VISION: Long Term Goals
Now this is a funny one, as most of what is discussed in here is more of a 10-year plan proposition… so this might just be my mad ramblings!
One of the things I’m quite interested in is trying to get the debt of the DCC and its LLC under control – to be honest it’s a little bit daunting! Whether through malice or incompetence past councils have decided that maintenance isn’t a huge priority, and we’re now paying for their sins and bad management. I understand that for them it was easy to kick the can down the road because the water isn’t gushing out the broken water pipes, but part of being a Councillor is thinking about future generations, and potential future problems.
Property! Property! Property!!! We need to open a lot more sections and subdivisions, but alas again we’re somewhat stuck as the lack of maintenance in Dunedin makes it hard to open subdivisions up; water, sewerage, and utilities are a big problem.
Dunedin is growing, and it’s growing fast. We’re going to have huge problems with growth in the future if we don’t give people affordable places to live. Having land values shoot through the roof because there just isn’t enough land isn’t economically viable. You never want to hear someone say ‘I didn’t move to Dunedin because I couldn’t afford a place to live.’
Council Flats. We need a lot more! We also need to upgrade all the current flats to double glazing insulation, obtain a group discount on electricity, maybe initiate a solar panels project to see if that’s an economically feasible idea. As this is an investment that will make its money back, I think it’s important to not be too frugal with this in the long-term, as any money spent will come back, and it’s also a real asset.
What is going on with all these contractors working around Dunedin that do not have an office in Dunedin? I have noticed a sharp increase in companies I’ve never heard of doing jobs that local contractors did in the past, pushing out local firms. We need to put local contractors first.
