We Dundee

Reimagine Dundee.
What needs to
happen next?

We are living through extraordinary times. Reimagining our city’s future needs to involve us all. We Dundee is here to put the voices of people at the heart of that conversation.

The global Covid-19 crisis has shaped our experiences. The responses below are what people wanted to happen next. The things they would hold on to and what they would radically change for now and for our future generations.

Read more about We Dundee

View the answers to the previous question ›

Stop the age limit to apprenticeships. Give everyone the opportunity to gain one.
Loving the murals and paintings- more please!
More cycling friendly routes and connections throughout the WHOLE city.
Engage the schemes in the cultural development of Dundee. Art of the people, by the people & for the people. Make the regeneration more than a regeneration of the waterfront.
Pick up your dog 💩
house the homeless 🏠
Repopulate the city centre by converting commercial properties to good-quality, affordable homes for people of all ages.
Wildlife needs to be prioritised more. Already with the ease of lockdown long grass and flowers have been mown, which had previously been great spots for pollinators. This needs to change.
Stop waiting for systemic change. Make change happen in your community now.
Encourage local people to move back into the city centre and halt the constant development of suburbs that promote car use and prevent the heart of Dundee from becoming a lively place day and night.
Keep being kind to one another. We've got a while to go yet.
More shops and better quality retail in the city centre.
DUNDEE, TILL I SEE U NEXT I NEED TO SAY A FEW THINGS... DON'T BE AFRAID OF CHANGE. U HAVE A VOICE. USE IT. CURIOSITY IS A SUPERPOWER. WASH UR HANDS. WEAR A MASK. DON'T BE A DICK. LUV U PAL.
Keep being green! Let wildlife in thrive again!
A clean, green city that puts its people at the heart of decisions... fairness, equality, respect and creativity for all!
Be more friendly and kind. Have more neighbourhood activities and shop local to support small businesses
Give graduates a reason to stay in Dundee. A lot of our best and brightest graduates leave to work elsewhere!
Our future is bright. We just have to grab it!
Stop building offices which block the view of the V&A; Stop building apartments which block the view of the Tay; Start promoting Dundee's burgeoning art scene and harnessing it's natural beauty!
Plant trees on Reform street, please.
Cree y crea
More cycling, more neighbourhood support, more dogs, more biodiversity. More appreciating family and friends. More love.
Increase opportunities for safe, active travel with a larger network of cycle paths and footpaths.
Small grants for people with drying lawns to put a greenhouse & invest in planters, compost etc. Future proof post-Brexit food shortages, give people the power to grow their own!
Give more opportunities to unknown and upcoming local artists for commissions instead of the same people!
Develop the creative industries within Dundee. For a city that has two universities with numerous art and design courses, we are lacking in jobs and opportunities within the creative industries.
Make Dundee Scotlands most innovative risk-taking cycle-friendly city!
I'd like to see new connections created between folk who live and work in Dundee and those who live work in the rural areas that surround the City so that we can build a truely local green recovery.
Make more of our UNESCO City of Design status - have a design tsar to put design at the heart of everything the city does.
art and culture orgs need to stop being cliques
Outdoor community groups, choirs in the park, plays in the wee ampitheatre. Proper cycle lanes - ALL OVER. Would love more independent shops, selling local produce.
Make the city square into a social area with cafes/ outside eating as they do in most European cities. Have far more outdoor seating for cafes and bars throughout the city and cultural areas.
Support local businesses! Organise weekly food markets! Give space for outdoor sitting cafes, bars etc! More green in the city! Help students settle, find a place to live and a job in Dundee!
A bigger conversation about mental health and suicide prevention. Bring young people together to talk about how best to tackle this city's overwhelming mental health problem.
Environmental sustainability at the heart of every decision
Meet everyone with a smile.
Sustainable food -produced and cooked locally. Events that small children can participate in at a safe distance. Information and support for flexi- and home schooling.
More cycle paths to encourage cycling for all
Cafes should stay open until later so that people can have more options of places to hang out later in the day other than bars. Alcohol culture is not for everyone.
Support local businesses and creatives. More creativity to enhance the spaces we live and work.
Be anti-racist Be anti-homophobic Be anti-ableist Be anti-transphobic Be anti-classist. The list goes on. We need to be actively fighting for everybody in Dundee, not just people we can see.
Pedestrianise Reform St. Turn the road into outdoor seating for cafes & music nights. Set up benches, turf & flower beds to create nice seating or family play areas.
