We are certainly a passionate bunch in Rotorua when it comes to suggesting what should be done to fix our CBD. It's awesome to see.
After publishing a special report in Saturday's Rotorua Daily Post about the state of our empty CBD, we called for suggestions from members of the public about what can be done to fix the problem. There's some great ideas. So much so, we have decided to publish a selection of them in today's newspaper (on pages 6 and 7). Rotorua has a renewed drive to spruce up the CBD after the formation of a new group called Inner City Focus Group led by retailing stalwart Mike Steiner.
It's come at a perfect time. In a few weeks we will have at least two new members of the Rotorua District Council who can work alongside Nick Dallimore and his team under the Inner City Enterprises Unit umbrella.
Some of the ideas that have come from you, our readers, are on the money. Some others are a little more far fetched. But any idea is a good idea to get the ball rolling. A good start is to better monitor the beggars in our CBD - something which has been suggested several times in the feedback.
Just yesterday, one of our staff members was getting money out of a machine near the City Focus and was heckled by someone.
"Do you have any money?" they asked.
"No sorry," she replied.
"Lies, you just got some out," they persisted.
This sort of behaviour in broad daylight doesn't make you feel safe. We will forward the suggestions you took the time to send to us to Mr Steiner and his team and we look forward to some positives coming out of it.
