Saturday, May 26, 2012

Year 2 CERA. Reckoning: 3 Housing Crisis Protests

3 Housing protests focus. Overcast, chilly Sat 26.05.12. This week there were 3 post quake housing protests in Christchurch:

Avoca Valley housing protest;

HOUSING PROTEST at CERA minister Brownlee's Ilam office, Greers Rd;

Christ Church Cathedral Anglican house of God protest, Cranmer Sq & Worcester Blvd. 

As Greers Rd was close to my Burnside home, I trekked to Brownlee's office in time for the Sat, 2pm protest. I passed our local Green Leaf Indian Cuisine takeaway & snapped a realtor's window ads:

PROPERTIES
   WANTED

    RENTAL
PROPERTIES
   WANTED

26.05.12. Post quakes, Cares whiteware shop, Wairakei Rd / Greers Rd. The shop later became a pharmacy


26.05.12. Post quakes, Green Leaf Indian Cuisine, Greers Rd


36.05.12. Post quakes, Realtor, Greers Rd




 
About 50 protesters waved signs outside Brownlee's office. A car owner with a WELCOME HOME sign & FOOD NOT BOMBS sign gave free food to protesters. Passersby were chatted to & many passing cars tooted approval. Any protestor could have their say using a loudspeaker. The protest was friendly & welcoming, a mix of youngsters, older folks & two dogs. No worries about my snapping pics. Within minutes of my arrival 2 protestors warned: "Watch out! A man in that black car across the road is spying on us!"

"Sneaky security bastard," I said. "I'll take a photo of him too!"

HOUSING PROTEST flyer:

"*More decent social housing for Christchurch

*Sustainable rebuild


*Housing organised according to need not profit

*Acknowledgement of the real levels of homelessness and displacement in our city [By 2018-19, aggressive hoboes in Christchurch CBD & by Riccarton Mall & Stanmore Rd would be a problem].

*Rent freeze for private and social housing

*A living wage and affordable housing for all 

*No shock doctrine housing policy

*Democratic process for people's housing concerns to be heard

Bring your concerns!"


36.05.12. Gerry Brownlee, Minister for Earthquake Recovery, MP for Ilam sign, Greers Rd


Protest signs:

      HOUSING
           IS A
HUMAN RIGHT



   OCCUPY
   O: CHCH
O TAUTAHT


     I AM SO
    ANGRY I
MADE A SIGN



THE HOUSING
  CRISIS IS A
  NATIONAL
  DISGRACE


  FOOD NOT
     BOMBS
O TAUTAHT





    28 YEARS HIGHLIGHTING
THE POLITICS OF FOOD UNDER
             CAPITALISM

FREE HOT SOUP!
FOOD NOT BOMBS

THE POLITICS OF HUNGER

EYM 12 [Black, security car rego]


"NEVER DOUBT THAT A SMALL GROUP OF THOUGHTFUL
         COMMITTED CITIZENS CAN CHANGE THE WORLD
           INDEED IT IS THE ONLY THING THAT EVER HAS"
                                           MARGARET MEAD



     HOMES NOW
STADIUMS LATER


$TOP THE
    RENT
   HIKE$


LET THE
PEOPLE
  LEAD!

  SOCIAL
HOUSING
    NOW


    HOMES NOW
BUSINESS LATER

HOMES
      4
   ALL!



  RENT IS
     TOO
DAMNED
   HIGH!


 
     CAPITALISM
NOT OUR FUTURE!

        CRISIS
    N A TIME [sic]
   OF INTENSE
DIFFICULTY OR
      DANGER





  OCCUPY
EQUALITY
   STREET
 



AFFORDABLE
      SOCIAL
   HOUSING

 THE RICH GET RICHER
THE POOR GET POORER


AFFORDABLE
    HOUSING



POWER 4 THE PEOPLE
NOT KEY'S CRONIES!


