Posts by Joe Wylie
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Hard News: Angry and thrilled about Arie, in reply to DexterX,
TVNZ were right to run this peice as they have.
They also most certainly did try to buy guns with ineptly-forged gun licences-
the Urewera18 people I mean.Some of them, perhaps, but thanks to a near-dysfunctional justice system we can pretty much ignore such quaint niceties as the presumption of innocence.
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Cracker: Another Capital Idea..., in reply to giovanni tiso,
They think that our key resource is neoliberalism, and not being so attached to the idea of the welfare state. Seriously, read the 2025 taskforce report.
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Hard News: About Arie, in reply to recordari,
So basically the only 'crime' was withholding salvageable material from the demolition contractors.
Hardcore offending. Not like this inconsequential fluff.
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to Hilary Stace,
But they didn't build in brick or stone until that generation's memory had past.
From Lady Barker's description of Wellington, c. 1865:
At first I thought the shops very handsome, but I found, rather to my disgust, that generally the fine, imposing frontage was all a sham; the actual building was only a little hut at the back, looking all the meaner for the contrast to the cornices and show windows in front. You cannot think how odd it was to turn a corner and see that the building was only one board in thickness, and scarcely more substantial than the scenes at a theatre.
Christchurch shortly afterwards, already on the slippery permanent materials slope:
Christchurch is a very pretty little town, still primitive enough to be picturesque, and yet very thriving: capital shops, where everything may be bought; churches, public buildings, a very handsome club-house, etc. Most of the houses are of wood, but when they are burned down (which is often the case) they are now rebuilt of brick or stone, so that the new ones are nearly all of these more solid materials. I am disappointed to find that the cathedral, of which I had heard so much, has not progressed beyond the foundations, which cost £8,000; all the works have been stopped, and certainly there is not much to show for so large a sum, but labour is very dear.
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Chch Arts Centre "too frail to even fix"?
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Up Front: Life on Mars, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
I haven't heard if the cast out tenants have been given a first right of tenancy on their spaces - but given the time that the Arts Centre will take to restore itself, many will have disappeared. Then we'll probably see more of a mall concept emerge and less of the small artists and craftspeople that had subsidised rents under the charter (this is the charter that a few years back was slightly amended to incorporate the word 'develop').
If this is anything to go by, it would seem that the few genuine practitioners still in residence at the time of the quakes are happy, for the meantime at least, to have escaped with what livelihood they still have.
When Gerry Brownlee set the initial tone of his reign as earthquake Czar by announcing an open season on Christchurch's "old dunga" heritage buildings, he specifically excluded four nice-to-haves. Namely, the two cathedrals, the Provincial Council Chambers, and the Arts Centre. Since the June 13 shake there seems to be a largely unstated realisation that the cathedrals - in something like their original form - are gone forever.
I'd rather hoped that someone with the relevant expertise might have spoken up on whether the technology even exists to reconstruct buildings that are effectively held up by their own weight, and render them safe to inhabit. Is CERA, or the Arts Centre (mgmt & Board) seeking that kind of advice? There's no indication that such concerns are addressed by the $2.8m spent on consultants by the City Council.
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
. . . haven't ACT been very quiet about this whole earthquake and consequences...
As always with those fawning blowhards, individual property rights are only sacrosanct when they benefit those further up the food chain.
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to Joel Cayford,
You can see this blog at: http://joelcayford.blogspot.com/2011/06/faulty-thinking-about-christchurch.html
There is another post immediately following that one about plate tectonics and what's happening. User friendly.
Revelatory stuff Joel, much appreciated.
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to rcg25,
interesting interviews . . . however one comment that the financial advisor made in the second interview - that insurance wasn't about being 'better off' afterwards. As if any of us could possibly be 'better off' than we were before September!
While he was rather more restrained than some of the pseudonymous online commentators, financial advisor Andrew Nuttall was somewhat less than straightforward with his attempts to cast aggrieved policyholders as victims of their own greed. Also the merest suggestion of collective action seemed to give him an attack of the vapours.
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
enough already…
Jeez Ian, how awful.
Meanwhile, does this mean that Tower just might have been shamed into doing the decent thing?