Tag Archives: Youth

So I Was Right All Along??!!

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"Where are we going, Wilbur?"

“Where are we going, Wilbur?”

So it’s finally over. “Berties Buses” are no more. Sold off for a paltry $1,250,000 less than the whole sorry saga cost Napier ratepayers.

Is it any wonder Napierites are baying for blood and demanding Mayor Dalton and all his fellow councillors and staff from the previous term who signed off the dud deal pay ratepayers back?

But, as the MTG saga showed, there will never be any accountability, responsibility or blame taken within Napier City Council, will there? No-one has ever done anything wrong at NCC – “It’s because we have got one or two extremely vocal critics who are stirring the thing up” says Mayor Dalton.

Well, Bill, I’ll happily take credit for being one of those critics – Because you know what? I was right!

I said the buses were a silly idea back in 2011 when they were dreamed up. Their construction, delivery and resulting repairs were a farce in 2012 and in the (2013-14) year they were in operation, virtually no-one used them! – “The poor drivers must be beside themselves – because no-one else is!”

And yet, just as Mayor Dalton’s predecessor pointed the finger of blame for problems with her museum at those capable enough of seeing and reacting to problems much quicker than she and her council could, Mr Dalton blames the critics?

Am I happy the buses are gone? No! Because they were such an elongated, obvious waste of money from the outset – they should never have been allowed to go ahead!

Rather than once again pandering to fly/cruise-by-night tourists, imagine what $1.3 – $2 million could have done for developing projects and initiatives for Napier’s youth, who get blatantly ignored, or community development, or even encouraging economic development in the city!
These are projects and people that call Napier home ALL YEAR ROUND – Not just in cruise season, not just during the holidays, EVERY SINGLE DAY OF THE YEAR – Napier projects and funds for Napier people!

Rather than trying to develop Napier into a city embracing the future and evolving into a new technological and business powerhouse, the council long ago shackled itself to the past by clinging to historically-based tourism as the city’s saviour and in doing so indentured its economy and people into tourist servitude.

I’ll keep critiquing gaping faults like the Deco Buses because I love my city! I want to see it succeed. I don’t want to see it waste its time, money, people and resources on follies like these buses.

Napier deserves better!

Why Live in a Shoebox When You Could Live in Napier?

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The latest trend in NZ big-city living! (Please note: accomodation pic is actual size)

The latest trend in NZ big-city living!
(Please note: accomodation pic is actual size)

There’s been a fair amount of coverage of / promotion of tiny houses recently.

I can’t help but wonder how much of it is “Hey, that’s a neat idea – living in a caravan / container / kennel” and how much is an almost subversive attempt to phase out the classic / idealistic NZ “1/4 acre (albeit more like 1/8th acre these days) dream” mentality and make living in a tiny house or shoebox apartment seem more normal or acceptable?

To me, these tiny houses seem to be a move towards something between the old “workingman’s hut” of the depression era, Japanese “capsule hotels” and human “battery farms”.

In New Zealand we are very fortunate to have the amount of space we do. Heck, we have room to spare!

New Zealand is geographically bigger than Great Britain, but with only a tiny portion of the population and huge, uninhabited swathes of the country still covered in native bush / farmland / epic, majestically mountainous movie-background terrain that would give the most sure-hooved chamois vertigo.

So, when the inevitable comments focusing on the housing crisis and massively inflated prices in Auckland, Christchurch and (to a lesser extent?) Wellington once again come to the fore as reason for such close-quarters accommodation in New Zealand’s biggest cities, it raises a major question in my mind:

“Why must business in New Zealand still be SO main-centre focused??”

With the rise of E-commerce and so much business internet-based, why does it still “need” to be based in our main centres, exacerbating the high demand / high price problem, while regional cities, like my own home town of Napier, have been struggling to attract skilled workers and businesses in recent years?

• The average (full-sized, with a yard) house price in Hawke’s Bay is somewhere around $350,000 – $500,000 – a third to a quarter of those in Auckland.

• We have the infrastructure, including UFB network access, to easily operate a national / international level “E-business” from Hawke’s Bay.

• With its smaller population (more room, less congestion) and wonderful natural features encouraging healthier, outdoor pastimes, Hawke’s Bay has a relaxed lifestyle second to none!

Yet where is all the commercial and business development focus?

In New Zealand’s main centres 🙁

It’s Just Not Cricket!

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For those who don’t get the Hawke’s Bay Today, here’s my letter to the editor that was printed in Wednesday’s edition in relation to “FindlayGate” – the CEO of HB Cricket scoring 307 against a team of schoolboys in a match last Saturday.

It has been very interesting listening to peoples opinions, which seem split pretty much 50/50 on whether his actions were correct. Here’s my opinion for what it’s worth:

(Note: while the grade they play in does have a “split-cricket” component, I discovered after writing this that that part of the competition actually finished at Christmas. This round is straight 45 overs each, but they still break at 20 overs and my opinion still stands that Tech should have declared at that stage when they were 300/1)

Grown man scores 307 against a team of young schoolboys. Nothing to be proud of there, really.

I was playing on the neighbouring pitch on Saturday, nearly got hit by a couple of the “towering sixes” and was getting quite thoroughly depressed for St Johns’ up and coming young cricketers watching the ever-increasing score line.

Tech and St Johns were playing in a grade that has a “split level” game – The team batting first bats for 20 overs, the two teams have a break and the batting side decide whether they will declare, or bat on. At 20 overs Tech were at around 305 for 1 – a massive score in any grade or competition and, in hindsight, around 125 more runs than their opposition would ultimately get.

We were watching their game between overs on our pitch and thinking Tech would rightfully and more importantly, SPORTINGLY, declare. But they didn’t and as reported went on to make a rather farcical 578 – a score which not even the Black Caps could make.

But then for man who made this publicity-worthy score and is also the same person who oversees the competition to say:
“St Johns bowling probably wasn’t up to senior grade standard and said the boys from the Hastings college will probably struggle in the association’s senior men’s club competition” just adds insult to injury.

Throughout New Zealand clubs and schools have a hard time attracting and keeping players, both young and old. The ultimate goal is to get them playing a sport, inspire them at a young age and help them develop into successful, young sportspeople. I didn’t see much for any Hawke’s Bay cricketer, young or old, to be inspired by in Tech’s tactics in that game.

The credit in this game really goes to the St Johns’ boys, who never gave up. They played on despite rather massive odds and took some stunning catches later in their fielding innings. From where we were playing, they looked like a very young, but commendably committed future stars of the game.

Andrew Frame
Secretary and Player
Napier Old Boys’ Marist Cricket Club

Welcome to #GigatownNapier!

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GIANT

Welcome to #GigatownNapier!

For those who are unaware, “Gigatown” is a competition being run by Chorus over the next year or so.

The winning city / town of will receive:

“The fastest internet in the Southern hemisphere – Chorus will make a special one gigabit per second (1Gbps) wholesale service available in the winning Gigatown at a special price and a Gigatown development fund – a $200,000 fund provided by Chorus and Alcatel Lucent’s Connect will support entrepreneurs and innovators taking new services over Gigabit fibre to market for Gigatown.”

I’m all for Napier becoming the first city in the southern hemisphere to have gigabit internet speeds. I can see just how much of a benefit our city and region could gain from such a digital asset. At the very least it is a way to engage, employ and empower Hawke’s Bay’s technologically-savvy youth and maybe even keep some of them from leaving the region in droves as they currently do.
At the most, it can put us at the forefront of the digital world and create massive financial, employment and social gains for our region. That’s why I’ve become a “#GigatownNapier ambassador.”

HOW the competition is currently structured leaves me more than a little cold, though.

The first stage of the competition is all about getting as many people to “hashtag” (“#Gigatown(insert location here)”) your town’s Gigatown handle on as many forms of media as inhumanely possible.

This can, of course, backfire with lots of people getting tired of seeing or using the Gigatown hashtag very quickly – social media is, after all, a very fast moving, trend setting (and following), constantly changing and fickle.

It all seems a little “Spam-like” to me (although there are rules and guidelines to help avoid this).

Currently leading the “#Hashtag Section” is Wanaka – where a simple ham sandwich from a lake-front cafe can set you back a whopping $10 (this was what sticks in my mind from the last time I was there), with almost 70,000 points. Oamaru, the “Steampunk” capital of New Zealand second (I’m pretty sure Steampunk technology isn’t internet compatible, though) is second, 37,000 points behind.

