DCC acuity: ‘Let’s shift Octagon taxi ranks, Again —near dire drinking holes #whatswrongwiththispicture

[click to enlarge]
Octagon taxi rank [dunedin.govt.nz] – orange overlay by whatifdunedin (drinking holes / hospitality)

Dunedin City Council – Media Release
New trial site for evening taxi rank

This item was published on 22 Aug 2016

A new location for the evening taxi rank in the Octagon will be trialled for three months. From tomorrow, the evening taxi rank will move from outside the Municipal Chambers and Civic Centre to the central lane of the Octagon, where tour bus parking has been provided. The rank will operate from 7pm to 7am, Monday to Sunday. During the day time, the taxi rank will operate from the current location outside the Municipal Chambers and Civic Centre. Dunedin City Council Acting Group Manager Transport Richard Saunders says the covered walkway will provide shelter for people waiting for taxis. There will also be a sign to show where the taxi stand is and the area is monitored by CCTV.

“This proposal has been discussed with taxi companies, local businesses and the Police, and there is a lot of support for the trial. The trial site has several advantages over the current site and we expect it to be popular with the public too.” –Saunders

DCC staff have talked with the mobile traders who use that space during the day and the trial will not affect their use of the area. Mr Saunders says at the end of the trial, staff will discuss the results with taxi companies, the Police and local businesses before deciding whether to make it a permanent move.

Contact Richard Saunders, Acting Group Manager Transport on 03 477 4000.

DCC Link

█ 22.8.16 ODT: Taxi rank trial in Octagon

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Previously published comment (2.5.16):

C E N T R A L ● C I T Y ● V I O L E N C E

Mon, 2 May 2016
ODT: Stabbing: ‘What is this place coming to?’
The stabbing of a 21-year-old man in central Dunedin early yesterday has left the man who rushed to his aid questioning the state of his city. Detective Sergeant Chris Henderson said the victim was taken to Dunedin Hospital after being stabbed in the neck and back outside the The Bottle-O store on the corner of Princes St and Moray Pl about 3.30am.

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DUNEDIN IS UP THERE (2015 statistics)

### newshub.co.nz Mon, 2 May 2016 at 4:45 p.m.
NZ’s most violent city spots revealed
By Lisa Owen
A Newshub investigation has revealed Auckland neighbourhoods dominate a leaderboard of the most violent city hot spots in the country. Statistics New Zealand has mapped 2015 police crime data, released to Newshub under the Official Information Act, to show the areas with the highest number of assaults, sexual assaults and robberies in public places. The crimes include anything from rape to being beaten up or being robbed of your cellphone at knife-point. Three of the five most violent city areas (precincts where there are more than 3000 residents) are in Auckland’s CBD. […] *By overlaying population data in the zones where crime has occurred, Statistics NZ has been able to work out the national average for incidents of public place violence. *Article uses 2015 statistics of victimisations by assault, sexual assault and robbery in public places.
Read more + VIDEO

█ Dunedin = No. 7 on New Zealand’s top ten most violent city hot spots
The only South Island hotspot, the area running north from the Octagon.
Newshub

█ For more, enter the term *octagon* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Election Year. This post is offered in the public interest.

For the mature reveller-reader……….

One glass might be good for your health but more is associated with a host of illnesses and problems.

### NZ Herald Online 2:00 PM Sunday Jan 3, 2016
What alcohol does to your body after 40
By Anna Magee
In case you missed it: This was one of our favourite Life & Style stories from 2015.

Wednesday Dec 16, 2015
[UK] If you’re over 40, the chances are you like a drink. […] as the Chief Medical Officer, Dame Sally Davies, mulls over current NHS drinking guidelines, experts are urging us to spare a thought not only for the short-term effects of alcohol on our brains, but also the damage our drinking habits are doing to our bodies as we approach middle age.

“Alcohol affects just about every system because it’s a small molecule that goes everywhere in the body,” says Paul Wallace, emeritus professor of public health at University College London and medical director of the charity Drinkaware. From the gut to the heart, the blood vessels to the skin, its effects are all-pervasive.”

