ETA: if you want to see a large mudflow in action, try this . [warning: may scare your pants off!]

Of course it's a huge job. I just want to know which bit of it they're doing.

Cera did not have any specific policy for heritage buildings in blueprint areas but would "certainly" consider a building's heritage value when deciding whether it could be retained [ [[Cera did not have any specific policy for heritage buildings in blueprint areas but would "certainly" consider…

Huh. Groovy. :-)

Dunedin had one in Penroses until 1993 I think – my first year in Dunedin and I purchased a hat there. Was possibly the coolest thing I ever saw. The building is now…

Just saw this advice elsewhere: "Ring the council on the 0800 number and press option 4 they will send a sucker truck to clean sewer". Some of those people work all night.

O yes...bring in the birds, and the bush, and the wounded stones, and let the place, and empathetic humans...make it all be-…

Oh dear!
Thanks, Islander.
The rain’s eased off a bit, and buckets and towels in position, so I’m not so worried. As long as we don’t slide off the hill….

I keep thinking of that house…

= all can be used in ingenious ways

This pic is before my time, but you can just see the Dainty Inn script above the cafe.
http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/heritage/photos/disc16/IMG0070.asp

Crikey, there's a name!

No , on the site of East's bookshop. Beloved tells me now it was the Dainty Inn.

Lamson tubes. Ballantynes used them. We had them as newspaper subs to send copy to the printers, and they would send bits and pieces back. Some tubes had a open end with a big metal clip in side to hold…

You don't mean Java, Hebe?

Those flyingfox (excellent name for it) and hydraulic tube cash transfer/receipt systems existed into…

Quite. Re-balancing is the word: to re-store our spirits, re-balance our psyches. I used the word tangi because I think a way of living in Aotearoa has…

*1987
And delicious stuff we hadnt eaten…

It really does, it really really does-

there's a couple of things being bruited around the kumara-vine and both of them do concern this matter-
there's been…

-sausages have no brains...

Rugby match then #allyouget

Islander, Do you remember that cafe in High Street near the Cashel corner? It had orange vinyl and an order system on a wire…

Me too.
As a young kid a millenium ago, there were those three treats – afternoon tea at Ballantyne's or Hay's, or fishnchips at Fail's-

Indeed:
"Since the abolition of democratic government in Canterbury in 2011, Mega-City 03 has been a dictatorship run by CERA. ... Its ruler is Chief Judge Gerry Brownlee. He is accountable to nobody. The citizens are permitted to have…

Millions in the bank and a holiday just around the corner. A few minutes in the rain no trouble. Why he still holds the position he does when failing so badly is beyond explanation i swear.

Poor people; so desperate they are willing to go out in the rain and cold because they have no other way to be heard. Simpson et al adopt civil servant posture number 63(b): I am listening, I feel your pain, I understand, and…

By their caps ye shall know them. ;-)

Or should that be BY THEIR CAPS?

And Campbell Live last night followed up on the protest outside EQC and then onto IAG. Thought it might have been Ian Dalziel in the crowd, only because of the cheese cutter/cloth cap upon the head of the man…

Now that is another worry. Once the market reaches a certain…

And counting! :-)

Thanks Sacha for pulling up that section about action.
And particularly this:
And it’s also worth remembering that there are lots of people feeling…

Hear hear!

-from politicians and other so-called civic leaders: Lilith's link was well worth the reading – but disheartening.

BUT – there's all the rest of us, from our host on this site…

+1. Agree with this sentiment too:

The better option, of course, is to organise and respond. A group of people who have a pretty clear objective – no matter how apparently minor – that involves provoking a bit of a ‘slip’ in the…

Monday night last week was like Christmas Eve in Christchurch.

As the evening darkened, the presents – carefully wrapped and prettily presented by the best PR Christmas wrappers CERA could buy – were lain beneath the brightly…

Bother action certainly can work: at one time in my distant pass when I lived and worked in Auckland the Auckland City workers were taking industrial action and meeting in the town hall for discussion. After the usual…

There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing… Sir Rannulph Fiennes said that, apparently.
And…
To paraphrase Martin Niemöller…
First they came for the Cantabrians, but it was a bit nippy.

Concrete pills all round I reckon, get yer game face…

People can be very smart like that. Show some resourceful, coherent leadership that has a realistic chance of making a difference and they'll back it. Otherwise, more pressing needs closer to home will…

What I keep coming back to is the…

I think any political pressure we can generate is a good thing. The erosion of democratic rights affects all of us, not just Christchurch people.

