Damn! Lost a two screen blog??????
Kiwi's abbreviate this town name as Chch. Much shorter. Five years ago there was a severe earthquake here, and an equally bad aftershock some time later. The 150 year old cathedral was severely damaged and in danger of collapsing so they quickly put up massive steel bracing to hold the front wall and bell tower in place. Then that bad aftershock came, and they both fell so the steel is bent but still standing holding up air, cause the front wall and bell tower are rubble about fifteen feet deep n the church's front steps. I was told by the shuttle driver that thousands of buildings were destroyed or severely damaged, so as to need almost complete rebuilding. There is rebuilding everywhere in the greater downtown area, except for the cathedral which is the subject of a huge debate whether to tear down and rebuild, which is probably cheaper, or to restore the historic building... no decision yet, the same scenariois going on for a number of historic buildings, including the oldest building in Chch. There are fenced off buildings everywhere downtown, they are bordered up, and standing there, or under construction with cranes hovering above them. The big department store here has been in business for well over a hundred years and part of it fell in the earthquake, the part of the building that remained standing has been repaired, except for the back part which fell, where they have attached a barn like pole building to the restored part of the building and the two inside are a glamorous whole, now. Even the outside has been doctored up to look glamorous. This store is like Marshall Fields and Younkers looked like, and had better merchandise before being bought out and cheapened. Really classey, even with the pole building's east end. So many stores were out of business that they came up with an ingenious solution, they used shipping crates, fixed them up, with store display windows, some are one crate big, some are double deckers, some are connected in an "L" or ,"U", shape or other configeretions. Where they had to tear down a couple of square blocks of destroyed buildings, they built this mall with the shipping crates. There are comic art works, plantings... many of them, benches, out door meeting areas. This new mall looks great, it is do innovative. I would think it should be a permanent fixture of the new downtown area. There are square blocks, in a few places multi-square blocks of grass fields where buildings have been removed, one huge multi-block area is across the street from this hotel. One square block has been converted from destroyed buildings to a great children's playground with a large number of playground structures... really nice. Talked to a lady from the next hotel down the road, and she just gushed about the playground her kids played in much of the afternoon. Her hotel seems to have been remodeled since the earthquake and had a three or four story half arch leaning against the whole side of the building and has small shops on both sides of the arch and a nice pedestrian mall, with the tram track down the middle. The tram is a hop on/,off tourist vehicle running around the downtown in the repaired and boarded up sections as well as the under construction areas. They have (present tense) a huge ww1 memorial arch in a big open area next to the shipping crate mall, on closer observation there is a picture taken maybe in the forties or fifty's with large buildings, stores and office buildings all around the arch. All those buildings are gone, but the memorial to the doughboys is still standing all by itself in a big open area. This was/is a beautiful city with mall's, plazas, streets intersecting at unusual angles, curvy streets, narrow alleys with store fronts and the single tram track down the middle of the pedestrian alleyway. Really pretty. The major Plaza in a sort of capital T shape in front of the cathedral with dramatic art works, seating areas, trees and a large "temporary" "tent" structure in front of the fence surrounding the almost destroyed cathedral's front wall with plants covering it and signs begging to save the historical cathedral, and to not tear it down and replace it with a new building. Chch is a livable city, and even with all the damage, is still a vibrant, peopled city, not crowded, but far from vacant city, it's on the mend! I happened to be walking down a street about five pm which has many buildings under repair, and the workers from three or four buildings were leaving work for the day and both sides of the street was a sea of yellow construction helmets and vests. Even with all the non-functioning buildings, I've been on the streets two nites and there are people everywhere, not an abandoned city at all, far from it!
Kiwi's abbreviate this town name as Chch. Much shorter. Five years ago there was a severe earthquake here, and an equally bad aftershock some time later. The 150 year old cathedral was severely damaged and in danger of collapsing so they quickly put up massive steel bracing to hold the front wall and bell tower in place. Then that bad aftershock came, and they both fell so the steel is bent but still standing holding up air, cause the front wall and bell tower are rubble about fifteen feet deep n the church's front steps. I was told by the shuttle driver that thousands of buildings were destroyed or severely damaged, so as to need almost complete rebuilding. There is rebuilding everywhere in the greater downtown area, except for the cathedral which is the subject of a huge debate whether to tear down and rebuild, which is probably cheaper, or to restore the historic building... no decision yet, the same scenariois going on for a number of historic buildings, including the oldest building in Chch. There are fenced off buildings everywhere downtown, they are bordered up, and standing there, or under construction with cranes hovering above them. The big department store here has been in business for well over a hundred years and part of it fell in the earthquake, the part of the building that remained standing has been repaired, except for the back part which fell, where they have attached a barn like pole building to the restored part of the building and the two inside are a glamorous whole, now. Even the outside has been doctored up to look glamorous. This store is like Marshall Fields and Younkers looked like, and had better merchandise before being bought out and cheapened. Really classey, even with the pole building's east end. So many stores were out of business that they came up with an ingenious solution, they used shipping crates, fixed them up, with store display windows, some are one crate big, some are double deckers, some are connected in an "L" or ,"U", shape or other configeretions. Where they had to tear down a couple of square blocks of destroyed buildings, they built this mall with the shipping crates. There are comic art works, plantings... many of them, benches, out door meeting areas. This new mall looks great, it is do innovative. I would think it should be a permanent fixture of the new downtown area. There are square blocks, in a few places multi-square blocks of grass fields where buildings have been removed, one huge multi-block area is across the street from this hotel. One square block has been converted from destroyed buildings to a great children's playground with a large number of playground structures... really nice. Talked to a lady from the next hotel down the road, and she just gushed about the playground her kids played in much of the afternoon. Her hotel seems to have been remodeled since the earthquake and had a three or four story half arch leaning against the whole side of the building and has small shops on both sides of the arch and a nice pedestrian mall, with the tram track down the middle. The tram is a hop on/,off tourist vehicle running around the downtown in the repaired and boarded up sections as well as the under construction areas. They have (present tense) a huge ww1 memorial arch in a big open area next to the shipping crate mall, on closer observation there is a picture taken maybe in the forties or fifty's with large buildings, stores and office buildings all around the arch. All those buildings are gone, but the memorial to the doughboys is still standing all by itself in a big open area. This was/is a beautiful city with mall's, plazas, streets intersecting at unusual angles, curvy streets, narrow alleys with store fronts and the single tram track down the middle of the pedestrian alleyway. Really pretty. The major Plaza in a sort of capital T shape in front of the cathedral with dramatic art works, seating areas, trees and a large "temporary" "tent" structure in front of the fence surrounding the almost destroyed cathedral's front wall with plants covering it and signs begging to save the historical cathedral, and to not tear it down and replace it with a new building. Chch is a livable city, and even with all the damage, is still a vibrant, peopled city, not crowded, but far from vacant city, it's on the mend! I happened to be walking down a street about five pm which has many buildings under repair, and the workers from three or four buildings were leaving work for the day and both sides of the street was a sea of yellow construction helmets and vests. Even with all the non-functioning buildings, I've been on the streets two nites and there are people everywhere, not an abandoned city at all, far from it!
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