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
What if? Dunedin... 
### ODT Online Thu, 22 Sep 2011
Suggestions from urban planner
By Allison Rudd
Dunedin “appears to be addressing the right things” in its planning to ensure the city successfully caters for economic growth and people in the future, a visiting Scottish urban planner says. Dr John Montgomery, who is also an economist and author, told about 50 people at a recent public lecture he “rather liked Dunedin and its buildings”, as well as the obvious central meeting space of the Octagon. He said if he was to make any suggestions, it would be for Dunedin to diversify its economic base, and to look at strengthening its innovation businesses, cultural quarters, creative design industries and arts businesses and manufacturing outlets.
Read more
Yes, well. That does sound really nice indeed. Diversify our economic base. Thanks for that Dr Montgomery. A tiny little problem, the stadium foisted on us means we have been forced to put all our investment options into one big stupid basket. Instead of producing funds and creating employment it will suck money out of the local economy. And the really scary part? The people whose fiscal ineptitude put us in this position are still on council and making decisions about where our money is spent!
### ODT Online Sat, 15 Oct 2011
Product making tops NZ
By Dene Mackenzie
The Otago-Southland regional economy has plenty to cheer about in the latest BNZ-BusinessNZ performance in manufacturing index results, leading the rest of the country with 60.1 points last month. A reading above 50 indicates an economy in expansion and below 50 in contraction. “We are delighted to see continuing strong regional manufacturing activity and particularly that, for the second month in a row, the Otago-Southland index at 60.1 points again leads the national results,” Otago-Southland Employers Association chief executive John Scandrett said.
Read more
Get Fresh, with Al Brown Saturdays at 7pm | TV ONE
Series 1, Episode 6 | 15 Oct 2011 | 0:22:47 | Al Brown heads to Dunedin
[OnDemand] http://tvnz.co.nz/content/4352021.xhtml
Ep 6 Profiles:
Dunedin, Otago Farmers Market (vendors), Southern Clams, Leckies Butchery, McArthurs Berry Farm
Ep 6 KItchen:
Plato Cafe (owner: Nigel Broad)
Ep 6 Recipes:
Clam and Crab Chowder
Roasted Pork Hock w/ Black Pudding
Summer Berry Pudding
And scarier than that? The local media could care less about this and seem quite content to continue pretending the stadium debt just sort of, you know, magically appeared from somewhere and so no-one can possibly be held accountable for any ensuing fallout (this is very important, obviously). So, sir, you see Dunedin is shackled by a council and ‘old boy network’ of ‘businessmen’ ( and women!) that are, shall we say, joined at the hip?
Smart business men and women deserving of the name do not need to pilfer public funds to prop up their businesses.