16.05.11. Feb 22 quake, New Brighton Cenotaph, quake tilted power pole & "Cantabrians will prevail" sign on pub wall, Marine Pde / Beresford St
16.05.11. Feb 22 quake, Sports & Tackle shop, Beresford St, New Brighton
16.05.11. Feb 22 quake, New Brighton Mall view, demolition site of old, brick theatre / second hand shop, Beresford St
Union St: I snapped New Brighton Union Church ruin, Methodist / Presbyterian. Like so many old, brick ruined-churches in Christchurch, with no quake-reinforcement, bricks fell off gables & huge holes gapped the walls. Orange-tarp partly covered the broken church-tower. Steel- mesh-fence-cordoned Union Church would be demolished.
Steel-mesh-fence-cordon, threat-sign:
DANGER
KEEP OUT
16.05.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Orange tarp on Feb 22 quake trashed New Brighton Union Church, Methodist / Presbyterian, Union St. The church would be demolished
Over the last weekend, 10 000 people attended a Council Expo asking for ideas for Christchurch rebuild, so that Council could collate ideas & make a CBD rebuild-plan for CERA. I liked ideas of a low-build CBD, few highrises, lots of walking-spaces & greenery.
16.05.11. Feb 22 quake, yellow portaloo, Seaview St, New Brighton Mall
16.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged, wooden bldg, New Brighton Mall
16.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged doors, New Brighton Mall
16.05.11. Feb 22 quake, wood braced shop, New Brighton Mall
A Danish architect, pitching for Christchurch rebuild work, opined we all had to walk somewhere in the CBD, so recommended the CBD be walker-friendly & biker-friendly. Danish expertise was a waste of money. What on earth did the Dane know about Christchurch rebuild on quaked-land?
Thirteen months later the Dane would no longer be favoured, Council & CERA expecting plenty from CCDU producing a CERA Blueprint for Christchurch-CBD. June 2012, CCDU's website:
"Our approach is based on international examples of successful redevelopment and rejuvenation, including:
*Solidere: Beirut Central District.
*London Docklands Development Corporation.
*Lower Manhattan Development Corporation."
16.05.11. Feb 22 quake, USAR / TF graffiti on shop window, New Brighton Mall. CLEAR meant no bodies
16.05.11. Feb 22 quake, red stickered shop window, New Brighton Mall
16.05.11. Feb 22 quake, fence cordoned shops, New Brighton Mall
16.05.11. Feb 22 quake, shop window notices, New Brighton Mall
16.05.11. Feb 22 quake, steel mesh fence cordoned, red stickered shop, New Brighton Mall
I disliked Yank debris-contractors setting up office in Christchurch, while Jake lost his hospitality-job, twice, since the 22 February 2011 quake.
16.05.11. Feb 22 quake, Pier Side Cafe, New Brighton Mall, Marine Pde
Seaview Rd: I trekked New Brighton Mall. Although some shops were closed, some broken-shops, some semi-repaired shops, steel-mesh-fence-cordoned, the mall was livelier than Peterborough St I'd seen a week before, bordering the CBD red-zone.
New Brighton Mall, a glass-door, hand-written sign:
HI ALL,
WE'RE OUT OF ACTION
HERE FOR THE NEXT
FEW MONTHS DUE
TO STRUCTURAL DAMAGE.
ANY QUESTIONS CALL...
LOVE,
MARK, JULES &
THE TEAM
16.05.11. Feb 22 quake, New Brighton Pier
A sunny autumn morning, I snapped New Brighton pier. New Brighton Beach was still forbidden due to sewage-polluted Avon-Heathcote Estuary. CONTAMINATED WATER threat-signs & roadside portaloos polluted beach-access for months. E coli counts were still high in rivers, we were all in shit.
16.05.11. Feb 22 quake, CONTAMINATED WATER threat sign, Marine Pde dune, New Brighton Beach
The Press 17.05.11 reported, "In March about 34 000 cubic metres of wastewater flowed daily into the Avon River from 15 sites, while 12 400 cubic metres a day flowed into the Heathcote from 3 sites, Christchurch City Council figures show. The average E coli levels in March were... 111 times the national trigger levels for public health. The Avon River averaged... more than 70 times the guidelines."
16.05.11. Feb 22 quake, wood braced house, Marine Pde, New Brighton
Three months post 22 February 2011 quake, portaloos & chemical-toilets were still in Christchurch & neighbouring towns, 1000s of sewage-connections were kaput. Leah & school-students still used portaloos at their private London St school in Richmond suburb. In St Albans, off Sherborne St, Jake "flatted" in a garage with a chemical-toilet. In Burnside, our Heath St sewage-connection was OK, one of the few suburbs with intact sewage-connections.
16.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged house, Marine Pde, New Brighton
Although many other Christchurch schools had had road-repairs done, London St where Leah taught had no post-quake road-repairs yet, although London St was a main thoroughfare, gridlocked for weeks, due to Fitzgerald Ave & Avonside Dr, NO GO red-zone closures.
16.05.11. Feb 22 quake collapsed house, Marine Pde, New Brighton. The house would be demolished
Near her school, 22 February 2011 quakemire & parapet-bricks fallen off Richmond Working Mens Club, still polluted London St footpaths. A green-plastic-sewage-tank reeking of sewage still stood outside the school. The plastic-water-tank with six taps in the park were long-gone.
Tues 17.05.11. A day later, Council started patch-repairing London St. I drove that way daily, after dropping Luke off at Sullivan Ave polytech. I was tired of all the potholes, lumps & bumps. How long would my shocks last? Despite patch-repairs, narrow London St would be parlous for years.
Sixteen months post 22 February 2011 quake, London St would still be lumpy & bumpy outside Leah's school. So much for SCIRT's rebuild of horizontal-infrastructure.
December 2015. Bealey Ave going to London St would still be lumpy & bumpy, disrepaired. Third World!
16.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged, double storey house, Marine Pde, New Brighton
16.05.11. A Southshore friend said three months post 22 February 2011 quake, she still boiled drinking-water, still used a portaloo, her house still shook whenever winds blew. Her family deserted her, she lived alone, so Leah regularly visited for a chat. Never mind aftershocks & Christchurch eastern suburbs needing 1 800km of sewer-renewal. Nearby, a $600 000 house still settled into quakemire near Avon-Heathcote Estuary.
Months later, CERA would red-zone Southshore land on Avon-Heathcote Estuary side, as quakes caused too much lateral-spreading, making the land too expensive to fix.
16.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged, red stickered, wood braced house, Marine Pde, New Brighton
Marine Pde: I snapped ruined-houses behind dunes, one house collapsed, a fallen-gable exposed roof-space, a front-wall peeled off, a front-room dropped about two metres, a collapsed garage-roof on the ground. Besides the Council red-sticker on a window, the collapsed-house had several signs.
Window, spray-painted sign:
ROOF TILES
$3 ea
Board, spray-painted sign:
CENTUR
ION
TILES
$3 ea
Window, EQC sign:
PUBLIC NOTICE
EQC and other parties have
declared this property stable
and of no threat to the safety
of any other parties.
Dated 15/03/11
PLEASE KEEP OUT
The EQC sign repeated what Council red-stickers did. Duplication of inspections by EQC & Council caused confusion, a waste of money. The collapsed-house was stable & no threat to anyone's safety? EQC was nuts!
16.05.11. Feb 22 quake, abandoned garage sale, Marine Pde, New Brighton
16.05.11. Another quake while I typed, shook my computer-monitor, creaked our house: 12:41pm, M4.4, depth 7km, 10km SW of Christchurch (GeoNet).
*Trekked Beresford St, Union St, Seaview Rd, Marine Pde. 48 snaps.
Coda:
Pre-quakes & post-quakes we'd often driven to New Brighton, Luke's girlfriend lived there, her parents were kind to us. They provided Luke with picture-framing jobs & salvage jobs. So we knew New Brighton quite well. We exchanged books at the pier library. At the best of times, New Brighton Mall was seedy. Post-quakes, a mess.
New Brighton development: Big-talk, but sloooow action about rebuilds. Examples: A new indoor-pool was mooted near the library & nearby roads revamped. 13.02.15. The Press would report a Council master-plan to revamp the mall area & a developer rebuilding the demolition-site, Marine Pde / Beresford St. Before the corner building was ruined, I'd parked there & watched boozers in the pub-garden boozing in the sunshine.
May 2020. Marine Pde: New Brighton Hot Pools By The Sea, He Puna Tai would open, New Brighton foreshore, near New Brighton pier. Saltwater pools, an onlooking cafe.
March 2025. New apartments had been built: Mafeking St / Beresford St. We ate Thai food at a new Thai restaurant nearby.
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
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