Hey Sofie, it's not all bad here, just a lot of knots these days. And certainties are a thing of the past.

Ok I gettit. I'll get back to yous in December and see how it's working out for yas ;)

For what it's worth, I continually email lots of MPs. If I have a question that's what I generally do. Surprisingly,…

I'd also argue that going to a meeting to talk to planners who will probably not answer direct questions such as "do you know how much this stadium will cost" or "has anyone done a feasibility…

Exhaustion? It's been nearly two years, Leigh. Quite a lot of us are knackered.

They're not asking for feedback or submissions at all. CERA is not accountable to us.

Tens of thousands of people made submissions for Share an Idea,…

Um isn’t that precisely what people should be doing ? As Lockwood Smith keeps telling Parliament, “Ask the right questions”. It’s not like there will be door knocking to see if you like it.…

It's not an opportunity to be part of the decision-making, it's just a Q and A.

Sue Sutherland turned up with several questions, including whether the central library building could be incorporated into the new blueprint.

She was told it would be…

So, a garage then. ;)
I actually love old buildings, just thought the CCCouncil mightn't. Or as you said insurance did not reflect it's purchase value.
Here is one I…

We did that already. Yes, it’s supposed to be temporary. And note it’s currently run as a charity. And it’s been running well under the 18,000 capacity. Couldn't we just put a roof on this one?*

*naive…

They've come up with a whole bunch of innovative ideas, which is a lot more than our planners have. Doesn't mean these particular ideas would suit Chch, but we could think up some of our own! Creativity doesn't have to be a low-rent thing…

The insurance payout and the population will help make it financially more viable. Simply put, Dunedin's stadium is a large drain on not enough people.
You'd be silly…

Where's the cheap-rent neighbourhood where creativity can thrive? Don't tell me, in a special newly built area with an eruv around it and "Creativity Quarter" signage.

Cities as Gadgets: 8 Features This Brand-New City Has That Yours Doesn't

Interesting stuff.

So, $4.9 mil , 577k , just doing the math . Who loses here again?The old cruddy vandalised building was obviously rubbish before the Quakes. (and I bet they knew it)

As far as Stadiums, concerts etc goes, if there is more than one asset for…

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I had fun explaining New Zealand’s geological hazards to my friend’s British partner yesterday. His eyes widened as we went through Auckland’s volcanic risks – “and then of course there’s Taupo. It’s really game over for…

I'm certainly not offended by disagreement. Certainly am by some of the stuff that's being done (and not done) in our name, regardless of ideology.…

'Brave' suggests the (business) folk they listen to were opposing it. As if.

Intervening in the failed post-quake residential housing market against the urgings of neolib acolytes and foreign insurers and bankers – now that might deserve the term. These are timid boys…

John Key’s disaster response:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHEfqjcwyKE

And while I’m sure the short-term business subsidies were vital, it wasn’t exactly rocket-science to see that they were needed.

IMHO all kudos to the council workers and…

It is not generally understood yet ( spelt out clearly in the Press CBD feature yesterday for the first time that I can recall) how very close Christchurch was to a…

I thought it rather disingenuous of Brownpants to answer a question like"What are you doing about the rebuild of Christchurch" with "Well, we bought some paint"
Sheesh.

I had fun explaining New Zealand's geological hazards to my friend's…

I'm in awe of your calculating…

Yes, this.

Lots of people in Christchurch want sustainability. But the council and the Government will do nothing to help achieve that beyond "encouraging" property developers to improve energy efficiency. Failure is certain, because existing New Zealand building codes, energy efficiency standards, designs and materials…

That sort of consultation is arguably too slow. But we got a decision that was carefully crafted. :-)

Interesting discussion to have.

Many have. I'll pick a few of the simpler ones.

Why should we build a convention centre? Why should…

I think the picture is quite clear, don't you? It is not about the people at all. Amy Adams did her best to hide that…

So who made those the priorities? Why is a dedicated…

My Uncle was friends with that dude. I suspect any relation connection to Fran O'Sullivan witterings on would be an insult of the highest order. :)

Something Ian Athfield could see and quickly distanced himself from.

I was thinking more Chase Corporation mirror-glass.

There’s a slight green tinge but it’s pragmatic: the river corridor park for instance is the land that be rebuilt upon without huge cost. The frame is a negotiable…

So, ticky tacky houses then, just in the future when all the assets are gone I imagine. I cant get my head around the buildings because I don't…

Yeah the taller ones will mostly be unlamented.

