Matt Cowley Tauranga City Councillor

This week's column is written as a bunch of tweets (social media mini blogs made up of 140 characters) to squeeze as much action into one column as possible. Here we go:

A Wellington institute presented how Tauranga and NZ could be a place to grow, attract, retain and connect talent in a competitive world.

Olympian Sarah Ulmer was impressed with the stories of how the Foundation for Youth Development has turned young lives around in Tauranga.

We're planning to gift the Durham St carpark ($3.7m) to the university to ensure its long-term investment and provide education pathways for locals.

Downtown Tauranga shared their issues and opportunities for building a city centre we're proud of. The 6000 office workers will be the key.

Our draft annual plan for next year will be available for feedback on March 20 to April 20. An easy-to-read version will be in your letterbox.

Councillor Clayton Mitchell and I enjoy the spectacle of councillors soap-boxing when adopting the draft budget. It's a good sign we're working well together.

I'm so happy with people's disappointment of Cyclone Lusi. We had lots of warning to sandbag the city and sweep the drains – we're very lucky!

Win $9000 by entering your bright idea in the annual Young Innovator Awards by 4 July. An ice cream cone drip-guard won a prize last year.

The old i-Site in the Mount hasn't been open for two years. A bakery was the top tenderer to use the building to bring life to Coronation Park.

We're going to review plans for our 119 reserves to ensure they're still right for how they're used and they suit their surroundings.

The art gallery wants to fundraise to attract bigger and brighter exhibitions. We supported the deed to form a foundation and attract funders.

New staff delegations reflect our need to be more efficient to enable staff to do their job. But the media didn't mention one six-figure decrease.

Call me a geek, but exciting changes to the city plan are coming up, including inner-city living and visitor accommodation densities.

Tourism Bay of Plenty reported 50 per cent of cruise tourists stayed in the western BOP. Tourists rank our i-Port as the third best in Australasia.

Main streets around the city are doing well in tough economic climates to get people into their centres by focusing on fun.

Feel free to email me your thoughts (matt.cowley@tauranga.govt.nz), call/text me on 027 6989 548, and follow me at www.facebook.com/a.younger.voice.