Celebrate the selfless people who gave their time to make peoples lives that little bit less mundane in lockdown!
Let's create more outside spaces for pavement bars & cafés. Let's close some streets, widen pavements & encourage local businesses & artists to collaborate to make those spaces incredible!
Lets be a bike city with slower roads. Lets see the city from our saddles. Lets share our car parks with bike parks lets feel the wind in our hair!
Develop community garden scheme in every area in Dundee planting food & vegetables. Brings the community together and provides healthy , locally grown food .
Support people's use of outdoor space - make it inclusive and welcoming
council support for the creative arts through cheap + subsidised studio spaces in buildings that are just sitting empty
Cafes & shops open later More outdoor seating for bars and restaurants Small independant businesses, artists and designers being able to rent (or get help to rent) empty shop units in the city centre
HUGS. LOTS OF HUGS.
Let's have a massive group snowball fight in the winter!
This is not a good way to find out what people need. People who are struggling to survive will not be filling out frilly websites. Please support Dundee's efforts to run Peoples Assemblies
Create an economy that values wellbeing, health, and the environment. Not GDP. Not unsustainable growth. Not exuberant wealth.
Build properly segregated cycle lanes so I can commute to town safely.
Dancing in the streets
join a union
Make the arts accessible for all Turn "that's not for me" into "that's now for me"
A central market for local artists to sell thier art
Council to work towards an aesthetic litter-free Dundee across all postcodes, not just the seafront.
The people are the sunshine of the city
Use the band stand at Magdalen Green, regularly, for performances by local artists. (with a distancing audience) Especially young people and those who aren't already performing professionally.
Keep shopping local - supporting local makers and producers and bakeries!
More street art! So many blank doorways and walls which could be showcasing local art and history /culture.
Retain the small positives of Covid-19: Keep Union Street car-free. Allow other streets to join in. Create more cycle lanes. Force cars into the multi-storeys.
Culture 👏 jobs 👏 that 👏 pay 👏 enough 👏 to 👏 live 👏 on 👏
NAE NAZIS IN DUNDEE
More covered spaces outside where people can get together without getting rained on!
Invest in apprenticeships for young people and people who are unemployed and aged 40+ - create new work opportunities in trades that are always needed.
Genuinely support neurodiversity in education, employment, health, and all services and spaces.
More help for disadvantaged people instead of **** like this.
Aim for a circular economy. Both us and our +Dundee Council: work out ways to re-use and re-cycle better, abolish single-use. Do it. Cherish our world.
In a healthy cultural ecosystem, each tier of creative production plays a crucial role in the overall ecology and supports one another accordingly. Everything is interconnected & interdependent. MC
More spaces needed for local artists and designers to show their work, indoors and outdoors!
Keep up the slower pace of life from the start of lockdown less rush, less stress
Convert* unused land for growing food to feed our city. Retrofit* empty office blocks for affordable housing. Re-purpose* vacant retail spaces for creative learning. *= Rewarding careers.
• Good cycling infrastructure making it a safe viable option • Re-think streets to allocate more space to non-car users • Proper supports that prioritise local business vs multinationals
Educate people about recycling and littering - organise shared pick up activities and training with incentives in Schools and across Communities.
A CITY THAT TAKES MORE RISKS
Turn one of the empty buildings in the city centre into an affordable co-working space. This would provide remote workers with somewhere to work effectively, and bring more footfall into the city.
Resident's Parking Scheme!
TRANS RIGHTS!
Raise the profile of local businesses and creatives to encourage people to shop locally.
Goodbye 9 til 5 Hello Flexibility
Appreciate the simple things in life: walks, nature, great views, kindness, family/friends, being creative and community
A scheme recognising the venues that actually pay and/or support local artists
Don't go back to the old 'normal'. Have a better work/life balance, spend time in the outdoors, appreciate family
Think climate first. Carbon emissions and wildlife.
Further recognition of the contributions BIPoC have made to the City, and to actively celebrate them in Dundee's past, present and future.
More low-cost housing in the city! New builds lately are all so-called luxury apartments... it's not "luxury" if they're built to the same standard as any modern home, it's just overpriced!
Stop shaming people for being on benefits/universal credit. If we want universal basic income we have to first remove the stigma around receiving state support, especially on a long-term basis.
Collbarative effort to try and reduce the amount of litter in the city and surrounding areas. Local authority, education providers and local media could all be involved.
More lockdown positives • Cycles, scooters and feet on the streets • Better air quality • More kindness • Letting our planet breathe • Reducing carbon emissions
Homes for everyone. Quirky little shops.Wildflower planting. No drug problems. Regular family events, Farm shops selling their own produce.More Murals. Bike lanes. No cars in city centre.
We need a pumptrack to get more people riding on wheels.
Turn the City Quay into a hub for food, nightlife, vintage markets, artist studios. It's a fab location not fulfilling its full potential!
We need to continue to be kinder Dundonians - build community, friendships and infect the city with joy + hope!
A Food Culture that is healthy, based on local products and brings people together!
Finish the train station. Clean up your dog poo. Pick up more litter. Ban the gulls.
Business units in the arches under the rail bridge. Coffee shops /bakeries/galleries See Bristol for ideas 💡
Alternatives to the pubs! Incentives for small businesses to take up empty lots in the city centre, inc workshops & places to learn a new skill as well as late night coffee shops.
Turn Wellgate into a mall dedicated to selling REPAIRED, RECYCLED & RESTORED secondhand bits and bobs
Bringing back all the wonderful events that make Dundee. Flower and Food Festival, bonfire night, Easter in Camperdown, New Year in Town, Events in Slessor Gardens, Christmas in City Centre! Fun
A weekly market in the city centre for art, food and social connection!
Pedestranise city centre, bikes, empty shops into artists studios, libraries & affordable housing in town, small business not big chains, decent exhibits at V&A, local musicians Mary slessor gardens
Fewer single-occupancy car journeys. And an infrastucture that encourages that.
More space to cycle and walk, more events in public space and more wilderness in the city Get people outside and connected
Remember that the city is more than just the City Centre. The surrounding areas are in dire economic and social troubles with much of the expenditure offering no solutions to those people.
Better use of outdoor spaces! Pedestrianised roads with outdoor seating for cafes, restaurants and pubs (with awnings and heaters for chilly days) taking priority over cars.
Everything open past normal 'working hours'
Restore Dundee street festival. Use all our green spaces esp Camperdown & Slessor Gardens for outdoor markets and family friendly events/ festivals Drop business rates to rejuvenate city centre areas
JOBS.
Remote working means redistributing Big City Jobs to people in Dundee
Sustainability with Access and equality at the heart. More disabled,D/deaf And neurodiverse lead initiatives for disabled creatives
more mutual aid organising
Less cars, more bikes and beer gardens!
The City Square for any DJ and live events. Possible drum and bass event outside.
More usable outdoor space for indie businesses - less Wetherspoons!
JAM & JUTE & JOURNALISM & JUSTICE
MORE PUBLIC ART OPPORTUNITIES
decolonise dundee's cultural institutions
Take part in a guided history tour and learn interesting stuff.
Grants for small businesses/artist collectives to run pop-ups in empty shop units. Make it easy for artists to flourish.
Just because it's the way it's always been done, doesn't mean it's right. We need to work together to challenge and change the systems that restrict and maniupulate us.
Minimize the awful drugs per capita.
Make it easy for businesses to be creative.
College courses for music and performing arts. Keep and foster talent in Dundee!
Just like the #DundeeSunGlasses 😎 We should have #DundeeReuseableBags 👜 To cut plastic bag waste... since lockdown, plastic bag usage has shot up! ☹️ LETS THINK GREEN
SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC AND (MORE) SPACES WHERE LIVE MUSIC HAPPENS
More assistance that enables small businesses to open and flourish in empty shops/vacant spaces - especially those that prioritise creativity, community, and local economy.
CLEAN THE STREETS
More social hubs. And more exposure for them.
Be more Doughnut. Meet the needs of everyone within the means of the planet.
More guerrilla gardens around the bottoms of street trees and waste spaces.
I would love to see the wildness on the sides of the roads & parks remain.....and maybe even creep a bit further into built up areas.
More support for small local businesses Popups in empty retail units A visitor information centre outside the train station instead of empty units City wide festival of culture
Better waste system. More recycling and greens bins, every house should have a designated one. More awareness about not littering. Keep the city clean.
We've learnt to appreciate what matters-good company, creativity and the outdoors. Recovery needs an emphasis on our oneness with each other, with creation and creativity will help this.
Make cycling and walking the easiest choice with safe, segregated, joined up routes.
The design community in Dundee feels so cliquey. Why do all Dundee projects seem to go to the same people over and over, when there are a diverse range of DJCAD students desperate for opportunities?