Napier is 14th

There are, apparently, conversion factors to be taken into consideration here – towns with smaller populations (like Wanaka and Oamaru, for example) appear to get more points per capita / hashtag, than bigger population centres. But this will start to even out as the competition proceeds, so we’re told.

Under this basis, let’s all just hope the likes of Otira don’t get too involved, or they’ll smoke the lot of us!

All the hashtag noise has also been a bit of a distraction from recent problems Chorus has been having with the government and the Commerce Commission over “unbundling” and the rolling out of New Zealand’s Ultra-Fast Broadband (“UFB”) network.

It has been interesting to note, too, that while the promise of gigabit internet speeds has been raising a lot of interest, the usage and uptake of “the next big tech thing” – Ultra-Fast Broadband in New Zealand has been a pretty slow. Despite the government and providers strongly promoting the use of UFB and installing the infrastructure for it around large portions of metropolitan New Zealand over the past few years, it has been gaining momentum only recently.

Rather than making the most noise, I’m all for the winning town being the one with the most substance.

Napier deserves an opportunity like this.

We have the port, airport and roads facilitating the transit of goods – export being our biggest earner and the servile tourism industry being a big portion of the region’s economy, but a poor earner for those involved.

Inject gigabit internet technology into Hawke’s Bay and I think we could foreseeably overtake at least one of those sectors. In doing so we would also massively increase the number of skilled workers, increase the wages, in doing so local boost consumer spending and launch the region’s economy into the stratosphere.

Regardless of what happens in the competition, whether Napier becomes #GigatownNapier or not, I still think this is a great opportunity for Napier and Hawke’s Bay.

I went along to the first that Napier “Gigatown Education Seminar” hosted by Ryan Jennings and I was impressed by the passion and drive I saw and heard from everyone at the event to see this sort of thing happen for Napier.

For too long Napier has been chained to the past. Over recent years I have felt we are just out of reach of that one thing that will get Hawke’s Bay out of its current economic doldrums. This is a great opportunity to thrust ourselves through the present and into the future.

Be it with Gigabit internet speeds, or with Ultra-Fast Broadband, this is a great step in the right direction and an opportunity that cannot be wasted!

Capture

Memory’s Irresistible Pull

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Superman[1]

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a Superman action figure from my childhood!

I am a big kid at heart. I loved my childhood and part of me still clings to it with all its might. I’ve even kept a number of my favourite toys – GI Joes, MASK vehicles and Star Wars action figures.

But for some reason, this “Superpowers” Superman figure has always had a special place in my heart.

Whenever I look at him I feel happy. I also feel like having a “Bubble O’ Bill” ice cream – as my folks bought me one just after the action figure (It must have been a very good day).

This, of course may mean very little to you, but it means everything to me. As it’s not really the action figure that has imprinted itself upon my memory, but rather the stage in my life that it was bought.

I was a child of the 80’s and still think it must surely have been the best decade to have been a kid – in terms of toys, movies, TV and just the general vibe of the time. It would have been 1985 when I got Superman (the toy and Ice cream were released around that same time). I would have been 8 years old and at Tamatea Primary School learning the educational and social fundamentals of life and discovering the joys of cricket (“Kiwi Cricket” was released around then too).

Toys played an important part in my life, though. I’m an only child, so for a lot of the time I had to keep myself entertained. It was a bit of a lonely existence, but it helped develop a fantastically creative imagination. I played out TV shows, movies, epic war battles and intimate family moments with my toys. They weren’t just toys, they were my friends too.

All these childhood memories have been coming back to me recently with the imminent arrival of our baby.

I guess I was feeling scared, as I felt that once we had a child ourselves, we had to stop being child-like. After all, being a parent was the most grown-up thing you could be as a kid, wasn’t it? I wasn’t ready to let go of that part of my life just yet.

A few days after our baby was born, my wife and I managed to get some time to sit down and watch Toy Story 3. The opening titles are home movies of Andy (Woody and Buzz Lightyear’s owner) growing up and playing with his beloved toys over the years; right up until he is about to head off to college – that big “adult” step.

Watching the opening credits I bawled my eyes out, but with happy tears. As I realised I was not seeing the end of my childhood, but the beginning of my daughter’s. We had years and years of happy times like I had experienced ahead of us.

