Ian Athfield at Dunedin | Open Lecture Friday 26 April

New Zealand Historic Places Trust RA Lawson Lecture

Ian Athfield — “Heritage Starts with a Great Idea Tomorrow”
Thoughts on community and heritage

New Zealand Historic Places Trust and New Zealand Institute of Architects – Southern Branch are co-sponsoring the public talk by one of New Zealand’s most well-known architects, Ian Athfield

Panel on stage - Lawrie Forbes (property developer), Glen Hazelton (DCC urban design), Elizabeth Kerr (architecture advocate), Stephen Macknight (structural engineer)

When: Friday 26 April 2013 at 7:30 pm

Where: University of Otago, St David Lecture Theatre
Union Street East, Dunedin

All welcome

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Ian Athfield is a prominent New Zealand architect who over his 40+ year career has contributed significantly to the built environment of New Zealand. He has a strong interest in urban design, landscape and the continuing craft of architecture with an emphasis on building off the existing physical environment.

While first establishing a reputation through innovative housing, Athfield is renowned for his big picture thinking in both urban and rural environments. He has been involved in the creation of many of New Zealand’s most successful urban spaces, landscapes, and buildings. His work continues to stretch across all scales from furniture and public sculpture to architecture, landscape, and urban design; and across type from domestic to civic.

Athfield’s contribution to architecture has received widespread recognition and not only earned his practice numerous design awards but earned him the 2004 NZIA Gold Medal, an honorary Doctorate in Literature from Victoria University and in 1996 the New Zealand Government made him a Companion to the New Zealand Order of Merit.

Ian Athfield is currently serving on the Board of The New Zealand Historic Places Trust, and as a member of the NZHPT Maori Heritage Council.

http://www.athfieldarchitects.co.nz/

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Related Posts:
3.3.13 RNZ Sunday Morning | Ideas: Re-imagining the Urban House
25.6.12 New Zealand Architects: Pete Bossley, and Ian and Claire Athfield
7.12.11 Ian Athfield on post-earthquake Christchurch #eqnz
19.9.11 NZIA members on Christchurch City Plan

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DCC: Carisbrook pristine. Portobello Domain playing fields lack upkeep!

### ODT Online Sun, 7 Apr 2013
Anger over rabbit holes on Domain
By Tim Miller
Coaches and parents of players at the Hereweka Junior Football Club are livid the Portobello Domain is still not in any condition for games to be played there, with the start of the season only two days away.
None of the Hereweka Junior teams have been scheduled to play at the ground this weekend. A spokeswoman for FootballSouth said there had not been any instructions from the Dunedin City Council to move games away from the ground, and it was only by chance no games were to be played there this week.

All sports grounds in Dunedin were visited by contractors regularly but the council also had to look at prioritising grounds which got the most use.
–Lisa Wheeler, DCC parks manager

As reported in The Star last month, the club was given assurances by the Dunedin City Council that the ground would be ready and prepared by the start of the season, after it had been damaged by rabbits during the summer.
Read more

Previously, via The Star:
24.3.13 Rabbits rip into domain

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4.4.13 Rob Hamlin first notes the return of Rugby goal posts at Carisbrook with this comment.
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

ODT Online: ‘Gone, deleted, it never happened, Councillor’

All is safe, RT. We know nothing!

Elizabeth @ What if? Dunedin
Submitted on 2013/02/10 at 12:39 pm | In reply to Hype O’Thermia.

This one sent to http://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/opinion/244913/do-maths-stadium-costs hasn’t aired, thrown into the ghost bucket, I guess:

Public accountability, arithmetic
Submitted by ej kerr on Sat, 09/02/2013 – 6:49pm

There’s reason to be grateful to members of the public quickly leaping on superficialities put out by the councillor, as ‘spokesman’ for the DCC on the loss making stadium.

The city council in its wisdom formed a series of shells to ‘see through’ the stadium project; these have resulted in a lack of transparency in governance, a resounding loss of accountability, and multiple opportunities for potential misrepresentation to citizens and ratepayers.

The cumulative bid to foster acceptance in the community for ‘intergenerational debt’ being loaded on citizen ratepayers – as if ‘sustainable’, as if ‘logical’, for future fortunes to be made and shared – was/is a highly immoral behaviour that council politicians are ultimately responsible for.

At the Milton Hilton rests a flag-waver to a board’s lack of diligence and knowledge of its own accounting systems. We don’t need another flag waver, councillor…. not in apology to the city council’s callous disregard for financial prudence.

UPDATE 11.2.13
No longer at the Milton Hilton, the crim-flagwaver has been moved to a 4-bedroom house in “the grounds” of another HM’s establishment near Christchurch.

Related Posts and Comments:
6.2.13 Editorial bias
29.1.13 Pecuniary interest: Crs Wilson and Thomson in events fund debate

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Who? 2010 electioneering

References supplied.

