Why I set up this site
I have lived in Wellington for more of my years than any other place. I first arrived in 1976, and have been proud to call it my home. I did virtually all my schooling here, from primary to uni.
When I started my business in 1987, I have watched companies here go through good and bad times. But in business you can only do so much. More recently, I became interested in seeing what we could do to make and sustain positive change for our city.
Wellington is already a great city. We have a great cultural core, and a population that cares as much about the meaning in their lives as the quality. But there are a few problems, such as our population growth lagging behind Auckland and Christchurch. And what can we do to encourage and grow business here, without losing our essence?
Can we grow while being sustainable? What safety issues are there for families living here, and can we make it more accommodating for them? How about our roading and traffic? What about our sporting and recreational venues?
I set up this blog to find ways we can all explore that. I firmly believe if others around us benefit, we each will, too. I want to hear from you, either through my personal site’s feedback form, or here in the comments, on topics we need to address. We’ve kicked off with a few, and we’ll announce this site with a bit more hoop-la toward the end of 2009.
• The Back Jack 2010 site
Follow me on Twitter
“Friend” Jack on Facebook
I have put pen to pad on an ‘honours list’ of unique wellington businesses that are worth honouring.
http://www.peoplescoffee.co.nz/the-old-oaks-of-wellington/
_Shaun K Anderson
Here is something more interesting for you to look in terms of building the city we want. How about the creation of an open city platform as being pioneered by IBM and the fellas at Tumblr. I am not sure if you’ve check it out but this is something worthy of actualizing a city we all want: http://smartercities.tumblr.com/private/191121549/tumblr_kq6gx2Ps6S1qzlda3
You might not be surprised to note that I have already contacted IBM, though about some of its e-government initiatives so we can have less waste in city business. I will head over now and have a look at the Tumblr link. An open city would be on my agenda.
Shaun, I have to agree with your choices. I am a big fan of Slow Boat, your number-one.
Wellington a open world class city people travel from all over the world to live in.
I like that.
Precisely, Mike—my thoughts exactly. We know it’s the best city in the world. Now let’s unleash its potential and put in the things that will make it so.
Some things that could be done very quickly to encourage and grow business:
1. Setup a local Cloud Computing platform, as a public/private sector partnership, thereby lowering a barrier to entry and reducing operational costs – whilst allaying security, privacy, data sovereignty and latency concerns.
2. Create an similarly architected network of physical space, offering on-demand and scalable offices. Ensure these are of an “open-standard” that includes high levels of comfort and environmental concern, designed around people and teams to facilitate productivity. Easy plug-ins to the cloud, city network, transport, etc.
3. Encourage the routing of traffic in the most effective way – which would include a high density of pedestrian, public, and self-powered or electric transport in the inner-city – and introduce appropriate gateways and switches to step commercial and other up and down the interface.
4. Discourage the creation of “homogeneous zones” within the city, and instead encourage creation of heterogeneous zones where retail, commercial, residential and public services are mixed and layered to create effective local markets for goods and services (for as much of the 24 hrs in a day as possible).