Future Invercargill: to stay or go ?

Posted 3rd March 2018 to the Southland Times Newspaper Invercargill NZ

I read on the front page of this newspaper that old Invercargill may need to be replaced by a stronger city.
I have followed all the past expert opinions  I can find and It is clear that Old Invercargill is simply in the wrong place
for the Anthroposcine era... It would be great to preserve the old city as an open air Museum, perhaps tear the streets up and make canals, heck you even have a Venetian Basilica on Tay Street..   So the question is what would people like a new city centre to be and where should it be placed ? A Shining City on a Hill?

If I recall construction is good for the economy, but not something that one should have to abandon in a short lifespan. 

Mayors should battle for the environment

Posted 5 January 2018 to the Otago Daily Times Newspaper Dunedin NZ.

I was starting to wonder if the population has ANY free will when it comes to saving the environment but today someone has had enough of plastic straws and is getting traction in the media...

Years ago I wrote to several Key Mayors including Tim Shadbolt of Invercargill if they could join together for the people they represent and do what central government cant seem to do... Fight Waste which is a huge ratepayer Burdon.

Problem number one is multinationals make tons of non returnable containers of which they expect ratepayers to dispose of into our environment and our lame Government caved into this without so much as a whimper.

Even the Green Party appears mute on this subject.

 As someone in the hospitality industry I am alarmed buy the increasing amount of this trash like water bottles that where never even a remote a necessity in the past.

And why old school paper grocery bags are not a choice in a country that makes so much paper is beyond me.

Go on mayors, try and get your free will back and do something hopeful !

published 8th Jan 2018 

Invercargill's Student Strategy NZ

Posted 16th December 2017 to the Southland Times Newspaper Invercargill NZ.

It was great to see Mayor Tim there for the Southland Institute of Technology for the 2017 Graduation Ceremony
At the Stadium. He really is a celebrity Mayor and very entertaining for any function.

Sorry to see after all the Shadbolt zero frees branding the rest of the country has adapted it for other centres
Which means our branding is redundant.

I wanted to say to Mayor Shadbolt that instead of zero rent or fees for students as an incentive perhaps a
Universal Basic Income for students might be a new angle, that way the cities landlords don’t get
Stressed and there could be conditions attached like attendance and aptitude. Also students  should feel
proud to go to their graduation ceremony as I recall we where back in the 1980s.

If a community gives out free education they should feel thanked for it.  

Published p.6 Dec 18 2017