Question though, is the land remediation viable without first removing the structures (houses) and infrastructure (roads) ? Obviously it's an option in a Greenfields site, but in an already built up area ?

Indeed. Although part of me regards the sheer breadth of Mr Haywood's skillset as bordering on the indecent.

Word. Man also plays a mean dulcimer.

And I'm darned if I want to live in Rolleston/Pegasus/Wigram

How to piss off people who live in Pegagus: ask them how they're liking Woodend. That?

I've been watching the repairs along Fifield Tce in Opawa, near where I live, and they've made a big-ass iron retaining wall along the road-edge by the river. I assume it's to stabilise?

Plus, Rolleston? Basically a massive subdivision. It's like saying 'here, let's take you out of your charming, lovingly-restored, heritage home,?

Great jacket quote (or job reference)

If only it were that simple ? Banks Peninsula is rocky, and some of our hill suburbs have suffered very severe damage. If you take a drive up Cannon Hill or Mt Pleasant you see that building on a rock doesn?t?

Getting enough sleep, taking compliments, identifying nouns, and filling out forms.

I think that's about it.
He'll be talking on nine to noon about this at 11.45am.

With one of these?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GZjugCLddk

What Lilith said re: the basic geography fail. Chch can "drift" south about as easily as it can drift east.?

Wow, and he's a fast talker, too! He could be a racing commentator if he wanted. ;-)

"Never mind the quality, feel the breadth"?

/coat

Fast, and smooth.

(Sorry, I will stop now.)

This would also enhance?

There were so many comments like this after Katrina. Mostly in geek forums. I imagine it's from a lack of understanding of how cities are formed. Well, outside of playing Civilization, of course.

OK, I stand corrected on that point, I should have checked it before posting! And obviously riverside properties are at risk of flooding, as they have always been. The lower Heathcote used to flood along Richardson Tce on a fairly?

Or a lack of empathic ability.

WAAAYYYYY of topic but, rather humourous!! And not a party political statement from me!!!

So, sorry David, for want of a better place.....

All Dunne and Dusted.

The general level of the riverside land is lower than it was before the earthquakes and the riverbed is higher than it was. That means that the area of land likely to be flooded in the event of a springtide coinciding?

One of the things I like about David's original post is that he's worked out the figures and so can?

Oh, I think David is sadly intimately familiar with the cost of retrofitting new foundations to a riverside house in Christchurch.

I assure you that I am not a ?property owning pressure group? ? you can read about me here.

You say that you are in favour of ?the newly proposed park land along the Avon?, but at what monetary cost? By my calculations the cost would be upwards?

Now, all we need to do – is do it AND persuade one of the 3 resident taniwha to – well, take up residence-

So may I ask David, why is your focus on the area you?

... if this were to be 1/10 as cool as the Miroir d?Eau in Bordeaux, then you are seriously under-selling this man.

That's spectacular — it'd be brilliant in Christchurch!

Shulgin wrote:

So may I ask David, why is your focus on the area you live...

Because?

Do all rivers and streams in Chch need shoring up?

If there are not enough resources, how would one decide, for example to exclude the?

And I'm darned if I want to live in Rolleston/Pegasus/Wigram – we moved to Christchurch 15 years ago and made a conscious decision to live near the city centre.

Good point — yes, to do the cost analysis properly you need to calculate in the added fuel/roading?

Re-levelling a slab has been done by pumping grout underneath the low side until the facade of equilibrium is recovered

FM

gold

I thought they were teammates at Paremoremo Boys' High

My point in writing this ? obviously made not very clearly, alas ? was to show that it is more?

Ha! — and yet I frequently feel like the stupidest person on Public Address. Perhaps I have breadth but not depth or something.

Thanks for?

I think we've had ample evidence this evening that that is far from true...

I don't know what they're going to do with the tens of thousands of Post-it note ideas from the Share An Idea expo, messages on their website, tweets etc. But some of the speakers did their best to inspire in?

Shulgin:And as for?

Try the paddling pool in Hagley Park in a nor'wester. It's madness.

Oh, and in related news, Megan, I discovered today that the new RNZ CHCH studios no longer have double beds. So our shared dream of broadcasting from bed is an opportunity that has been missed forever.

Also, with regard to your Rolleston comments earlier in this thread,?

To Shulgin:
I presume you've never lived in a city with a central pond/skate rink. I've lived in several. It's a fantastic way of bringing families into the centre of the city, rather than just?

A great question – since the?

But I know, I have seen photos of the new studios, and it doesn't look nearly like you could host a party there. And the architecture is significantly less mock-tudor, which?

Oh, no, I am?

I hate massive subdivisions full of cookie-cutter houses and manicured lawns

I lived for a year in Parklands, which is a very tidy suburb full of frighteningly tidy houses with frighteningly tidy gardens, and the streets all look the same.?

So, our kids now go to school out next to the Aidanfield subdivision. And it's fucking Stepfordy. In a tolerant mood, I tried to convince myself that it only looks so samey and artificial because it's new,?

There's one up near Upper Hutt, but I forget the name. I drove around it one day, and really did feel like I was in Stepford. There's no cars parked on the streets,?

So do I — then again, I can't afford to live in a massively over-leveraged "character" villa in a chi-chi suburb that used to be slum not that long ago,?

Perhaps Auckland differs from Chch in that way? Here, some of the older suburbs are costly to live in, and some (like where I am) are?

Emma I don't like your tone. I, for one, as a member of the Men's Club, feel that you do not appreciate the true beauty of our fine town and are long overdue to report to the Town Hall Medical Centre.

