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Mayoral Forum format the way forward
One of the key reasons we have the
private sector dipping into their pockets to
fund inner-city revival is because they have
been able to actively help shape the
decisions and visions for the inner city. When I got the opportunity to act on
my belief that the heart of Christchurch
needed revival I knew that the first key
ingredient required was humility. The way through huge, complex sets of
problems like inner-city decline requires all
the key players to admit that on their own
they probably do not have all the answers. The situation with inner Christchurch
when we started was one where about
the only common ground to be found was
an agreement that something positive
needed to be done. It had become what the experts in local
government around the world call one of
the “wicked issues”. These are issues like inner-city decline,
unemployment, waste disposal and waste
water that are “wicked” from a
management point of view because they
do not lend themselves to simple, easy
answers. They are are issues that require listening,
true consultation, and strong leadership to
make the call about when to start to act. Solving collective problems requires us all
to listen and act collectively. The system we developed to get our
inner-city recovery plans developed and
started led eventually to the Central City
Mayoral Forum. This system and process is one that I
believe we can in time apply to other
Forum fo areas of city life that are in need of change
or improvement. But at the start in 1998 about all we had
was the will to try and develop some
serious solutions to a worsening problem. At first I brought together a core group
of 23 stakeholders to talk through what
were the central-city issues, problems and
possible solutions. This group represented residents,
developers, investors, businesses, visitor
and tourist operators, retail, entertainment,
education, cultural and sports and
recreation groups. It was a cross-sector group of a nature
that basically had never before been
collectively pointed at a Christchurch
problem. The results as we now know are
impressive, evolving and moving past our
initial expectations. We found that the sum total productivity
and vision of this group was much, much
more than we had dared to hope for. We also went into major public
consultation in 2000 to get the public’s
views on the main issues affecting the
central city, and to get their creative ideas
incorporated into the emerging plans. In September 2000 we carried out a
survey in this publication that got over 500
responses. In November we put out the resulting
discussion paper “Focus on the Heart” and
900 responses were gained. From October to December 2000, more
than 30 public meetings were held with
different residents’ associations,
rmat the organisations, business groups and the
public. The response showed that there was
widespread support for the idea of an
activist attempt to turn the inner city
around and also broad general
understanding that this move was required
for the fiscal and social health of the whole
city. From there we have built our Central
City Strategy which is now under way
under the eye of all of us. The Central City Mayoral Forum is still
keeping its eyes and ears open to the
impacts of its changes on the inner city
and monitoring where we head next. It has proved a great system for solving
problems that affect the common good. The inner city of Christchurch is being renewed because our people were prepared to throw their support and ideas at first behind the idea and then the projects. It is proving a great collective success story that I believe shows what we can do when we are prepared to put our differences to one side to work for a common-good goal. |