Parts of the South Dunedin business district would make a picturesque period film set.
Pan past the occasional incongruous blip to focus on the verandas and the brick, and the historic architectural charm belies a rundown air.
Most of the two-storey buildings are not ornate; neither are they grandiose.
Instead they reflect a no-nonsense style in keeping with their long-term function: servicing the South Dunedin flat and the surrounding suburbs. Pak'n Save and The Warehouse dominate one new segment, leaving miscellaneous businesses, shops and eating places as the traditional core.
The old shopping centre's obituary has, at times, been written prematurely.
Central Dunedin is relatively close, and the modern-era drive-to destination shops of Crawford St and the large hardware stores attract many.
Then, those two big shopping magnets, Pak'n Save and The Warehouse, arrived on the doorstep. Would spillover from them boost the rest of South Dunedin, or would they suck out more custom than they generated? As it happens, many of the small businesses have remained active.
People still want to bank, have their hair done or sip their coffee.
South Dunedin still bustles at busy times.
Nevertheless, most would agree that much of the place gives the impression of being tired and tatty.
This is not a good look if vibrancy is to be encouraged.
The need for improvement is accepted by many locals: a residents' opinion survey last year showed 40% of respondents were dissatisfied with the suburb's look.
In now walks Dunedin's new urban design team, gathering information and discovering how improvements could be made.
It has come with the proviso that limited money is available.
We are told the team can work on "the look and feel" for matters like trees, green space, seating, bus stops.
Limiting the scale of promises is the correct response because public authorities and precious rates money can only do so much.
There is, obviously, a role for businesses and landlords themselves, and politicians and bureaucrats have to be cautious in trying to turn what might be long-term trends.
They cannot, Canute-like, stop the tides of change.
While Cr Dave Cull made the point that South Dunedin does not have a hub, like the Octagon for central Dunedin, attempting to create an artificial centre carries risk.
The Octagon has become a centre for various events and for bars, but that has not reversed the shift of shopping to the north.
Actual shopping centres and community hubs emerge around business activity, with perhaps the Meridian mall fulfilling part of that role in the city.
Cr Cull also suggests looking at swapping assets like the former Caledonian War Memorial Gymnasium to provide a cost-neutral solution.
That building, though, is still well used and the real costs of any asset "swapping" to ratepayers would have to considered carefully.
Some might see the proposed South Dunedin library as a type of centre.
A major problem with this is the high library cost for a small city when the main library is close by the standards of almost any city.
Putting in place the ongoing infrastructure for a modern library, even a small one, should be seen as particularly expensive if a substantial part of the justification is for its role is as a glorified drop-in centre.
Dunedin does need some urban design expertise and, hopefully, with that guidance, the city can put into action plans to help revamp South Dunedin.
Practical, realistic improvements would be welcomed.
Nevertheless, one of the disturbing features of what is happening is the commitment of council resources to its own bureaucracy and overheads.
Supposedly, with the stadium, the wastewater processing and other ongoing commitments, the city cannot cut costs, and hefty rate rises have to continue.
Somehow, though, a budget is found for three urban designers and a heritage policy planner as part of an "urban design team".
Perhaps much of that cost could have been the public money needed to help South Dunedin's business district on its way.