Blog entry: Dave Cull for Dunedin City Mayor
Monday, August 23, 2010 at 2:09 PM
TAKING OUR FUTURE BACK
By Dave Cull

Dunedin is wonderful city, with a fantastic future. But right now that future is vulnerable: vulnerable economically, environmentally and socially. Dunedin’s community has never been more disillusioned with how Council makes decisions, how it listens, or not, to the community, how Council takes responsibility, or not, for major spending decisions with long-term consequences. These are consequences that include maxing out Councils [sic] and Council company debt, so that the companies may not be able to pay expected dividends to the ratepayers in the next few years! It is that bad.

The challenges ahead are considerable. But we can achieve that fantastic future. We have to. We can achieve it if we replace secrecy with transparent processes and provide responsible leadership that listens and is up-front with the community about debt and costs. If we do that we can turn disillusion into a shared and inclusive vision for the city.

So imagine what YOU want Dunedin to be like in 20 years.

Imagine Dunedin with:
• a thriving economy featuring high value jobs and businesses that keep families living here
• suburbs of well-built, healthy houses
• streets of beautiful, rejuvenated heritage buildings being put to productive use
• renewable resources being utilized for lower cost energy.
• measures already taken to address climate change and peak oil
• well maintained civic amenities not saddled by a mountain of debt that ratepayers have to repay
• top notch infrastructure including comprehensive Broadband coverage everywhere
• a smooth coordinated public transport system and cycle and pedestrian network
• an accessible and well-protected surrounding environment full of nature’s treasures

Previous Councils and this current one, have not tried to imagine such a future and not planned to achieve it. They have ticked the boxes of bland Council vision statements, reacted to pet ideas dished up by special interest groups, and lurched from one to the next, piling a huge debt on all our shoulders in the process. At the same time some of our suburbs are mouldering from neglect; our digital infrastructure is falling behind other NZ communities; jobs are ebbing away and families are leaving for greener pastures. I and my team want to help turn that all around.
Read more

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During the 2010 Dunedin Mayoral race the local newspaper ran this:

### ODT Online Tue, 7 Sep 2010
Mayoral Profile: Dave Cull
By David Loughrey
Dunedin city councillor Dave Cull is about to end his first term on the local authority, and has put his hand up for the council’s top job. With nine candidates, including himself, on his Greater Dunedin ticket, success could see him heading a group with a majority, on a council more recently made up of 15 independents. But he says that would be a good thing for a city that needs a “collegial” approach to reining in debt, and attracting business and people to Dunedin.

Dave Cull
Age: 60.
Family/marital status: Married, two daughters.
Occupation: Writer.
Council experience: One term as councillor.
Running for: Mayor and council.

Why are you standing?
I’m standing because when I put my hand up for council in 2007, I realised it was going to be something I was either going to be in for the long haul or not, so I’m in it for the long haul.
I’m standing for the mayoralty because I see the need for far more engaging and inclusive leadership than is being shown at the moment.

Tell me then, how you would go about engaging and including.
Well I think the context is that the current council and mayor …

Of which you’re one …
… of which I’m one, but the majority has not engaged genuinely, has not listened genuinely to the public, and has, worse than that, not got a cohesive, connected view of the projects the council is involved in. They tend to be isolated from one another, and the impact on one another is not fully appreciated till the negatives hit, I suppose. So I see a need for developing a much more future-focused vision for the city that looks at everything in a connected way.
Read more

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Blog entry: Dave Cull for Dunedin City Mayor
Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at 2:02 PM
Ratepayers Association Questionnaire
By Dave Cull

The Greater Dunedin Team Answers Ratepayers Association Questions.

Greater Dunedin candidates declined to answer the Ratepayers Assoc questionnaire, the answers to which are to be published in D-Scene. Framed as either/or questions, the requested yes/no answers would oversimplify the issues with many of the questions. More importantly Ratepayers chairperson Lyndon Weggery acknowledged the Association would edit and “analyse” longer answers and distribute the results privately to Ratepayers Association and ex-Stop the Stadium members. We have no confidence that would be done in good faith. Mr Weggery (also on the committee of ex-STS) has signed STS newsletters containing untrue claims and misrepresentations about Greater Dunedin mayoral candidate Dave Cull’s views on the new stadium, and endorsing another candidate. Dishonesty and partisan commentary are incompatible with a purportedly independent survey.

However all the Greater Dunedin team recognise voters’ interest in our views and their right to hear them expressed publicly. We wholeheartedly promote transparency and also believe our views and positions on most subjects, while diverse, probably resonate with most of the membership of both the Ratepayers Association and what was Stop the Stadium. To that end we have each fully answered the questions posed by the ratepayers Association and posted them on our website: http://www.greaterdunedin.co.nz/. We encourage readers to read them there.
Greater Dunedin’s aim is to engage with and serve the interests and views of the whole Dunedin community. We welcome feedback, ideas, concerns and comments from all.