But why are the effects so much worse after 40?
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: pinterest.com – Timber Smashed by nickwolf (tweaked by whatifdunedin)

*Surprise!* Farry’s f.u.b.a.r. Stadium not attracting first year Efts

BLUNDER CITY #DUD —AND THE STADIUM REVIEW AIN’T NO HELP

Ivy League Assaults: Dumber and Dumber due to UE failure, drunkenness, fires, civil disorder, better campus and study offerings up north and overseas?

AWAIT UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO PRONOUNCEMENTS AFTER THE MARCH MEETING OF THE HALLOWED UNIVERSITY COUNCIL

A ‘PUBLIC RELATIONS EPIC’ IS EXPECTED

### ODT Online Tue, 10 Mar 2015
University roll worry realised
By Timothy Brown
Fears of University of Otago first-year student numbers falling for the first time since 2011 appear to be realised, with “serious” vacancies at Knox College and Salmond College. About 10% of beds at the two non-university run colleges remain vacant and the Otago University Students’ Association revealed, earlier this year, the University of Otago could face a drop in first-year student numbers.
Read more

Both Knox and Salmond have undergone recent building upgrades and provide excellent pastoral care in quiet settings – who then, would choose a university-owned rough-house college if you were serious about career education.

What sort of undergrad student is the University of Otago attracting nowadays? Party animals? Generation Zero lefties? Discount ivy-leaguers (Kiwi-Asian style)? And how come accommodation at college halls is so steep? It’s an obscene weekly cost if mummy and daddy aren’t paying, so yes, way better(?) to camp out in the grunge and gunge flats of Studentville —or hey, move up the hill to sink the tone of City Rise, look at all those “historic-kick-apart” villas and mansions, incredibly suited to Face Book parties and upsetting middle class owner-occupiers next door. Cripes, at each former family or professional home there’s room to park “6 cars!”, yes, the cash-cow landlords will happily (just ask) destroy established 100-year-old plantings and gardens to lay down asphalt.

Welcome to ‘Absolutely Beautiful’, Dunedin. Welcome to the student ghettos, the broken streetscapes…. smashed bottles, lingering trash, burnt furniture, bouncing basketballs (all hours, Really Dumb like that), drying vomit and worse, weeds, untrimmed trees and hedges, a few kicked-in fences, more asphalt, flaking paint at once proud residences, stickering with satellite dishes and heat pumps, strings of poorly washed laundry draping house fronts. But who can forget the “Dunedin Sound”, of nights, drunken male yahoos, uncoordinated white trash hakas and ‘young girl’ screams, passion or torture, hard to tell. 111.

THIS is, Dunedin FOR Education.
Student loans FOR Banks and Slum Landlords.
Google Images: “castle street hyde street dunedin”

And Harlene, next! Frat Life starts in on St Leonards – just a quick ride from your Ivy League of diminished offerings, that overpriced BA, BCom or BSc.

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Related Posts and Comments:
18.2.15 University of Otago: Toga Party 2015 #video
16.2.15 University of Otago can’t beat broadcast news and social media #image
18.12.14 University of Otago —um Harlene, what you sellin’ now, girl?
12.8.14 Cameras in North Dunedin
1.8.14 University Partyville, North Dunedin: Put the cameras in ~!!
16.7.14 Stadium: Out of the mouths of uni babes…. #DVML
30.4.14 Octagon mud
22.3.14 Dunedin North care less filthy slum
19.3.14 Dunedin North drunks
15.2.14 University of Otago: Starter questions for Harlene
10.2.14 University of Otago major sponsor for Highlanders
19.8.13 Cull on senility (firing up graduates)
25.3.13 UoO: NEGATIVE PRESS: Weekly disorder in Dunedin campus area
20.2.12 University of Otago student orientation
17.2.12 Salvation Army: The Growing Divide
17.12.11 Stadium + Cull love = University of Otago + OUSA party
23.11.11 Judge Oke Blaikie finally said it
9.11.11 DCC has PR problem

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin’s draft local alcohol policy (Lap) —submissions, real story outs

District licensing commissioner received direct reports of enticements to survey submitters.

