Marsden is Here

Most people are probably aware that over the past going on 24 hours NZ has been hit by another series of major earthquakes starting at very just after midnight Sunday/Monday. I had not long gone to bed when it hit so after about 10 seconds of "aftershock" and then ~ 1:20 minutes of "nope, crap, that's a BIG quake inland just getting here" and some minutes on FB checking that no-one in Christchurch itself was reporting major issues I went off to sleep, thus not seeing the tsunami warning and evacuation notices (which didn't affect me anyway) until checking again during a wake around 4am. I figured if anyone needed transport or to shelter at my place I would get a message or txt directly so I slept for another few hours, starting the day feeling not significantly tireder than usual. That wasn't to last.

Fortunately I had already booked the day off work to recover from attending a 48 hour charity event over the weekend (more on that below). The first hour or so I spent touching base with various people by FB and phone before starting on my pre-existing chores list. I didn't get through as much of this as hoped - a somewhat overdue cleaning of the bathroom leaving me physically exhausted and attempting to set the ball rolling on a safety inspection of the Hall further soaked up energy. I eventually spent 2-3 hours napping - in part to shut down some nervous energy and generalised anxiety - before setting out to help a friend with transport and hugs, do the grocery shopping and after a simple dinner deliver some care packages. (One of which had already been on my to-do list but which under the circumstances I bulked up a bit more ;) ) I could tell that I probably shouldn't be driving well before I got home, and if I wasn't waiting for a better time to take my meds I would be back in bed already.

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Friday / Saturday I spent about 24 hours total at SAGA's now-annual 48-hour gaming event to raise money for charity (this year AVIVA). I'll just copy and paste from my FB statuses here ...

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Saturday 4:30pm
Plays so far:
Colony Wars (obliterated by Daniel Starky's base spam strategy)
Thurn & Taxis (resounding win)
Dominion w. Prosperity (barely last but a long way from the winner)
Broken Eagle the Learned Nano who Combines Words of Power is about to set out into the world of Numenera in search of greater knowledge.

Saturday 10:50pm
After Numenera finished off for the day with a game of Tiny Kingdoms. Didn't do particularly well but probably OK for a first time.
I'd liked to have stayed longer but it is patently obvious that it would be a very bad Idea. If I can get a good sleep tonight I may be able to stay later tomorrow night.

Sunday 3:20am
Didn't get to games until after 2pm but then stayed somewhat longer than expected. Still 3am is no later than I get home from a good party. Cat seems unimpressed by my long absence.
Plays today (pretty sure I have forgotten something)
Tiny Epic Kingdoms
Settlers of Catan
DC Heroes
Colony Wars
Zombie Dice
Biblios
Kingsburg
Seven Wonders
Istanbul (new)
---

... preliminary reports are that we raised well over $1000 if everyone comes through on their pledges. I enjoyed myself - overly much so without really realising it, on the Friday in particular which left me stuck in bed until much later than I had planned on Saturday. I did spend more time and energy than I had hoped taking the lead in deciding on and teaching games; the teaching not so much of a problem (I was actually recommended, to my face, and later even messaged thanks for the fun time someone had as a result). I also made sure one person who probably otherwise would not have made it but I knew would benefit greatly from getting out of the house got both there and home.

As always I experienced more downtime between games than I would have liked, but I had gone prepared for that also with things to do.

Sunday afternoon (you noticed the status update at 3:20AM above?) was spent on a few chores and Sunday evening instead of my usual game we chilled and watched Guardians of the Galaxy which a couple of our members had missed at the theatre. (I am really enjoying the new projector.) I actually went to bed feeling uncommonly relaxed and happy ... and then the quake hit.

~~~
That has filled in the time nicely; shortly I will be abed and hopefully will feel much better in the morning. Because otherwise I am /not/ looking forward to work tomorrow.

Girl in the Shadows: Dasani’s Homeless Life
via FB: an in depth look at the life of an 11 year old girl and her family in New York - how they got there, what the future might bring. Very long, 5 parts of mostly heartache and the occasional faint glimmer of hope.

Her family lives in the Auburn Family Residence, a decrepit city-run shelter for the homeless. It is a place where mold creeps up walls and roaches swarm, where feces and vomit plug communal toilets, where sexual predators have roamed and small children stand guard for their single mothers outside filthy showers.

It is no place for children. Yet Dasani is among 280 children at the shelter. Beyond its walls, she belongs to a vast and invisible tribe of more than 22,000 homeless children in New York, the highest number since the Great Depression, in the most unequal metropolis in America.

Nearly a quarter of Dasani’s childhood has unfolded at Auburn, where she shares a 520-square-foot room with her parents and seven siblings. As they begin to stir on this frigid January day, Dasani sets about her chores.

