Politicians, Restart Cashel Mall. Libraries Closed

Restart Cashel Mall, Bishopdale Library focus. 29.10.11. Elections loomed. After their speeches at Restart Cashel Mall, PM Key & Brownlee, Minister for Earthquake Recovery, worked the crowd along Cashel Mall.

Eight months post 22 February 2011 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 the red-zone CBD, ruins prevented entry & demolitions continued, awaiting rebuilds.
Cashel Mall: During the 22 February 2011 Quake four people were killed by falling masonry.


Restart Cashel Mall: Post 2010-2011 quakes, seedy, old Cashel Mall ruins were demolished & were replaced by 27 shipping- container shops in north & south precincts. Some 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 22 February 2011 Quake, Bishopdale Library & Community Centre was reopened to the public on 04.03.11. It closed again on 03.11.11. A 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's 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 signs, notices & threat-signs on buildings, footpaths, 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 13 June 2011 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

For eight months, Council risked people's lives in an unstable building. I saw no steel-mesh-fence-cordon, no EXTREME DANGER threat-signs, no NZDF-checkpoint, no security which had evolved in the CBD red-zone cordon. Post 22 February 2011 Quake & 13 June 2011 Quake, whenever I used Bishopdale Library it was crowded, as most other Council libraries were closed. 1 000s of citizens over the last months used Bishopdale Community Centre & Library!

Council was aware of unreinforced masonry buildings dangers long before the 2010-2011 quakes. (See The Press 15.11.11 & TVNZ articles). Council was jumpy while post-quake engineering codes were revised. Council then closed buildings, fearing court-action by citizens.

In 2006, architect Sir Miles Warren wrote a letter to Council, warning about dangers of unreinforced masonry buildings: "The Council plays Russian roulette with its citizens..." So Council knew of quake dangers to weak buildings four years before the 2010-2011 quakes. Council just moaned about costs & risks. Council used cops, NZDF-soldiers & cordons to stop public scrutiny of CBD ruins being demolished.

March 2013. Warren would produce the original Victorian plan for a wooden cathedral to replace ruined Christ Church Cathedral. After years of squawking protests by Heritage-hailers about Christ Church Cathedral's reinstatement, Warren's wooden cathedral idea would fizzle. Pity those squawking Heritage-hailers never produced funds for reinstatement. They expected NZ government & ratepayers to pay for their gigantic folly.

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 buildings, but the greater need would be to make ordinary buildings safe! All those unreinforced masonry buildings with loose parapets, loose gables & unsecured walls needed fixing.

Parker omitted other costs: What cost the quake-dead & quake-injured? What cost to traumatized, grieving families? What cost memorial services for quake-dead? What cost CBD-demolitions & suburban-demolitions? What cost pre-quake purchase of CBD buildings from bankrupt developer Henderson? What cost repair or replacement of Christchurch infrastructure? What cost Christchurch rebuild?

Would Council & Heritage-hailers ever admit mea culpa to the families of those who died in the 22 February 2011 Quake?

Considering Bishopdale Library crowding (& Fendalton Council Library crowding for that matter) & NZDF-cordons around the red-zoned CBD & CERA's 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-tours, the Bishopdale Community Centre's 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 two kilometers from Bishopdale Library. Likewise Canterbury Earthquake Temporary Accommodation office in the WINZ building, Winston Ave, was also about two kilometers from Bishopdale Library.

The WINZ office's 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 & concrete-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 about CERA's demolishing of Heritage-buildings. Never mind 42 people killed by masonry falling from seedy, unreinforced buildings in the 22 February 2011 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 buildings, 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 buildings & unstable buildings NOT fenced off post 4 September 2010 Quake & post Boxing Day Quake & 1 000s of aftershocks warnings, before the 22 February 2011 Quake struck?

Given that the multi-storey CTV collapsed & burned during the 22 February 2011 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 eight months of post-quake public use. Given that library fiasco, Council "experts" hadn't learnt anything from the 22 February 2010 quake!

09.11.11. The Press: Media schmaltz about deconsecration of Christ Church Cathedral: 300 people bussed into Cathedral Sq so the Cathedral could be part-demolished for a rebuild. Anglican church authorities had dithered about eight months to decide on deconsecration, after months of public exclusion from the red-zone CBD, & visiting celebrities & clerics were allowed into the red-zoned CBD to view ruins. A pompous ceremony in Cathedral Sq had used choir boys in hard-hats & orange, Hi-Vis vests to light roving searchlights. In the deconsecration ceremony, lurid red-lights illuminated Cathedral ruins, & choir boys wore crimson cassocks, sans hard-hats.

During that week, two old, wooden-houses at Luke's Sullivan Ave polytech 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.

Thursday 17.11.11. 1.05pm, M3.9 quake, 9km depth, 10km E of Lyttelton (GeoNet). It 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-hailer' demolition-conflict resolved, as Heritage-hailers would obstruct 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's 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 government from National to Labour would Christ Church Cathedral repairs begin slooooowly again, after Labour's Dr Megan Woods took over Christchurch Regeneration duties from ex CERA minister Brownlee.

2024. Christ Church Cathedral's reinstatement was paused due to lack of funding.

2025. Christ Church Cathedral's Reinstatement Project website stated: "With construction work commencing again in 2026 the Cathedral will be opened by the end of 2030."

Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.

See Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission.