Posts by Hebe
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Hard News: Nobody wanted #EQNZ for Christmas, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Here's organisers Peter Lynch and Mike Coleman at today's event.
More pics here.I was struck by the politeness and just-get-on-with-it sort of people at the protest today; so many middle-aged and old and prosperous types. It was the sort of people who get rates bills (and pay them on time).
I also saw Vicki Buck, and other keeping-a-low-profile notables. Would she do as mayor? She would certainly have the unifying feel-good factor that is sorely needed.
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Went to see when a city council fails today. What struck me was that the people in the crowd were so reasonable: they were asking for an election, not a guillotine. Unfortunately the messages from the speakers were a bit fragmented and unfocused, but that's like our city. Then when the last speaker wound up, the crowd immediately turned and ambled off in a quiet, Christchurch sort of fashion, while a few went to the council offices to present a letter. Many more of us strolled through the Botanic Gardens, past the herbaceous border while the weather turned.
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Hard News: Nobody wanted #EQNZ for Christmas, in reply to merc,
Not to mention any hint of having reponsibilities allong with a cash cow.
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Hard News: Nobody wanted #EQNZ for Christmas, in reply to merc,
Hang on, didn't Key say pre-election that iwi would be wanting to buy state assets so it was okay to sell them because the assets would stay in new Zealand. So if Maori are going to buy up a lot of the SOE floats, why does the Waitangi clause have to be removed? Such a clause wouldn't deter Maori investors, so the question must be posed who are the buyers who would be deterred and why would they be put off?
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This is the only way I've been able to post the piece (forgive me Dave Kemeys -- the article is one of the best summings-up I have read and deserves to be read widely)
Today's SST page C26:Anger in a city dispossessed
By Rod Oram
Public outrage is appearing in Christchurch, and with good reason.
IN MANY ways the people of Christchurch are doing remarkably well as they approach the first anniversary of their most devastating earthquake. They are showing admirable resolve, progressing the best they can given the daunting challenges.Photo: Kirk Hargreaves/fairfaxnz Under siege: The city’s chief executive, Tony Marryatt, and mayor Bob Parker have attracted a storm of criticism.
But there’s still a formidable array of issues for them and the rest of the country to tackle. Here are some:
Frustration
On Wednesday, people will rally outside the council offices to protest against the 14.4 per cent pay rise awarded to the city’s chief executive, Tony Marryatt.
While that’s a legitimate issue, public anger is rising fast, driven by many deeper worries.
These include the shortage and high cost of housing and land; the slowness of repairs; difficulties negotiating settlements and new cover with insurers; poor communication by the council, government and Cera, its earthquake recovery agency; and an inability of the city so far to shape ambitious strategies for its future.
Activity
The city has achieved a lot over the past year. Despite the devastation of the city centre and the eastern suburbs, many people have managed some semblance of a new normality in their life and work. But continuing earthquakes, big family and career stresses and uncertainties over the future are taking their toll.
Much of the recovery work so far has been preparatory: making places safe, clearing debris, restoring services, making temporary repairs, assessing 190,000 properties, working out where rebuilding can take place, planning and putting processes in place to accelerate construction activity.
But so far, only 7000 houses have been repaired, the Earthquake Commission says. It, insurers and construction companies are promising to fast-forward activity this year.
The commission says 100,000 houses need repairs and is promising 80 per cent of them will be done by 2014. That, though, is far too slow if the people of Christchurch are to have faith in the recovery and the energy – freed from worries about their homes – to contribute to it.
Loss:
The destruction is enormous. Properties destroyed include some 20,000 homes, 1250 commercial properties within the four avenues and 300 outside, some 65 per cent of hotel accommodation, crucial facilities such as the convention centre and AMI Stadium, and several billion dollars’ worth of underground utilities. Above all, people have lost two cathedrals, dozens of churches, scores of historic buildings and numerous other places deeply important to their lives and identity.
With a number of big buildings still to be demolished such as the PWC tower, Crowne Plaza Hotel, the convention centre and part or all of the Anglican cathedral, large parts of the city centre will remain off limits until late this year.
This, coupled with the agonisingly slow progress on getting any new construction going, means people are having to wait a long time to reclaim the heart of the city, to begin to experience a new Christchurch rising from the ruins. Two major issues are dogging the recovery. First, insurers say they want to accelerate the rate of settlements with property owners. But negotiations are getting harder now both sides better understand the scale of the losses.Moreover, many homeowners lack the knowledge, time or confidence to do justice to their claims. They need much more advice and advocacy, and the government should play a leading role in providing it.