~~~~
One could be grateful that this is on the far side of the world, clearly someone else's problem. Could say that America does not have even the (increasingly holey) social security net that New Zealand boasts. Share it on Facebook as if to say "how bad the world is, how well we have it" and move along.

The NZ media does occasionally deign to pick up on these same issues in New Zealand - it was the topic du jour for a little while in 2010-11 but it seems unlikely little has changed.
- Entire families living in a relative's garage or multiple families crammed together in one home while they wait for state housing to become available. (2010)
- People's needs for accommodation deliberately not even recorded by Housing New Zealand leaving them with no option but to camp in the worst of private accommodation with no tenants rights (Both 2011 - I think WINZ has taking over determining accommodation eligibility but I have little confidence that anything has changed in practice).
- Garage life for two years (2013)

And I don't need a link for anyone reading this to know what the accommodation situation in Christchurch has been like for the past few years. "Temporary" must be starting to look like "childhood" for many.

The numbers may be debatable - perhaps things have improved in NZ since the first of these articles was written. But in the modern, caring, wealthy society which we supposedly aspire to be one person - especially one child - without even the option of a basic, clean, place to live in should be one too many.

And I am certain that the scope of the problem is still actually far wider than I can glimpse from my comfortable middle-class life. I sense a fear in me, that if I actually go looking I will be overwhelmed at the scale and feel unable to make any real difference - thus I "bide my time" and passively watch for opportunities to help within my means and not detrimental to my own (middle class) goals. Would I open my home to strangers? I've seriously considered it post-quake but decided against for mental health's sake (mine and my flatmate's (even if he agreed to the idea)).

Still we are losing bright children (truth be most if not all children are bright); now more than ever we as a society are throwing away their futures through our own inaction when we have the capacity to do better. A week ago I shared on FB an article about Variety looking for sponsors to help families pay back-to-school costs.

A charity is crying out for donors as poverty-stricken parents seek sponsorship for the back-to-school costs of their children.

More than 170 applications have been made for Kiwi Kid sponsorship so far this year, including 21 from Christchurch, and Variety - The Children's Charity needs more sponsors.

There were already 705 children - 116 from Christchurch - receiving financial support nationwide in its first year, much like that offered to children in Third World countries through World Vision.

.
At the time I said

This presses *many* of my buttons - children, local poverty, education...
I'm fighting a 3-way battle between reflexively signing up; knowing that I'm supposed to be keeping a tighter reign on my spending this year (and so far have been failing miserably); and feeling I could probably find someone in need that I could give the full $35+ per month to directly.