### ODT Online Tue, 11 Nov 2014
Dunedin bars ‘offered punters cheap drinks to fill in surveys’
By Debbie Porteous
Dunedin bars offered punters cheap drinks to fill in surveys in support of licensees position against a draft liquor licensing policy for the city, Dunedin district licensing commissioner Colin Weatherall says. Mr Weatherall kicked off the first day of Lap hearings in Dunedin with the bombshell accusation.
Read more

Other ODT articles:
10.11.14 Fallout over liquor plan
8.11.14 Alcohol policy: Plenty to pore over
8.11.14 Portal use saves $10,000
6.11.14 Alcohol policy piques

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Dunedin City council – Media Release
Draft Local Alcohol Policy Hearings Underway

This item was published on 11 Nov 2014

Residents’ views on the sale, supply and consumption of alcohol in the community will be aired at hearings underway in Dunedin. Today is the first of seven days of public hearings on the Dunedin City Council’s draft Local Alcohol Policy, with the last day being Thursday, 4 December. About 280 people are scheduled to speak at the hearings. Two days have been set aside later in December for the Hearings Committee’s deliberations.

The Dunedin City Council’s draft Local Alcohol Policy (LAP) attracted 4262 submissions. Of these, 79% (3,382 submissions) were submitted on forms developed by Hospitality NZ and the Dunedin Inner City Licensing Forum, a group of inner city licensed premises. Of the remainder, 19% (789) were made by individuals and 2% (91) of submissions came from organisations and businesses representing the hospitality, retail, health, tertiary and social sectors, as well as the Police.

The draft LAP suggests a range of changes to current practices, including rules about how close new premises may be to places such as schools and early childhood centres, a one-way door policy from 1am, licensing footpath space outside licensed premises until 11pm and banning the serving of shots from midnight. Some of these proposed changes have been opposed by a range of submitters.

DCC General Manager Services and Development Simon Pickford says, “The purpose of the draft was to get a conversation going with the community and we’re really pleased that has happened. It’s important that all sectors of our community, from businesses to individuals, tell us their views as we work to establish what is acceptable to Dunedin residents in terms of the sale, supply and consumption of alcohol.”

Under the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012, the draft LAP must take into account issues such as the number of licences of each kind held for premises in its district, and the location and opening hours of each of the premises, the demography of residents and of tourists or holidaymakers who visit the district, the overall health indicators of the district’s residents and the nature and severity of the alcohol-related problems arising in the district.

Mr Pickford says, under the Act, the Hearings Committee is not able to take into account matters such as the economic impact of the suggested changes on businesses.

The membership of the Draft Local Alcohol Policy Hearings Committee is Mayor of Dunedin Dave Cull (Chairperson) and Councillors Aaron Hawkins, Mike Lord, Jinty MacTavish, Neville Peat, Andrew Whiley and Lee Vandervis.

Mr Pickford says the Committee will make recommendations to the full Council which will make the final decision on the LAP.
For more details or to view the draft LAP submissions, visit http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/lapsubs.

Contact General Manager Services and Development on 03 477 4000.
DCC Link

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Dunedin City Council
Draft Local Alcohol Policy —Consultation Hearing details

Submissions closed: 10/10/2014
Hearing: 11, 12, 13, 19 Nov and 2, 3, 4 Dec 2014
Contact person: Kevin Mechen

The purpose of a Local Alcohol Policy (LAP) is to ensure that the sale, supply and consumption of alcohol occurs in a safe and responsible way and that any adverse effects are minimised. The intention is to create an enabling policy that reflects all community aspirations, but finding the balance between various interests is a challenge.

To view the submissions received go to the Draft Local Alcohol Policy submissions information page

● Draft Local Alcohol Policy Hearings Agenda
● Draft Local Alcohol Policy Hearings Speaking Times Listing
● Draft Local Alcohol Policy Report to Hearings Committee
● Schedule of breaks during Hearings Committee

Related documents:
Draft Local Alcohol Policy (PDF, 231.4 KB)
The purpose of a Local Alcohol Policy (LAP) is to ensure that the sale, supply and consumption of alcohol occurs in a safe and responsible way and that any adverse effects are minimised.

