NZH
The Minister, Gerry Brownlee, told a media briefing this afternoon that if he had his way, most of Christchurch's heritage buildings would be bowled tomorrow. He says the old buildings killed people when they toppled during the earthquake and they can not remain.
"While they are part of our past history, they have no place in our future history. As I've said repeatedly, heritage is both forward and back and from this point on, we decide what the heritage of this city will be," he said.Oh dear gerry - past history is a little redundant and future history - well I know what you are trying to say but you aren't actually saying it with those words. I think the 'we' in the last sentence indicates the royal 'we'.
4 comments:
I think that safety should rule over historic buildings but if taking a day or two to remove some of the taonga in the buildings is needed then we should do that.
I am more concerned that the Mayor and the PM seem to care more about hosting the RWC in Christchuch than getting the sewerage on in Aranui.
Unless they can promise that all Christchuch people will have decent accomodation, power, running water and functional sewerage that is not being pumped into the rivers or the ocean then they should forget it - let them play those games in Dunedin and we can watch them on TV without drunken international tourists rubbernecking in our city.
I'm only going by television images and news bulletins, but it seems like heritage buildings haven't killed many, if any, people, unless the CTV building is a heritage building? the Pyne Gould building was a fairly new building, and it turns out there were no tupapaku in the Cathedral. Are Gerry's statements perhaps the beginning of the developer's dream?
And yes Anonymous, there does seem to be more concern about hosting the RWC than it perhaps warrants!
Agreed with both above. I think the main point is Buster Brownlee has no idea how many people were killed by any given buildings. His statement has nothing to do with a concern about the public's safety. I think -taken in the context of today's announcement that the Govt is going to take over the recovery process- he's signaling it's business as usual. Buster and his mates will do as they please.
The main reason heritage buildings did not kill many folks is that many were roped off. I was a bit surprised the Cathedral was re-occupied so soon but hindsight is such a wonderful asset.
I think given the devastation the fact that so few people were killed and seriously injured is a miracle.
What real benefit will come to the people of Christchurch if the RWC is held here - pre-eartquake we expected tens of thousands of people to visit, stay a while, shop in our shops and drink in our pubs - if they are on cruise ships and being bussed to the game and back again then how does that help the Christchurch economy?
Pour all the money back into the infrastucture of Christchurch, homes, power, running water and functioning sewerage and get those businesses up and running so folks have jobs - the RWC will look after itself
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