Following are the Ratepayers Association questions and my answers.
Continues at greaterdunedin.blogspot

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DCC Draft Annual Plan 2013/14 for consultation #RIOTmaterial

Email received from Lee Vandervis this evening.

My overview regarding the Annual Plan that has gone out for consultation today is that little has changed.

Rates rises continue to be disguised, first by getting DCHL to borrow up to $23 million on our account, continuing to take more than policy allows from the Waipori Fund [proposed relaxing Waipori rules to justify], continued significant underspending on drains, and now buying $3 million in paid-up share capital of DVML – yet another multi-million dollar gift to bail out overspent Stadium operations.

The official result – the long heralded 4% rates rise.

I believe the real rates rise to be somewhere between 25% and 30%, as the DCC continues to amass all kinds of liabilities and debt that will have to be paid for in the future. CEO Paul Orders has made real gains finding significant DCC staff efficiencies, but most are simply going to bail out Stadium operational inefficiencies.

Stadium annual drains on the ratepayer now include:
● $1,666,000 rates subsidy via a ‘Stadium Differential’ [LTP 2013/14 – 2021/22 p8]
● $750,000 annual ‘Stadium Community Access’ fund
● $725,000 ‘Stadium Capital Repayment’ fund for each of the next 4 years
● Annual $400,000 ‘Stadium Event Attraction’ fund.

The Dunedin City Council is now going to buy the events that the Stadium was supposed to attract by itself. These further Stadium subsidies will only prolong the currently unaffordable wasteful Stadium operations, and entrench the directorships, fat contracts, and rugby cronyism that plague current Stadium costs.

If anyone can think of any other type of ‘fund’ that might possibly go to the Stadium please don’t tell the DCC or we will shortly be paying that annually too.

From an email I sent to senior staff and the Mayor last Monday:
“I have been uncomfortable with the timing and presentation advantages enjoyed by DVML in being perfectly positioned to come into our workshop and present and pluck us for millions yet again, but I accept that their issues needed to be addressed.”

Many Annual Plan issues have not been addressed but they have been bought into.

The predetermined Plan has just happened again.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Editorial spin, disagrees?!

The Editor’s reply (ODT 23.1.13):
Russell Garbutt: Thanks for your comments but we don’t agree with them.

[Email]

From: Russell and Bev Garbutt
Sent: Tuesday, 22 January 2013 10:46 a.m.
To: ‘editor@odt.co.nz’
Subject: Letter for publication

[Contact details deleted. -Eds]

The Editor
Otago Daily Times
Dunedin

Dear Sir

Your editorial on the urgent need for an austerity budget for Dunedin is too little too late.

For years now at Council Plan consultation meetings also attended by your reporters, the financial stupidity of the Council’s decisions have been graphically pointed out by a long line of submitters. The practice of Council owned companies being forced to borrow to pay dividends which you now describe as being “worse than poor” was emphasised by a large number of submitters, but largely ignored by the ODT for many years.

While ultimately all of the spending decisions made by the Council are those of the Councillors – many clearly out of their depth – the weight of public opinion assisted by informed and investigative stories by the City’s only daily paper, has no small part to play in what has happened in this town over recent years. It is hard to see why the ODT has failed to meet its obligations or role in this regard. Many believe that it is because the ODT is a strong supporter of the stadium which has caused a major part of this debt, and of its proponents and major user.

While the ODT has adopted a position of supporting the new rugby stadium, even now that the full costs of the stadium are more or less known, your position is that you appear to be supporting the establishment of a significant fund to subsidise the use of the stadium – despite your reluctant acknowledgement that while the fund will cost the ratepayers dearly, there is no believable data that shows any tangible benefit.

I look forward to the ODT being part of the process in holding those that have made the decisions that have put Dunedin into these astronomical levels of debt responsible and accountable – but I’m not holding my breath.

Russell Garbutt

Read Russell’s comments in reply here.

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Related Post and Comments:
22.1.13 ‘Liability Cull’ and council chasten for election year

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DCC Draft Annual Plan 2013/14 – ‘Liability Cull’ and council chasten for election year

“Levels of debt are still high … you cannot say we are in a comfortable position – far from it.” -Orders

### ODT Online Tue, 22 Jan 2013
Tight years ahead for Dunedin
By Chris Morris
A decade of discipline is needed to protect the Dunedin City Council’s fragile finances until debt repayments ease the fiscal squeeze, council chief executive Paul Orders says. The warning came as Mr Orders confirmed the council was set to remain beyond a self-imposed debt ratio limit for at least the next three-year council term. The council’s 2013-14 pre-draft budget – to be considered by councillors later this week – showed the council would begin repaying more debt than it was borrowing for the first time in 10 years.

Mr Orders said the council would still have “little or no” headroom for new spending until 2022.