ORGANISE
 HOUSING
 FOR NEED
NOT PROFIT



            RENT
IS EXCEEDINGLY
          PRICEY


  FREEZE
THE RENT



      SLUM
LANDLORDS
       OUT!


        THIS KIND OF
              THING
            DOESN'T
HAPPEN IN FINLAND [Brownlee quote]


SOLIDARITY
  WITH THE
 STREETIES


BAIL OUT
     THE
  PEOPLE


     CHANGE
           IS
    COMING!
LOVE JUSTICE




     KIA KAHA
         CHCH
PEOPLE POWER





 
HOUSING 4
       ALL


THERE IS NO CRISIS! [Brownlee quote]
     YEAH RIGHT!
            PACE
        OCCUPY [Flag]



                              LET'S ENGAGE IN
                          DIRECT DEMOCRACY
LET'S STOP 61 MP's MAKING ALL THE DECISIONS



   WELCOME HOME
ARE WE THERE YET




         HOPE &
       CHANGE
           ARE
   HARD  FOUGHT
          THINGS
MICHELLE OBAMA



 


     OCCUPY
BROWNLEE'S
      HOUSE


  SOCIAL
HOUSING


WELCOME
    HOME


I signed a petition against NZ National govt selling state assets. I agreed with mayor Parker against NZ govt wanting to sell Christchurch ratepayers' revenue earning assets, (which kept rates low) like Orion utility, Christchurch Airport, Lyttelton Port... to help pay for Christchurch rebuild. After at first spurning a referendum as a waste of money, only in Nov - Dec 2013 would NZ National govt have a postal referendum, asking if citizens would support taxpayer owned asset sales? In the interim, NZ govt had sold assets, like shares in Air NZ & utilities like Meridian, Genesis, Mighty River Power.

 

    














 



I said to the young man who presented the petition to me: "As an immigrant who sold assets to come to NZ, after years of toil, savings & property investments in SA, you don't get sold assets back easily. I think NZ govt asset sales idea is nuts!"

There were no media photographers nor reporters at the Greers Rd Housing Protest for the hour or so I was there. Yet The Press reported the next day there were "about 70 protesters." I disagreed, as I counted several times, 50 including me & the security man in the black car, excluding two dogs. It showed hearsay crap by reporters. Even funnier when nitwits commented on hearsay reporting in Stuff Co. Meanwhile, The Press did gobbledegook surveys & reported the Save Christ Church Cathedral protest.









26.05.12. Post quakes, petition signing at Brownlee's Ilam electorate office, housing protest, Greers Rd

That Saturday afternoon I drove with Leah to see Avoca Valley Rd / Port Hills Rd crossing, where Avoca Valley residents had protested on Tues 22 May, having been evicted from their homes soon post Feb 22 Killer Quake, when Council red stickered their homes.

CERA had dithered for months about rezoning Avoca Valley's white zone land, either red or green. CERA's excuse being rock fall or cliff fall danger. CERA dithered over an "area wide" look at rock fall dangers with its bouncing rocks study done by Milan Varsity. CERA wasn't looking at specific properties in its area wide study, but CERA red zoned specific properties.

Meanwhile, Avoca Valley residents were forced to live elsewhere, with added expenses, so far about 15 months in limbo, while CERA dithered & insurers laughed all the way to the bank.

Avoca Valley protesters wanted to shame Council & CERA, by totalling the days spent in limbo, daily updates on a fence board, while Council dithered to make Avoca Valley safe & CERA dithered with zoning. 

Meanwhile, according to the The Press comments section, other Port Hills valleys, like Heathcote Valley, Bowenvale Valley, Sumner Valley had similar hassles, just waiting...

Cnr Avoca Valley Rd: A wooden fence was festooned with 30 laminated, red stickers. Below the red stickers, Avoca Valley protest signs:

                                  458 DAYS [Updated daily]

SINCE BEING EVICTED FROM OUR AVOCA VALLEY HOUSES

                            COMMUNITIES MAKE A CITY

                                     DECISIONS NOW!

