The Christchurch rebuild

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Watching Auckland’s traffic issues play out, like a car-crash unfolding in slow motion, I just want to stop the tape and yell “No! Just build the goddamn rail loop!” Then I sit back and remember: the man overseeing this automotive clusterfuck, Gerry Brownlee, is the same man charged with the rebuild of our second city Christchurch. Considering that, I almost feel sympathetic towards you. Almost.

See, there are threads that underpin Auckland’s traffic issues which are amplified here in the south: blind ideology trumping any semblance of economic analysis; communities being consulted then ignored; belief that the invisible, neigh absent, hand of the market will somehow fix all of these issues. In both cities, Brownlee’s obstinance could leave a dysfunctional legacy that takes a generation to unpick.

It doesn’t have to be like this. The rest of the country has a vested interest in making Auckland’s transport system work; conversely, the rest of the country has a vested interest in seeing Christchurch get back on it’s feet. The government are throwing what seems like a lot of money at the rebuild – $15 billion, maybe $17 billion – though that it remarkably similar to the amount of money being talked about in the Auckland Transport Plan. Not that this should be an either / or discussion, but what would you rather do: fix up a whole city, or fix up some roads?

Obviously we should be doing both, but it is worth thinking about them together. Fixing Christchurch should be part of a wider strategy to alleviate some of Auckland’s transport and housing issues. Around 600 people are moving to Auckland a week, and yet down here, we need something like 17,000 workers for the rebuild. We need to attract some of those people to Christchurch, otherwise we will have to continue to import migrant workers from places like Ireland and the Philippines. Not that there is anything wrong with international labour, but it seems crazy to think that with youth unemployment in parts of the north being so high, we’re still importing labour to do these jobs.

Even with a badly run rebuild, like we have at the moment, there will be construction jobs in this city for 10 or 15 years. It’s long enough to move here, to start a family or have the kids go through school. What if we had a well run rebuild, a plan that tapped into some of the hope and vision that people had two years ago? We have a virtually clean slate in the CBD on which we can sketch out a different way of living, and yet the plan that Brownlee and the government have drawn up tends to put things back to the ways the were before the quakes. The problem with that is pre-quake Christchurch was dying; the core had become necrotic, all the life leeching out to the suburban malls; suburbs stretching beyond suburbs out into what was greenfield lands just a generation ago; public transport being nothing more than an afterthought for planners assuming people will be able to drive forever. Sound familiar?

While there have been moments where the rebuild has become political, such as the flare up over EQC, there has largely been agreement between all the political parties that we’re on the right track with Christchurch. Analysis of the 2011 election would suggest that National won by carrying Christchurch, and that the opposition should not rock the boat too much. I hope that as Labour and the Greens work together to offer a realistic alternative at the 2014 election, that they do what they did with NZ Power and throw out the consensus on Christchurch. The CCDU blueprint needs to go, or at least be drastically modified. Christchurch should be centred on people and communities, not stadiums and convention centres. Both Labour and the Greens believe in sustainable, affordable housing, with innovative solutions for transport issues. There is no better place to put these values into effect; there is no better time to start than now.

9 COMMENTS

  1. What a load of crap.

    Christchurch will be under water by 2040, as the meltdown of the planet accelerates.

    Anyone stupid enough to still be living in Orcland at this stage in the global economic, energetic and environmental meltdown deserves everything that is coming…….. it will be rather good when the sea level rises sufficiently to cut the bulk of Orcland off from the rest of the North Island. Unfortunately, that is not likely to occur before the mass starvation in Orcland commences…… probably around 2018 the wayb things are looking t the moment.

  2. As a Cantabrian currently living in the North but visiting family there regularly, I am dumstruck by how slowly everything seems to be moving in chch and staggered that the dam stadium seemed to be the most important thing to get organised whilst people continued to live in garages, uninhabitable houses and cars to name just a few of the dire circumstances of some. It is indeed ridiculous that we have unemployment at the level we do when there will be work going begging and we import labour from overseas. The right deals need to be made to families to support them to make the migration south to good jobs, good schools (if there are any left after that Parata woman has slashed and burned her way around) and ultimately what will be one day a wonderful city to live in once again.

  3. “We have a virtually clean slate in the CBD on which we can sketch out a different way of living”

    The problem with a clean slate is that it attracts people whose ideas only look good when compared to a clean slate.

  4. The quakes have illustrated harshly just how dysfunctional our political and economic systems really are. Years later we still try to get insurance companies and EQC to simply pay claims. Instead of stepping in to help people get what is rightfully due central government has stalled while they line up their rich mates to get richer rorting the rebuild. The MSM runs the occasional tepid piece covering one of the many outrageous abuses of quake victims, but without exposing their mates to too much scrutiny and even less accountability. Meanwhile the sheeple bleat on about those bleating whiners in Chch. Given that people are already brain dead; does that mean we are already extinct?

  5. Gerry’s head has got so big lately, he looks like he needs a new plastic hat. May I suggest a modified council issue recycle bin. Seems appropriate given the abundant rubbish that spurns from his mouth.

  6. “The more a society drift from truth the more it hates those who speak it.” George Orwell.

    Christchurch will almost certainly be under water by around 2040 (sea level rise). And if current trends continue, with so many positive feedbacks having been triggered by use of fossil fuels (in rebuilding Christchurch, amongst other things), here will be nobody alive to see Christchurch under water in 2040, because we will break through 450ppm atmospheric CO2 by around 2025. (320ppm is the upper limit for continued habitation of the Earth by industrial humans.)

  7. From what I heard the problem is that the people with the building skills in other centres can’t afford to pay the mortgage in their “home” city as well as live in Chch to work. If you’re young and got no family obligations than it’s ok but then they are not the ones with the higher level skills and experience.

  8. The Green Party plan for a levy on New Zealanders was the right one, and should have been the one all political parties supported. I don’t buy the “ideology” explanation for not doing the right thing any more.

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