On May 13, Enere McLaren-Taana died from a single stab wound at the Dunedin bus hub in Great King St in front of hundreds of secondary school students.
Two weeks later, Business South chief executive Mike Collins warned in an open letter that the tragedy “decreased public trust and a potential rise in social isolation could lead to residents avoiding public spaces”.
“A perceived increase in crime and a lack of safety can significantly affect local businesses.
“When community members feel unsafe, they are less likely to engage in local commerce, which can lead to decreased foot traffic and sales,” he said.
When spoken to, several businesses which operate in Great King St said they had seen a significant drop in trade since May.
The manager of a store in the area said businesses had been suffering in the wake of the stabbing.
“What happened was tragic and I would never try to minimise it, but as soon as we learnt of it we assumed business would go down, and unfortunately we were correct.
“It’s just starting to slightly pick up now, but business is nothing like how it was prior. We are struggling and we hope the public can feel safe to come back to this area soon.”
Another manager said people “just do not want to shop here at the moment”.
“The past few months, business has been suffering a lot. We’ve been totally in loss the past few months. There’s been a huge difference.”
Things had recently started to pick up, but, like others, the numbers were nowhere near where they had been before the tragedy.
Mr Collins said in his letter that “the social fabric of Dunedin was at risk of fraying as people become more apprehensive about community interactions and less confident in public safety measures”.
The letter was sent to the Dunedin City Council, Otago Regional Council, Minister of Police Mark Mitchell and Commissioner Andrew Coster.
While he received no response from Mr Mitchell or Comm Coster, both the DCC and ORC acknowledged the letter and invited Business South to be part of a working group with other community partners.
“We’ve attended the first meeting of the working group to really work on some solutions. We were able to establish that in partnership with the New Zealand Police.
“That was an outcome from the letter, and I’ve been trying to feed in from the business community their concerns to make sure they are heard and are a part of the solution going forward.”
He said making people feel safe enough to go the bus hub was the first step in helping businesses bring their sales up.
“The key solutions are still forthcoming but the first steps have been made, which is to get the right people all in the same room and the needed conversations started.
“It does make me feel reassured to have many community groups a part of this.”
Representatives from Business South, Dunedin secondary schools, a school principal, the DCC, ORC, police, Ōtākou Runaka, the Otago Pasifika Community and others are part of the group.