                                     LET US GO HOME

Facebook: AVOCA VALLEY EARTHQUAKE RECOVERY AUTHORITY


26.05.12. May 22 protest poster, Avoca Valley housing protest, Avoca Valley Rd

PSYCHOLOGICAL
   TERRORISM

   OCCUPY
YOUR OWN
     HOME


Media pic, town clerk Marryatt having a word in mayor Parker's ear:

         I WILL
STICK A CHARTER
    ON THEM BOB
 THAT WILL SHUT
       THEM UP


 THE QUAKE
         DID
        NOT
     KILL US
CERA MIGHT


RETURN
     TO
SENDER [Red sticker on sign]


COMMUNITIES
       MAKE
           A
        CITY
NOT STADIUMS


HOW MANY
 MILLIONS
    SPENT
  SO FAR?


    CAUGHT
   BETWEEN
     A ROCK
     AND AN
INCOMPETENT
    COUNCIL


BRING
BACK
BUCK [A former mayor]


RED OR GREEN
           NO
  IN BETWEEN


LET US
   GO
HOME








After seeing the Avoca Valley protest signs, I drove to nearby French Bakery, Chapmans Rd. Months before I'd snapped cracked concrete walls, expoxy glued on several industrial bldgs along Chapmans Rd.


26.05.12. Quake damaged, tilt slab bldg, braced by concrete blocks & steel poles, Chapmans Rd


Opp French Bakery, while Leah bought us supper, I snapped a concrete, tilt slab bldg across the road. Every tilt slab was post quake braced by 2 concrete blocks & 2 angled steel poles.







As Chapmans Rd was between the Port Hills & Heathcote River, quakes had vertically separated each concrete tilt slab. Edges of slabs were spalled in places, where they'd knocked during quakes. At one pair of tilt slabs, I placed 3 finger widths into a slab gap close to the ground. Gap about 4cm wide.

The few post quake rebuilds I'd seen around town were tilt slab bldgs, ugly bldgs, like Westende House rebuild. Creative architects? Not!







 
Sunny, Sunday afternoon, 27.05.12. I parked my car on Peterborough St, near Hagley Park, as Leah & I wanted to trek the 'Save Christ Church Cathedral' route protestors marched yesterday, from Cranmer Sq, along Worcester Blvd to Worcester St Bridge. I wanted to snap protest signs left on red zone, steel mesh fence cordons after the protest.

Park Terrace: I snapped Terrace On the Park, demolition of two apartment blocks, a gap formed over several weeks. A microcosm of Christchurch's housing crisis: Demolition of apartments, but no simultaneous rebuild, as insurers were dodging, ducking & diving payouts, with pathetic excuses, like waiting for EQC / monopoly Fletcher to decide about $100 000 overcap or undercap, residential repairs. EQC would deal with $100 000 undercap, residential repairs & insurers would deal with $100 000 overcap, residential repairs. The overcap / undercap debacle between EQC & insurers would carry on for years. Way beyond NZ National govt's tenure...


27.05.12. Post quakes, Terrace On The Park, demolition site, Park Tce / Salisbury St








NZ National govt / CERA were to blame for that housing debacle: crap planning, organization & leadership, with NZ National govt reluctant to kick insurers' asses & finance minister English neglecting to upgrade EQC's reinsurance, after EQC had warned him in 2008 that EQC was under insured, long before the 4 Sept 2010 Darfield Quake.

NZ National govt's, risible solution was a couple of temporary housing developments in parks, like Linwood Reserve & Kaiapoi Reserve & the adage, Let-the-housing-market-decide, with Brownlee's bullshit: "There is no housing crisis." Meanwhile CERA would demolish 7000+ red zoned houses. Never mind 100s of commercial properties CERA would demolish.


27.05.12. Post quakes, Terrace On The Park, demolition site, Salisbury St / Park Tce











Below Avon River willows we trekked past a SCIRT rebuild of drains into Avon River. After the big quakes those sort of drains had sewage polluted Avon River for months. SCIRT sign on a steel mesh fence cordon:

    SCIRT REBUILDING THE CITY'S
ROADS AND UNDERGROUND  PIPES...