However, the size of the council’s debt meant it would still be operating beyond its self-imposed limit, which sought to restrict interest as a percentage of total revenue to no more than 8%, until 2016-17, Mr Orders confirmed.
Read more

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### ODT Online Tue, 22 Jan 2013
Mayor’s rates warning
By Chris Morris
Dunedin city councillors will have to choose between a 2.8% rates rise and extra spending on key priorities – including debt repayment – that will drive up the bill for ratepayers. The choice was presented in the 2013-14 pre-draft annual plan, to be considered by councillors in public for the first time this week. [Chief executive] Paul Orders said the cost-cutting had been achieved in part by reduced staff costs, including not filling all vacancies, absorbing inflation and strictly controlling the council’s capital spending programme.

Overall operational costs had increased by just $500,000 as costs were cut in other areas, while capital spending had been cut in half, from $105 million in 2012-13 to less than $50 million in each of the next three years, Mr Orders said.

Key reports were yet to be made public, including one discussing the financial future of DVML, the stadium and the need for a new events fund. Others would consider options for the Waipori Fund, car park operations in Dunedin and the city’s aquatic facilities, as well as the future of the council’s investment property portfolio.
Read more

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[On council companies...] The practice of businesses having to borrow to pay dividends is worse than poor.

### ODT Online Tue, 22 Jan 2013
Editorial: Dunedin’s austerity budget
The local government annual plan season is beginning, with councils facing austerity budgets. Some, as in Dunedin or Queenstown Lakes, have gorged on debt, and must face the slow process of digesting it. Others will be aware that communities have had enough of rates increases continually topping annual inflation. The Dunedin City Council, easily Otago’s largest council, has feasted on new projects and on high general costs, and its consolidated debt is peaking beyond the extraordinary figure of $600 million. Although it includes council company debts, it is still an astronomical figure. As projects small and large – like the Toitu Otago Settlers Museum, the Town Hall, the water and sewerage system upgrade and the stadium – came up for discussion, the annual interest costs were often the financial focus.

[ODT blondness...] To make the stadium a success and to compete with other centres, the council might have to seriously consider an events fund. This will again cost ratepayers, but could benefit the city overall.

The long-term accumulation of debt and cumulative interest totals could be sidelined behind an unrealistic optimism, leaving a legacy of commitments to years of whopping rates increases. Fortunately, the folly of this course has been recognised, and vigorous efforts are being made to turn to a sustainable direction.
Read more

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Related Post:
16.1.13 DCC Draft Annual Plan 2013/14 – Aaron Hawkins on the money

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Proposed 100m hotel: Damn right, the fight’s not over! #Dunedin

Great to see the letter by award-winning architect Richard Shackleton given prominence in the ODT today. It sent me hunting for my copy of Paul Goldberger’s book, The Skyscraper (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982), bought in second professional year (BArch) at Auckland. Given what has happened since to skyscraper design internationally, the book is a little quaint, eclectic and short of stature – it will always be a useful commentary on the emergence and history of towers in the United States.

Most of the buildings Goldberger cites I visited on architectural study tour with a group of staff, students and friends of the Auckland School in 1984, at the start of my four-year fulltime Master of Architecture degree (thesis only). But that’s quite another rainy day story of ‘commercial facades’.

Goldberger begins his last chapter, ‘Beyond the Box’, saying:
“By 1980, one thing was clear: the box, the rationalist dream of the International Style [the austere glass box, his words], was making more and more architects uncomfortable. Not only was it no longer the clean and exhilarating structure that would serve as a clarion call to a new age, but it was not even able to hold out much promise of practicality. It was generally inefficient from the standpoint of energy, and it was not as marketable from the viewpoint of real estate operators either.”

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41 Wharf Street, Dunedin
For the applicant (Betterways Advisory Ltd), architect Jeremy Whelan of Ignite Architects (Auckland) is assisting Shanghai-based ECADI (Eastern China Architectural Design Institute), who were initially engaged by the client, with the conceptual design of the proposed hotel. It is claimed in Whelan’s brief of evidence that ECADI has significant international hotel experience and has completed projects for all major 5 star brand operators including Kempinski Hotels, Four Seasons Hotels, Marriot Hotels, Ritz Carlton Hotels and the Intercontinental Hotel Group.

The design of the 27-storey hotel tower crassly proposed for one of Dunedin’s best waterfront sites is the likes of which Goldberger correctly identifies as ‘tired’ by 1980 – at the time of writing, he hadn’t yet considered Arquitectonica’s work at Miami, Florida (see the landmark 20-storey luxury Atlantis condominiums built in 1982, famous for their cutout) – but Whelan certainly had, as a BArch contemporary of mine at Auckland School, and that building too is ‘tired’ as architectural metaphors and shared language go.

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[scanned]

ODT 3.1.13 Letter to the editor p12

Enter hotel in the search box at right to find recent posts and comments.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Stadium: DCC runs amok with $750K annual subsidy to DVML

Updated Post 12.12.12 2:30am

Dunedin City Council has voted for ratepayers to substantially subsidise the multimillion dollar loss-making stadium operation!

