Hard News: What Now?
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At this point in time Sacha, there is no local "Economy".
Yes. This is true. What we need to do is get that going again as soon as possible. Food, power, water are vital. But after that, people need jobs, they need jobs where they live, and they need jobs soon. Christchurch won't be rebuilt for twenty years. We can't wait that long to start getting that economy back on track.
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Islander, in reply to
That is so true - and that's if the next couple of decades is earthquake (or other disaster)-free.
There's another matter - as is natural & proper, CHCH people are calling on whanau & friends to immediately help them - which we willingly & happily do as a matter of course BUT
*you cant add 4-6-more people to your household for weeks when there is no additional funding coming in*
& people are already feeling pinched. -
Sacha, in reply to
there is no local "Economy".
Yes. This is true.What makes you say that?
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Islander, in reply to
Not replying on Keir Leslie's behalf but what large-scale local economy* was, has now been completely skewed. It has been basically taken over by disaster-area macroeconomics.
*The black & grey markets seems to be running efficiently, and the usual swopperem economy is also working well.
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Scott A, in reply to
Apologies if this has already been addressed, this threads moved a lot while I was hard at work today...
Some idiot was on Morning Report saying that we need an autocracy to get things fixed quickly.
That idiot was, of course, Joe Bennett. (New Zealand's answer to Jeremy Clarkson, but with dogs instead of cars.) Developed his anti-PC curmudgeon shtick to such an extent that I don't think even he knows what he thinks about any issue any more except he's "against it."
That ending to his interview made me so so angry. But if Bennett thinks democracy is "cumbersome," I'd still far prefer it to the autocracy he favours, made of wealthy white men like himself who 'know best, dear.'
Hey, I managed to write about Joe Bennett without swearing. Go me!
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Sacha, in reply to
what large-scale local economy* was, has now been completely skewed
I've seen no reports of widespread permanent disruption other than to cbd businesses and to the residential suburbs of many workers. There are many businesses based outside the cbd. Please direct me to the evidence your opinion is based on as I may have missed it.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
The thing is, Bennett’s not wrong. Lots of shit gets done very quickly in China; as you would expect when you don’t have to arse around with tiresome bullshit like labour and environmental standards, resource management laws, building codes, private property, oversight from an independent judiciary and free press and so on.
Still, I don’t recall Joe being awfully keen to immigrate after publishing Where Underpants Come From. Guess a functional parliamentary democracy operating under the rule of law isn’t so bad.
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What makes you say that?
This is based primarily on the facts that (a) all premises in the CBD are shut, for the next 3-6 months, (b) a third/quarter of Christchurch residencies are functional unliveable at the moment, and (c) visual observation of how shit's fucked up.
Now, when I say there's no economy, I don't mean there's no economic activity, or that everybody's out a job or anything. But the economy, as a functional mechanism for ordering the resources available in Christchurch, doesn't exist the way it did on Feb 20th. It still exists in parts, and it will recover over time, but it will need a lot of assistance.
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Sacha, in reply to
Now, when I say there's no economy, I don't mean there's no economic activity, or that everybody's out a job or anything.
thank you for clarifying
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Islander, in reply to
New Brighton
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Kracklite, in reply to
Bennett, another self-infatuated fool, thinking for some reason that he's funny, a "satirist" of some description because he's comfortable and some people dare to upset him. Real satirists are Swift and Burroughs, people who have never been comfortable, who never could be comfortable.
Jim Hopkins, Paul Henry, Paul Holmes, Lindsay Perigo, Joe Bennett... Ker-rist! I'm a middle-aged, middle-class white male. Does this have to happen to me? Are more than half of my neurons going to wave bye-bye, let slip this mortal coil and join the choir invisible, am I going to become a professional victim of political correctness?
Thank His Divine Shadow (Cthulhu's taking a day off, being dead and all) for the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band:
So Norman, if you're normal, I intend to
be a freak for the rest of my life... SO THEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERE!More seriously, I never ceased to be amazed by the continued persistence of the fools who think that "temporary" authoritarian solutions are the answer. The means does not justify the end, the means is the end.
Oh dear, I'm ranting. I need a cup of tea.
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Greg Dawson, in reply to
That's a bit rough. The cake is real, but there's no need to consider the long-term sustainability of producing cake and ...
pfft. Perfectly reasonable answer, but massively reduced epeen.
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Paul Williams, in reply to
Jim Hopkins, Paul Henry, Paul Holmes, Lindsay Perigo, Joe Bennett... Ker-rist! I'm a middle-aged, middle-class white male.
Ahem, I suspect I'm a middle class white male and I'd really rather not be associated with this bunch... aren't they at least boomers?
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The cake is real
Sky Cake!
Sorry, as you were.
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Kracklite, in reply to
I'm desperately looking at the demographics myself and I think that I might just be able to fall into the crack between "Baby Boomer" and "Generation X". Phew! A close shave that! How about you?
I'm just worried, -it's a bit like Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" - OMG, I might be a fish! Ahhh, I'm not..."
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Just on this issue of Chch people moving elsewhere - after the news last night of quite a few fetching up in Nelson, and around 7000 apparently in Timaru - I did wonder - would Chch people prefer to stay in the Mainland if they could?
I'm just trying to figure out what the chances are someone from Chch would move to Auckland as opposed to somewhere else in the Mainland?