That was far more important than saving Christ Church Cathedral ghost.


27.05.12. Post quakes, SCIRT repairs to drains, Avon River, Park Tce





Cranmer Sq, Armagh St / Montreal St: At Cathedral Office, Cranmer Centre demolition site, I snapped Leah below a glass fibre, Christ Church Cathedral angel, hung on the office balcony.


27.05.12. Post quakes, Christ Church Cathedral angel, Cathedral Office, Montreal St


27.05.12. Post quakes, Christ Church Cathedral, salvaged roof slates & ceramic cornices, Cathedral Office, Montreal St

 
We lingered over wooden crates of roof slates, salvaged from Christ Church Cathedral & pallets of new roof slates from Wales. We caressed glazed, ceramic cornices, stacked on 2 more pallets. The cornices had fallen from Christ Church Cathedral roof.

Worcester St Bridge: In past quake States of Emergencies, I'd snapped NZDF cordon soldiers & cops on the bridge & cop photographers on Worcester Blvd. I snapped Save Christ Church Cathedral signs hung on the red zone, steel mesh fence cordon.


27.05.12. Post quakes, red stickered door, Worcester Blvd


27.05.12. Post quakes, Worcester Blvd, E view, steel mesh fence cordoned, Worcester St Bridge & abandoned red zone bldgs: Our City, Rydges Hotel & Novotel beyond. Both hotels would survive the quakes. Our City would stay closed for years, steel propped, awaiting restoration in 2021

  
Christ Church Cathedral ghost was hardly visible beyond steel mesh fence cordons, cranes & demolition debris in Cathedral Sq. Across Worcester St Bridge, on Oxford Tce cnr, Our City, old brick ghost, was braced by concrete blocks & steel poles. (Our City closed, would await restoration for years. 2019, still closed. 2021, Restoration would begin). Across the road, Clarendon Tower was being demolished.

Pity Christ Church Cathedral protesters didn't protest about the post quake housing crisis in Christchurch: people living in slum conditions, in quake crapped houses, others living in caravans, tents & garages, with winter upon us.

Months before the housing crisis was known, I'd snapped people living in caravans by quake trashed houses in Horseshoe Lake & Avondale areas. During my treks, I'd seen tent-in-garden dwellers, various suburbs. It was hard to see garage dwellers, as they wouldn't advertise their humiliations by opening garage doors for all to see.

Flooded out of his Waltham flat in the 22.02.11 Killer Quake, Jake & girlfriend had overwintered in a quake trashed, liquefactioned garage off Cranford St. So garage dwellers were real, enduring disgusting, chemical toilets for months. BEWARE SPLASHBACK, tattooed on our minds!

I saw The Press photographer Tobin's video & was disgusted by Christ Church Cathedral protest organizers: ex politician Anderton; ex mayor Moore; ex councillor Anna Crighton; councillor Helen Broughton; band-wagoners Mark Belton & The Wizard. Save Christ Church Cathedral protestors would've been better served had they approached Christ Church Cathedral from Latimer Sq, through recently opened red zone, east side: Gloucester St, Manchester St, Worcester St, to take in all CERA's dusty, demolition sites, stretching across dusty, red zone, CBD blocks, including Warners Hotel & The Press demolition sites behind Christ church Cathedral.

One employee died when The Press bldg was trashed by the 22.02.11 Killer Quake, behind Christ Church Cathedral. Post Sept 4 Darfield Quake & Boxing Day Quake, 2010, The Press bldg was red stickered. Who'd decided to use The Press bldg again pre Feb 22 Killer Quake?

Approaching from Latimer Sq, protesters would've got a closer look as the dusty derriere of deconsecrated, Christ Church Cathedral ghost, rumbled by passing demolition trucks & bordered by shipping containers & demolition doomed, Grant Thornton ghost & Government Life ghost, Cathedral Sq.

