demolition by public protest, and since then has been used successively as storage for Downstage Theatre, an art gallery, and as home to various bars and restaurants. The Taj was formerly part of the beat for gay men looking for anonymous sex, and students have held capping stunts there. Stephen Oliver wrote a poem called 'The ballad of the Taj Mahal' about the building's varying uses. Waterfront Te Aro is a coastal suburb, and has a popular publicly accessible waterfront area that includes the Museum of New Zealand and Clyde Quay Wharf. Clyde Quay Wharf was completed in 1910 by the Wellington Harbour Board but was never used as much as other wharves in the harbour. In 1961 the wharf was closed. The Overseas Passenger Terminal was built on the wharf by the Wellington Harbour Board, opening in 1964 to cater for an expected increase in passenger shipping which never eventuated. The building was also used as a function venue. The Overseas Passenger Terminal was demolished in 2012 to make way for a new apartment complex called Clyde Quay Wharf, which opened in 2014. It has 75 apartments, but the area at ground level around the wharf has been left accessible to the public. The spire and four wall mosaics from the old building were used in the new one. A new outdoor recreation area, Waitangi Park, opened in 2006. The Wellington waterfront west of Taranaki Street, including Frank Kitts Park and Civic Square, is part of Wellington Central, not Te Aro. The popular beach at Oriental Bay is five minutes' walk from the north-eastern edge of Te Aro. Politics Te Aro is part of the Wellington Central general electorate and Te Tai Tonga Māori electorate. As the heart of the capital city, Te Aro is a highly politicised suburb. A number of issues in Te Aro have garnered national attention. The long-proposed and much-protested Wellington Inner City Bypass through Te Aro was a news story for decades, but is now accepted. Former Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast was accused of nepotism for allowing high-rise development by her husband to go ahead in the predominantly low-rise area of southern Te Aro. A statue of Queen Victoria sits on a traffic island between Kent and Cambridge Terraces at the western side of Te Aro. The statue has occasionally featured in protest movements: for example, in 2007 Queen Victoria held a tino rangatiratanga