The local body elections take place in October 2013 !!!

### ODT Online Tue, 11 Dec 2012
$750,000 a year for community use of stadium
By Chris Morris
Details of a deal under which the Dunedin City Council will spend $750,000 a year to subsidise greater community use of the Forsyth Barr Stadium have been confirmed. Councillors at yesterday’s full council meeting voted to accept a new service level agreement between the council and Dunedin Venues Management Ltd, the company running the city’s loss-making roofed venue.

Council chief executive Paul Orders said the agreement would be ”a holding position” until the outcome of the wider review was known. Despite opposition from Crs Thomson, Vandervis and Teresa Stevenson, councillors voted 11-3 to approve the agreement.

The agreement confirmed the council would pay $750,000 a year to DVML in return for enhanced access to the venue – at reduced or no cost – for community groups. The extra funding was first agreed by councillors in May, but the service level agreement – detailing the requirements of each party as part of the deal – was only ready to be endorsed by councillors yesterday.
Read more

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Report – Council – 10/12/2012 (PDF, 141.1 KB)
Service Level Agreement between the Dunedin City Council and Dunedin Venues Management Ltd

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Community halls of small-town New Zealand

Michele Frey and Sara Newman
Photographs John Maillard and John O’Malley

November 2012
RRP $45
Paperback, 260pp, 235 x 235mm Full Colour
ISBN 978-1-927145-37-1

Canterbury University Press
http://www.cup.canterbury.ac.nz/catalogue/saturday_night.shtml

Yeah, it’s great being out with the jokers
When the jokers are sparking and bright,
And its great giving cheek to the sheilas
Down the hall on a Saturday night …
Peter Cape, 1958

On a Saturday Night is a warm and colourful celebration of the strength and spirit of small towns all around New Zealand. From Whakapara in the north to Mossburn in the South, community halls have been the focal point of small towns for as long as the towns have been on the map.

These halls have hosted school classrooms, general elections, stag parties, birthday parties, film screenings, Rabbiters’ Balls, flag euchre evenings, farewells and welcome-home parties for servicemen from both world wars, memorial events for those who did not return, farm auctions, clearing sales, weddings, Christmas parties, Civil Defence teams, mayoral celebrations, church services …

Some halls have been demolished and rebuilt over the decades, other have been lovingly restored several times and are still going strong. Some halls have been transported on the backs of trucks to new locations as towns have grown and changed. Fires and floods have taken their toll in more than a few cases.

Michele Frey and Sara Newman visited these halls with photographers John Maillard (North Island) and John O’Malley (South Island) to talk to the locals and try to capture the essence of what each hall has meant – and means – to its community. In these stories and pictures they have recorded an aspect of New Zealand’s unique culture that seems to be passing into history.

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Michele Frey is a Strategic Planner (Natural Environment and Recreation) for Opus International Consultants Ltd in Napier. She has always had a strong affinity with the notion of community, and seized eagerly upon the idea of producing a book on small-town halls, with the opportunity it offered to gain insights into the dynamics of small New Zealand communities. Along the way she developed some lifelong friendships. This is Michele’s third book for Canterbury University Press.

Sara Newman grew up in a small town and knew all about the importance of community halls. She has had articles published in magazines in New Zealand and abroad, including Takahe and New Zealand Memories. While a member of the South Island Writers’ Group she won the Ngaio Marsh Trophy for fiction in 2009. Her work is included in several anthologies and her family history Living Between the Lines has been read on National Radio. She loved visiting the halls and meeting the people involved with them.

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### radionz.co.nz Friday 26 October 2012
Country Life
with Carol Stiles, Susan Murray, Cosmo Kentish-Barnes & Duncan Smith
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/countrylife/20121026

21:18 On a Saturday Night
Sara Newman talks about a new book she has co-written with Michelle Frey about the community halls of small town New Zealand. (10′08″)
Audio | Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3 | Embed

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Stadium turf-day +@#!$%^*&

Tweet (9:28 AM – 30 Oct 12):

@ForBarrStadium #CommunityPitchInvasion Our turf is open to you this Sun (4 Nov) to enjoy & use as you would your local park, 2:30-4pm ow.ly/eRvP8

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Does this mean the hallowed turf is completely poked?
While the pitch at Carisbrook is maintained to perfection…

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Beloved Prime Minister ‘Jonkey’ speaking #childpoverty

### ODT Online Tue, 28 Aug 2012
Universal child benefit a ‘dopey’ idea: Key
Prime Minister John Key has dismissed as “dopey” a recommendation from a panel of experts that a universal child payment should be reintroduced as a way of reducing child poverty. The expert advisory group brought together by Children’s Commissioner Dr Russell Wills to find solutions to child poverty released its recommendations today.

Group members include AUT accounting expert James Prescott, Major Campbell Roberts of the Salvation Army, Professor Ritchie Poulton of the Dunedin School of Medicine and Philippa Howden-Chapman, a public health expert.

