Fields of dreams

My fondest memories of my youth are those of my sporting past.

Admittedly it was in Nelson, so there were very few weekends where it rained.

But as a coach of a Division 7 football team in Brooklyn, its been a frustrating year with the weather. All to often grounds are closed or games are called off. This is understandable, as its better not to cut the grounds up and miss out on training or not be able to play on those very same grounds for another week or more.

But wouldn’t it be nice if we had better grounds for our junior footballers, rugby players, and hockey teams. I don’t think I am alone in suggesting that it would be a fantastic idea to offer an astro turf for junior players, or substantially improve drainage. Tanera Park in Brooklyn has 3 dedicated junior fields and would be an ideal candidate for such development.

But why should we invest substantial sums of money in improving our playing fields for our youth?

Clearly there is the potential for cost savings, both in water savings and maintenance costs. But the other important factor is youth engagement. And developing playing fields that can be used regularly, is one plank in a much wider youth engagement strategy.

In the UK they have developed a national activity-based social inclusion programme for young people called “positive futures”. It uses sports programs to engage youth (and their families) in positive activities. Steering kids away from crime, graffiti, drugs, and alcohol misuse. There are also other programmes that I have outlined in an earlier posting about our youth.

Providing fields should be part of a wider strategy to provide our youth positive avenues to express themselves and to meet life long friends. Collaboration and partnership with clubs and schools is an equally important part of this strategy. Council needs to provide support in governance and marketing of the various sporting codes — to enable clubs to be attractive options for our youth. And perhaps through collaboration with clubs and other agencies costs can also be shared. The council should not just be a bank. It needs to also be a facilitator of action.

If we can engage our youth early in sports programmes, as they have done in the UK, we too might see a rapid decline in graffiti and youth crime. But it requires a much more proactive approach from our council — that to date we have not seen. In fact the opposite is true. Council youth resources have been under invested and stretched due to financial pressure and funding reductions.

Sadly the impression is that investment in our youth has not received the attention it deserves from our council. And we are seeing it manifest itself in crime, graffiti, and alcohol misuse.

We need to change this.

Its about our youth.

http://communityspacechallenge.org, http://www.posfutures.org.uk, http://www.goplacesdothings.org.uk,

Its about being smarter

Smart cities attract smart people.

And information technology (IT) is the power engine of smarter cities.

From an economic point of view, cities have to rely on a smarter, more skilled workforce for competitive differentiation. Wellington cannot afford to have all its eggs in the “home of government” basket.

Think abut this. Shanghai’s IT sector is worth NZ$164 billion and is growing at 20% per year. This is something Wellington can aspire too. Something that will create real wealth for our city.

IT has to be a fundamental plank in Wellington’s future.

IT (eg, Wi-Fi) is no longer an option, it needs to be a basic service — and available to all citizens, so no-one is disadvantaged because of a lack of connectivity or speed.

Why do I support Jack Yan’s free Wi-Fi initiative?

Well, apart from the fact a large part of the population in our city can’t afford internet access, there are hundreds of benefits for local government and the wider community. More benefits, to more people, than investing in a $350k rugby monument.

For a start, if council invested in free Wi-Fi they would not need to invest in electronic bus timetables – people could just get the time of the next bus off their mobile – for free. And the beauty of redirecting council funding to free Wi-Fi is it can be used for other stuff too. Perhaps a quick posting to council about some graffiti that was spotted (or a water leak) so council can respond to it within the hour.

And the cost?

According to Jack Yan, the cost to ratepayers would be zero. Depending on the Wi-fi program adopted (eg, the cost could be recovered through selling advertising space, something zfree did years ago when it provided free internet). The boost to Wellington’s GDP could be huge. So even if the Council is landed with a bill for the upkeep of the network, it could be more than covered by the income generated from an expanding Wellington economy.

Interestingly, in the USA, there is talk of federal government giving away free radio spectrum to businesses who undertake to roll out free Wi-Fi on another spectrum. Free Wi-Fi could very easily be a central government initiative to stimulate our economy and catch up to Australia. Wouldn’t it great if our city was the first region to test if such an initiative could spark our economy.

Don’t you think its time we got smarter?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10665287, http://mashable.com/2010/08/13/open311-apps/

Its our heritage

Some time ago I spoke about protecting our heritage.

Our heritage  is important to our identity.

But the tension with heritage orders is burdening residents and businesses with protection orders.

Adding a sky receiver, making renovations, or even painting a wall, might require a consent application. And these are not cheap.

How would you like it if you had to pay someone $250 plus, every time you wanted to improve your home. And then had to wait months before you found out if you were allowed to do the work.

Well, one idea might be to make the heritage consent processes free for those burdened with a heritage protection order?

This would ensure compliance (no excuse not to seek approval) and perhaps incentivise council to be more efficient. Perhaps even adopt technology to stream line the process for everyone?

And if we had free Wi-Fi, well it might make the whole process even cheaper and more accessible.

Our council needs to be sending the right signals, if we really want to protect our communities heritage.

http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/2010/08/citywide-heritage-shake-up-in-the-offing/, http://www.rmaguide.org.nz/rma/otherprocesses/heritageorders.cfm, http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/local/4000614/Athfield-attacks-heritage-rules/

Art, energy and bicycles

Sometime ago I suggested that it would be a wonderful idea if Wellington looked at the Parisian bike solution.

Well, now London have jumped onto the bandwagon, or should that be bike?

Now we just need dedicated bus lanes (rather than shared). And we might see our transport problems dramatically change like Paris. Of course that would take some courage, but not much more.

Keeping with the London theme, and mindful of our reputation, I wonder if our cities architects will ever consider adding wind turbines into future tower designs? Well, Sydney property developers, keen to reduce the energy consumption of their commercial and residential buildings, wanted too — but a lack of wind meant it was not feasible.

Secure green energy and ample water supply could well be our business destination edge over Sydney.

Lets make it happen!

And speaking of art and creative design. The word is, the mayor has announced that there will be no more funding support for the NZ Art Show. A show estimated to bring 10,000 visitors into our city.

So much for supporting a creative community (and local business)?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/jul/18/strata-tower-london-green-architecture, http://www.smh.com.au/environment/energy-smart/windpowered-highrise-living-20100730-10z80.html, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jul/29/cycle-hire-scheme-live-updates