08-08-2025
The Weekend: The parks in the Civic car park are too damn small
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was.
There's something about a film festival that makes me feel more generous to the films I see than I would be if I watched them alone at home. Sometimes it's the audience enthusiasm infecting me, but mostly it's the sense that I have chosen to see a movie I had no idea existed until the week prior and in doing so, am paying more for the experience of seeing a capital-m Movie at the beautiful Civic Theatre.
With Whānau Marama: The New Zealand International Film Festival under way, I have been to the Civic three times in the past week.
I enjoyed Prime Minister (full review on Gone by Lunchtime this weekend), really enjoyed Dreams, and positively adored The Weed Eaters (full review coming next week). Even if I didn't love them it would've been worth the ticket to sit in the beautiful venue. I love The Civic, I love the film festival, I love movies. What I hate is the Civic car park.
On paper, the Civic car park should be the best car park in the country. It's central but underground (not taking up valuable real estate), it's big (you can almost always find a park) and it's relatively cheap (as an Auckland Transport car park it has a cap of $12.50 for evening and weekend parking). All great things and an asset to the liveliness of the central city being directly beneath multiple venues.
All of this, however, is completely and violently undone by the fact that all the parking spaces are too small.
Yes, yes, higher-than-first world problem, but I really can't overstate how narrow every painted space is. It is genuinely impossible for two cars to park in neighbouring spots and have room to get out. The number of people who I personally know that have crashed their cars in the Civic car park is more than five. Some of them are not good drivers but still, that's a lot.
The car park was built in the 70s when cars were smaller but I struggle to see how there was ever a time when people could comfortably park there. I can only assume that as cars got bigger and bigger, AT refused to repaint its parking lines both out of spite (commendable) and because when the City Rail Link finally opens, there should be slightly less demand for car parking in the city. One could argue we should all be catching the bus to the Civic anyway and sure, I agree.
But until then, for the love of god, I need AT to accept our current reality. Remove 30 of the 823 parking spaces in the building, repaint the spaces to be a healthy width, and watch as every movie/theatre/festival-goer's mood exponentially lifts.
The Civic car park is the best car park in the country. If only cars could fit in it.
The stories Spinoff readers spent the most time with this week
Feedback of the week
'Nothing but awe for the lady in the front row of one of my longhaul flights, who had no-one in front of her so her screen was on the bulkhead in plain view, who chose to watch Blue Is The Warmest Colour'
''romanticize your life' is a great way to think about it! Hera's right, reaching out is only going to hurt in the long run. A clean cut does heal better than a serrated messy one. It will pass and letting this door stay closed will allow another, better, more compatible door to open! Celebrate the fact that you have this capacity to feel these wonderful lovey feelings because you will feel them again, there's no doubt. '