Among [the group's] recommendations for the longer term was a universal child payment for under sixes. The payment would be highest while the child was a baby, when costs were high, and would decline through childhood. Co-chair Dr Tracey McIntosh said the payment was about ensuring children had the best start in life. “Investment in the early years has a particularly strong link to better outcomes for disadvantaged children”.
Read more

Download report and related documents here:
http://www.occ.org.nz/publications/child_poverty

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### ODT Online Sun, 26 Aug 2012
Child poverty costs country $6b a year: report
Child poverty is costing New Zealand $6 billion each year, according a new report commissioned by organisation Every Child Counts.

Every Child Counts chairman Murray Edridge defined poverty as children missing out on needed goods and services including adequate housing, nutrition, warm clothing and healthcare.

Manager Deborah Morris-Travers told TVNZ’s political programme Q+A 25 per cent of children in New Zealand are living in poverty. She said it was concerning to see how poverty affected different ethnicities with 40 per cent of Pacific Island children and 27 per cent of Maori children living in poverty. The report, “1000 days to get it right for every child – the effectiveness of public investment in New Zealand children”, released this week, examines initiatives from the Netherlands which could be applied here. APNZ
Read more

Download report here:
http://www.everychildcounts.org.nz/news/1000-days-to-get-it-right-for-every-child-poor-child-outcomes-costing-the-nation-billions/

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Household Incomes in New Zealand: Trends in Indicators of Inequality and Hardship 1982 to 2011 (Aug 2012)

Download report and related documents here:
http://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/monitoring/household-incomes/index.html

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Related Posts and Comments:
17.2.12 Salvation Army: The Growing Divide
23.11.11 Last night, did John Key watch…(TV3): Inside Child Poverty
26.10.11 2011 Voices of Poverty: Research into poverty in Dunedin

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Submission to DCC draft long term plan (2)

By Bev Butler

The Long Term Plan [2012/2022] as a document is only beneficial to the community when it fully incorporates the probable financial outcomes for the city. This Long Term Plan has not taken into account the financial future of the stadium. (The DVML six-monthly report has been delayed until after submissions close). The DVML report will reveal that the stadium is running at a multimillion dollar loss and it is now time to do a cost-benefit analysis of whether it is financially viable for the stadium to remain open or not. The results of a cost-benefit analysis of the stadium would then put the city in a clearer position to then make decisions for the future. The city in its present overwhelming debt situation can ill-afford to continue to sustain the stadium multimillion dollar losses. The Council has been capitalising interest for the last few years to the tune of over $40m. This situation if allowed to continue will eventually result in bankruptcy.

The main anchor tenant of the stadium (the ORFU) is technically insolvent and has already come to Council requesting a bailout. The Dunedin ratepayers cannot afford to keep on bailing out the ORFU. It will not be long before the ORFU again request another bailout. This has been the pattern over many years. I have no confidence that the ORFU bailout conditions will be met just as the stadium conditions were not met (see attached spreadsheet).

The council has to change its mindset that ‘what is good for Otago rugby is good for Dunedin/ Otago.’ Clearly, on a financial basis, this has not been true for many years. It is not the DCC’s role to continually ‘wet nurse’ the rugby interests in this town by caving in to their repeated, self=destructive mode of operating. Namely, their calling on public funds when they get into financial trouble.

It has become clearer as Official Information has been released that the process that led to the building of the stadium was corrupt. I request that the Council instigate a full independent inquiry into the whole stadium project so that those responsible for misleading the community are held to account. Until this happens the stadium will continue to divide the community.

Edgar at VEP Seminar

This Friday, 20 April the School of Business, University of Otago, will host its third Visiting Executive Programme (VEP) Seminar for 2012. All staff and students are welcome to attend.

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The Visiting Executive Programme was established in 2009 to bring leading national and international executives to the School of Business during weeks three to ten of each semester. Executives will present lunch time presentations to students based on subjects that are currently topical, or the presenter has expert knowledge of that would benefit Otago business students. Seminars are open to all interested students and staff from throughout the Business School and wider University.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Ian Athfield on post-earthquake Christchurch #eqnz

Ian Athfield chronicles the challenging journey taken since being appointed to the role of Architectural Ambassador for post-earthquake Christchurch.

The earthquakes have magnified the reliance on pattern making by the motorcar instead of dealing with the respecting of communities.

### architecturenow.co.nz 7 Dec 2011
The challenge of Christchurch
By Ian Athfield
For those who have been close to the destructive events which occurred in Christchurch it is extremely difficult to remove oneself from the magnitude of the task facing the city’s future. Thirteen months after the first quake, sitting watching the tide move slowly in over the sands of Awaroa in the Abel Tasman National Park, I am able to reflect on the subject without the confusion of the many voices and images that have been roused and drawn within Christchurch and beyond.
Proposals from Christchurch’s Draft Central City Plan

There is a very strong case to allow simple, low-rise, well designed, re-locatable buildings to link the remaining existing structures of the city in a clear and coherent expression of the beginning of a new focus, while long-term decisions are clearly thought through by intelligent minds working together. Long-term decisions can build on this fabric.

Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Peninsula Art & Craft Auction

Macandrew Bay Primary School is hosting the Peninsula Art and Craft Auction at the Guthrie Pavilion, Shore Street, on Thursday evening, 3 November (see poster for details).

The ticket price includes one complimentary drink and nibbles.
Tickets may also be purchased on the night.

Downloads:
POSTER 2011 rev (PDF, 1.97 MB)
Catalogue with Photos.v2 (PDF, 1.79 MB)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

BLAME Dunedin City Council

… for overreaching its role in liquor licensing by allowing a staff officer to give unsolicited ‘business advice’…

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### ODT Online Wed, 5 Oct 2011
‘Don’t blame us for shop closure threat’: DCC
By Eileen Goodwin
Some people are wrongly blaming the Dunedin City Council for the “frustrating” potential threat of closure of the Macandrew Bay Store, DCC liquor licensing and projects officer Kevin Mechen says. The council had received several highly critical emails and letters since the store’s plight was highlighted by the Otago Peninsula Community Board last week. The store’s liquor licence has been referred to the Liquor Licensing Authority, because of a crackdown on dairies having liquor licences, which makes it doubtful the store will be eligible for renewal.
Read more

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### ODT Online Thu, 29 Sep 2011
Fears for Macandrew Bay store
By Eileen Goodwin
Macandrew Bay Store’s liquor licence may not be renewed, sparking concern the community could lose the store. The dairy appeared unlikely to get its licence renewed because of a clamp-down on dairies having liquor licences, Dunedin City Council liquor licensing and projects officer Kevin Mechen said when contacted.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Wellington Towards 2040

Forming the “digital powerhouse”…

Wellington’s biggest assets are its compact form, its harbour setting and the quality of life. It also boasts a highly skilled population with the highest incomes in the country.

### idealog.co.nz 29 Sept 2011 @ 11:13 am
Wellington’s new 30-year vision
By Design Daily Team
Last night Wellington City Council unanimously agreed on a long term vision for the city, one that will have sustainability, digital saviness and innovation at its core. Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown said the strategy, called Wellington Towards 2040: Smart Capital, would underpin and guide all Council strategies across economic, environmental, social, technology, transport and other key issues.

The four goals identified by the council are:

• People-centred city – the aim is to be healthy, vibrant, affordable, resilient, have a strong sense of identity, and strong and healthy communities.

• Connected city – this is connectedness in every sense: physical, virtual or social. Strategies like the Digital Strategy fall under this.

• Eco-city – this is a response to all the environmental challenges the city faces over the coming decades, and the Council is confident [it] can lead the country by example.

• Dynamic central city – this section largely deals with urban design aspects of the central city – making sure it’s still a great place to be where new ideas happen – and maintaining its role as the creative and innovative force to drive the regional economy.

Read more

WCC Report (15 September 2011)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

John Montgomery: The Economy, Culture and Design of Cities

Dunedin City Council hosted a public lecture by Dr John Montgomery at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery last Friday (16 September).

Dr Montgomery provided a presentation [PDF, 5.94 MB] on the economy, culture and design of cities, building on his work in the UK and Australia. His views are particularly relevant for the development of Dunedin’s Central City Plan and Economic Development strategies.

John Montgomery is an urban planner, economist, author and managing director of Urban Cultures Ltd.

Urban Cultures consults in urban economics, city planning, urban design, arts-led urban revitalisation and managing the night-time city.

More on John Montgomery at Idealog.

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Your City Our Future (YCOF) – Update

Dunedin City Council undertook a city-wide consultation in June 2011 to identify priorities for future expenditure. The results from the consultation survey are available here: YCOF survey report July 2011

The information and feedback received from the consultation, along with the feedback from the YCOF leadership teams has been used in the development of the Council’s draft spatial plan, “Dunedin Towards 2050″, draft Central City Plan, and draft Economic Development Strategy.

Formal consultation on these documents is planned for October/November 2011.

Find additional information on the development of the Council’s Central City Plan here: www.dunedin.govt.nz/centralcityplan

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Where to share ideas for Christchurch and Canterbury

Rebuilding Christchurch | one brick, one word, one city:
http://rebuildingchristchurch.wordpress.com/ (James Dann) launched in September 2010.

Rebuild Christchurch Ideas Lounge | One Brick At A Time:
http://rebuildchristchurch.co.nz/rebuild-christchurch-ideas-lounge (Deon Swiggs) launched 4 September 2010.