While memory’s irresistible pull will always keep me anchored to my past, there is a long, bright future ahead of us – and a second childhood to look forward to.

No More Babies for Napier?

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NHC

From the middle of December 2013, Napier’s population will cease to grow organically. You may be “Napier bred”, but you won’t be “Napier born” – because Napier Medical Centre’s maternity wing is closing.

If you are expecting a Christmas baby and were wanting to have your birth in Napier – even if your name is Mary and your partner’s name is Joseph, there will be no room at the Inn.

For those of you who follow my blog, you will know this is of particular interest to me, as my wife and I are expecting our first child very soon. It looks like our baby may be one of the last to be born in a Napier maternity facility.

I had heard a murmuring from a fellow expectant parent and went investigating. HBDHB staff would, naturally, not reveal anything to a mere member of the public like me, but a medical source confirmed to me that the maternity side of the Napier Health Centre would close around the second week of December. That’s pretty short notice and even worse news if you are well into your pregnancy and wanting to have your child in Napier like generations before. If you want our gorgeous hometown on your child’s birth certificate, you may have to look at having a home birth.

The closure of Napier’s maternity wing, and indeed the whole Napier Health Centre has been bandied around for some time. Now it looks like they are becoming, at least in part, a reality.

It’s claimed more Hawke’s Bay women have been choosing to have their children at Ata Rangi (Hastings / Hawke’s Bay Hospital’s maternity unit). But it appears not many people know Napier actually had its own maternity facility!

With over 2000 births per year in Hawke’s Bay (that’s five births every day of the year), we surely need all the beds and maternity services we can get. So why close one?

Hastings’ maternity unit often runs out of room and will move Napier mums and their newborn babies to the Napier Health Centre to free up space. So what happens without this back up come January?

With so many births, new mums we have talked to who gave birth to in Hastings say they often felt shunted around and put through the system as fast as economically possible.

I call it being “Hatched, matched and dispatched.”

A woman we attended antenatal classes with was looking at having her baby at the Napier Medical Centre, as her mother had experienced very short labours – between half an hour and 15 minutes from “whoa to go” (or from “go to ‘Waaaah’!” technically) and there was concern she would have the same issue. Without facilities in Napier, what will happen in cases like hers? A birth certificate that reads “Born: Meeanee Over-bridge”?

Is it acceptable? HELL NO! So what can we do?

Protest! Make some noise! Vent your spleen!

Our local MPs, Chris Tremain and Craig Foss constantly claim to be “Backing the Bay”, but seem timid and sycophantic to the will of their party masters on big, local issues (can you say “Napier-Gisborne rail line”, “Amalgamation”, or “Ruataniwha Dam”?) Email or ring them. Call them out and challenge them to actually do something and “back the Bay’s babies” on this one. Chris was born in Napier, by the way, so why can’t your child be?

Minister of Health, Tony Ryall may even be worth a tune-up.

If the Right side of the political ledger fails to do anything (and I’m not holding my breath), Stuart Nash seems to have Napier’s best interests at heart and a determination to see them through.

Write, text or ring the Hawke’s Bay Today (who I hoped would have been onto this sooner), or the Dominion Post / Hawke’s Bay Sun (email: news@dompost.co.nz Hastings ph: 870-7802; Napier: ph 834-3700) – Where local news fails, national attention can work wonders!

This is utterly unacceptable and should not be allowed to happen!

This is not parochialism – it’s civic pride!

I love Napier more than I could ever hope to fully articulate. It is my place of birth and my home. I see no credible reason why others won’t have the chance to say “I’m Napier BORN and bred!”

A Month of Fun-Days!

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Looks a bit quiet, eh?

Looks a bit quiet, eh?

#GigatownNapier needs some giddy-up!

Inner-city Napier sadly lacks activity and public events. There is a citywide sale in the slowest, coldest time of the retail year, one day of the year when you’re supposed to be randomly kind to one-another (just one?) and a prolonged picnic on Napier’s Marine Parade, which draws people to the CBD’s periphery, away from the retailers and taking custom away from its own cafes.

Cumulatively it amounts to just over a dozen days of activities, covering less than 5{3919f50c199a8627c147b24d329ff0de8aa05e3a462fa3330e11cd9ea56ed948} of the year.

