Wellington – we rock
Posted in Life in NZ on 07/12/2006 02:56 am by TamI meant to post about this earlier, but here it is somewhat belated:
We rock. Wellington has officially been designated a Safe Community by the World Health Organization — the only capital of a country (so far) to be so designated. Apparently back in ’98, there were a handful of high-profile crimes in the CBD, and only 30 percent of people surveyed said they felt safe in the city at night. So the Council put a bunch of initiatives/programs together — lighting, urban and traffic design, workplace injury prevention stuff, liquor control, programs to keep young people entertained, etc. — and now here we are. The last survey had 70 percent say they they felt reasonably or very safe in the city at night. Pretty neat !
Further kudos to the Council: we just won two National awards for having a comprehensible, well-presented Annual Plan — the category award for Local Government, and also the Supreme award that usually goes to a corporate like Telecom or somebody.
AND, Council has also been commended recently for its pilot Migrant and Refugee Work Experience program.
I like Wellington, and I like working for Council. I feel like I’m sort of Using My Powers for Good, you know ?