Posts by Rob Stowell
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Arch comix present The Disaster Capitalism Curriculum.
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Hard News: Christchurch: Is "quite good"…, in reply to Lilith __,
Both well worth reading.
The thing that startles and saddens me- again and again in today's NZ- is the lack of idealism, altruism, or signs that we can and should build something of more than commercial value.
All too often, the barren reductive nature of the debate itself is dispiriting. We can do better. -
Hard News: Christchurch: Is "quite good"…, in reply to Hebe,
I do find merit in lots of it.
I probably will too. When I get over being turned off by the slick advertorial video…. :)
Best of luck with the lurgi. A lot of it about. Codral is helping here! -
Some basic questions:
Most of these may have been asked and answered. Possibly in this thread :) A quick list of 'what I'd like to know' before deciding on how good this plan is.
Convention centre.
Why should we build a convention centre? Why should residents pay for it?
Why is the convention centre fronting the square? Why not eg further north, along the avon?
What are the assumptions around its use? How often will it be full? How often empty? What are the economic assumptions? Benefits? Risks? How robust and realistic are they? Now? In 5 years? In 20 years? (How did the last one pan out?)
Why can’t a convention centre share a space/building with eg a stadium or town hall? What is the long-term future of the international convention business?Stadium: Why do we need a stadium? Why should we subsidise a single, comercialised sport? How could a stadium be shared/multipurpose? What are the projections for use? How big should it be? Who decides how big, and on what basis? How much do we need to pay to build it, and what else could we do with that money? Is there any scenario where it would pay for itself?
The ‘green’ frame: how do we stop this from becoming windswept, empty and forbidding? What happened to the ‘pocket-parks’ and human-scaled development that Chch people wanted? Can we incorporate them? If it’s simply a land-bank, how much is it worth spending developing parklands? Grass may be green, but huge lawns are not environmentally neutral. How can we make them truly green?
Transport: What happened to a transport plan? How do people move within the CBD? How do they arrive and depart? Where are the pedestrianised areas?
Where are the human-scaled developments? Where do people live!?!
Democracy. Why isn’t such a far-reaching and costly blue-print something Chch residents have a say in? For this to be our plan, for our city, we need to vote for it, or lacks democratic legitimacy. Where has our democracy gone!?! (And can we have it back, please)
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I can't even muster 'quite good' yet. Maybe I'll come round on a sunnier day :)
The convention centre in the square says clearly: we don't want you here.
The giant stadium is going to be largely empty- another massive subsidy (CCC put at least $85m into AMI stadium over two builds, a concrete monstrosity of corporate boxes we'd begun staying away from in droves) for a single, commercial, sport.
Had the performance centre fronted the square, and the convention centre perhaps doubled with a smaller stadium further from town, maybe I'd like it.
But the crowning insult: we don't get to vote on these white elephants. We just have to pay for them.
That stinks. -
Thanks for the photos, Godrun- and nice to meet you outside the MM memorial :)
And cos I don't think I said it properly on the other threads: a big kia ora koutou katoa to everyone at PAS for kind words and support: Craig, Jolissa, Russell, Jackie, Islander, Bart, Hebe- too many to name now, but it means a lot.
It's been a remarkable ten days or so for the Mahy whanau- lots of laughing and crying, talking and singing, and feeling humble and proud at the same time.
It'll take a while to process, but now I just want to sleep for a week :) -
Wonderful writing, Jolissa. Catalogue is my favourite, too. (I think- not sure I want to chose one :))
It's funny how people being nasty just makes one angry- while people being kind makes one cry. Me anyway.
That and books. One of their pleasures, which only sounds odd to people who don't read, is tearing up a bit.
For some reason Russell Hoban's 'The Twenty Elephant Restaurant' (and some of his other books) used to get me a lot. Marg loved Hoban's writing. She was a remarkably prolific writer, for sure. And the hardest working person I have ever met. But she was also always very aware and proud of being a wide and voracious and active reader. "What are you reading?" she'd ask us- and random strangers, anyone reading in public- and then want to talk about it. -
Muse: OPEN HOUSE: Margaret Mahy, The…, in reply to Jackie Clark,
Thanks Jackie :)
It's a little weird that was my '1000th' post at PAS. Was feeling a bit teary, but we are bearing up pretty well. -
Craig and PAS, what a lovely (and well-crafted and storyish!) tribute!
I can't do justice to this thread, or to Marg- the words are not there- but feel very humbled to have known her over the last 30 years- first as a 'mother-out-law" (she enjoyed calling herself this) and then in-law (where she has quite ruined an entire genre of jokes simply by being her kind and generous self.)
I do remember the first time we met.
I woke up in her house, in her daughter's bed, to a clink as she set down cups of tea for us. It was an act of kindness and acceptance that I've tried- not always successfully!- to bring to my own daughters' boyfriends.
The last few days have been hard. But what has shone like the sun is peoples' kindness. Marg had a sort of intelligent kindness- not soft or sentimental, but very deep, and perceptive- and now I keep seeing that in other people, and it's very moving. Arohanui! -
Capture: Two Tales of a City, in reply to Hebe,
Tommy Chang’s fruit and vege shop
The low shelves, trays and trays, lots of green but flashes of red, orange, yellow- Chang's is part a lost Lyttelton I wish I had photos of!