and at the time inertia won. Now I'm making a commitment to reassess my budget for the year, do some research and commit something regular on top of the irregular amounts I give the phone collectors and occasional worthy givealittle/pledgeme/etc call that comes across my radar - whether through Variety or some other avenue (I wonder if Adopt a Christchurch Family is still actually going).

~~~
This topic also conveniently leads into my next post - thoughts on the just-announced Labour party policy of an extra $60/week entitlement for families with newborns possibly following up to the age of 3 years.

That's what they said about Cracroft House, which met the bulldozers this week.

I'm afraid the same can very much be said of Antonio Hall. As I've said since the first visit, it would take love (as well as money) to save. And it's clear that the owners don't care and aren't inclined to co-operate with anyone who does :(

The Historic Places Trust are apparently looking for buildings to save in the residential red zone, and there are no doubt buildings worth saving. My own criteria would include "could the building have a future as something other than a time capsule" - that's why I like the Hall, but I don't know how many of the ones in the red zone will meet that.

The cabin in the above article for instance will probably stand another move. Other buildings though I could see becoming little deserted islands.

There has been quite a bit of activity today. My garage has walls again, if not a front. Still some patch-up work to do with the painting - some of the first coat didn't take to some of the plaster in the dining room and kitchen. Otherwise everything but the office has had its two coats.

I've cleaned the inside glass of the windows in the kitchen/dining and I'll do the frames before the furniture goes back in.

Probably won't be moved back into the office fully by Friday - but should have it available for storage.

It was a very noisy day.


The plasterer was also here for a few hours this morning.

And the people they have assigned to repair earthquake damage here.

Seems to have been a shorter version of the "full assessment" which was done a while ago. Now that they've seen what needs to be done for themselves they will be sorting out quotes.

Expect to hear back in "about 8 weeks, could be longer".

And I need to go track down a source of dry-erase paint for the potential painting-of-the-office with [plots].

I'm pretty much just going to work though the sections until I get tired of reading, jotting down my thoughts.

The Big Picture
Nothing much extra comes to mind over the introduction/big picture that I don't expect to be commenting on later, until we get to Implementation where it starts talking about who/how the projects in the plan will be paid for. The most concrete part of this section is in identifying the "catalyst projects" the council plans to be take the lad in paying for - ie "public investment". While it is expected that "private investment" will be 10x that the details about where this is actually going to come from ... feel hollow. Blather about "incentives" and "leadership".

This document probably isn't the place to list the private projects which are no doubt already being planned, but I would feel better if that information was available somewhere.

Guiding Principles
Five principles were defined to draft the plan
- Foster business investment
- Respect for the Past
- A long term view of the future
- Easy to get around
- Vibrant central city living

I don't know if the order they are presented in the draft is reflective of their relevant importance (doubtless the official position is that they are all equally important) but to my mind "A long term view of the future" expresses something that people really need to get their heads around. The timeline in the plan itself covers about 20 years - the foreseeable future really. I do expect that within my lifetime we will get to the point where construction and development stops containing an element of "rebuild".
But what is being put in place here will shape Christchurch for another 100 years or more (barring sinking into the ocean), just as Christchurch to date has been shaped by street plans laid out in 1850, or by the brick buildings erected around the turn of the 20th century (there is a nice potted history on pages 17-20).

The way ahead
This section lays out the process of finalising the plan and work which is ongoing - eg further analysis. It also contains this section which describes the largest short-term hurdle to getting started...

Insurance
Insurance companies and their reinsurers are facing what they describe as “unprecedented events” and Canterbury’s earthquake risk level remains a real concern to the insurance industry. The primary issue revolves around the level of ongoing seismic activity to the extent there is no appetite for insurers to take on new risk (i.e. risk they do not currently have). This has a significant impact on rebuilding with little (if any) ability to secure insurance for these projects. The banking industry is wanting certainty that standard insurance cover, including earthquake cover, is in place at the outset of a project. This issue is well known at all levels including central government and is a significant risk factor that could impact on delivery of the Plan.

Money is available from non-bank sources for the public works, although I wonder if projects are legally required to have insurance before they can start. That might require careful use of those law-rewriting powers the minister has.
But unless there is a developer out there with deep pockets and a willingness to take the risk, that vital private investment could be slow in coming. Or a bank willing to cut some slack - it can be assumed that the international re-insurers won't cut any, but our internationally owned banks are mostly based in Australia and might be a little friendlier.

The Christchurch City Council today released the draft plan for the post-earthquake recovery of the Central City, an outcome (partially) of the Share an Idea program.

The Press put it online at issuu.com but it's pretty unreadable in that format - if you don't want to register an account there to get the pdf I've re-uploaded it here: http://lts.cr/KQQ

Edit: or get it from the council website: http://www.ccc.govt.nz/homeliving/civildefence/chchearthquake/centralcityplan.aspx

I've skimmed it pretty thoroughly but I'm not going to make any detailed commentary until some of it has sunk in and I've made another pass or three. First impression is that it contains pretty much everything that I could have asked for and more besides - I saw nothing to disagree with. And that's why I'm going to describe it as a vision rather than a plan - it aims high and the hurdles to be overcome in achieving it are walls made of flesh. There are a lot of other stakeholders who need to buy in and stump up before even a fraction can be achieved.

Just had a call from the chap I had lined up to fix my roof. He can replace the tiles but EQC won't let him touch the chimney. Which means while the roof will be weather-tight (distinct improvement) I still won't be able to use my fireplace (defeats half the purpose).

So tomorrow I
a) call EQC to find out what I need to do to get my chimney fixed as well as my roof.
b) visit some more fireplace retailers to find out if any have an installer not completely overwhelmed by EQC work. If the chimney is no longer there they no longer have any say in the matter.