Here is my perspective as a CBD resident with a red stickered property. My property is red stickered due to the approx 5 story building next door supposedly being in danger of collapse. I really have to question the competence of some of the people involved. The owners of the neighbouring building told me that CERA was wrapping them up in red tape when they were trying to organise the demolition of their building. It appears that they have canned the list of buildings approved for demolition by Civil Defence and are making building owners apply for permission again. This will be the reason for the substantial decrease in activity in the red zone after CERA took over.
The demolition of the building next to mine started 2 weeks ago. I went and watched the demolition last week and to my shock there were 2 workers standing on the roof of the building and several more inside stripping all of the wooden framing out and throwing it down onto the ground. Now this is a building that according to CERA is dangerous and could collapse onto mine! There is a reasonable distance between the properties so the whole building would have to topple over to be a threat to my building. Either the demolition contractors are taking huge risks for the sake of some wood that they plan to sell or there is no basis for red stickering my property.
This is the kind of rubbish that we are having to put up with here in Christchurch. From what I have heard the eastern suburb residents are having plenty of problems as well.
On the subject of cordons - I have been told by a business owner that he is setting up a managers flat in his building (which is allowed by the city plan) so that he can say he lives there in order to get through the cordon if it gets put back in due to a big aftershock (residents are allowed through the cordon). There is no way that anyone should have to do this and in fact it is one of the reasons why businesses are questioning whether they even want to be located in the CBD.
I should mention that I was told the demolition of the next door building would take approx 1 month. I had an email from one of my neighbours and they are still stripping out the contents. Somehow I doubt the timeline. Perhaps if my insurance company was able to recover the alternative accomodation costs they are paying me from them they might hurry up.
The Christchurch CBD is dead - as is the concept of a "Central Business District"
Even when they are finally able, no business is going to want to move back there. They have are already moved on, setup elsewhere and are going forward
What I expect we will see is more of low rise, more spread, more shopping malls.
The new Chrischurch is looking a lot like Los Angeles :(
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