All those overpaid CERA bureaucrats were too comfy in their CBD occupation, guarded by soldiers, in the red zone cordon, to actually do any rebuilding at all.
The private sector was doing a better rebuild in the suburbs than CERA's nothing in the CBD.
Last week, PM Key, after his Antarctic junket, announced that money would be available to encourage builder apprentice training, to kick start the rebuild. Pity Key woke up 2 years too late.
Meanwhile during quake times, son Luke did a builder carpenter tech course, did in-service builder work & rejected an apprenticeship offer, as there was no rebuild going on. Luke then did a tech joinery course & secured a full time job at Southern Pine Products, Halswell Junction Rd.
News Advertiser, 28.01.13, reported that a quake worker's camp, to house 200 workers, opening in April, would be built on Orion site, cnr Madras St & Canon St, to house migrant workers for the rebuild. The workers' hostel, Cressy Village, would have natty workers' apartments each with a bedroom, bathroom, wardrobe / storage & kitchenette.
The hostel would be security guarded & alcohol controlled. Swipe-cards would control access - egress. Sounded like migrant worker, mine hostels I knew in apartheid SA. The development was funded by private sector, JGM group, nothing to do with slack CERA.
Remembering pics I'd blogged of quake trashed bldgs, I drove around suburbs to see completed rebuilds & restorations done by the private sector, not slack CERA:
Cnr Papanui Rd & Wyndham St. New shop, built on Haralds 04.09.10 quake demolition site.
Across Papanui Rd, several shops restored post 04.09.10 quake.
Further down Papanui Rd, a new apartment block, built on a 22.02.11 quake demolition site.
Cnr Papanui Rd & Aikmans Rd. New copper roofed shop, built on House of Travel 22.02.11 quake demoliton site.
Cnr Papanui Rd & Mansfield Ave. Kudos shop rebuild, on Kudos 22.02.11 quake demolition site.
Cnr Bealey Ave & Colombo St: Tilt slab shops, built on Bealey Pharmacy 22.02.11 quake demolition site.
Cnr Bealey Ave & Madras St: New dental surgery, built on Hearing Aid & Audiology Clinic 22.02.11 quake demolition site.
Cnr Barbadoes St & Edgeware Rd. Rebuild of Restoration furniture shop, on Restoration 04.09.10 quake demolition site.
Opp cnr Barbadoes St & Edgeware Rd. Rebuild of shopping centre, on shopping centre 04.09.10 quake demolition site.
Cnr Memorial Ave & Clyde Rd. Shops rebuilt with copper wall panels on 22.02.11 quake demolition site.
Cnr Rossal St & Holmwood Rd. Rebuild of Holmwood Flowers & Holmwood shops, on Holmwood shops 22.02.11 quake demolition site. For over a year a porta-cabin coffee shop had done business on the demolition site.
Rangi Ruru School, Rossal St. New general purpose hall was built on a concrete slab, with steel frame & plastic wall panels. The hall was flimsy as the nor'wester rattled plastic panels, glass doors & windows.
Stanmore Rd. Rebuild of Sun Ning Takeaways, on Sun Nings 22.02.11 quake demolition site.
Stanmore Rd. Rebuild of shops, restaurant & bar, on Henry Africa's Restaurant 22.02.11 quake demolition site.
Kerrs Reach, Avon River. Shed rebuilds of 3 rowing club houses trashed by the 22.02.11 quake & demolished: Avon Rowing Club, Union Rowing Club, Christ's College Rowing.
Esplanade, Sumner. House rebuild on 22.02.11 quake, brick house demolition site.
There were more private rebuilds & restorations going on, the above a random sample. Architects & designers who designed those bldgs were a sorry lot. Greyness, drabness & tilt slab boxes their metier.
The Press Wed 30.01.13 front page blared, "Who owns our city?" Pages 10-11 showed that most CBD land was owned by private landowners, with a sprinkling owned by Council & less owned by the Crown - so far.
The fascist thing about the CBD rebuild, touted by CERA, was that although the CBD was owned by scores of private landowners, NZ govt / CERA wasn't satisfied with land-grabbing vast tracts of residential red zone land, CERA was trying to land-grab CBD land for its deluded green frame idea in the middle of the quake trashed - CERA demolished CBD. CCDU boss Isaacs had said frame land would later be sold, once land prices were raised in CERA's core CBD.
