The DCC’s draft for their 2021–2031 plan is underway, and OUSA want the DCC to significantly change it.
After listening to what students said, OUSA told the city council to do something. Their suggestions are 15 pages long, and worded in impenetrable bureaucrat-speak. It’s not OUSA’s fault that bureaucracy sucks to read. OUSA they did their best, and included some shade, and we appreciate that.
OUSA called the DCC’s push-back of the Tertiary Precinct Upgrade “short-sighted”. What that means is that the city said “nah, we ain’t gonna spend money to pimp out North D,” and student representatives were like “what the actual fuck bro this place is a shit hole please at least improve kerbside collection.”
OUSA also said that they “strongly disagree with the deferral of the Tertiary Precinct Upgrade” and “call for the Dunedin City Council to immediately reincorporate this project into the 10 Year Plan” which is bureaucrat speak for: fuck you for changing this. “If the Dunedin City Council is authentic in ensuring youth engagement in city council processes, Council must listen when students do engage in consultation and voice our needs,” OUSA wrote about the deferral of this project.
In the submission, OUSA also voiced support for the Athenaeum theatre project to go ahead and said that students felt the current performing arts venue option was cold and expensive. OUSA told the DCC that “we hoped that these issues would be adequately addressed in the multimillion dollar upgrade project.” Nice.
OUSA also said that while they support the work DCC is doing with hapū and iwi, they would like to hear more about how the principles of Te Tiriti will be reflected in the Ten Year Plan. They admonished the DCC for “not specifically addressing the needs of the Pasifika community in Dunedin in this plan.”
Other motions, in normal-person-speak, included making public bathrooms well-lit and gender-neutral, so that anyone can use them without getting assaulted.
By the time this goes to print, submissions for the DCC’s Ten Year Plan will have closed. However, the ORC’s (i.e. the regional council, which runs the busses) Long Term Plan (which is just a alternative term for their Ten Year Plan) is still open for consultation until the 9th of May.