Hard News: What Now?
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In reply to no-one, just an observation/opinion:
<soapbox> Some idiot was on Morning Report saying that we need an autocracy to get things fixed quickly. If this were The Standard, I'd say it revealed a government conspiracy to establish one, and if Labour were leading the government still and I was Matthew Hooton, I'd say the same, but I can understand it's just venting.
Still, while it may seem attractive, and there are going to be increasing calls to "cut through the red tape" and for there to be "efficient management" as shock gives way to frustration, the record for autocratic systems in dealing with disasters is poor. In a hierarchical, authoritarian system, no one wants to report bad news to their superior, so they don't, and the response often becomes a second disaster. Messy as any open, ad-hoc, responses and spontaneously-organised networks and the champions of various individual suburbs might be, their transparency is better, I think. </soapbox>
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
The choices that are made, and the priorities accorded to future spending need to be the subject of debate. There is need to hold the government to account, and to oppose and propose where necessary.
I doubt anyone on this thread could reasonably disagree with Grant on that point – but if one wanted to be snarky, you could say it would be shame it’s taken a disaster of this magnitude to shock Labour into being a competent opposition. But I think Brent Edwards made a very good point on Nat Radio yesterday – of course politics is inevitable because the response is going to require a string of political responses.
But there are real risks for all parties in getting the tone wrong. The more egregious concern-trolling and partisan hackery from the usual Kiwibog-SubStandard suspects is what it is. Any politician who goes there is (i Hope) going to be punished, and I won't be stimulating my crocodile's tear ducts if they are.
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Messy as any open, ad-hoc, responses and spontaneously-organised networks and the champions of various individual suburbs might be, their transparency is better, I think.
Yes, interesting point. I keep being surprised by just how organized the rebels are in Libya, and how shockingly uncoordinated and weak the regime supporters are. And they have all the training, all the money, all the guns. But they're run by a madman who can't accept that they're already in a civil war, so they just can't get shit done.
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Bart Janssen, in reply to
rebuilding the CBD “real fast”
You can have it fast, well designed and cheap ... pick two out of three
I'm going for well-designed and cheap but that's just my preference.
I'd rather have a great Christchurch in 15 years than a cheap ugly Christchurch in 5 years.
Please please make the new christchurch spectacular.
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Peter's missus Vicki on NatRad last night; Three Cities of Christchurch.
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Sacha, in reply to
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
I’d rather have a great Christchurch in 15 years than a cheap ugly Christchurch in 5 years.
And there are thousands who'd rather like a hot shower, clean laundry and a bowel movement that doesn't have to be co-ordinated with the rest of the street stat. I understand where Mr. Ballantyne's priorities are (and they're not utterly d-baggy and self-involved), but my symathies lie with people whose needs are much more basic.
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
Reading that Peter Hyde piece, it sounds like an urgent investment in door-to-door circulation of clear printed material is warranted – and asking at the same time what each household needs. Then repeating the process regularly.
Perhaps the Herald could use its resources to put together a Daily supplement (delivered free for Christchurch residents only) of pertinent information and, whilst they were at it, report back to the rest of the country so people like Gerry Brownlee could get a clue as to what is going on in the "Less Glamorous" areas.
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Sacha, in reply to
Perhaps the Herald could use its resources to put together a Daily supplement
There are local rags doing a sterling job in the region (and printers who need the work), but stronger distribution and targeted informative content probably need to be added. And a non-tech feedback mechanism.
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Despite having an aesthetic predisposition to liking nice well designed urban centers, I have to note that sprawling suburban design is actually very disaster friendly.
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Sacha, in reply to
And there are thousands who'd rather like a hot shower, clean laundry and a bowel movement that doesn't have to be co-ordinated with the rest of the street stat.
All of which should be do-able without knee-jerk relaxing of planning standards for the cbd.
The suburbs have their own challenges. Rapid construction of some core shared services in each neighbourhood might help with the next weeks and months.
Or mass urgent relocation to vacant housing in less-affected areas like the Western suburbs. Some have suggested government agencies take up any undamaged private sector housing stock immediately and sort out money transfers later. We know from the September quake that residential building damage assessments are not fast and people need to live in the meantime.
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Sacha, in reply to
sprawling suburban design is actually very disaster friendly
Not when it comes to restoring spread-out networks and services like water, wastewater, roading, power and phone, sadly. Going to take ages to fix all that. Higher-density usually means more concentrated work can restore function (although it also means more damage from adjacent buildings as we saw).
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Matthew Poole, in reply to
I have to note that sprawling suburban design is actually very disaster friendly.
As with anything, you say tomato I say tomato. Sprawl requires more infrastructure to support, and the more infrastructure you have the more infrastructure there is to damage. Density needs less support, so there's less to damage and it's easier to rehabilitate. Auckland, even with its horrendous sprawl, would still be utterly fucked if a major quake were to strike because we're so completely reliant on our massive network of roads and all the subterranean services that support our Pavlova Paradise suburbs. Were the CBD full of buildings that were adequately constructed, it would be far quicker and easier to get it back into action than to remediate damage to the 'burbs. Look at many of the suburbs of Christchurch - itself a fairly sprawled city relative to population - that are still without any reticulated services, or even any temporary ones, and tell me you still believe that sprawl is good.
