Central city  |  22 Jan 2019

What do you love about Christchurch’s new city centre? Is it missing anything? Can you picture yourself living there?

These are the types of questions Christchurch City Council wants residents to answer as part of its first Life in Christchurch survey for 2019, which launches on Friday 25 January.

People in the central city.

What word would you use to describe the central city?

The online survey focuses on the central city and the Council is hoping to get responses from a wide range of residents so it can gauge progress in the area.

The findings of the survey will also be used to help inform future decision-making on the central city.

“We did a survey last year which showed that although there was still a lot of work to be done in the central city, people’s perceptions of the area are starting to improve,’’ says Kath Jamieson, the Council’s Monitoring and Research Team Leader.

“Respondents were reporting they were enjoying spending time in the central city, especially eating out and going to bars, as well as visiting the shops.

“As part of the survey we asked people which one word they believed best described the central city and the most common responses we got were ‘developing’, ‘improving’, ‘evolving’, ‘progressing’, and ‘unfinished’. Twelve months on it will be interesting to see how those descriptors have changed,’’ Ms Jamieson says.

The survey takes about 10 to 15 minutes to complete and canvases residents views on a range of topics relating to the central city, including housing, transport, safety, and the environment.

“We want to know more about why people visit the central city, how often they visit, the activities that bring them to the central city, and whether they would like to call the central city home,’’ Ms Jamieson says.

If you want to take part in the survey, you can register your interest online.

Other Life in Christchurch surveys are planned for later in the year.