I honestly believe that the biggest reason was the rhetorical appeal of "100 days" for the minister. The fact that this arbitrary deadline made the big launch clash with the Olympics opening (hence the embarrassing…

Yes, that's exactly it. :-s

I think there may have been more old stuff in the CBD than you remember, Sacha. We certainly cried over a lot of what have been described as "character" buildings after the…

Her last sentence is a beauty:

What if other New Zealand cities – particularly Auckland – were given the tools so they too could follow Christchurch's example and wipe the barriers that stymie economic growth?

Let's knock it all down everywhere so unambitious…

She learnt her city planning from the Beijing Municipal Government? "Heritage? Fetch me ten thousand migrant workers and give them a sledgehammer each!"

As if. Mainly drab modern fare even before the quakes.

I must have missed more about the last word here unless O'Sullivan knows more than Isaacs does:

It is a stunner. Compact. Cutting edge. Green. Sustainable.

And foremost among many other maddening things in that article:

heritage-laden CBD epitomised by Cathedral Square is a thing of the past

I’m sorry, heritage-laden?? That’s one way of describing all the beauty and history Chch people are…

I’m pretty sure this came up prominently in Share An Idea. How many times do we have to say these things?

Also, thinking about the Plan and my feelings almost of panic about it,…

Yes, my heart sank when…

A Press poll asked 507 readers what they thought of the 100-day blueprint, their most and least favoured projects, what was missing, and when they envisaged the Christchurch rebuild would be complete.

More than…

Miskell says this is where the advantage of having all the experts in the one place really showed. Cera's economics team could see angles that Blueprint's architects and urban planners could not imagine.

The economists said a much fatter park strip – one a…

Miskell can at last afford to relax after the "100 days" allowed his small group, co-led with Peter Marshall, managing director of Christchurch architects Warren and Mahoney, to re-invent a city.

A hundred days, Miskell scoffs. It was…

Press story here.

The $1.2b price tag was about $720 million more than budgeted for in the city council's annual plan.

Coleman's source said the stadium would cost $506m, the convention centre…

Cheers! I think people who read my tweets think I'm really angry and cynical ... which is probably true. But I also have a weekly column in the local…

YES.

A government/social set-up that puts stadiums & convention centres & cathedrals ahead of thousands of devastated households __who still dont
have good water supplies &/or working loos &/or functioning houses…which is THE priority – not…

You said a bunch, andrew.

Well, one big park, which is hardly the same thing. I'm delighted by the Avon park plan, but mixed-use central neighbourhoods and sustainable buildings seem to have…

I agree with the landbanking and the comment about playing to green desires. I think it says a lot about…

Can you spell some of them out for us. Haven't had time to read through that appendix yet.

The ‘frame’, the green space is nice but lets be honest about its purpose. The Christchurch CBD already had too much retail space before the earthquakes. With 10% of the population gone, the CBD doesn’t need to be…

The argument that it does nothing for the suburbs is a red herring. This is the plan for the…

Like Darling Harbour, whose failure we now blame on the bicentenary rush, the Homebush development began with a development corporation concerned mainly with…

Undoubtedly. Every city plan needs a good lightning rod.

Brooklands, Pines Beach and Waikuku Beach all had severe damage. OK Pegasus is further inland from the beach, but still.

Pegasus land has yet to convince me; it's a good distance from the faults that have gone so far. It would be interesting to see what happens…

It's a possibility, anyway. I don't really have an opinion about whether it's appropriate. It would be appropriate to research it, is the most I'd say.

The layer that runs the actual buses :-)
(it's basically ECan)

Something more accessible here. 2 days to go for anyone else wanting to give feedback (online feedback form, just follow my link).

“Ground repair”: making the ground more compacted and therefore stronger, can be done, with enough money. There is the much touted success of Pegasus Town relative to its neighbours in the earthquakes, as a result of major…

A friend has been working on the Martin Jetpack for years now and all through the earthquakes without too much inconvenience, for it has of course been built and refined down in Chch. So maybe a flying car is not too far off. :)

Seems reasonable. Idea is to make em easiest to fix/rebuild afterwards. Though that's all relative.

I cannot believe that's possible having experienced the big quakes.…

Oamaru....

Maori didnt build in Otautahi; Kaiapoi was built relatively late. Maori settled in Akaroa and Lyttelton areas, places with good harbours and stable ground (comparatively.) Swamps werent esteemed as living places though they did have other attractions – which…