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Sacha, in reply to
snap
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Bart Janssen, in reply to
And there are thousands who’d rather like a hot shower, clean laundry and a bowel movement that doesn’t have to be co-ordinated with the rest of the street stat.
Yup but those are two different things.
The disaster response that has to be done now and as fast and effectively as possible.
That isn't the same thing as saying rebuild the CBD quickly. Rebuilding the CBD won't impact in those people without sewerage and if you tried to rebuild really fast you'd probably slow down the infrastructure work. And I don't for a second thing Mr Ballyntine is being a d-bag he just is focussed on getting his part of the world (the CBD) back together as fast as possible, which is entirely understandable. I'd just point out that there will be costs in design and price when you rebuild fast.
It isn't my place to pick for christchurch but if it was my choice that rebuilding would be slower and attempt to make something really neat, not simply restore business premises to functional.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
so people like Gerry Brownlee could get a clue as to what is going on in the “Less Glamorous” areas.
You're really on fire, aren't you Steve? For all the media twatcockery about 'the Battle of the Portaloos" people who actually know jack about the state of play have been careful not to attribute malice or callous indifference to anyone, but rather acknowledge the real limitations and challenges involved in a real world disaster.
If Lianne Dalziel (whose comments on Morning Report impressed me) can resist, so can we.
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giovanni tiso, in reply to
The latest from Women's Refuge:
Police have reported 138 domestic violence related incidents since Tuesday. We continue to work closely with other south island Refuges who have taken on the crisis and 0800 REFUGE support to our five Christchurch Refuges. Some have noticed an increase in crisis calls although not all are related to domestic violence so we refer them to other forms of help.
Our plan in the short term is to co-ordinate Refuge volunteers from out of town to support the work required in Christchurch. We are working on a system with Housing NZ and CYF to assist us to have Refuge services 60-80% operational in the short term. But most importantly we are supporting our Christchurch Refuge workers to have the space to deal with their own issues. In the words of one of the first trauma support workers on the scene, “Some of our Refuge workers have lost family or friends, not to mention their homes. They have families who are traumatised, friends who are traumatised; they themselves are traumatised and trying to operate in a community that is traumatised.”
Immediate needs for our Refuges are:
• Cash – 100% of which will be sent directly to the Refuges in Christchurch
• Petrol vouchers
• Phone top ups
• Sanitising materials
• Baby formula and food
• WATERIf you are able to help we would appreciate an online donation using your credit card via the website www.womensrefuge.org.nz and in the comments box, write Chch earthquake fund.
If you would like to donate by cheque or send petrol vouchers or phone top up cards please make a note it is for Christchurch and post to:
Women’s Refuge
PO Box 6350
Marion Square
WellingtonIf you would like to donate any of the other goods please email info@refuge.org.nz to be advised about how to do this.
You can also get regular updates from our Facebook page, search for "Women's Refuge Christchurch Earthquake Response"
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From todays Herald...
9.18am
Gerry Brownlee says he did not realise how neglected the eastern suburbs of Christchurch have been.
There have been complaints from residents that they are being ignored and have no portaloos.
The Earthquake Recovery Minister says his focus today will be to remedy that.And then this...
A spokesman said Mr Bronwnlee would be working with Civil Defence today to give relief to those in need.
He had visited the eastern suburbs many times in the last days - most recently this morning - and made observations on what required.
His commitment comes after criticism of the earthquake response in eastern suburbs yesterday.
I'm saying no more, I keep forgetting that I am the problem here.
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The Herald has thrown the question of whether Christchurch should host its world cup games to the Your Views crowd. Way to stay classy.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
I’m saying no more, I keep forgetting that I am the problem here.
Don't you dare fucking flounce, mate. I think it's perfectly legitimate to point out there is a honking great hole in the response that urgently needs to be filled, but attributing it to callous indifference to the plebs on the part of Brownlee or anyone else is neither true nor fair. As I said, if local MP Lianne Dalziel could do the former without indulging in the latter, so can you.
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giovanni tiso, in reply to
but attributing it to callous indifference to the plebs on the part of Brownlee or anyone else is neither true nor fair.
Am I the only one who thinks that may be a story there, and that it may be just as much about the media as the institutional response?
Why did it take a blogger to make everyone notice? What were journalists doing? I'm not for attributing callous indifference to the plebs without actual knowledge, but I hope that somebody is looking into this.
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Sacha, in reply to
attributing it to callous indifference to the plebs on the part of Brownlee or anyone else is neither true nor fair
The quotes Steve provided support his case, don't they?
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Comparative disaster responses across suburbs are heavily affected by their existing resources including social capital - and in this case things as basic as the absence of local supermarkets and transport.
I was reading something yesterday about travelling from Fendalton across towards Brighton and noticing the swept streets and privately-hired cherry pickers fixing homes give way to utter devastation.
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giovanni tiso, in reply to
The quotes Steve provided support his case, don't they?
Yes. And one could point out that Housing New Zealand residents had already been neglected in September, and by the same national and local government - so it's not exactly a wild theory.
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
Why did it take a blogger to make everyone notice? What were journalists doing?
Nail on head Old Bean.
Snap!
When any of us find a bit of obscure information that needs disseminating, an eMail to a sympathetic MP can be helpful.
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