DCC leases space for South Dunedin community hub at Cargill Enterprises

How many years has this taken DCC
It’s still only “temporary” accommodation….

South Dunedin has been waiting for a public library since the time of borough amalgamation.

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Dunedin City Council – Media Release
Home found for South Dunedin pop up hub

This item was published on 02 May 2017

A home has been found for the South Dunedin pop up community hub. The Dunedin City Council this week signed a two year lease to set up a temporary hub in part of the Cargill Enterprises premises at 199 Hillside Road.

[screenshot – click to enlarge]
DCC Webmap – 199 Hillside Rd, South Dunedin JanFeb 2013

Group Manager Arts and Culture Bernie Hawke says, “We are delighted to have a confirmed location for the pop up hub. This is a well known, central location and we look forward to providing a range of services on site for local residents.”

The DCC is leasing about 200sq m, which includes space for community activities, meeting areas, DCC service centre and library activities, and kitchen and toilet facilities. The hub will also provide access to Gig wifi for the South Dunedin community. It is hoped the pop up hub will be open about mid year. As well as providing access to DCC services, the hub will provide an opportunity for the community to have input into the development of the permanent South Dunedin Community Hub. While the opening hours for the pop up hub are still to be confirmed, the hub is expected to be open about 25 hours a week, across five days and including one evening and Saturday morning.

Cargill Enterprises Chief Executive Geoff Kemp says, “Cargills are thrilled to be in a position to accommodate the city’s South D interim hub initiative. “A community centre and library adjoining the main facility will give our 94 staff easy access to the many services planned, particularly the opportunity to explore a wide range of reading material and multimedia. We view the hub as complementing our employer-led numeracy and literacy training programme. Very exciting!”

Mayor of Dunedin Dave Cull comments, “The establishment of the pop up hub shows the Council’s commitment to South Dunedin and is a key part of a much wider engagement with the South Dunedin community and agencies working in the area.”

DCC Chief Executive Officer Dr Sue Bidrose says, “When the pop up hub has been established, we will turn our attention to the location and development of the permanent hub. The signing of a lease for the pop up hub is an important step in this process. In addition to the pop up hub development, our Community Development team has been working alongside groups within South Dunedin to look at the social and economic needs and strengths of this community. As part of this, on 18 May we are organising a number of local community-based groups and individuals to meet to see if a collective action plan to support improved social and economic wellbeing can be created within the South Dunedin area.”

Contact DCC on 03 477 4000.
DCC Link

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Lee Vandervis and the zero-emission Electric Leaf

Promo: Nissan Leaf 30kwh [100hotcars.info]

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Received from Lee Vandervis
Wed, 28 Sep 2016 at 10:32 p.m.

From: Lee Vandervis
Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2016 09:01:28 +1200
To: Editor ODT
Cc: Nicholas G S Smith, Julian Smith [Allied Press Ltd]
Subject: ZERO Rating – Letter to the Editor

ZERO Rating – Letter to the Editor.

Dear Editor,

When a youth group calling themselves Generation Zero springs a C- Environmental Rating [p4 ODT 27/9/16] on somebody who: generates his own off-grid solar power, cuts mills and builds with his own timber from sustainable macrocarpa forest using off-cuts for low-carbon heating, has been a life-long re-user as well as recycler restoring Heritage buildings and homes, drives a zero-emission electric car, eats veges and herbs from 20 metres of raised bed garden and fruit from a dozen orchard trees, and has always paid for his DCC water connection, it comes as quite a surprise to see this same group giving Mayor Cull an A+ Environmental Rating, presumably because he blamed South Dunedin’s avoidable flooding of homes on Climate Change and Sea-Level Rise. Hopefully it is only this fundamentalist Climate Change Generation Zero group that falls for the fashion of just talking Sustainability while ignoring the facts of those who actually live it.

Kind regards,

Cr. Lee Vandervis

****

Tue, 27 Sep 2016
ODT: Environmental ratings controversial
The group behind a website that is ranking Dunedin mayoral candidates on their environmental stance says it was produced in part to get young people talking about the local government election. […] [JOKE] Mr Cull said he was flattered by the judgement, and thought the organisation had “comprehensively” looked at a range of issues and how candidates had grappled with them.

****

ON THE RECORD
Lee Vandervis purchased a near new electric Nissan Leaf well before Dave Cull and Chris Staynes each bought theirs. What if? Dunedin inspected Mr Vandervis’ car today and went for a quiet ride……….. as you do when chasing down a bad ODT newsflash written by low pond life.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

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

South Dunedin mainstreet Hub : no direct relevance to distant Gasworks

as well as (pre-Election)
DESPICABLE DCC / ORC CLIMATE CHANGE MASSAGE

[click to enlarge]
DCC Webmap – GREAT DISTANCE except by computer or Segway….
South Dunedin | from King Edward St (red) to Gasworks Museum (blue) via Lorne and Braemar Sts (green) – colour overlays by whatifdunedin.

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█ DCC doesn’t need Athfield Architects to justify the LONG DURATION need and solution. No disrespect to colleague, the late Ian Athfield —or the current firm (love them heaps).

DCC, DO NOT OVER THINK THIS, FOR CRISSAKES
Give South Dunedin a community facility as was Promised YEARS AGO. Leave the goodie-two-shoes Gasworks Museum lobbyists out of it, or very much to the side. They mean well, but for too long they’ve been praying on the feckless DCC, soaking up Ratepayer dollars with little justification, and they keep wanting more.

COLLECTIVELY, WE HAVE LOCAL SOLUTIONS – WE DON’T NEED TO BE HELD BY THE HAND TO SET UP SOMETHING SO INCREDIBLY SIMPLE AS AN ECONOMICAL WELL-CRAFTED COMMUNITY HUB IN KING EDWARD STREET

How many people is this “out of control” Dunedin City Council wanting to Massage – BEFORE the October Local Body Elections.

VOTE BUYING
The CULL Stench around this is SO DISGUSTING.

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Dunedin City Council – Media Release
Drop-in sessions start of community conversation on South Dunedin’s future

This item was published on 22 Aug 2016

A series of drop-in information sessions hosted by the Dunedin City Council and Otago Regional Council early next month are the start of a community conversation around South Dunedin’s future. The sessions will be at the Dunedin Gasworks Museum on Thursday, 1 September and Friday, 2 September.

DCC chief executive Sue Bidrose will be presenting information about what happened in the 2015 flood, how the current stormwater system works, and how the DCC plans to invest and work with the community in the future.

Ms Bidrose said that it was important to plan carefully for South Dunedin’s changing environment. It was also important to take the time to involve the community in the decision making along the way, rather than to just do things on their behalf.

“Addressing the challenges of the future requires the DCC and ORC starting to have conversations with the community about the challenges, and the expectations and options for what can be achieved. The rest of Dunedin’s population needs to be involved as well. There is a great opportunity to turn some of the challenges into opportunities and give confidence for long-term investment in the area. These drop-in sessions are the beginning of the process. The DCC will be actively seeking local people’s thoughts on these issues and working with the ORC on what the long-term responses might be. I’m looking forward to seeing as many people as possible from the South Dunedin area at the sessions.” –Bidrose [employed by ????]

ORC director of stakeholder engagement Caroline Rowe said the drop-in sessions were part of a wider South Dunedin community engagement plan, aimed at developing a conversation with locals and groups about managing the risks associated with the changing environment. Ms Rowe said they follow the recent release of the ORC’s Natural Hazards of South Dunedin report. The [BULLSHIT ORC] technical report pulls together information and analysis gathered over the past seven years on natural hazards facing the area, particularly the increased likelihood of surface flooding associated with rising sea level. [FALSE AND MISLEADING BULLSHIT]

Presentations, with accompanying video, will be at each session and people will have an opportunity to talk individually to staff from both councils. The hour-long sessions will be repeated several times, with Thursday sessions starting at 10am, 11.30am, 1pm, 4.30pm and 7pm. The Friday sessions will start at 10am, 11.30am, and 1pm.

Ongoing engagement planned for the next few weeks also includes briefings for support service agencies and other specific interest groups such as the South Dunedin Business Association, the Otago Chamber of Commerce, and school and early childhood centres.

Contact Sue Bidrose, chief executive DCC on 03 477 4000.

DCC Link

█ Feedback on the proposal can be provided online on the council’s website at http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/council-online/currently-consulting-on/current-consultations/south-dunedin-community-hub

The feedback period runs from Saturday, 20 August until 4pm on Monday, 29 August.

****

Mon, 22 Aug 2016
ODT: South D hub proposal unveiled
The Dunedin City Council is calling for feedback from residents on its preferred option for a library and community hub in South Dunedin before a report is presented to councillors next month. Council services and development general manager Simon Pickford and architect Jon Rennie, of Athfield Architects, presented the council’s preferred option to about 50 people at the Dunedin Gasworks Museum on Saturday morning. Under the $5.25 million proposal, a library would be built in the former BNZ building in King Edward St and the facility linked to the Gasworks Museum through Lorne St. Some facilities, such as a café, would be based at the museum. Mr Pickford said residents had until August 29 to provide feedback to the council on the proposal.

█ For more, enter the terms *south dunedin*, *flood*, *hazard*, *vandervis* (sane) and *cull* (VOTE Cull OUT) in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

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

ORC, DCC continuing Deceptions : Natural Hazards for #SouthDunedin

W H A T ● P L A N ?

ORC stakeholder engagement director Caroline Rowe said the sessions were part of a wider “South Dunedin community engagement plan”.

### ODT Online Tue, 9 Aug 2016
Sessions on natural hazards
By John Gibb
South Dunedin residents will be able to learn more about natural hazards facing the area through drop-in sessions to be held at the Dunedin Gasworks Museum early next month.
The Otago Regional Council is organising the September 1 and 2 sessions, in collaboration with the Dunedin City Council. The drop-in session on the first day will run from 1.30pm to 7pm, and on the second day from 10am to 2.30pm.
Last month the ORC released a report titled “Natural Hazards of South Dunedin”. This report consolidated information and analysis gathered over the past seven years on the natural hazards facing the area, particularly the “increased likelihood of surface flooding associated with rising sea level”.
Read more

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W H A T ● R I S K S ?
Answer ……. M I S I N F O R M A T I O N via ORC Hazard Plans and Maps

F I G H T >>> To Protect Your Property Values

“In a report to be tabled at the ORC’s technical committee tomorrow, Ms Rowe said South Dunedin was “an integral part of the wider Dunedin community” and many people and groups had an interest in how its risks would be managed. The report said the ORC also planned several other communication activities over the hazards plan, this month and next.” –ODT

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█ ORC : Combined Council Agenda 10 August – Public.pdf
● Go to Agenda Item 5 (pp 34-35)
2016/0988 South Dunedin Community Engagement Report
The report outlines the approach management is taking to the community engagement as was verbally communicated at the Technical Committee meeting held on 20 July 2016 where Council received the report entitled “The Natural Hazards of South Dunedin” and made the decision to “endorse further community and stakeholder engagement within a timely manner”.

[screenshot – click to enlarge]

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General reading (Otago including Dunedin City District)
● ORC : Natural Hazards

● Information coming to this ORC webpage: ORC committee report – natural hazards of the Dunedin district: technical documents

● Natural Hazards of South Dunedin – July 2016

● See also, the DCC second generation district plan (2GP) hazard zone information and maps based on ORC data, via the 2GP Index page.

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Related Post and Comments:
6.8.16 LGOIMA trials and tribulations with peer reviews #SouthDunedinflood

█ For more, enter the terms *flood*, *hazard*, *south dunedin* and *southdunedinflood* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

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

South Dunedin flood risk boosters #ClimateChangeCrap #PissOffPCE

Updated post
Thu, 14 Apr 2016 at 6:13 p.m.

TOTAL FICTION
Parliamentary Commissioner for Environment says 30cm rise minimum expected over next 50 years.

### ODT Online Thu, 14 Apr 2016
South Dunedin flood risk [NOT] ‘an issue’
By Timothy Brown
South Dunedin presents the “most troubling example” of high groundwater levels in the country, Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright says. Areas like South Dunedin faced greater risk from flooding and liquefaction, Dr Wright said during her keynote address at the New Zealand Planning Institute’s annual conference at the Dunedin Town Hall yesterday. South Dunedin was particularly at risk due to its low-lying nature and its geographic history as marshland.
Read more

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Defending SOUTH DUNEDIN from False Climate Change hypotheses:

ODT 24.3.16

█ Note: Cr Mike Lord attended the South Dunedin public meeting on 7 March 2016.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Pollution in Chinese cities

City pollution [ddmcdn.com]

### stuff.co.nz Last updated 12:20, March 7 2015
Film highlighting pollution woes vanishes from China’s Internet
By Dian Zhang
A 104-minute film lecture that outlines the serious pollution in China has been removed from the nation’s internet, after receiving millions of views and raising hopes that the country’s leadership might tackle China’s widespread smog problem. The film – by Chai Jing, one of the best-known journalists in China and a well-known former state television reporter – was released right before China’s two most important political events, the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Before the movie was censored, a story from Xinhua News Agency, China’s official press agency, praising the film was deleted online the same night the article was posted, offering a hint of the government’s real attitude.

Released last Saturday, Under the Dome had received 42.9 million views on Youku, a video-sharing website like YouTube, by 5 pm Thursday (local time). It prompted 530,460 posts on Weibo.

In the film, Chai gives a speech and shows data and interviews with government officials and environmental experts from China and abroad. The film shows striking images of the extent of air pollution in a number of Chinese cities, as well as rivers fouled by chemicals and littered with flotsam and dead fish. Chai also travelled to Los Angeles and London to gauge their experiences dealing with smog.
Read more

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█ Chai Jing’s documentary is well worth watching. Preamble via CNN.

CNN Published on Mar 3, 2015
China smog documentary goes viral
Director of China Environment Forum Jennifer Turner discusses a new documentary titled “Under the Dome” that discusses pollution in China.

Linghein Ho Published on Mar 1, 2015
Chai Jing’s review: Under the Dome – Investigating China’s Smog 柴静雾霾调查：穹顶之下 (full translation)
ENGLISH SUBTITLES ARE FULLY TRANSLATED
For more information: http://www.linghein.me/tr_u/
English Subtitles: FULLY UPDATED | Japanese Subtitles: update to 09:25 | French Subtitles: update to 31:06
Former celebrity TV anchor Chai Jing quit her job after her baby daughter was born with a lung tumor, and after a year of rigorous investigation, launched this 1 hour 40 minute documentary about China’s smog: what is smog? Where does it come from? What do we do from here? It is very powerful in many ways. English subtitles are now completely finished, and other languages are being added.
Music: “Brotherhood” by John Dreamer (Google Play • iTunes)

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[click to enlarge]
3 photo comparatives (*gif) taken by NASA’s Aqua satellite via gizmodo.com

Related Post and Comments:
23.3.13 Chongqing, Southwest China

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

The Truth about 1080 —Public Information Evening (Albert Town)

Notice received Thu, 6 Nov 2014 at 6:53 a.m.

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█ Download: The Truth about 1080 poster (PDF, 2 MB)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Disclaimer: This notice does not constitute or imply an endorsement or recommendation of any kind by Elizabeth Kerr and the parties to What if? Dunedin.

Jints, this one’s forya

On science communication . . .

Uploaded: May 7, 2012. TheXRelease.
The Lorax By Dr Seuss’s (1972)WebRiP XviD_X-Release
Copyright for this special is owned by “The Cat in the Hat Productions” and current distributors. This is for Entertainment/Educational Purposes only.

“The Lorax is a children’s book written by Dr. Seuss and first published in 1971. It chronicles the plight of the environment and the Lorax, who speaks for the trees against the greedy Once-ler. As in most Dr. Seuss works, most of the creatures mentioned are original to the book. [text]

The book is commonly recognised as a fable concerning industrialised society and the danger it poses to nature, using the literary element of personification to give life to industry as the Once-ler (whose face is never shown in any of the story’s illustrations or in the television special) and to the environment as the Lorax.

The book was adapted as an animated musical television special produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, directed by Hawley Pratt and starring the voices of Eddie Albert and Bob Holt. The line about Lake Erie was spoken by one of the Humming-Fish as they marched out of the river at the foot of the Once-ler’s factory. The special also features more of an in-depth look at the problems, including the Once-ler arguing with himself about what he is doing, and at one point asking the Lorax if shutting down his factory (and putting hundreds of people out of a job) is really the answer. Many of the Lorax’s arguments seem to be focused on how “progress progresses too fast”, in a sense arguing that things might’ve been better if the Once-Ler had come to a balance with the forest and slowed down production of the Thneeds.”

Wikipedia: The Lorax | Dr. Seuss | Political messages of Dr. Seuss

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Related Posts and Comments:
13.1.14 Taking to water like a duck on oil
24.12.13 Daaave’s $47 million Christmas present to Jinty. We’re paying.

Russell Garbutt at ODT Online:
20.1.14 Global vs the DCC

Jinty MacTavish at ODT Online:
9.1.14 On ethics and hypocrisy…
12.1.14 Climate change policy, cycle investments
20.1.14 Fossil fuel position based on science, best interests
20.1.14 Renewables, jobs and local governance

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Cull on senility (firing up graduates)

HOW TO CAPTURE THE UNIVERSITY VOTE ?!?

[Mayor Cull] also noted the “mental sclerosis and settled habits that so often accompany age”.

F***erama! The Old Fool Codpiece spins towards his grave, with the Jinty espied as Angel.

Ageist: A person who discriminates based on age…usually an old dude or a dumb blonde [Urban Dictionary]

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### ODT Online Mon, 19 Aug 2013
Graduates urged to take place as leaders
By John Gibb
Planet Earth and its inhabitants are facing a “perfect storm” of extreme climatic and environmental challenges and the future will have “no precedent in the past”, Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull has warned. The pace of change was now so great that University of Otago graduates should not wait to become what was “sometimes patronisingly” termed “the leaders of tomorrow”, but should start leading now. That was Mr Cull’s message in an address to about 350 graduates, in a wide range of disciplines, during the university’s latest graduation ceremony, at the Dunedin Town Hall at 3pm on Saturday.
Mr Cull said that over the past few years he had “learned more from younger people than older”. And, including while hearing submissions on various plans and strategies, he had been ”incredibly impressed by the commitment, intelligence, passion and values of so many of the young people”, particularly those in the city’s tertiary education sector. “That’s not undervaluing the wisdom of age, just appreciating the vibrant pertinence of so many younger voices and minds.” And he also noted the “mental sclerosis and settled habits that so often accompany age”.
Read more

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Related Post and Comments:
16.8.13 DCC nominations —All the mops, brooms and feather dusters

● Ageism, or age discrimination is stereotyping and discriminating against individuals or groups because of their age. It is a set of beliefs, attitudes, norms, and values used to justify age based prejudice, discrimination, and subordination. This may be casual or systematic.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: Photomerge by Whatifdunedin – Mayor Cull explains the loss-making sale of Carisbrook to Calder Stewart (stills from Channel 39 footage)

Tauranga: Office leases to cover potential losses from hotel

OH WOW, another $100M baby!!!!!!

This council carpark on Durham St could be home to a long-awaited $100 million hotel and commercial building development.

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### ODT Online Wed, 24 Jul 2013
$100m hotel plan for city
By John Cousins – Bay of Plenty Times
A massive $100 million building is proposed for council-owned land in Tauranga’s downtown after plans for an international hotel escalated into a combined hotel and commercial office development.
Mayor Stuart Crosby announced that negotiations between the council and Tainui Holdings, the Waikato iwi’s investment arm, had seen a substantial high-end office development added to the original plans for a $40 million hotel. The council’s ambitions for the block of land on Durham St are now only a week away from a firm direction being given on whether the project went ahead.
Tainui Holdings and its hotel operator partner, Accor group, had until July 17 to carry out due diligence and had kept the council abreast of progress.
Mr Crosby said the much larger project had been driven by the opportunity that the income from office leases would cover potential losses from the hotel: “Hotels are notorious for not making profits in their early years.” APNZ
Read more

Tauranga downtown’s emerging skyline

Recent Additions
$30m ANZ Building on the corner of Cameron Rd & Elizabeth St
$14m Sharpe Tudhope Building on the corner of Devonport Rd & 1st Ave
$21m police station, Monmouth St

Planned Additions
$1m-plus 3-storey retail & office building on The Strand’s Grumpy Mole site
$10m office building on the corner of Willow St & Harington St
$30m TrustPower head office
$67m tertiary and research campus
$100m international hotel and office development

PS. Dunedin is SO not Tauranga. The Bay is poised to boom as the fruit bowl of Asia. Meanwhile on the Taieri, Dunedin City Council lets a councillor and friends build speculative housing and a plant nursery turn into a gravelled ‘destination hub’ (without a legal water connection?) on high class soils, with impunity.

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Recent Post and Comments:
25.6.13 Hotel/Apartment Tower decision to be appealed

For information on the proposed $100M ‘Dunedin Hotel’, enter *hotel* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

INSANE, Dave! Occupy Dunedin STAYS in the Octagon.

DON’T MOVE. DON’T ACCEPT THE MARKET RESERVE. KEEP THE PROTEST CENTRAL AND HIGHLY VISIBLE . . . WHILE DUNEDIN CITY COUNCILLORS CONTINUE TO SELL OUR FUTURE DOWN THE TUBES.

### ODT Online Fri, 21 Oct 2011
Occupy protesters offered other site
By David Loughrey
Protesters in the Octagon have been offered an alternative site at the Market Reserve in Dunedin, a move Mayor Dave Cull said was designed to return the Octagon to all city residents. Mr Cull last night said council chief executive Paul Orders had organised a staff member to pass on the message to the group yesterday afternoon. The protesters had been invited to the council today to speak to Mr Orders, and give their response.
Read more

Images ©2011 Elizabeth Kerr

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Octagon protest occupies minds!

Images ©2011 Elizabeth Kerr

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### ODT Online Wed, 19 Oct 2011
Opinion
Campers strike a common chord
By Simon Cunliffe
Brrrrr! Not great weather for camping. It’ll soon be a bog up there in the Octagon – where the good folk of the “Occupy Dunedin” movement have parked their tents. Can’t imagine they’ll want to stay long in this sort of weather but one or two of them seem determined to remain. There’s been a bit of a squabble over statutes governing occupation of the site. It’s been said a 19th-century bylaw allowing immigrants en route to the Central Otago goldfields to squat temporarily in the city centre is still in force. A neat irony that: it’s a gold rush of a different kind this mob have set up shop to condemn. Their focus is corporate greed, social inequality, free-market economics and environmental issues, much of which they would undoubtedly argue arises from the unfettered accumulation of the aforementioned “gold”. And, interestingly, it’s an echo that has been witnessed in large-scale demonstrations across the world.
Read more

• Simon Cunliffe is deputy editor (news) at the Otago Daily Times.

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### ODT Online Wed, 19 Oct 2011
Spirit of protest not dampened by rain
By John Lewis
Anti-capitalism protesters are yet to decide how long they intend to stay in the Octagon, but the Dunedin City Council is going out of its way not to put pressure on the group to respond to its request for a timeline.
Read more

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### ODT Online Wed, 19 Oct 2011
Opinion
Importance of sharing our common wealth forgotten
By Alison MacTavish
The Rugby World Cup has predictably given rise to plenty of discussions about whether rugby is our national religion, or about its importance to our national identity. Election proposals that run counter to the more fundamental values of being a New Zealander, however, have attracted far less discussion.