Wearing my elected rep hat: I recieved news this morning that an estimated 20k people would move to Auckland from Chch, something that I'll be asking for firmer estimates because, you know, an extra 20k people is alot of housing to find, jobs, social services, etc, and we can't magic it up.
Whipping off said hat. -
nzlemming, in reply to
Just on this issue of Chch people moving elsewhere
Just chatted with a couple of Chch friends, one of whom leaves for Darwin (!) on the 10th of March, and the other is tossing up between Perth and Brisbane.
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I'm desperately looking at the demographics myself and I think that I might just be able to fall into the crack between "Baby Boomer" and "Generation X". Phew! A close shave that! How about you?
Technically I'm a Y (post 79) but I feel more like an X. Is grunge back yet?
Just chatted with a couple of Chch friends, one of whom leaves for Darwin (!) on the 10th of March, and the other is tossing up between Perth and Brisbane.
... I can't condemn them.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
… I can’t condemn them.
No, but the after-taste of hyperbolic judement-pants to some of the media overage is damn annoying. Yet again, PAS FTW!
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Wearing my elected rep hat: I recieved news this morning that an estimated 20k people would move to Auckland from Chch, something that I'll be asking for firmer estimates because, you know, an extra 20k people is alot of housing to find, jobs, social services, etc, and we can't magic it up.
Whipping off said hat.Which is true, but in the last decade Auckland has been adding a new Dunedin in just over every two years. If there's a city that could take that without blinking, it's Auckland. But there are probably other places that need the bost more.
What it does prove, in my simple mind, is the need for new housing stock across New Zealand. My simple mind also thinks the Government should be building and controlling a share of these, to provide and put downwards pressure on prices and rents. Somehow, I doubt we'll see this in Christchurch.
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Reading that Peter Hyde piece, it sounds like an urgent investment in door-to-door circulation of clear printed material is warranted – and asking at the same time what each household needs. Then repeating the process regularly.
I remember seeing mention of them doing this on the TV news earlier this week. I can’t remember details, but they definitely said that they’d been maildropping eastern suburbs with information.
Yes. I wonder if somebody can shed any light on the university side of things. Adelaide offered to take Christchurch students yesterday. Had other NZ universities done the same?
The problem here is the cap on student enrolments. Every additional student we take on goes over our cap hence no funding for them apart from their student fees. If the government would allow the caps around the country to float nationwide (so when one student left chch and went to another campus their bit of funding travelled with them) that would make it a lot better – I’m not sure if they’ve decided what to do with that.
There’s a lot of determination to help chch students down here, they’ve even been talking about making Otago an extension of the christchurch campus and hosting lecturers, students, lectures etc en mass, while they’re all still enrolled at canterbury. A volunteer army has formed to support the canterbury volunteer army. They rolled 15,000 prepacked lunches up to Chch on Saturday - all donated non-perishable food - and they're trying to repeat again this weekend.
Is this already happening? Does anyone know?
My step-daughter (more West than East chch) says she had three knocks on the door the other day from people making sure they were OK. Some sort of emergency services checking the house, govt welfare person, and a volunteer asking if they needed anything.
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Matthew Poole, in reply to
If there's a city that could take that without blinking, it's Auckland
Except that, actually, we're totally blinking. We can't even handle our natural increase at present, as witnessed by the situation with rental property - people just can't find any. Granny did a few articles about a month ago about how tough it is to get rental accommodation in Auckland at the moment, including 200 people viewing one property in half an hour and another woman who'd been searching for five weeks and not found anywhere. Not sure how far out that situation reaches, and I know a couple of friends found a place in Titirangi inside a month, but that's without thousands of extra people suddenly entering the market.
That's one of the things that's got me really worried about the talk of focussing everything on Christchurch. Auckland's struggling now, never mind in 18-24 months' time when it's finally possible to get tradies to move back north. What's going to happen to the cost of using the services of the few who'll remain in the interim? What's going to happen to our acute housing shortage when many of the people needed to build more houses have moved to Christchurch and we're trying to accommodate IDPs who're moving to Auckland?
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Martin Lindberg, in reply to
What’s going to happen to our acute housing shortage
I already look forward to the articles in the Listener about the wonderful impact this will have on the value of houses in Auckland.
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That Herald story is worth a read in light of our conversations here.
However, even the arrival of 80 more Port-a-loos in Avonside and neighbouring Dallington meant residents were still relying on sparsely placed Port-a-loos along the main roads, far away from the back streets.
Local resident Amie Wagenvoord said having power would make a massive difference but she was angered at reports that other suburbs got more help, faster.
"They promised us that all the hardest-hit areas would be treated the same, that no one else was getting more help than others in similar situations."
Two Port-a-loos had mysteriously appeared further along the road, reportedly stolen from other suburbs which had plenty.
"Vigilantes! We are creating anarchy. People are driving down the roads stealing Port-a-loos - that's what it's got down to."
Her husband, Scott Wagenvoord, said a friend who lived in Spreydon had told him they now had water and could use their toilets, but still had Port-a-loos on most streets. However, he felt most for Bexley and was delighted to hear they were getting individual chemical toilets.
"For the last six months, they've lived what we're only just living now."
He conceded there was some suburb envy and a perception the wealthier suburbs got more help, faster.
"I drive home through Fendalton and they've already got spray paint on the roads indicating where potholes need fixing.
"But let's not be bitter."
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