Summary of Background Information (PDF, 269.8 KB)
This policy is to be read in conjunction with the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 and the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Regulations 2013.

Local Alcohol Policy – Statement of Proposal (PDF, 187.3 KB)
This Statement of Proposal has been prepared to fulfil the requirements of sections 83 and 87 of the Local Government Act 2002 (LGA) and section 79 of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 (the Act).

DCC Link

█ Ministry of Health | http://www.health.govt.nz/your-health/healthy-living/addictions/alcohol-and-drugs

█ NZ Drug Foundation | https://www.drugfoundation.org.nz/alcohol

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

University Partyville, North Dunedin: Put the cameras in ~!!

“We’ve earned the right to live away from home and live by ourselves and do what we want and I don’t think we should be baby-sat or monitored,” Ms Walker said. Students “should be able to be stupid on the weekend” and the situation had improved from previous years. –Maddy Walker (21), student

“If you look at the costs to city council every year of holes burnt in Leith St, Hyde St, Dundas St … some years it’s been $600,000.” –Cr Lee Vandervis

### ODT Online Fri, 1 Aug 2014
Call for north end cameras
By Vaughan Elder
A Dunedin city councillor is calling for video surveillance of the student quarter as a way of preventing out-of-control vandalism. The call for surveillance from Cr Lee Vandervis was not welcomed by north end residents and students spoken to yesterday, who said such a move would be an invasion of privacy. Cr Vandervis said video surveillance in the Octagon worked well and there was no reason why it could not be successfully employed in North Dunedin. “I believe we need to have some cameras up and we need to have a few prosecutions.”
Read more

Related Posts and Comments:
16.7.14 Stadium: Out of the mouths of uni babes…. #DVML
22.3.14 Dunedin North care less filthy slum
19.3.14 Dunedin North drunks
15.2.14 University of Otago: Starter questions for Harlene
10.2.14 University of Otago major sponsor for Highlanders
19.8.13 Cull on senility (firing up graduates)
31.5.13 University of Otago development plans
25.3.13 University of Otago: NEGATIVE PRESS: Weekly disorder…
20.2.12 University of Otago student orientation
17.12.11 Stadium + Cull love = University of Otago + OUSA party
23.11.11 Judge Oke Blaikie finally said it

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images: (from top) stuff.co.nz, stuff.co.nz, wikimedia.org – North Dunedin

Octagon mud

Council reaps us what it sows

It comes to pass that the CBD’s most-used symbolic gathering place, The Octagon, carrying a cluster of historic buildings, the city’s public art museum, our main performance theatre (Regent), a cinema multiplex under redevelopment, shop and office buildings, the Athenaeum building on the comeback through new stewardship, the impressive St Paul’s Cathedral, the stately Municipal Chambers and Town Hall complex, the seat of local government administration (Civic Centre), and a slightly down-at-heels landscaped wide open space at the junction of surveyor Charles Kettle’s two main arterial roads (Princes/George Streets and Stuart Street), also takes a bevy of drinking bars and night spots that make a strong contribution to central city nighttime violence, disorder, and lack of public safety.

The Craft Bar homicide and the connected serious assault investigations started last weekend point up the Dunedin City Council’s lack of urban design and planning vigilance in Health and Safety matters.

This tied to recent years of lobbying by the Octagon bar owners on licensing and trading hours and conditions, sometimes tied to hosting after-match wakes for Stadium sport and events (even although major events at the stadium are tapering, as predicted), unsupported youth, gang sqirmishes, under-resourced local police, and society’s access to cut-price alcohol and its liberal use (pre-loading and regular binging) alongside other substance abuse, means the Octagon is devolving into a hell-hole of collective making – not dissimilar to what happened at Cathedral Square in Christchurch before the quakes.

What will the city council do to mitigate the situation, and how soon can we restore the space to 24/7 safety for all? Is this even possible with the cluster of ‘intemperance’ bars and no push for building owners to move to greater diversity in mixed ground floor tenanting on the lower Octagon? One way or another “Party Central” has to fold – changing the pattern of ground tiles will not suffice.

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Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull speaks volumes when he says, at times, he does not feel comfortable near the Octagon.

