We are a city
that has been somewhat ravaged. And what has every ravaged city, in the past,
done? Rebuilt. Almost every city that has ever been ravaged has been rebuilt.
What
Christchurch has the chance to do, is to build something special. We lost
almost the entire CBD, and so we have the chance to have a custom designed and
custom built CBD.
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| In front of a vacant site. |
We have entire
suburbs that are pretty much unliveable, and so there, also, we have the chance
to create something new and special, something for the people of Christchurch.
That may be a forest, with cycle tracks and walkways. It may be a nature
reserve, a place created in honour and memory not just of those who died and
were injured, but also in honour of every single person who helped, every
police office, every soldier, every builder, every plumber, every road worker,
ever man who dug and repaired the sewerage system, every person who delivered a
port-a-loo to the suburbs, every doctor, every nurse, every counsellor, the
lady in the street who hugged you, every single person who helped! The land
that can never be built on again—for we surely can never be so stupid as to
assume earthquakes won’t happen and liquefaction doesn’t exist—and so this land
needs to be put to use in a way that honours what has happened.
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| Re:Start in the CBD! |
September 4th
2010 started a cycle of seismic events that, even at this point of writing, has
not stopped, and is likely to continue for decades (on a dwindling scale).
Where once our city was still, now she rocks, and rolls, and dances and sways.
This is the new ‘normal’ for our
city. And we are beginning to accept that, to find a way to not be affected by
these events quite so much, so that we can carry on without the constant burst
of adrenalin, and get past that fight-or-flight response. That is a lot easier
to write than to do, I know.
These days, in a
shopping mall, we will stop if a 5.5 aftershock barrels through the city, and
we will wait to see what happens. Will it build into something bigger, or will
it stop? Will we need to run? Will it fade away? And when it fades away we get
back to what we were doing and carry on shopping, unfazed—no doubt making a
mental note to check www.geonet.co.nz when we get home to see how strong the
shake was and where it was centred. These days a 5.5 hits and no one cries out,
panics, or screams. If it begins to build into something bigger then yes panic will set in, but…let’s be
honest here: if the mall was going to fall down it would have done so by now!
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| I guess this building was damaged! |
Our city was
ravaged, our emotions were ravaged. Do we rebuild as stronger people? Take a
look around our city, at what has been done with some of the empty land where
rows of shops have been demolished. We have temporary cafes set up, we have a
ReStart shopping area in the CBD that
is built with colourful shipping containers, and it is thriving! We have
shipping containers used as display windows to hide the empty land behind. We
have shipping containers creating a barrier between the roads and where rocks
may fall from the cliffs above in the event of aftershocks. We have art on
blank walls. We have gardens where there would otherwise be an empty plot of
land. With the great Kiwi ‘No. 8 wire’ mentality, people have done what they
could with what was available! We pulled together to create, and we support
those creations. We are a people with initiative, creativity, and above all, a
strong sense of identity and purpose. We will
rebuild this city, and we will be so
utterly proud of it!
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| Lyttleton Petanque Club, where one a fabulous deli and cafe stood. |
A city whose
people coped with streets of liquefaction, ruined sewerage systems, broken
water systems, port-a-loos in the streets, water tankers in the streets,
schools that doubled up with one school there in the morning and another school—whose
own premises were badly damaged—in the afternoon school session, we coped, and we
did what needed to be done, because there was no other choice.
Some people
think Christchurch people should just abandon the city and move elsewhere. Fair
enough. But, who is going to buy our houses? Where are we supposed to get the money
to buy another house in another city? Where are we supposed to get jobs? Christchurch
is our home, and we will rebuild it. Since when did Kiwis walk away? The CanDo
attitude is rife in this city, and
always has been.
The ‘Greendale
Fault’ ruptured on 4th September 2010. It had been still for sixteen
and a half thousand years…but think about that time sixteen and a half thousand
years ago. Earthquake and aftershocks. It happened then, it is happening now.
This is nothing new. The earth has always moved. It is perhaps incredibly naïve
to expect the Earth to not move!
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| This is the art on the side of a building. |
Christchurch
will be a stronger and more beautiful city. The people of Christchurch will be stronger,
closer, more resilient, more self sufficient, and we will support each other.
People may ask, “Where
were you when the quakes hit?” and in the answer “I was here, in Christchurch,
for each and every one of them”, there is a solidarity, a brother-sisterhood, a
unification amongst people. We were united by earthquakes and destruction.