The fascist thing was that NZ govt / CERA was gambling with taxpayers' money to speculate CBD frame land, with "Have a nice day" CERA boss Sutton doing minority Nat / coalition govt's greedy work.
And if CBD landowners didn't want to sell their land to CERA for its green frame delusion, CERA would use its omnipotent powers to just confiscate the land with a risible offer.
CERA had already done that fascist thing with Crown offers of half rateable value on red zone vacant land. CERA had also bullied NG boutique on Madras St to sell for CERA's half baked, 35 000 seater, covered stadium proposal. Never mind that NG boutique was already post quakes restored.
CERA hadn't said who would pay for the $500m stadium monstrosity to be built on Turners & Growers site, atop the CBD Fault. Expecting ratepayers to pay for NZ govt's / CERA's unfeasible grand schemes was risible.
There were already green strips along Avon River banks in the CBD, Hagley Park bordering the CBD too. There was also the proposed AVON / Otakaro Park mooted by a citizens' 18500 signature petition to parliament for red zone land along Avon River banks from city to sea. So far the AVON Park idea was being ignored by NZ govt / CERA.
27.01.13. Quake trashed house, Estuary Rd
Sun 27.01.13. After full moon Sat night, skinny dip time, New Brighton Beach, I parked near the end of Estuary Rd, Southshore by Avon / Heathcote Estuary. It was low tide, an easy walk on mud flats to see abandoned red zone housing lining the estuary.
27.01.13. Quake damaged house, Estuary Rd
Many Estuary Rd houses were quake damaged, with repairs done: roofs patched; chimney gap, tarp covered; boarded walls & windows; golden foam filler in wall cracks...
27.01.13. Quake damaged house, Estuary Rd
27.01.13. Plastic sewage tank by quake damaged house, Estuary Rd
27.01.13. Quake damaged house, Estuary Rd
27.01.13. House demolition site, Estuary Rd
27.01.13. Quake damaged house, Estuary Rd
Although many Estuary Rd houses were inhabited, some were boarded & abandoned, some had overgrown gardens. I passed a couple of demolition sites too. At the end of Estuary Rd, an Ebbtide St house facing Avon / Heathcote Estuary was fire damaged.
27.01.13. Quake damaged house, Ebbtide St
27.01.13. Quake & fire damaged house, Ebbtide St
28.01.13. NZ govt press release, CERA minister Brownlee boasted that so far EQC / Fletcher had spent $1 billion on house repairs. The Press reported that EQC / Fletcher would spend another $2 billion on house repairs by 2015. That was for house repairs below EQC's $100 000 cap per house. Never mind over-cap repairs home owners had to negotiate with tardy insurers.
27.01.13. Southshore Spit view across Avon / Heathcote Estuary to Redcliffs, Mt Pleasant & Mt Cavendish
27.01.13. Southshore Spit view across Avon / Heathcote Estuary to Redcliffs & Mt Pleasant
27.01.13. Godwits, Avon Heathcote / Estuary, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Oystercatcher, Avon / Heathcote Estuary, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Quake damaged house, Ebbtide St
In the interim, people had to live in squalid conditions in quake trashed houses. Despite CERA's / EQC's / Fletcher's boasting, anyone driving around eastern suburbs could see many houses still needed repairs: cracked walls, tarped roofs & chimneys, boarded windows & doors, wood & paper walls with brickwork peeled off, damaged roofs.
27.01.13. Southshore Spit view of gulls & oystercatchers, Avon / Heathcote Estuary. McCormacks Bay, Mt Pleasant, Castle Rock & The Tors beyond
27.01.13. Plovers, Avon / Heathcote Estuary, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Red zone, abandoned house, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Black swans, Avon / Heathcote Estuary, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Quake cracked slipway & abandoned, red zone house, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Quake trashed retaining wall by Avon / Heathcote Estuary, red zone, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Red zone, abandoned house, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Gulls, Avon / Heathcote Estuary mudflats, Southshore Spit. Clifton beyond
27.01.13. Plovers & oystercatcher, Avon / Heathcote Estuary, Southshore Spit
I wandered to the end of Ebbtide St, then wandered to Southshore Spit Reserve along estuary mud flats. Lots of waterfowl: godwits, plovers, gulls, black swans, oystercatchers, Canada geese... Magnificent views across the estuary of Mt Pleasant, McCormacks Bay, Redcliffs, Barnett Park, Moncks Bay, Clifton.
Weekend Press Feb 2-3 reported a planned $26m walkway / cycleway along that estuary route, from Ferrymead to Scarborough. Crackpot waste of money, as that walk was always done on Main Rd - Beachville Rd - Main Rd pavements, Sumner beach & Esplanade. What stopped cyclists using roads as usual?
Post quakes Christchurch was full of crackpot schemes, greedy goons slobbering to make money, while others suffered squalid housing & roads. The expensive walkway / cycleway scheme was as crackpot as the mayor wanting to put Christchurch Cathedral ruin under a glass cover to attract tourists. Or the Anglican bishop suggesting beach sand on Cathedral Sq.
Why stop at Ferrymead? The walkway / cycleway should go all the way round Avon / Heathcote Estuary to Southshore Spit.
The walkway / cycleway would fork at Ferrymead & go beside Heathcote River, using existing paths, to Cashmere Rd. An Avon River fork from South Brighton Bridge would take walkers & cyclists along existing Avon River stopbanks, incl the proposed AVON / Otakaro Park, to Christchurch CBD.
27.01.13. Red zone, abandoned house, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Quake cracked retaining wall & abandoned house, red zone, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Red zone, abandoned house, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Boat For Sale by red zone, abandoned house, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Red zone, abandoned house, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Oystercatchers, Avon / Heathcote Estuary, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Red zone, abandoned house, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Quake trashed retaining wall & abandoned house, red zone, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Red zone, abandoned house, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Quake trashed retaining wall, red zone, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Quake broken drain, Avon / Heathcote Estuary, red zone, Southshore Spit
Scores of red zone houses were abandoned at the waterfront, with jetsam of sorry lives - boats, garden furniture, barbie equipment, left to give the impression of habitation & to deter burglars. Some gardens had cut grass, many were overgrown. Quake damage: broken windows, houses tilted, sinking into ooze, broken pillars, cracked walls, wood braced walls, boarded walls & windows, trashed swimming pools, steps, gates, retaining walls & slipways at the waterfront.
27.01.13. Quake trashed retaining wall, pool & red zone, abandoned house, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Quake trashed retaining wall by Avon / Heathcote Estuary, red zone, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Avon / Heathcote Estuary mudflats, red zone, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Quake trashed slipway, Avon / Heathcote Estuary mudflats, red zone, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Red zone, abandoned house, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Cotyledons by retaining wall rubble, red zone, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Quake trashed slipway, red zone, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Red zone, abandoned house, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Quake cracked retaining wall by Avon / Heathcote Estuary mudflats, red zone, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Red zone, abandoned house, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. House demolition site by Avon / Heathcote Estuary mudflats, red zone, Southshore Spit
Never mind some houses were in good condition. All red zoners were forced to abandon their houses, as govt / CERA decreed quake trashed infrastructure too expensive to fix. That happened all over Christchurch wherever red zones were decreed. The whole of Brooklands was supposed to be abandoned. Although there were many good houses there, govt considered it too expensive to fix infrastructure & residents had to get the hell out!
27.01.13. Plastic sewage tank by Avon / Heathcote Estuary, red zone, Southshore Spit. Mt Pleasant & Redcliffs across estuary
27.01.13. Red zone, abandoned house, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Boat, Avon / Heathcote Estuary mudflats, red zone, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Red zone, abandoned housing, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Boats & red zone, abandoned housing, Southshore Spit
27.01.13. Southshore Spit, red zone view across Avon / Heathcote Estuary mudflats to Redcliffs
Key's Nat govt would go down in history as the govt that robbed land from it's citizens using earthquakes as the excuse for the govt land-grab. That citizens were still banned from Christchurch CBD by military checkpoints & cordon fencing was pathetic. Key's govt never explained why it made Crown offers on residential red zone properties. Why had Key's govt not let insurers just get on with payouts for quake damages, repairs & rebuilds of residential properties?
27.01.13. Red zone, abandoned house, Southshore Spit
Once CERA was dead & gone, after doing the dirty work for NZ Nat govt, red zoning, touting Crown offers & land-grabbing all those waterfront properties, I expected a future govt to profitably sell all that land. Tame engineers would invent new fangled foundations to float on estuarine ooze & viola more Southshore development. And riches in developers' pockets.
27.01.13. Southshore Spit view across Avon / Heathcote Estuary mudflats to Mt Pleasant
27.01.13. Southshore Spit view across Avon / Heathcote Estuary mudflats to Clifton
27.01.13. Southshore Spit view across Avon / Heathcote Estuary mudflats to Barnett Park & Mt Pleasant
27.01.13. Southshore Spit view across Avon / Heathcote Estuary mudflats to Moncks Bay & Redcliffs
27.01.13. Southsore Spit view across Avon / Heathcote Estuary mudflats to Redcliffs
27.01.13. Southshore Spit view across Avon / Heathcote Estuary mudflats to McCormacks Bay
I wandered to the end of Southshore Spit to look across the estuary mouth at quake trashed housing on Clifton cliff top. Not often one saw houses torn apart by quakes & cliff fall. One house, teetered two thirds on top of the cliff, with one third rubble scattered at the cliff bottom, on tons of cliff fall boulders by Peacocks Gallop.
27.01.13. Southshore Spit view of quake trashed houses on Clifton cliff edge. Shipping container barrier below cliff at Peacocks Gallop
27.01.13. Southshore Spit view of quake collapsed Shag Rock & quake trashed houses on Clifton cliff edge
27.01.13. Southshore Spit view of quake collapsed Shag Rock
27.01.13. Southshore Spit view of a quake cracked retaining wall on Clifton cliff top. Shipping container barrier below
From Southshore spit, the double row of Peacocks Gallop, shipping containers, "protecting" traffic by Clifton cliff fall looked puny.
27.01.13. Tsunami siren atop pole, Southshore Spit Reserve
Mon 04.02.13, 4.44 pm, 3.8 mag quake, 3 km depth, 10 km SE of Christchurch (Geonet). Rattled by, truck like, quivering my pc chair for about 30 secs while I edited this post.
Tues 05.02.13. The Press reported Council ineptitude regarding repairing Council housing, despite Council receiving $21m from EQC for repairs 10 months ago:
"The Council - the second biggest landlord in the country - received a $21 million interim payment from the commission last April so it could begin repairing damage to its housing units. So far it has repaired only five units.
Housing new Zealand has repaired 230 of its hardest hit properties...
The closures [recent Council flat closures] bring the number of Council housing units out of action because of quake damages to about 470."
What a scandal. No wonder CERA minister Brownlee was in "carping & moaning" mood regarding the Council. Councillors were proving to be a gang of overpaid, useless idiots, without any compassion nor desire to help citizens existing in squalid post quake conditions.
Wed 06.02.13, 8.02 pm, 3.6 mag quake, 8 km depth, 10 E of Christchurch (Geonet). I didn't feel it at Burnside, neither did Leah at Classical Sparks show in Hagley Park. Luke, closer to the epicentre at South New Brighton, said it shook his girlfriend's house.
Meanwhile SCIRT for several weeks was digging up Estuary Rd again by South New Brighton School, for the 3rd time in a year. Luke's girlfriend's family couldn't drive onto their property for a day or so, while SCIRT buried new, concreted water pipes. It would be a sick joke if it wasn't so irritating.
At that rate of ineptitude by SCIRT, no wonder Brownlee had a private meeting with Council (part of the SCIRT gang) regarding ballooning infrastructure costs. I would've thought SCIRT had the nous to bury new sewage & water pipes simultaneously, instead of digging up Estuary Rd 3 times by South New Brighton School.
Leah was still shaken to hell at her London St school, while demolishers took their time demolishing nearby Richmond Working Mens Club. Whenever a demolition machine jolted or smashed, the school shook.
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
See EQC hits $1 billion & 30 000 managed home repairs (NZ govt press release).
See Chch investors seize chance, take on risk (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Crown offers for flat land residential red zones (CERA).
See Big three have $1.2b price tag (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Planned coastal pathway would cost $26m (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Housing fixes my priority Johanson (The Press / Stuff Co).
Nice post Mark... it's all still so raw isn't it. Shattered lives and ongoing major issues *sigh*.
ReplyDeleteUnending Sandy. Growth & decay all at once. Hopefully someone with real vision will take take the handlebars & ride a good path. Go well.
ReplyDeleteVery nice to see all this.I live 4 blocks from the city centre and not owing a car I dont get to places like southshore etc so its hard to imagine the damage.really great seeing these pics thou.Gives one a real sense of what others have been thru.
ReplyDeleteI was looking for an update on the stanmore road rebuild and came across your site.great job.