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 ›

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
More assistance that enables small businesses to open and flourish in empty shops/vacant spaces - especially those that prioritise creativity, community, and local economy.
More street art! So many blank doorways and walls which could be showcasing local art and history /culture.
Grants for small businesses/artist collectives to run pop-ups in empty shop units. Make it easy for artists to flourish.
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.
Minimize the awful drugs per capita.
Develop community garden scheme in every area in Dundee planting food & vegetables. Brings the community together and provides healthy , locally grown food .
A weekly market in the city centre for art, food and social connection!
Keep being green! Let wildlife in thrive again!
More spaces needed for local artists and designers to show their work, indoors and outdoors!
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
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!
More space to cycle and walk, more events in public space and more wilderness in the city Get people outside and connected
Build properly segregated cycle lanes so I can commute to town safely.
Sustainability with Access and equality at the heart. More disabled,D/deaf And neurodiverse lead initiatives for disabled creatives
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!
council support for the creative arts through cheap + subsidised studio spaces in buildings that are just sitting empty
SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC AND (MORE) SPACES WHERE LIVE MUSIC HAPPENS
Educate people about recycling and littering - organise shared pick up activities and training with incentives in Schools and across Communities.
More usable outdoor space for indie businesses - less Wetherspoons!
Take part in a guided history tour and learn interesting stuff.
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.
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?
College courses for music and performing arts. Keep and foster talent in Dundee!
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.
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
Make cycling and walking the easiest choice with safe, segregated, joined up routes.
Support local businesses and creatives. More creativity to enhance the spaces we live and work.
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.
More shops and better quality retail in the city centre.
Stop waiting for systemic change. Make change happen in your community now.
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.
We need to continue to be kinder Dundonians - build community, friendships and infect the city with joy + hope!
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.
Culture 👏 jobs 👏 that 👏 pay 👏 enough 👏 to 👏 live 👏 on 👏
Cree y crea
Keep up the slower pace of life from the start of lockdown less rush, less stress
Finish the train station. Clean up your dog poo. Pick up more litter. Ban the gulls.
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.
Pick up your dog 💩
The City Square for any DJ and live events. Possible drum and bass event outside.
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
The people are the sunshine of the city
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.
Repopulate the city centre by converting commercial properties to good-quality, affordable homes for people of all ages.
Create an economy that values wellbeing, health, and the environment. Not GDP. Not unsustainable growth. Not exuberant wealth.
Remote working means redistributing Big City Jobs to people in Dundee
Plant trees on Reform street, please.
Support people's use of outdoor space - make it inclusive and welcoming
Turn the City Quay into a hub for food, nightlife, vintage markets, artist studios. It's a fab location not fulfilling its full potential!
JOBS.
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.
More cycling, more neighbourhood support, more dogs, more biodiversity. More appreciating family and friends. More love.
Turn Wellgate into a mall dedicated to selling REPAIRED, RECYCLED & RESTORED secondhand bits and bobs
Make Dundee Scotlands most innovative risk-taking cycle-friendly city!
Raise the profile of local businesses and creatives to encourage people to shop locally.
Celebrate the selfless people who gave their time to make peoples lives that little bit less mundane in lockdown!
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.
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
Be more friendly and kind. Have more neighbourhood activities and shop local to support small businesses
HUGS. LOTS OF HUGS.
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.
Goodbye 9 til 5 Hello Flexibility
A scheme recognising the venues that actually pay and/or support local artists
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.
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!
MORE PUBLIC ART OPPORTUNITIES
Make the arts accessible for all Turn "that's not for me" into "that's now for me"
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.
Resident's Parking Scheme!
More social hubs. And more exposure for them.
Stop the age limit to apprenticeships. Give everyone the opportunity to gain one.
Genuinely support neurodiversity in education, employment, health, and all services and spaces.
A clean, green city that puts its people at the heart of decisions... fairness, equality, respect and creativity for all!
Loving the murals and paintings- more please!
Don't go back to the old 'normal'. Have a better work/life balance, spend time in the outdoors, appreciate family
Keep being kind to one another. We've got a while to go yet.
house the homeless 🏠
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.
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!
Environmental sustainability at the heart of every decision
Less cars, more bikes and beer gardens!
More guerrilla gardens around the bottoms of street trees and waste spaces.
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.
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.
More lockdown positives • Cycles, scooters and feet on the streets • Better air quality • More kindness • Letting our planet breathe • Reducing carbon emissions
Our future is bright. We just have to grab it!
Just like the #DundeeSunGlasses 😎 We should have #DundeeReuseableBags 👜 To cut plastic bag waste... since lockdown, plastic bag usage has shot up! ☹️ LETS THINK GREEN
TRANS RIGHTS!
Further recognition of the contributions BIPoC have made to the City, and to actively celebrate them in Dundee's past, present and future.
Make it easy for businesses to be creative.
Appreciate the simple things in life: walks, nature, great views, kindness, family/friends, being creative and community
decolonise dundee's cultural institutions
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Increase opportunities for safe, active travel with a larger network of cycle paths and footpaths.
art and culture orgs need to stop being cliques
Council to work towards an aesthetic litter-free Dundee across all postcodes, not just the seafront.
Make more of our UNESCO City of Design status - have a design tsar to put design at the heart of everything the city does.
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.
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.
more mutual aid organising
Give graduates a reason to stay in Dundee. A lot of our best and brightest graduates leave to work elsewhere!
Think climate first. Carbon emissions and wildlife.
• 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
Better waste system. More recycling and greens bins, every house should have a designated one. More awareness about not littering. Keep the city clean.
NAE NAZIS IN DUNDEE
More covered spaces outside where people can get together without getting rained on!
Everything open past normal 'working hours'
Business units in the arches under the rail bridge. Coffee shops /bakeries/galleries See Bristol for ideas 💡
Give more opportunities to unknown and upcoming local artists for commissions instead of the same people!
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.
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
CLEAN THE STREETS
join a union
Dancing in the streets
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!
Fewer single-occupancy car journeys. And an infrastucture that encourages that.
Meet everyone with a smile.
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.
Let's have a massive group snowball fight in the winter!
More cycle paths to encourage cycling for all
JAM & JUTE & JOURNALISM & JUSTICE
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.
Be more Doughnut. Meet the needs of everyone within the means of the planet.
More cycling friendly routes and connections throughout the WHOLE city.
A CITY THAT TAKES MORE RISKS
Keep shopping local - supporting local makers and producers and bakeries!
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.
More help for disadvantaged people instead of **** like this.
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.
A central market for local artists to sell thier art
A Food Culture that is healthy, based on local products and brings people together!
Invest in apprenticeships for young people and people who are unemployed and aged 40+ - create new work opportunities in trades that are always needed.