ODT Editorial: Personal responsibility key (30.4.14)
Knowing Dunedin is one of the most statistically safest cities in New Zealand will bring no solace to the families involved in the tragic death of Ryan Court at the weekend. Read more

Related ODT stories:
30.4.14 Arrest after Octagon assault
30.4.14 Progress made in assault inquiry
29.4.14 ‘A good man’ mourned
29.4.14 Man hospitalised after Octagon assault
28.4.14 Bottle assault follows bar death
28.4.14 Names released after death at city bar
28.4.14 Arrest follows death at city bar
27.4.14 Man in custody over Octagon bar death

ODT ‘Booze Control: Stop and Think’ series:
Excessive drinking changes the way people act
30.1.14 Education fails, professor says
29.1.14 South’s alcohol statistics worst
28.1.14 Delicate balancing act over licensing
27.1.14 Still a ‘very safe community’
25.1.14 Time to clean up act over alcohol
25.1.14 The cold, naked truth about nightlife

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

University of Otago: NEGATIVE PRESS: Weekly disorder in Dunedin campus area

● Unacceptable student and non-student behaviour ● Vice-chancellor Harlene Hayne’s bid to bring students into line fails ● Dunedin’s multi-agency approach to campus area unrest not working

[Archives: newzeeland.wordpress.com]

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### ODT Online Mon, 25 Mar 2013
Students blame authorities
By Rosie Manins and Eileen Goodwin
Drunken disorder in the student quarter is being exacerbated by police and council intervention, university students and Castle St residents say, citing a Saturday night incident as a classic example. At least one private Castle St party was shut down by a Dunedin City Council noise control officer about 10pm, forcing people out of the flat, on to the street.

$$$ ● About 300 people had gathered on the street by 11pm, when four Dunedin firefighters arrived in an appliance to extinguish two couch fires.
$$$ ● The size of the crowd prompted them to call for a back-up appliance and crew from Roslyn, as well as for police attendance.
$$$ ● At the same time, four Willowbank firefighters in an appliance were called to a Dundas St mattress fire.
$$$ ● They were finished in time to respond as back-up in Castle St, so the Roslyn crew was stood down, then immediately called out to back up a St Kilda crew, attending a fire in Harrow St.
$$$ ● In total, seven furniture fires were extinguished in the student area on Saturday night.
$$$ ● More than a dozen police officers, including a dog handler and two paddy wagon crews, arrived in Castle St to disperse the crowd about midnight.

Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull said if people’s behaviour on private property was excessive and had to be curtailed, it made no sense for them to assume such behaviour in public was acceptable.
Read full article

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[Archives: newzeeland.wordpress.com]

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What do we think of OUSA…
Close down the Hyde St party never to return?

### ODT Online Sun, 24 Mar 2013
Moves to increase safety at Hyde St keg party
By Vaughan Elder
The Otago University Students’ Association has settled on a range of measures to make this year’s Hyde St keg party safer, including a ”one-way” policy from as early as 2pm. An estimated 5000 people attended last year’s party, which was marred by 15 arrests, the collapse of a roof overloaded with partygoers and 80 people requiring treatment by St John. The OUSA has been looking at ways to make this year’s April 13 party safer. OUSA president Francisco Hernandez said apart from limiting numbers, it had settled on a range of measures, including a ”one-way door” policy, with non-resident party-goers who leave the street barred from returning. It was also looking at making it a 10am to 5pm party, he said.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

D Scene – Stabbing DCC over Undie 500, alcohol and the ghetto

### D Scene 23-9-08
Front cover: Burning issues
The council and the liquor industry have come in for scathing criticism for contributing to the boozy and couch-burning culture of Otago University students. We investigate as the fallout continues from the latest mayhem.
See pages 4-7

Try the mirror (page 3)
By Dave Wood, acting editor
So Undie 500s trigger the mayhem at the North Dunedin student enclave. Health authorities, a university researcher, and a lecturer point the finger firmly at the council, saying its decisions – and lack of decisions – are much to blame.

Undie fallout continues (page 4)
By Michelle Sutton
Dunedin City Council and North Dunedin’s student ghetto are copping blame for the latest boozy student chaos.