The CBD marketing association ladies will claim that it costs a lot (of council / retailer funding) to run their organizations and provide the same handful of events each year. But you’ve got to admit, the region’s central city businesses don’t appear to be getting much bang for their buck and our CBD needs both bang and buck urgently!

I get sick of cost being an excuse for inactivity. What about passion, creativity and imagination? Just use Youtube as an example. A couple of people with an idea and a camera can create something for nothing that millions of people around the world can view, enjoy or be inspired by.

Last year I took to Twitter with some ideas for getting action back into Napier’s CBD. We need preferably free (or very cheap) events that both enliven Napier’s city centre and encourage more spending. I tried to think outside the square as much as possible and involve local organizations, schools, groups etc. or develop ideas that involve partnerships with local or national companies giving them event naming rights in return for their logistical or financial input and the subsequent advertising.

The companies I mention below are mentioned merely a guideline – they are ones that I follow or vice versa on Twitter. As is the order of events – I started from a Monday and went from there.

Week 1: Your Brand Here!

#1: More FM Monday: Live broadcasts, sausage sizzles, fun & games with the local radio station!

#2: Hawke’s Bay Today Tuesday: Special feature section on Central Napier: History, Then and Now pictorials, stories etc. in the paper with perhaps a pull-out coupon selection for CDB businesses combined with displays throughout town, public interactivity with editors, reporters etc.!

#3: Whittaker’s Wide & Walk to Work Wednesday: Leave the car at home, ride or walk to work and get rewarded with CHOCOLATE!

#4: TV Thursday: New Zealand TV networks love doing live crosses, so the networks can broadcast their breakfast shows from Napier! Imagine TV One’s Breakfast broadcast from cafés and shops throughout Emerson Street, or TV3’s Firstline being presented from the balcony of ‘The Dome’ with the sun rising over Hawke Bay and Marine Parade behind it!

#5: Thank Grabaseat it’s Friday: Air NZ (who, let’s face it haven’t been the most generous to Hawke’s Bay in terms of flight prices) discounts their airfares to our region; Napier puts on a city-wide party to celebrate, attract and welcome the visitors!

#6: Suzuki Swift Saturday: BMW is launching its latest X5 in Napier next week, which is pretty awesome. So why not other marques? The Suzuki Swift has become the small car of choice in NZ for quick, stylie, around-town commuting. So why not launch their next generation car in a stylie city centre like Napier?

#7: Subway Soundshell Sessions: Free / gold coin donation to see live music at the Soundshell!

Week 2: Community Involvement!

#8: Musical Monday: Buskers & school bands / orchestras play throughout Napier’s CBD! I have had a concept in my head for some time of a combined Napier high schools orchestra / band / choir / variety show at the Municipal Theatre that this could tie in with.

#9: It Takes Two to Tango Tuesday: Cafes & shops open onto the street to music & dancing lessons / demonstrations!

#10: Awareness Wednesday: Napier’s community groups, clubs, etc. stage an outdoor expo along the paved areas of Emerson and Market Street. Raising awareness of what can be done in and for this beautiful city!

#11: Theatrical Thursday: Schools and local theatre groups take to the streets to perform!

#12: Fashion Friday: Napier’s clothing stores host a combined fashion parade and use Emerson Street as the catwalk! EIT fashion / theatre / media students can assist in the production, aiding their studies!

#13: School’s Out Saturday: Activities specials & events for the young ones throughout town!

#14: Sport Hawke’s Bay Sundays: Plenty of green grass along Marine Parade and empty spaces not being used, so let’s use it for interactive sport demonstrations!

Multi-Media Week

#15: Make Some News Monday: Hawke’s Bay Today, the Dominion Post etc. open up to Napier people for them to submit their CBD stories & pics. (Also gives any thin editions a bit more bulk!)

#16: Twitter Tuesday: Encourage the public to utilise the CBD’s free Wifi coverage by sending Tweets, pictures & video broadcasting Napier to the Twitterverse! Get #Napier trending internationally on Twitter!

#17: Wifi Wednesday: Encourage the city’s people and businesses out onto the streets with the CBD’s free Wifi network!

#18: Youtube Thursday: Expose the world-wide interweb to virtual guided tours of Napier people’s favourite places and things? Create some interest and make people want to visit and check them out for themselves!

#19: Facebook Friday: Encourage the public to utilise the CBD’s free Wifi coverage by sending pictures & video broadcasting Napier onto Facebook! Get #Napier trending internationally!

#20: Snapshot Saturday: Post pics of central Napier onto sites such as Flickr, Instagram and Pintrest. Prizes for the most “liked” or creative photos!

#21: Open-air Cinema Sunday: The Soundshell doubles as an outdoor cinema for the evening!

Commercial Week

#22: Makeover Monday: Central Napier’s proliferation of women’s clothing stores, hairdressers, beauty therapists and masseuses take the fore to make Napier people look and feel wonderful!

#23: Tax-free Tuesday: A city-wide 15{3919f50c199a8627c147b24d329ff0de8aa05e3a462fa3330e11cd9ea56ed948} off Sale!

#24: Midweek Market Wednesday: Napier’s Farmers’ Market comes to town a few days early in the evening, while Inner-city shops have stalls outside during the day.

#25: Themed Thursday: City-wide storefront displays and promotions based around an event or a local / visiting national sporting team etc. Public votes on best display, specials on anything black and white (for a Magpies theme)!

#26: Alfresco Feast Friday: For an evening Emerson Street becomes Napier’s biggest outdoor restaurant, as the CBD’s eateries put on an outdoor serving to put the “Great Long Lunch” to shame!

#27: Special Someone Saturday: Treat your special someone to breakfast, shopping & more! Spend $20 or more in a store city-wide to be in the draw to win a night at The Dome / County Hotel etc.!

#28: Slow, Summery Sunday: Take a stroll through town, have a shop, have some lunch at a café and then wander up to the parade for a leisurely walk, or relaxed concert at the Soundshell!

“If All Else Fails” Week

#29: Music Video Monday: Why has Napier never featured in a music video? Let’s make one!
If No bands are forthcoming, then it could become “Manufactured Pop Monday”, evolving into a reality TV series featuring a search for local talent. How could NZ on Air refuse to fund it?

#30: Tug of War Tuesday: With so much rhetoric and spin over the amalgamation debate, let’s settle it the old fashioned way – a NCC vs. HDC / HBRC / WDC / CHBC / A Better Hawke’s Bay tug of war down Emerson Street. Winner takes all (or status quo)!

#31: “Wipe-out” Wednesday: Create a fun, crazy obstacle course in Emerson Street and invite people, individuals, companies and schools to take it on!

There are my ideas. What do you think?
• A month FULL of activities?
• 31 weeks with one event per week?
• Or can central Napier stay alive with the weak pulse and mere 5{3919f50c199a8627c147b24d329ff0de8aa05e3a462fa3330e11cd9ea56ed948} activity it currently exhibits.

Incidentally, the earliest chance of doing all the events, in order, would be September or December 2014, whose 31 days start on a Monday.

But why wait? I love my city and want to see it busy and prosperous.

Let’s get these ideas into fruition NOW!

Delightful, Delicious Diwali!

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Title

Diwali , or the “Festival of Lights” is an Indian festival celebrating the triumph of good over evil, light over darkness. Hawke’s Bay’s Indian community has been celebrating it at Napier’s Sound Shell for several years now.

It’s a free event and has a great, friendly, family atmosphere that easily attracts hundreds and hundreds of people – young and old of all ethnicities each year. It’s the sort of event that Napier has been so sadly missing out on in recent years.

Crowd

There’s dancing, great music (so good, you’ll probably recognize riffs and beats that most main-stream rap musicians have flogged and hoped no-one (aside from maybe one billion Indians) would notice) and FOOD!

Food

Lots and lots of delicious samosas, satays and curries are served from a number of stalls. This year Napier’s Indigo Restaurant, had the consistently longest queue.

Queue

It took about half an hour to reach the business-end of dinner, but when you got there it was certainly worth it – $10 for a traditional Indian meal in such a great open-air environment with free entertainment! Try and beat that, “Great Long Lunch”!

I happened to see Napier’s Inner City Marketing Manager at the event. I certainly hope she was taking notes, because NICM could learn a heck of a lot from a great family festival like this. Napier needs and deserves a lot more like it!

Give HB Youth a Chance!

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It often feels like anyone in Napier under the age of 40 gets ignored. Baby-boomers rule and everyone else can just fend for themselves.

As a result, we annually lose generations of our bright and talented youth to other parts of New Zealand and the world. A few return in later life with their families, most never do. This creates not only a great gulf in the age bracket, earning Hawke’s Bay it’s sunny ‘Retirement village’ image, but also major cultural and economic holes in the region.

Local organisations and authorities do little to help the situation, or empower youth as I wrote in my second Napier in Frame blog post.

When it comes to looking after Napier youth’s needs or allocating them some form of infrastructure, N.C.C.’s solution to date has been “build a skate-park!” Ho-hum! Where are the events, concerts, expos and exhibitions? When was the last time a Mission Concert featured an act that was at the top of the music charts during the lifetime of an average 25 year old?

Napier City Council’s recent “Big Picture” plan to turn Marine Parade (which they completely ignored for the past 20 years) into a “Kids’ Capital” featured some ideas with merit, like the wave park, but others like the cable-ski facility (cable ski = lots of metal. Lots of metal + salty sea air = big, continuous repair bills) were doomed from conception. Besides, tourist attractions and children’s playgrounds won’t keep our school-leavers in Napier.

This is a problem that has been nagging at me for years. I never left Hawke’s Bay for university, a career or global migration after high school. I stayed here, living and working in what I still consider one of the best places in the world. It has had its advantages, but also some major disadvantages.

Over the past decade the major drawbacks have been few career opportunities within the region and poor pay. Hawke’s Bay’s economy has suffered because of these factors and the poor economy has depressed wages and career opportunities even more. We need to break this cycle.

Paul Dutch and Rod Drury had a good exchange on keeping our school leavers in Hawke’s Bay in the comments section of an item on the wave park development over at the Fruitbowl website.

Paul had some good ideas on keeping Hawke’s Bay youth empowered, employed and engaged in Hawke’s Bay. While I respect Rod and all his achievements with Xero, I feel some of his comments encapsulated what it wrong with a lot of Hawke’s Bay businesses and older people’s attitude to the region’s “Lost Generations” of 20-somethings:

“It’s really hard to keep people in their 20’s in the Bay. Be great if we could, but there are easier places to focus where we swim with the tide.”

“The growth from targeting these segments (parents, high value call centres, food and agriculture and retirees) will create opportunities for those in their 20’s. But personally I think that’s hard and we should focus on attracting our diaspora later in their careers after they’ve had their world wide experiences.”

I don’t consider continuing to put this problem in the “too hard basket” and hoping Hawke’s Bay’s bright and talented young one day return to be an option any longer. Somebody needs to take a stand and do something about it. But who?

Certainly not Tukituki MP and Minister of Commerce Craig Foss, who doesn’t seem to mind that his region has some of the lowest wages, and fewest high value job opportunities in New Zealand, as he seems to think living in Hawke’s Bay makes up for it all. Um, no. Would Mr Foss be so happy with the situation if any of his children chose to stay in the Bay, rather than go to university or travel and end up stuck in a low paying retail or café job? I don’t imagine so.

Rod Drury’s Xero is a successful, global company. But one thing Mr Drury fears (I read this in a special CEO lift-out in the Herald this week) was his company losing its “start-up feel”. Start-ups are often skin-of-the-teeth operations. Someone starts with an idea and builds a business from it. People using their raw talent and skills – often without tertiary qualifications. I really admire people who can do that – I’m not sure I could.

The technology industry is one of the main benefactors and biggest earners of start-up thinking and business. Just look at Facebook. Typically, modern start-ups are often begun by people in their late teens and early twenties, just the segment Hawke’s Bay is missing out on!

We need to target these high-value tech companies and foster such start-ups to set up operations in Hawke’s Bay. Especially with web-based content, where global work can be done from pretty much anywhere in the world, so why not Napier?

With our youth being so tech-savvy (can’t figure out how to use your new phone or computer? Just ask any 10 year old) school-leavers would be ideal employment candidates. Pay them more than the local retail of hospitality industry (it shouldn’t be too hard), provide some on the job training and boom, instant workforce and all-round benefits to Hawke’s Bay’s economy!

This isn’t asking for preferential treatment for Hawke’s Bay’s school leavers and 20-somethings. This is about giving them the opportunity to stay in their home towns if they want to and at the same time creating real, well paying career opportunities and boosting our regions flagging economy. Doing nothing is no longer an option. It’s time we did something about it.