from:

CRAFT GREAT PUBLIC SPACES

1. Design it well - Design alone won’t do it, but great design is essential for expressing the aspirations and essence of a place and its surrounding community.

2. Manage it well - Learn to balance the messy, nitty-gritty of rules, regulations, cleanliness, safety, order and just the right amount of chaos and spontaneity. Lose this and you’ve lost the space, no matter how pretty it is.

3. Program it creatively and consistently - Bring it to life – let the space’s assets be reflected in what happens in it, building identity and audience through repetition and surprise.

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

4. Know that things change - Cities and neighborhoods change constantly; don’t let yourself, your stakeholders or policymakers assume that yesterday’s problems are still the priority. Watch carefully to identify and define new challenges.

5. Take a chance - Almost inevitably, the private and non-profit sectors have a greater capacity for risk-taking than elected officials, especially when it comes to out-of-the-box ideas. Use your freedom from the ballot box to advance or defend innovative ideas.

6. Try it out - One of the ways to diminish skepticism towards risk and change is to test something as a short-term experiment. It’s easier for the private and non-profit sectors to do this than a large government bureaucracy facing issues of precedent and risk aversion.

7. There’s no single answer - The “right” answer changes over time and place. Just because a solution made sense before doesn’t mean it works now, and just because it worked in one neighborhood doesn’t mean it works elsewhere. Beware of the silver bullet solution -- as well as the naysayers who claim that “they tried that, and it failed.”

8. Use public, private & non-profit sectors - Despite the hassles of collaboration, the most enduring, innovative and nuanced solutions to urban problems are those where these three major players work together, building long-term relationships focused around a common goal.

9. Know each other’s strengths and weaknesses - The key to success lies in knowing your partners and accepting your different capabilities and liabilities. As with any long term relationship, know your partners’ greatest fears, as well as what will make them happiest.

KNOW THYSELF, LOVE THYSELF

10. Know what’s authentic and distinctive - A “cut and paste” approach -- where a good idea is copied without regard to a city or neighborhood’s core assets and history -- will fail. Know your history, know your physical assets and core distinctive characteristics (and ask others too) before jumping to act.

11. Love what’s authentic and distinctive - Once you know what’s special about your place, love it, nurture it and amplify it. Sometimes it’s drawing attention to things that are already there, sometimes it’s bringing more of the best. In your rush to remove the bad, never lose what’s good, even if those things seem buried, invisible, decrepit or undervalued.

12. Use data; know the facts - All of us are subject to groupthink and “givens.” Work to relentlessly gather hard facts and data that tell you what’s really going on, and don’t rely on what everyone claims is happening. Continue to track your perceptions factually so you can quantify your work as it changes.

13. Use the facts to define yourself and your problems - Data drives discussions and decisions. Your information, slowly and over time, can redefine a problem or issue and also create accountability for measuring your progress over time. You know the most about your place; use that fact to frame the issues.

14. Find your allies and fight for yourself - Find your allies and lead the fight. Use your factual evidence to educate and secure allies as your move towards your agenda. Don’t wait for government to fight your battles for you. Sometimes they’ll take the lead, but you know your interests best, and in the context of a long-term relationship, you must repeatedly assert yourself.

KEEP IN MIND THE SIX C’S FOR CREATING CHANGE

15. Community-based - Top-down versus bottom-up: know who your stakeholders are, what they need, and how their interests vary. Engage the community so that changes will last beyond your tenure.

16. Consistent - Interventions and actions can’t change with the season, or they simply won’t stick. People (and places) notice when campaigns are one-offs, and that only makes change tougher the next time.

17. Coherent - Actions that trigger change, even if carried out by different Parties, must be part of a coordinated and integrated effort rather than a series of haphazard, unconnected activities. When things are done in tandem by multiple players, the effects are amplified, and the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

18. Concentrated - Even the best intentions or practices will fail when spread too thinly across an area or range of issues. Focus first on doing something right on the micro level, and then scale it up. The toughest problems are very complex, and focused attention is needed while you learn what works and what doesn’t.

19. Creative - Create a culture that inspires creativity and nurtures the innovative ideas and risk-taking that flow from it. Start by pushing back when you hear too quickly,“it ain’t gonna happen.” Sometimes the best way through something is to go around it.

20. Critical mass - Every issue, every place, has a tipping point, and getting there is not always a linear process. Stay patient and persistent when your actions don’t seem to be making a dent, and realize that you’ll sometimes need an extra push to shift reality and perception.

For more information on these principles and the over all project visit www.timessquarenyc.org

While the challenges downtown Tauranga faces are significant, they also present an opportunity to reimagine and reshape our city's heart. By learning from successful urban transformations like Times Square, we can craft a revitalisation strategy that not only addresses immediate challenges but also paves the way for a vibrant, thriving downtown Tauranga.

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