Leah & I were in Christ Church Cathedral during Xmas holidays, 2010 & saw workmen on scaffolding inside the Cathedral fixing / checking the western nave, fresco wall & rose window & more workmen on scaffolding outside the Cathedral checking nave windows.

Pity protestors didn't protest post Sept 4 Darfield Quake & Boxing Day Quake, 2010, after seeing & experiencing many quake shattered bldgs, aftershock warnings & demolitions. After all, Manchester Courts was almost completely demolished pre Boxing Day Quake, with hardly a peep from protestors.   

Why didn't protestors whine about post Feb 22 Killer Quake, RC Cathedral deconstruction, Barbadoes St? Why hadn't they protested CERA's post Feb 22 Killer Quake demolitions of other churches: St Lukes Anglican, Manchester St; Oxford Tce Baptist; St Johns Anglican, Latimer Sq; St Pauls Trinity Pacific Presbyterian, Madras St; Avonside Trinity Anglican, Avonside Dr; St Mary & Athanasios, Coptic Church, Edgeware Rd (pre CERA, post 04.09.10 Darfield Quake); St Mary's, Church Ln, Papanui... ?

Not a cheep from Anderton when post 22.02.11 Killer Quake, Civil Defence demolished Sydenham Heritage Church in his electorate.

Worcester St Bridge, protest posters:

             RALLY

            FOR THE
         CATHEDRAL
  SAVE OUR HERITAGE
   SATURDAY MAY 26th
2.30 pm CRANMER SQUARE...


27.05.12. Save Christ Church Cathedral protest signs, red zone, steel mesh fence cordon, Worcester St Bridge. Clarendon Tower demolition in progress behind


                 GO TO
          www.change.org
& SIGN THE PETITION TO
              SAVE THE
            CATHEDRAL

Red post cards, Save Christchurch's heritage buildings, addressed to PM Key were supplied, to be posted to parliament:

Save Christchurch's heritage buildings

Dear Prime Minister

We implore you to STOP CERA
demolishing heritage listed buildings in
Christchurch. The Christchurch [sic] Cathedral is
the heart of our city and we urge you to act
immediately to save our beautiful building.

Name
Signature
Date






 OUR CATHEDRAL
      OUR CITY
   OUR CHOICE
OUR DEMOCRATIC
      RIGHT TO
       DECIDE!!!

  
RESTORATION
        COST
   EFFECTIVE



     ITS OUR HERITAGE
STOP THE DESTRUCTION

PROTEST EVERY SUNDAY

 
      SAVE
       THE
CATHEDRAL
      NOON
     EVERY
   SUNDAY
        AT
  MUSEUM




    "THE CHRIST CHURCH
 CATHEDRAL IS PROBABLY
  NEW ZEALAND'S NUMBER
ONE MOST ICONIC BUILDING"...  [PM Key quote. Plastic sleeved A4 size book of quotes]


CHRISTCHURCH CATHEDRAL
          MYTHS VS FACTS...


DEMOLITION
      IS AN
  ABUSE OF
      CERA
   POWERS!






RESTORATION
         IS
      SAFE



  CHRISTCHURCH CATHEDRAL CAN BE SAVED

ONLY 25% to 30% OF CHRISTCHURCH [sic] CATHEDRAL
                     WAS SEVERELY DAMAGED

                 [Aerial pic of Christ Church Cathedral]

                                 HOW CAN
                       * BISHOP MATTHEWS
       * THE ANGLICAN CHURCH AUTHORITIES
                 * MINISTER GERRY BROWNLEE
    BEGIN TO JUSTIFY DEMOLISHING A BUILDING
                       WHICH LOOKS LIKE THIS?

Help save our Cathedral. Come to a public rally in Cranmer Square
                         Saturday May 26 at 2.30 pm



27.05.12. DANGER KEEP OUT. Worcester St Bridge, steel mesh fence cordon view, serial quake trashed, Christ Church Cathedral W facade, Cathedral Sq


                      Stop Heritage Destruction

                         [Pic of The Wizard]

                                                                  Save

                                                               Restore

                                                            Strengthen

The heart and soul of Christchurch - Our Cathedral




Protest leaders were all baby boomers, "leading" youth to financial doom & buggering agnostics, atheists, other Christian denominations & religions.

As for Anderton, joint chairman of the Great Christchurch Buildings Trust, I didn't hear a cheep from Catholic Anderton when post Feb 22 Killer Quake, CERA demolished old shops opp Anderton's Wigram electorate office, Selwyn St. We knew the area well, as Luke had done picture framing work at the Sylvan Gallery Cafe down the road. Like the quake trashed shops, Sylvan Gallery Cafe was closed post Feb 22 Killer Quake. Sylvan Gallery bldg was owned by John Boote, our former landlord at Halswell. The bldg would survive the quakes, but would stay closed & scaffolded for years, a Brougham St eyesore.

We returned to our car via Cambridge Tce & Durham St Nth. Across Avon River we saw red zone ghosts. Housing protest signs stuck on lamp poles:

                                          SLUM LANDLORDS OUT
                                          SOCIAL HOUSING NOW

[Pic of restaurant waiter pouring wine over a slum landlord's head, seated at a table].

                                         Workers Solidarity Movement


27.05.12. Cambridge Tce view, serial quake damaged, Our City, Oxford Tce. Our City would survive the quakes, but would stay closed for years, awaiting restoration. 2019, still closed. 2021, Restoration would begin


27.05.12. Post quakes, housing protest sticker on lamp pole, Cambridge Tce


At Gloucester St crossing, we stopped to look over Gloucester St Bridge into the red zone, Brannigans gone, a dusty demolition site. The bridge, NZDF checkpoint was still there, but steel mesh fence cordoned, hut closed, no NZDF soldiers.


27.05.12. EXTREME DANGER KEEP OUT. Post quakes, Danger sign & Tourist Map on red zone, CBD, steel mesh fence cordon, Cambridge Tce

Like on cordon closed, Worcester St Bridge, a plethora of threat signs on cordon closed, Gloucester St Bridge: Warning / No Access - EXTREME DANGER KEEP OUT - Hazard, as if citizens who'd endured 1 000s of quakes were unaware of dangers. Tourists thrills were confirmed by juxta-position, on a steel mesh fence cordon, of an EXTREME DANGER threat sign with a tourist map of the CBD red zone: Welcome To Christchurch. Weeks before I'd seen the same juxta-position on a steel mesh fence cordon at the bottom of Victoria St, by Crowne Plaza Hotel demolition site.

NZDF checkpoint sign:

                    ACCESS POINT
             HOURS OF OPERATION
          6.30 AM TO 6.30 PM DAILY
        OUTSIDE OF THIS TIME USE
MANCHESTER ST / CAMBRIDGE TCE
                    ACCESS POINT

Opp cnr of Gloucester St, Brannigans was gone, a dusty demolition site.


27.05.12. Post quakes, Brannigans demolition site, Cambridge Tce / Gloucester St



27.05.12. WARNING. Closed, steel mesh fence cordon, NZDF checkpoint, Gloucester St Bridge view, dead, CBD, red zone. Brannigans demolition site right below abandoned bldgs


27.05.12. WARNING. Closed, steel mesh fence cordon, NZDF checkpoint, Gloucester St Bridge view, CBD red zone. Closed, Victoria Sq high rises left, Central Library & Farmers middle, all awaited demolitions. CERA's Blueprint Convention Centre / Te Pae woud be built on the demo sites. Forsyth Barr behind would be restored as Crowne Plaza Hotel


27.05.12. Closed cordon checkpoint, Gloucester St Bridge view, red zone, abandoned high rises: Farmers left, awaited demolition. Pacific Tower / Rendezvous Hotel & Novotel right were restored


27.05.12. EXTREME DANGER KEEP OUT. Steel mesh fence cordon. Closed, NZDF checkpoint hut, NZDF soldiers gone, red zone, Gloucester St Bridge



27.05.12. Steel mesh fence cordon. Closed red zone, NZDF checkpoint  / Gloucester St Bridge view, quake dead Landsborough House, awaiting demolition, Gloucester St / Durham St Nth


N along Durham St Nth, Feb 22 Killer Quake trashed, Provincial Council ghost, tarped. Opp URS House & Amuri Courts were gone, a dusty demolition site. Post Feb 22 Killer Quake, looming URS House & Amuri Courts had spooked me whenever I passed. Spooky Landsborough House awaited demolition, Durham St Nth / Gloucester St. Awly Building, a new, 5 storey, office block would replace the demolitions.


27.05.12. Serial quake trashed, Landsborough House, Gloucester St / Durham St Nth. Landsborough House would be demolished for Awly Building, new 5 storey office block

 

27.05.12. Serial quake trashed, Landsborough House view, quake trashed, Provincial Council, Durham St Nth. Landsborough House would be demolished for Awly Building, new 5 storey office block. Provincial Council would be closed for years, awaiting restoration. 2021, still closed


27.05.12. Orange, plastic, road barrier, steel mesh fence cordon. Serial quake trashed, tarped, red zone cordoned, Provincial Council, Durham St Nth. Provincial Council would be closed for years, awaiting restoration. 2021, still closed


27.05.12. Post quakes demolition site, Durham St Nth / Armagh St


27.05.12. Post quakes, URS House & Amuri Courts demolition site, Armagh St / Durham St Nth

Further along Durham St Nth, at Chester St West cnr, I snapped Methodist Church, dusty demolition site, where 3 people died in the 22.02.11 Killer Quake. The Methodist Church would be rebuilt.


27.05.12. Methodist Church, demolition site, where 3 people died in the 22.02.11 quake, Durham St Nth / Chester St West. Methodist Church would be rebuilt


Across the road stood Tower Building, Court House. I'd been jury summonsed weeks before, but was excused due to my deafness. The summons pamphlet had extolled the anti-quake strength of Tower Bldg & the Court House still had a faded green sticker on a glass door.


27.05.12. Serial quake survivor, Tower Building, Court House, Durham St Nth / Chester St West



27.05.12. Faded green sticker, Tower Building, Court House, Durham St Nth / Chester St West

A steel mesh fence cordon was across Durham St Nth by the Salvation Army bldg, soon demolished. A gaggle of Sallies bandsmen & bandswomen were leaving. I looked through the steel mesh fence cordon at Copthorne Hotel, dusty demolition site & Crowne Plaza Hotel, dusty demolition site, a rubble heap. The nor'wester blew clouds of unhealthy, demolition dust & grit. Dirty air.


27.05.12. Steel mesh fence cordon. Sallies by quake survivor, Tower Building, Court House, Durham St Nth / Chester St West

 

27.05.12. The Salvation Army, Durham St Nth / Chester St West. The Salvation Army was demolished

Council would have to decide what to do with all the hazardous demolition sites: Grow weeds? Grow grass & make mini parks? Fill with Gap Filler plants or recycled junk? Rebuild? In future, would Christchurch citizens have respiratory ailments due to quake liquefaction / demolition dust? All that asbestos & silicon dust blowing around. Never mind fungal & bacterial spores from sewage.


27.05.12. Red zone, Crowne Plaza Hotel demolition site, Durham St Nth / Kilmore St



27.05.12. Copthorne Hotel, demolition site left, Durham St Nth / Kilmore St. Quake survivor, Christchurch Casino beyond left

While we looked at a quake X crack on Radio New Zealand bldg, opp Salvation Army bldg, a Sallies bandsman overheard us talking, while I exclaimed that the X crack had quake-widened every time I saw it. I shoved two finger widths into the X crack. A chunk of concrete brick had fallen from the X middle since I'd last trekked by.


