Mayor Barker spoke about her new vision for Dunedin, which is for a 'city of firsts' which shines with world class opportunities.
One of the building blocks for this is the new CEO who has recently worked in Hamilton and has an auditing and economic development background which will be most useful.
Mayor Barker spoke about her heritage background, and the interesting family connections which nurtured this. A driver for the Mayor is to transform the city and make it desirable for young people like her own daughter to want and be able to stay here.
Mayor Barker spoke about four pillars for this vision:
People - social/cultural.
Place - infrastructure (including amazing built heritage)
Planet - environment.
Prosperity - economic prospects
This will be supported by participation, partnerships and process.
Essentially, the Mayor is looking for New Zealand to be the best place to live in New Zealand. And this is obtainable - recent surveys have Dunedin ranked as having the best quality of life in New Zealand.
We were fortunate to have Mayor Barker willing to answer a range of topical questions afterwards in a lively dicsussion.
Footnote
Mayor Sophie gave a shout out to Rotary on her Facebook page on 6 Aug, here is the link:
