Eight months post Feb 22 Killer Quake, Cashel Mall restarted, after some of the CBD red zone, steel mesh fence cordon was opened from Bridge of Remembrance to Colombo St at The Crossing, where the red zone resumed. In red zone CBD, bldgs were closed, ghosts, post quake demolitions continued, awaiting rebuilds.
Cashel Mall: During the Feb 22 Killer Quake, four people were killed by falling masonry.
Restart Cashel Mall: Post 2010-2011 quakes, seedy, old Cashel Mall ghosts were demolished & were replaced by 27 shipping container shops in north & south precincts. Non shopping demolition sites became carparks.
29.10.11. Part of the 10 000 crowd listening to speeches at Restart Cashel Mall
29.10.11. CERA Minister Brownlee Speech, Restart Cashel Mall
29.10.11. PM Key Speech, Restart Cashel Mall, CERA boss Sutton right
29.10.11. CERA Minister Brownlee, crowd working, Restart Cashel Mall
29.10.11. PM Key, crowd working, Restart Cashel Mall
Post Feb 22 Killer Quake, Bishopdale Library & Community Centre was reopened to the public on 04.03.11. It closed again on 03.11.11, with the following Community News report, 07.11.11:
"The Bishopdale Community Centre and Library will be closed until further notice. City Council said the decision was made after they received the results of a detailed engineering evaluation for the building. Engineers have recommended the building should be vacated until they complete more assessments and until earthquake strengthening work is also completed."
Bishopdale Library door, Council sign:
THE CHRISTCHURCH CITY
LIBRARY IS CLOSED UNTIL
FURTHER NOTICE
That blue sign was the standard sign used to close all Christchurch public libraries. During the quakes, our lives were ruled by prohibitory stickers & threat signs on buildings, pavements, roads, steel mesh fence cordons. Citizens would respond with their own protest signs in future protests. Another sign:
BISHOPDALE LIBRARY
CLOSED
UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
07.11.11.Bishopdale Community Centre & Library closed after 8 months of crowded use, after reopening shortly post Feb 22 quake
Pity Council didn't publish the names of those who decided to open Bishopdale Community Centre on 04.03.11, thus endangering the public to aftershock hazards & continuing to allow public use during the June 13 Quake period & beyond. During that time I'd often exchanged books at Bishopdale Library & Fendalton Library. It was the same Council & public complacency which allowed broken buildings to stay open between earlier quakes, with fatal consequences.
07.11.11. Bishopdale Community Centre & Library, concrete brick & slab construction. See weak concrete columns. Closed after 8 months of crowded use, after reopening shortly post Feb 22 quake
07.11.11. Weak cnr concrete column, Bishopdale Community Centre & Library, closed 8 months after crowded use, after reopening shortly post Feb 22 quake
Annoying: For 8 months, Council had risked people's lives in an unstable bldg. No steel mesh fence cordon, no EXTREME DANGER threat signs, no NZDF checkpoint soldiers / security, as per CBD red zone cordon. Post Feb 22 Killer Quake & June 13 Quake, whenever I used Bishopdale Library it was crowded, as most other Council libraries were closed. 1 000s of citizens over the last post quake months had used Bishopdale Community Centre & Library.
Council was aware of unreinforced masonry bldgs dangers, long before the 2010-2011 quakes. (See The Press 15.11.11 & TVNZ articles). Council was jumpy while engineering codes were revised post quakes, then closed Council bldgs, fearing court action by citizens if future fatalities happened.
In 2006, architect Sir Miles Warren wrote a letter to Council, warning about dangers of unreinforced masonry bldgs: "The Council plays Russian roulette with its citizens..." So Council knew of quake dangers to weak bldgs 4 years before the 2010-2011 quakes. Council just moaned about costs & risks. Council used cops, NZDF soldiers, cordons to stop public scrutiny of CBD ghosts being demolished months post Feb 22 Killer Quake.
Mar 2013. Warren would produce the original Victorian plan for a wooden cathedral to replace trashed Christ Church Cathedral. After years of Christ Church Cathedral hullabaloo by Heritage hailers, Warren's wooden cathedral idea would fizzle.
The Press 15.11.11. Mayor Parker:
"We had estimated the [cost of strengthening] heritage buildings, around 500, would be somewhere in the region of $200 million.
It's not hard to see the overall total potentially facing our city would have been in excess of $1 billion. This is a problem that faces the whole country in terms of risk."
Parker opined on repairing heritage bldgs, but the greater need would be to make ordinary bldgs safe! All those unreinforced, masonry bldgs with loose parapets, gables, unsecured walls needed fixing.
Parker omitted other costs: What cost the Feb 22 Killer Quake dead & injured? What cost to traumatized, grieving families? What cost memorial services for quake dead? What cost post quake CBD & suburban demolitions? What cost pre-quake purchase of CBD bldgs from bankrupt developer Henderson? The latter had used ratepayers' money. What cost repair / replacement of post quake Christchurch infrastructure? What cost Christchurch rebuild?
Would Council & Heritage hailers ever admit mea culpa to the families of those who died in the Feb 22 Killer Quake?
Considering Bishopdale Library crowding (& Fendalton Council Library crowding for that matter) & NZDF cordons around red zone, ghost CBD & weekend bus tours & twilight bus tours of CBD demolition sites & Hi-Vis vested officials & St John ambulance & Red Cross personnel in weekend Cranmer Sq for CBD bus tourists, the Bishopdale Community Centre, reopening / closure was a disgrace. It belied authorities' theme song about public safety when banning public from the red zone CBD. What about public safety in the suburbs? Earthquake Recovery minister Brownlee, CERA boss Sutton, mayor Parker were asleep at the wheel.
07.11.11. Earthquake Recovery minister Brownlee, election poster by constituency office, Greers Rd
Brownlee's Ilam constituency office, Greers Rd, was about 2km from Bishopdale Library. Likewise Canterbury Earthquake Temporary Accommodation office, WINZ bldg, Winston Ave, was also about 2km from Bishopdale Library.
WINZ office, window sign:
CANTERBURY EARTHQUAKE
TEMPORARY
ACCOMMODATION
SERVICE
07.11.11. Canterbury Earthquake Temporary Accommodation Service window, WINZ bldg, Winston Ave
When did Brownlee & Sutton visit Bishopdale Library to see its Stalinist, concrete brick & slab construction, thin concrete columns, wide beams & quake cracks in the walls? Never mind a Community Police office in Bishopdale Community Centre too.
*Trekked Cashel Mall, Bishopdale Library, Greers Rd, Winston Ave. 38 snaps.
07.11.11. Heritage hailers were on TV news again, protesting in Christchurch against CERA demolishing heritage bldgs. Never mind 42 people killed by masonry falling from seedy, unreinforced bldgs in the Feb 22 quake.
The Press 08.11.11: At the Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission of Inquiry, an Auckland University Associate Professor of Structural Engineering tried to justify 182 quake deaths, [185 roll revision] including 42 people killed by falling, unreinforced masonry bldgs, in the Feb 22 Killer Quake, with the following claptrap: "Many of the most dangerous buildings were already fenced off after September, and without this an estimated 110 more people would have been crushed by falling facades and walls."
Why were so many unreinforced masonry bldgs & unstable bldgs NOT fenced off, post Sept 4 Darfield Quake & Boxing Day Quake & 1 000s of aftershocks warnings, before the Feb 22 Killer Quake struck?
Given that CTV multi-storey collapsed & burned during the Feb 22, M6.3 Killer Quake, killing 115 people, after CTV was deemed safe with a Council green sticker & given the lexicon of seismic excuses thereafter to obfuscate incompetence like, "force... acceleration... intensity..." there was no excuse for Council to green sticker Bishopdale Community Centre & Library for 8 months of public use post Feb 22 quake. Given that fiasco, incompetent Council "experts" hadn't learnt anything from the Feb 22 quake.
09.11.11. The Press: Media schmaltz about deconsecration of Christ Church Cathedral, 300 people bussed into Cathedral Sq (TVNZ) so the Cathedral could be part demolished for a rebuild. After expensive use of a temporary Cardboard Cathedral of course. Anglican church authorities had dithered 8+ months to come to the simple deconsecration decision, after months of public exclusion from the red zone CBD, post Feb 22 Killer Quake, & visiting celebrities & clerics were allowed into the red zone, cordoned CBD to view ruins & a pompous ceremony using choir boys in hard hats & orange, Hi-Vis vests to light roving searchlights, in a Cathedral Sq ceremony, with lurid red lights illuminating Cathedral ruins. That time, choir boys wore crimson cassocks, sans hard hats.
Meanwhile, CERA told the public what shoes to wear during weekend & twilight CBD bus tours from Cranmer Sq, gold coin donation expected for the privilege of seeing ruins & demolitions of rotten CBD bldgs.
During that week, two old, wooden houses at Luke's Sullivan Ave tech were demolished. Luke said whenever diggers moved & bashed houses, his nearby workshop shook, like aftershocks.
The Press 16.11.11. News of a post quake housing development at Halswell, 1 400 new sections.
Thurs 17.11.11. 1.05pm, M3.9 quake, 9km depth, 10km E of Lyttelton (GeoNet). Shook pot plant leaves on my computer table, rattled my ass.
Coda:
Despite deconsecration of Christ Church Cathedral, it would be years before Anglicans versus Heritage hailers, demolition conflict resolved, as Heritage hailers obstructed demolition of Christ Church Cathedral by protests & court action delays.
2016. Despite public protests, court cases, a mediator between Anglicans & Heritage hailers & reams of media verbiage, Christ Church Cathedral impasse still wasn't resolved.
2017. The closed Bishopdale Community Centre & Library would be demolished. Saturday 22.07.17: A brand new Bishopdale Community Centre & Library would be opened next to the demolition site.
2018. Only with a change of NZ govt from National to Labour would Christ Church Cathedral repairs begin glacial movement again, after Labour's Dr Megan Woods took over Christchurch Regeneration duties from ex CERA minister Brownlee.
2024. Little going on with Christ Church Cathedral reinstatement!
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
See Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission.
My brother had his wedding reception in Bishopdale Community Centre in July 1982... looked bad enough back then!
ReplyDeleteLove your passion Mark... onya!
Sarns
Scandalous state of affairs Sandy. Christchurch is still a very dangerous city.
ReplyDelete