Council failed to act on recommendations: Kypri (page 4)
By Michelle Sutton
Dunedin City Council is blasted for its part in booze problems leading to this month’s Castle St carnage. Senior researcher at Australia’s Newcastle University, Dr Kypros Kypri put 11 recommendations to the Dunedin City Council in 2003.

PHS points finger at city Council (page 5)
Drinking to get drunk is a social norm among Dunedin students, but they cannot be blamed solely for the problems that then arise, say local health authorities.

Student behaviour ‘moronic’: Ellis (page 5)
One of Otago University’s most infamous scarfies, TV personality and All Black Marc Ellis, calls the Castle St riots “moronic”.

Dunedin is the couch-burning capital of the world, reckons television builder John Cocks (Cocksy). MC at the building industry’s southern region young apprentice of the year awards, he observed: “When you buy a couch here, they ask, ‘Do you want petrol with that?’ ” (page 6)

Society needs to ‘look at self’ (page 6)
By Michelle Sutton
Middle-aged New Zealand needs to look at itself before blaming students for the drunken riots against police, says Kevin Mechen of the Dunedin City Council.

Chaplains ready for disgraced students (page 6)
By Wilma McCorkindale
Campus chaplains are bracing themselves for months, maybe years, of effects on disgraced students from the Undie 500 mayhem in Castle St. University of Otago ecumenical chaplain Rev Greg Hughson supported many in court after the Undie 500 two years ago.

Student ghetto to blame (page 7)
North Dunedin’s student ghetto is singled out as a major factor leading to Castle St’s carnage at the Undie 500 weekend. Otago University music lecturer Graeme Downes offer some insight in his blog about events that led to 67 arrests, about 80 percent of whom were Dunedin students.

Register to read D Scene online at http://fairfaxmedia.newspaperdirect.com/

STS to tell members to pay (page 9)
Stop The Stadium will recommend to its members to pay almost $10,000 to the Dunedin City Council. President Dave Witherow says the committee will recommend paying the costs at a special meeting for members, to be held on October 18. The special meeting will also deal with STS’s future actions.

Building a bar (page 19)
Dunedin’s youngest pub baron and former scarfie Richard McLeod tells D Scene about building a bar empire with his mate James Arnott, and the Liquor Licensing Authority decision that threatens to topple it over. Michelle Sutton reports.

Post by Elizabeth Kerr

Undie 500 aftermath and distilling…

UPDATED

### ODT Online Tue, 15 Sep 2009
Teen remanded over Undie unrest

The first of the people charged after the weekend’s Undie 500 riots in Dunedin appeared in court today. Tessa Gabrielle Rieger, 19, was remanded until September 29 on a charge of disorderly behaviour in Castle St last Friday night, The Southland Times reported.
Read more

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### ODT Online Tue, 15 Sep 2009
Louts will face action: Skegg

The University of Otago will come down hard on students whose “loutish behaviour” at the weekend threatened the university’s reputation, vice-chancellor Prof Sir David Skegg says.
Read more

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### ODT Online Tue, 15 Sep 2009
Opinion: Undie riots in wider context
By Allan Brent, student author

With the predictability of spring following winter, the arrival of last weekend’s Undie 500 heralded a slippage into chaos on the streets of North Dunedin.
Read more

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Councillors out of their depth…

### ODT Online Tue, 15 Sep 2009
Link loans to behaviour
By Chris Morris

Dunedin’s deputy mayor is calling for student loans to be tied to lawful behaviour following a third year of Undie 500 chaos in North Dunedin.
Read more

Other stories in ODT:
Alcohol law review visit `coincidence’
Centre could play host

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### Newstalk ZB 14/09/2009 12:44:02
Debriefing to follow Undie 500

Student leaders are to meet with the police and Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin this week to discuss the aftermath of the Undie 500. About 80 students are facing criminal charges after their involvement in riots on Friday and Saturday nights. Student representatives from both Otago and Canterbury University will be involved in a debrief of the event, before considerations are made about how to tackle the event in the future. Police are warning they will be making more arrests as they work through identifying those involved.
RNZ Link