"Mastering the City Dog"

The thing about the words ‘smart city’ and bottom up rebuild thinking has special significance in Christchurch. Public sentiment suggest we are doing neither very well. Some say ‘if at all’. Is there is merit in thinking beyond bricks and mortar. Is their Social Capital in thinking Dogs? The evidence suggests so.

The School of the Naked Dog sponsored keynote speaker at the New Zealand's Companion Animal Conference in October is the Assoc Professor Dr Lisa Wood. [West Australian University School of the Built Environment and Public Health] Dr Wood's seminal publication “Living Well Together” [free online] has qualified the restorative and rejuvenate sense of well-being that accrues to entire communities when they value interspecies companionship and design acordingly. She makes the case that we are safer, healthier and live longer. And our real estate is more valuable.

Looking at Australia’s experience it is highly indicated that as a city, we have done civics very poorly and in not adhering to ‘by design’ principles when we are counter productively ostracising people and their companions from the heart of their communities. MORE>>