John Key and his Government have said they will take re-election as a mandate for selling our assets. With most New Zealanders reportedly against asset sales, but with the National Party odds on to form the next government, the danger is that a vote for the National Party will be a vote for asset sales. And, of course, the National Government prefers to focus on how we can divvy up the spoils, rather than discussing the fundamental social justice issue.

Read more

• Alison MacTavish lives near Moeraki.

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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

Kathryn Ryan interviews agribusiness pioneer George Harrison

BRILLIANT INTERVIEW (if Ryan didn’t interrupt)

### rnz.co.nz Wed 22 Jun 2011 10:06 AM
Nine To Noon with Kathryn Ryan
Agribusiness pioneer Sir Graeme Harrison
Newly-knighted founder and chair of meat company Anzco Foods, which has annual sales of more than $1.2 billion, making it one of New Zealand’s largest exporters. He is also a director of dairy co-operative Westland Milk Products and fishing firm Sealord.
Audio Ogg Vorbis MP3 (32′50″)

****

Related:

[comment] 25.5.11
Prof Sir Paul Callaghan, physicist, entrepreneur, and New Zealander of the Year, was in Dunedin yesterday. Link

Sir Paul’s vision for New Zealand is a knowledge-based economy producing high-quality exports that do not strain the environment. Looking after the environment created the kind of society in which highly skilled people wanted to live. It helped reverse the brain drain, and attracted people from overseas. -Otago Daily Times

[post] 22.5.11
Audacious idea: New Zealand X-Prize Environmental and Energy

Hyperfactory founder Derek Handley said $1b is less than a tenth of what the current government has committed to infrastructure projects in the next few years and about the same amount spent bailing out South Canterbury Finance investors. It is also “about twice as much as the amount we hope to lose by hosting the Rugby World Cup”, he said and about the same as our bill for six weeks of imported oil. -Sunday Star Times

[post] 2.4.11
At last, PRODUCTIVITY is?

The Productivity Commission’s inquiry into international freight transport services is of high importance to Otago and Southland, Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Christie said yesterday. -Otago Daily Times

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Landscape urbanism + ‘larger infrastructure of the territory of our cities and towns’

“Landscape is doing some serious environmental heavy lifting.”
–Adriaan Geuze, West 8 Urban Design & Landscape Architecture

### architectmagazine.com October 6, 2010
Source: ARCHITECT October 2010
Urban Design
Systems, Not Icons: The unstoppable rise of landscape urbanism
By John Gendall
Not long ago, landscape architects were often dismissed as the consultants who put finishing touches on a building site—the broccoli around a steak. But with landscape architects increasingly taking lead positions on large-scale projects, winning urban design competitions around the world, and expanding the design market share, broccoli, clearly, is a thing of the past.
In many ways, the bellwether for these changes was James Corner’s career arc. As a young designer in Richard Rogers’ office, he grew frustrated by a lack of collaboration between disciplines on the postindustrial London Docklands project. Setting out on his own, he founded Field Operations, which has transformed itself from a boutique landscape practice turning out small projects and academic essays into a significant urban design firm with high-profile projects around the world. The critical step in that transition was when Corner won the competition to turn Freshkills, a huge former landfill in New York City, into a public park.
Underscoring this trend, the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) is in the midst of expanding its landscape faculty by six professorships over two years, and its landscape student body by 50 percent. And landscape architecture’s academic expansion holds up with the most tried-and-true indicator: It’s following the money. Large corporate architecture firms are ramping up their urban design and landscape divisions, as AECOM notably did in 2005 when it acquired EDAW, then among the world’s largest landscape firms.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin Amenities Society: UGLY Dunedin

“Dunedin is a beautiful city but we also have our share of ugly areas that blight our landscape and decrease the value of our city for visitors and the community. The Society would like Dunedin people to cast a critical eye over their city and the communities they live in and consider what is good and bad in their landscape and environment. What makes you sit up and take notice?”