Yeah, absolutely. When we were house-hunting, pretty much at the not-quite-bottom of the market, we could have afforded a place in Woolston or Avonside, just. Avonside still has quite a few Housing NZ properties in it, so?

It was originally written about a?

Kelson in the?

It's horrible. Great, big, soulless houses plunked in the middle of teeny-tiny sections and, apart from a preschool, nowhere within walking distance for people to go – not a cafe or a dairy?

30 years ago, drafty villas in inner suburbs could?

Te Atatu Peninsula these is an odd mix of cheaper 50-60s houses to the west and blank 90s-00s McMansions looking back toward the harbour bridge. Quite a lot of soullessness there.

I have a relative who's just moved to Torbay. Hitherto I'd had no reason to go futher up the North Shore than Birkenhead, and I was *staggered* at how it goes on and on and on and on! Not that it's not nice, leafy and?

The shiny happy people of Stepfordville warmly welcome you! Brought to you by the Kingdom of Crapsaccharinia!

I get the feeling that a lot of these places are ?dormitory suburbs?: ? you?re not expected to do anything there but?

don't get me started on subdivision covenants

seriously? that's ridiculous

Whoa! That wasn't Chch, that was central government! ECan was doing its job pretty well, I think. We all voted for the councillors democratically, they did fine, but they didn't just rubber-stamp the wishes of big business. Due process, pish,?

One of Jack?s new colleagues has complained of a two-hour bus commute from Churton Park, so it doesn?t sound as well served on the non-car transport front as other Welli suburbs either

Actually, it's pretty reasonably served (it's not far to the J'ville transport hub). I believe that her problem?

I did suggest moving house..

Brownlee's anointed architectural consultant (but non-transport planner) Ian Athfield needs telling to pull his head in.

The central Christchurch Bus Exchange should be replaced by two terminals on the edge of a reduced central business district, Wellington architect Ian Athfield?

I couldn't agree more! When he said we shouldn't "be dictated to" by traffic engineers (as opposed to, by him!) I think my blood actually boiled.

Similarly, for his thoughts on the one-way system. Does he actually want gridlock,?

Dear Ian. The buses run TO town. They bring people back into the town. PS Just stop talking now.

The current "two?

and for whom buses are things that get in the way of cars

To be fair I am sure some of them are people who habitually walk or cycle (and are childless, ablebodied and of middle years or younger).

I've heard the suggestion that ONLY buses should be allowed in the CBD, along with pedestrians and cyclists. There'd be parking facilities on the edge of the city centre and loads of free buses/trams shuttling all around the?

The Bus Exchange?

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch-earthquake-2011/4798499/Architect-Athfield-holds-ground

See above.
;-)

And what Athfield seems not to understand is that buses?

That's such a great image, especially if Jack Sparrow is at the helm.

Considering that most of the original landfill in SF's Marina District was scuppered?

I lived in Moera (Lower Hutt) for a few years in one?

Those kind of systems maybe more expensive to implement but they work, It costs the bus company nothing ,?

I'd hate for a rebuilt ChCh to become like Houston.

I'd love for Christchurch to become the hub of a space program.

Or...Torchwood!

If CERA could deliver us a John Barrowman there would be several happy Cantabrians (and also a massive bun-fight).

(waits for Emma to come running and say "No! He's MINE.)

But you got him in multiple roles.

They may have had enough rifts already in Otautahi to last a lifetime

Nah – not that much. Russell knows better than I (it being his backyard and all), but I think it would be?

Brilliant. That was the image conjured for me too.

A paddling pool would be possible, an ice rink very difficult in?

Rink is, as you all know, merely a
contraction of that most fearful
of interest-bearing compounds –
Red Ink – which freezes anything
o'er which it spreads or seeps...
Don't take my word for it, the
Gummint has been skating on it for?

If you moved it 300 metres up Colombo Street to Victoria Square, you could use the Avon River as your heat sink. The Avon stays?

That would be clever, and I like all this "heat rejection" business! But Victoria Square is already pretty awesome, whereas Cathedral Square seems to have robust "awesomeness rejection" properties. Obviously the Cathedral is nice, and the Chalice, but?

incidentally, there are supposed to have been/may -be?- 3 taniwha around the CHCH & Port Hills areas-

And Boy, can they kick butt.

Which is not to say that that we dont respect the creativity & stories of our tipuna.
They put earth-shaking matters into a framework that humans can understand.
Indeed, like the story of Ruaumoko?.

I would point?

Well I was just parroting something I'd read about houses being built on reclaimed land south of San Francisco (around the airport from memory) – so yes people are?

I wouldn't imagine you could use water as your heat transfer system, as the water needs to be below zero degrees to keep the rink frozen – typically about -5 degrees. Dunedin ice rink uses glycol as their heat transfer system.

I should let David answer this but....

The "water?

Such ?inventions of the (human) mind? no more deserve special treatment than taniwha-

Fully concur. Whether they are tax exempt or not. I can't see the point of invoking any spritual "being" for anything frankly.

Insole-ation? Well, due to the earthquake, there are more fallen arches in Chch.

Did the temperature just drop in here? I'll get me coat.

Kyle Matthews: I used to teach thermodynamics at UoC — so no, I don't think that you can 'cool' an icerink?

I dont want to post my copy here (because it comes with a loong list of cc.s) but just checking out the current Fletchers' shareholding could be enlightning-

No, but I've just seen a copy of CERA's response posted to Sue Wells' blog

Thanks for pointing that out, Jeanette!

I am (naturally) going to disagree with that:

1. There was no 100-metre abandonment strip.

2. And, in fact, some portions of the river bank (e.g. along River Road) are not in the Red Zone.

3. The land?