Recall that, in 2011, some bright spark reckoned that because great cities have high downtown land prices, artificially constraining downtown land supply to prop up prices for a while might be a great idea. That, plus Christchurch Council rules making it almost impossible to rebuild downtown, followed by CCDU rules adding to the delays, had everybody re-start elsewhere.I live in a ghost town. Or, since Christchurch's CBD's population fell from 8000 to just 5000 after the quakes, perhaps I should call it a ''ghosting'' town.On weekends I drift from street to street in search of company, but all I see are empty car parks, dusty building sites and quiet streets. The few people who do venture into town cluster in a few select spots - New Regent St, the Re:Start and Victoria St at night.On weekdays there's a little more spirit but it might not be growing fast enough for the early settlers. St Asaph St Kitchen, which had great nachos, has closed and I suspect many other businesses are struggling.Living in the CBD has lots of perks - you barely need to use your car so you save on petrol, you are close to everything so you don't need to plan for everything in advance and if you don't have a backyard you save time on weeding.In most cities, you're close to people when you live in the centre.But in Christchurch that's where you're most likely to be isolated at the moment.
And so Cecile has the place to herself and I'm in Wellington.
"... some bright spark reckoned that because great cities have high downtown land prices, artificially constraining downtown land supply to prop up prices for a while might be a great idea"
ReplyDeleteReally? That's rates with other great ideas like cutting your toenails with a sythe..
Who's idea was that Eric? Name and shame!
James Hogan
Came out of Treasury, which reckoned that downtown would be too spread out and that nobody would build nice things unless land prices were pumped up. Names? Dunno.
ReplyDeleteShe's depressingly right. Last week I had a meal at the new Corianders on St Asaph St. Having inhaled a couple of pre-curry lagers (actually ales) at CBD, I left the car sparked outside it on Tuam St. When I wandered back a couple of hours later, I didn't see a single person during the 3-block trip. Not one. Nada. Zilch. Zero.
ReplyDeleteI did, however see a cordoned-off block of High St that clearly hasn't been touched since 22/11/11. It looked like London during the Blitz. No wonder the place is deserted.
CERA and CCDU have very successfully entrenched the damage wrought by the quakes.