Second, this used to be a market where full earthquake cover was readily available and cheap. Astonishingly, insurers will meet 80 per cent of Christchurch losses to date, according to Swiss Re. In contrast, they will meet only 17 per cent of Japan’s and 27 per cent of Chile’s earthquake losses last year.
So it’s no surprise insurers are dramatically changing their approach to the market. Earthquake cover is suddenly more costly and restrictive. The little new cover written in Christchurch so far is expensive with big deductibles.
The government says the market will adjust. But it won’t. It will leave a significant gap between new policies and property owners’ exposure, thereby deterring redevelopment.
To ensure the city is rebuilt fast and well, the government needs to step into the market to bridge the gap, as the government does in Japan and other earthquake-prone countries.
Economy:
Local businesses have achieved a far higher rate of survival compared with those in other earthquake-devastated economies. The Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce says that 90 per cent of its 350 members within the four avenues are still operating somewhere in the city.
Similarly, the population exodus was minor, retail sales are only slightly below trend and manufacturing has barely missed a beat. Some sectors, particularly tourism and tertiary and international education, have lost big chunks of business. But overall, the economy has coped well with the disruption and adapted successfully to life without its physical centre.
If the city carries on like this, more businesses will see their temporary moves to the suburbs as permanent. For example, the IRD and Work and Income have signed nine-year leases on office space for 500 staff. The Christchurch economy would survive but it wouldn’t thrive. The city would be a shadow of its former self.
The regeneration challenge is far bigger than currently expressed in the draft centre city plan. In essence, that is largely focused on encouraging existing economic activity back into the centre through the likes of some slightly nicer urban design arranged around precincts and more of a mix of residential and commercial activity.
Similarly, Cera’s work so far on the economic recovery strategy for the whole city is very modest and conventional. If that was all the city hopes to achieve, it will lose a lot of its capital. Property owners will reinvest a large proportion of their insurance payouts elsewhere.
Instead, Christchurch has to conceive of a much bigger future for itself and then work on attracting the capital and talent to achieve it. So far that’s not happening.
Worse, the conditions for doing so are deteriorating. The city council is deeply dysfunctional; and the government is increasingly bureaucratic and reluctant to make the
big interventions urgently needed on land, insurance and redevelopment strategy.No wonder people are starting to protest.
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Capture: Roamin' Holiday, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
A good book,
I read recipe books, or more accurately food writing and garden writing when I haven't got time for fiction. I like taking small bites (sorry,) especially of late Nigel Slater's "Tender" , Elisabeth Luard. Janet Luke's Green Urban Living is good -- she's more informative than writerly. Animal Vegetable Miracle was good.
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Hard News: Nobody wanted #EQNZ for Christmas, in reply to Kumara Republic,
If the council decision-making processes were functioning well the payrise debacle would never have happened. What I reckon is that, as Rod Oram says in today's SST, the couuncil is deeply dysfunctional and the pay rise, as vile as it is, is but a symptom of that.
I haven't got involved in any way in the row because I can't afford, for my sake and my family's sake, to wear myself out fighting and arguing when there is so much else for us to deal with every day. I expect better of my elected reps, and if they cannot do their job and serve the ratepayers, then they should call an election so more able people may be chosen. That's my manifesto nowadays: simple mum-politik, not complicated or at all intellectual because I can't be arsed.
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Hard News: Nobody wanted #EQNZ for Christmas, in reply to Rob Stowell,
Agreed, but I would not like to see the present problems devolve into ideological factionalism as well as the rest of the problems. Christchurch local body pollies have historically done relatively well at working together for the city's good, and that's what is sorely needed now. To do so the decision-making must be inclusive, not gang-of-two with a rubberstamp back-up chorus of the select and the stupid. And that's the core issue; not the pay rise, though the national news media are being distracted from the process that CAUSED the payrise.
Bugger; I've broken my self-imposed silence on all this because it's so frigging upsetting on lots of levels. Why can't they all just behave themselves?
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Monument: found it on this link a few screens down: http://wozawanderer.blogspot.com/2010/04/monument-track-banks-peninsula.html
Beautiful pictures: I'm going to walk this one! -
Capture: Roamin' Holiday, in reply to Rob Stowell,
Thanks Rob. I'm surprised the peak is on that side of the harbour -- it always looks a bit closer. I shall research the name too: have a treasure trove of the Great-Uncle's historic Christchurch and Peninsula books here, and my brother has the Maori ones. I'll get back to you with any more info one year soon :--)
Gudrun: I thought Mt Herbert was the big rounded peak on the Diamond Harbour side. An aside: I spent one snowy afternoon nearly 20 years ago getting warmed sitting at the bar in the Wunderbar and looking across the harbour to the hills on that side covered in snow to sea level. It was magical; and though snowing, the vision across the harbour was clear.