D Scene – ‘the shape of things to come is taking form’

Hopefully, it doesn’t end up shaped like a pear.
-Mike Houlahan, on the stadium vision

### D Scene 23-12-09

Future closer (page 3)
By Mike Houlahan, editor
The future came a little bit closer on Friday morning as two press releases thudded into the D Scene inbox. The first brought the good news that six rugby teams will spend part of their Rugby World Cup campaigns in Dunedin…The second saw University of Otago confirm it has approved plans for the first of the buildings it intends to construct at University Plaza.
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South Dunedin in focus (page 4)
By Wilma McCorkindale
South Dunedin is tagged for action in the New Year. Council wanted to meet concerns about raising the amenity value expressed in consultation on the long term council community plan [LTCCP] earlier this year.
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Looking to the New Year (pages 8-9)
By Michelle Sutton
2009 has been a turbulent year, interlaced with highs and lows that have, at times, divided Dunedin. These are some of the men and women at the helm of the city…they reveal their resolutions and goals for the new year ahead.

Hear from Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin, Stadium boss David Davies, Carisbrook Stadium Trust [chairman] Malcolm Farry, Otago Chamber of Commerce [chief executive] John Christie, Otago Rugby Union chief executive Richard Reid, World Champion cyclist Alison Shanks, and others.

[Naive question, was Dunedin a ‘united city’ before the stadium project??? Well, no, not at all – it’s healthy to have differences and divisions, that’s what makes a city a city – ‘united’ is the theory of relativity.]

Positive side to downturn (page 14)
It was the year of the great recession, but many businesses saw an opportunity rather than an onslaught of red ink. Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Christie considers the positives in a difficult year in business. “I think it’s great that we can have robust debate in this city, and that we are not simply complacent.”
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He’s so right.

Post by Elizabeth Kerr