Jim Lunday sent me his presentation for TedX just after the earthquakes this week. It is still amazing, and challenging. It’s one which Lianne Dalziel still talks about having given her a sense of hope. Unfortunately, Jim came down here to work and experienced a solid wall of resistance to his ideas. This City was committed at top levels to return to what we had been. Not what we could have been. It might be time to dust off this presentation and have Jim give it again to the Tuesday Club.
Then I read these Comments in Newsroom by Bill McKay
Living in a city, he argues, gives people more access to opportunity: work, education, health facilities, libraries, art galleries, day-to-day human interaction, and the safety nets that a decent city provides. It allows for smart, innovative, creative people to conglomerate in one place, which contributes to the city being an engine of invention, innovation and activity.
It’s important though, he argues, that cities don’t put all their eggs in one basket. One of the most crucial features of what constitutes a good city is allowing for and encouraging diversification rather than specialisation. Detroit had all its eggs in one basket and when the auto industry ended, so did the city’s prosperity. In these Covid-19 times, it makes me think of the situation that towns such as Queenstown and Wanaka are in, so reliant on the tourist market or other towns dominated by a single industry such as a timber or mining.
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