Before After http://www.beforeafter.co.nz/ (New Zealand Institute of Architects) a discussion series launched along with an exhibition at Christchurch Art Gallery (12 February – 20 March) – this closed early due to the 22 February earthquake. Explores the built environment and seeks to engage the public in identifying opportunities to create a better and more liveable region after the Canterbury Earthquake.

Urban Design Forum | Members Only Discussion Board
http://www.urbandesignforum.org.nz/
Urban design needs to be at the core of the re-building of Christchurch. While at the scale of the city, urban design ideas are likely to shape larger interventions, it is the site-by-site process of rebuilding where urban design principles could have their most lasting impact on the quality of the city that will emerge from the rebuilding process, particularly the quality of its streets, public spaces and neighbourhoods.

Other Links:
Canterbury Heritage http://canterburyheritage.blogspot.com/
Christchurch Modern http://www.christchurchmodern.co.nz/

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Foster on Christchurch rebuild – typical architect, didn’t mention the housing #eqnz

Emergency and permanent new housing is typically remote from the mind of star architects in their initial statements – would you trust them with your most pressing needs for accommodation, security and safety – if their minds are elsewhere . . .

The importance of a city is less about its individual buildings – it’s much more about its public spaces, its routes, its main street, how you move from one place to another, the infrastructure. The buildings are secondary. But if there’s a loved building, why not reconstruct it?

### stuff.co.nz Last updated 05:00 13/03/2011
Sunday Star Times – Voices from abroad
LORD FOSTER: Superstar British architect
Norman Foster, whose iconic projects include the London’s soaring “gherkin” skyscraper, Hong Kong’s international airport and the 1999 restoration of Berlin’s Reichstag, told the Sunday Star-Times that although he doesn’t know Christchurch well, there are some fundamental principles to bear in mind when rebuilding a shattered city. What happens now is going to affect future generations for hundreds of years to come so it has to be blessed with wisdom. You have three commodities: time, money and creative energy, and creative energy is the most important resource of all. It’s not how much money you have; it’s not how much time you have; it’s how wisely you use it.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin

### ODT Online Wed, 5 Jan 2011
Opinion: This city’s got a lot to offer
By Simon Cunliffe
In a season of resolutions, my own include making better use of all the great amenities that our city and its surrounds have to offer. Here, in no particular order, are 10 good reasons to live in and enjoy Dunedin in 2011.
Read more

-Simon Cunliffe is deputy editor (news) of the Otago Daily Times.

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Post by Elizabeth Kerr

Congratulations Brockville School kohanga reo auahi kore

### ODT Online Thu, 16 Dec 2010
Growing Brockville community
More than 150 parents and children from Brockville School kohanga reo auahi kore, and the local community celebrated the official opening of the Brockville community garden.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

South Dunedin Retail Centre

Editor’s note
This post has been updated following revisions to the DCC project information available online subsequent to the Open Day held on 30 November at the Dunedin Gasworks Musem. The Concept Design Options will be available online for public comment shortly.

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Dunedin City Council – Council Projects
South Dunedin Retail Centre

The purpose of the South Dunedin Retail Centre Strategy is to identify an integrated package of actions that can be used to revitalise the retail centre, both economically and socially.

The suggested goals for the strategy are to:
* Re-establish the economic role of the South Dunedin retail centre as a retail destination for the city by developing the centre into a place that people want to visit and spend time.
* Restore the social role of the centre as a place that provides opportunities for local residents to make regular contact with each other while engaged in routine activities.

The package of actions required to achieve these goals will need to include actions by both the Council and the community, in order to be successful.

What is happening and when can you get involved?

Stage one – now completed
Issues and Opportunities – November 2009 to March 2010

Stage two
Options Development – March 2010 to December 2010
* Develop opportunities and options identified as priorities in stage one.
* Undertake more consultation with building and land owners, tenants and key stakeholders who are affected by or will need to contribute to options.
* Opportunity to comment on concept design options online or at King Edward Street until 17 December 2010.

Summer Celebration and Heritage Open Day
An open day for a number of heritage sites around the retail centre as well as other activities, are being planned for late January / early February 2011. Further details will be advertised.

If you would like to find out more or have ideas to offer please contact Emma O’Neill on 477 4000 or email south.dunedin@dcc.govt.nz

Stage three
* Draft Strategy – July 2010 to early 2011.
* Preferred option for King Edward Street developed February 2011.
* Prepare Draft Strategy.
* Formal submission period and public hearing process on the Draft Strategy.

Stage four
* Analyse submissions, amend Draft Strategy and release final Strategy.
* Develop detailed design of preferred option for King Edward Street
* Implement projects identified in action plan
* Implement King Edward Street changes

If you have any comments or enquiries please contact Emma O’Neill, City Development Team, City Planning by phone 477-4000 or by email south.dunedin@dcc.govt.nz

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Post by Elizabeth Kerr

Search engine terms at What if?

Today, someone typed “community or chaos dunedin”.

We’re too scared to search that, especially now that the local body elections have passed.

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Post by Elizabeth Kerr