What did they do to Dunedin?

In my 9 month absence Dunedin has changed. There are so many empty shops for one thing and the council has installed costly parking meters in the main shopping precinct so you can no longer stop for a leisurely coffee or spot of shopping. I imagine these are linked issues. I asked a waitress at my favorite coffee shop if they have noticed a change and she said it was huge, the shop is on the market and she is moving to Melbourne.

The reason for the meters? The new and expensive Rugby Stadium that is being built to replace the irreplaceable House of Pain.

The citizens, particularly the senior rate-payers, have been very vocal in their opposition to funding the rugby stadium through rates. I had checked the Otago Daily Times for news about the stadium while I was away but there has been very little online so I thought perhaps people had stopped complaining. During my visit last week I realised that opponents are just as vocal as ever but the ODT has edited out their voices from its online pages.

Opponents had warned they would withhold that part of their rates that was going to pay for the stadium. Last week the council was threatening to send debt collectors after these folk. However did charming Dunedin get a council such as this, one that bullies its citizens into acquiescence?

The Stadium is being built near the university right on the shores of Otago Harbour in an area that would have been a wonderful spot for a suitable shoreline tourist development; the wonderful tree lined Anzac Avenue will be closed to traffic; a uni student told me in 2007 that he and his mates prefer to watch rugby on telly anyway; the local population is divided and aggrieved.

I am very sad that the city could not resolve the issues without dividing the population and alienating the citizens from the central hub of the town. One of my options had been to move back to Dunedin for good ... I love it there despite the cold - a beautiful and unspoilt part of the world where you can hear good music and drink great coffee. However, I became so disenchanted while I was there last week that I have now all but deleted Dunedin from my list of options. It makes you weep.

Dunedin Activists March : No Public Funding for new Rugby Stadium

On Saturday a crowd of over 700 marched along the main street of Dunedin to the Octagon to protest against Council proposing to take a loan to fund a new Rugby Stadium for Dunedin.

An elderly woman marching next to me told me that she this was the first time she had ever participated in a demonstration. She said she had lots of friends who are against the stadium but who were not at the march, so she was representing them. She was carrying a hand painted sign saying 'No to the Stadium'.

Afterwards I followed a young couple down the street who had not been on the march. The man was becoming quite heated as he tried to persuade his doubtful partner that Dunedin needed the stadium. "Tauranga will get it instead of us", he said.