Check out the Dunedin Amenities Society website . . . have your camera ready!

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Post by Elizabeth Kerr

University building for Plaza gap

### ODT Online Wed, 9 Jun 2010
$20 million set aside for varsity’s stadium building
By Allison Rudd
The University of Otago’s stadium building is a step closer, with almost $20 million being added to this year’s budget for its construction. The Warren and Mahoney-designed Oamaru stone-clad building, linking the University Plaza and the Forsyth Barr Stadium, will contain the university’s foundation studies department, the Unipol sports centre, a physiotherapy clinic and a cafe. Presenting the revised 2010 budget to the university council yesterday, chief operating officer John Patrick said almost $20 million – $19.722 million – had been added to the capital works budget for “university plaza building one”.
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Question: Which local dignitary are we naming it after, as a blame-marker of the stadium fiasco that would impoverish a city.
Or is “university plaza building one” it —shortening to “Plaza One”.
Has a certain kind of fit with the Americanised style of the Campus Master Plan: a football campus.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Dunedin, let’s explore “renewal partnerships”

### renewcanada.net 22 May 2008
The Disconnect Between Planning and Economic Development
(and How to Fix It)
By Storm Cunningham
Planning should ideally be the most holistic of disciplines, addressing the needs of human culture, wildlife, economics, and a plethora of other agendas in a systematic manner that has a rigorous theoretical basis. Now that you’ve stopped laughing, let me point out that the reality – planning reduced to primarily a land-use function – is not the fault of planners.

“Economic development is the last thing the planning department considers when giving, delaying, procrastinating, postponing, negotiating, and blocking applications. Planning department and council only pay lip service even to provincial and their own development policies. It would be refreshing to link planning approvals with at least consideration of economic benefit/impact.” -anonymous architect

Why are so many cities struggling with this disconnect? I trace it to two primary causes: turf protection and silo thinking (also silo budgeting).

Individuals tend to protect turf and tend to think in silos. As a result, organisations comprising, or led by, such individuals do the same. The organisation reinforces such behaviour, both actively and passively inhibiting enlightened individuals who wish to break these habits. As a result of this behavioural feedback loop, these aren’t the kinds of problems we can tackle head-on, like plugging a leak in a dike.
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-Storm Cunningham is the author of The Restoration Economy (2002) and ReWealth! (2008). He is CEO of the Resolution Fund and founder of Revitalisation Institute.

Post by Elizabeth Kerr

Cross-pollination between architects and filmmakers

“Architectural drawings have been given the animation treatment for years, but most fall into a utilitarian mold: a 360-degree rotation around a model of the building and a “flythrough” that takes the viewer inside. The result is a compelling visual for the client, but ultimately it’s a plain-cake approach.”

### http://www.archpaper.com 12.16.2009
Construction Cinema
By Nate Berg
Once bare-bones and utilitarian, architectural animation is becoming more nuanced and experiential. In part, this development can be credited to advances in 3-D technology, but at the same time architects have embraced the art of filmmaking – not only to create more interactive presentations for clients, but also to leverage as a tool in the design process.
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LA-based Nate Berg writes about architecture, the environment, and technology. He is an editor at the urban planning news website Planetizen.

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Plain cakes…

danielkidd151 23 May 2007
3d studio max Animation for Architecture Class. (Columbia University)

Na1zzur 19 December 2008
Okhta Center, known before March 2007 as Gazprom City, is a construction project of a business centre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It will include the first supertall skyscraper in the city. Architects: Herzog & de Meuron.

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coolhunting 31 March 2008
To document MoMA’s wonderful, monumental exhibit spanning design, science and technology, “Design and the Elastic Mind,” we enlisted the help of the show’s esteemed curator, Paola Antonelli. Paola speaks in detail about several of the exhibits, including “The Afterlife,” a system for turning corpses into batteries, robots that act as personal climatizers and DNA origami. She also weighs in on her curatorial approach, addressing the role of the designer, her mission to shift public perception of design and how design revolutionises our lives.

Post by Elizabeth Kerr