27.05.12. Serial quake, X crack, commonly found on quake trashed bldgs, Radio New Zealand bldg, Chester St West / Durham St Nth. The bldg would be demolished for new lawyers' offices




Post Feb 22 Killer Quake, the Sallies bandsman was an USAR / TF team member. He said Radio New Zealand was more cracked inside, when he'd inspected its ground floor, which was liquefactioned throughout, close to Avon River. An engineer with him reckoned the bldg was OK. I shook my head. The USAR man smiled. The bldg would be demolished for new lawyers' offices, Tavendale & Partners.


27.05.12. Post quakes, Canterbury Regional Emergency Management Office prefabs, Chester St West


Leah & I cut through a demolition site, past Canterbury Regional Emergency Management Office, prefabs, to Kilmore St & argued our way past demolition doomed Cranmer Courts: Leah liked kitsch life-sized photos of people stuck on boarded windows & doors, doing things like skateboarding, working, standing doing nothing. I liked the boards' weathering from yellow to grey, revealing woody grain over time. We agreed we'd soon got used to quakescapes around town, demolition sites, bumpy roads & dusty hell.

*Trekked Greers Rd, Avoca Valley Rd, Chapmans Rd, Park Tce, Montreal St, Worcester Blvd, Cambridge Tce, Gloucester St, Durham St Nth. 215 images.

Mon 28.05.12, 5am, M4.4 quake, 8km depth, 10km E of Christchurch. (GeoNet) Rumbled by, shook our house & shook my computer while I typed.

Leah hoped the quake swarm we'd had over the last couple of weekends would pass, as the quakes unsettled her school kids.

After biggish quakes, Leah often phoned a single parent friend, who lived at Southshore. Leah's friend said Friday's M5.2 quake had left her feeling poorly.

Mon-Tues 28-29.05.12. For the housing crisis doubters & misinformers: Round about midnight, I fetched Luke from South New Brighton. I regularly drove that way late at night & noticed an increase in nocturnal car-parkers. On the way I pulled into the cenotaph carpark near New Brighton pier, beach loos & showers. A van & 4 cars were at the seaside carpark, windows misted in the frosty night. Several cars with misty windows were also parked on Marine Pde & Estuary Rd. I didn't window-knock to inquire who was inside.

Sat 02.06.12, 8.52am, M4.3 quake, depth 9km, 10km E of Christchurch. (GeoNet). Rumbled by & wobbled our house.

Coda:

Only in Nov 2013 would Brownlee acknowledge there was a housing crisis, after publicly denying it for over a year. Although 1 000s of red zone houses were being demolished by CERA & not replaced by developments, Brownlee's solution to that debacle, buttressed by an ECAN report, done by NZ National govt appointed commissioners, after govt had booted out ECAN's elected management, was to redesign Christchurch for high density housing: granny flats sold as housing, pensioners' Council flats sold as housing, big houses sub-divided into flats, quarter acre properties turned into two houses instead of the time-honoured one.

At least the new Council under mayor Dalziel would see through that nonsense & only allow some high density housing development in some suburbs.

If Brownlee got off his derriere, he'd see there was already lots of high density housing in his Ilam constituency: along Grahams Rd for instance, between Guildford St & Wairakei Rd & more off Clyde Road near Fendalton Village shops, Hooker Ave, Morley St, Truman Rd... Old state housing in tightly packed abundance: semi detached, single storey houses; shabby, 3 bedroom rentals like ours' at Heath St; 2 storey, semi detached houses. And Brownlee wanted to transform that sort of housing to battery-chicken housing: 30-65 dwellings per hectare. And garages & carparking? Great for developers & landlords. Crap for tenants. Future slums.

Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.

See Group calls on Brownlee to address housing (The Press / Stuff Co). 

See A roadmap through the rebuild (The Press / Stuff Co).

See Battle looms over zoning (The Press / Stuff Co). 

See Concern at red zone deadline (The Press / Stuff Co).

See New $50m Science Alive building in Christchurch (The Press / Stuff Co).