You can’t keep a good thing down, they say, and Raglan place making enthusiasts have bounced back quickly from the town square controversy.
Only last week Lisa Thomson was telling the Raglan Community Board that the steering committee was still committed to engaging residents over possible small-scale initiatives, and planned some Saturday morning pop-up seating in Bow Street “to talk to the community about what place making really is”.
And on Saturday it happened on cue, with couches, a seat and table set up among the Phoenix palms that line Bow Street’s grassed centre islands luring in plenty of passers-by for a chat in the sunshine.
When the Chronicle called by in the early afternoon the quirky consultation exercise was still in full swing, and a good number of locals had plastered notes – with their place making suggestions – over the trunk of one of the iconic palms.
Coincidentally a plan to trial two new areas of seating on the centre islands looks set to go ahead after it was endorsed by the same packed public meeting which panned proposals for a town square. Another place making project on the go is seeking community input on how the interior of the refurbished Raglan library should look (see separate story page 8).
Edith Symes
