Since 3 April we've added only 22 members.
I attended the Resilient Futures - Christchurch Recovery Conference.
The best success reported was in Kobe, where there was a total ban on all
rebuilding for two months.
Then they produced a set of design principles for the new city.
They sent planners into local areas to do detailed local planning.
They produced the "Peoples Plan". In the process, they held three community
congresses and four rounds of local planning meetings.
The city established a call centre, a web site, and sent paid community
organisers into every area. Local newsletters were written and distributed.
There was intensive work in neighbourhoods involving planners, community
organisers and local stakeholders.
So that was the second step, detailed local planning.
The third step was called, "Honouring the Rights of the Residents", meaning
that the people who rented apartments and those who came into an area only to
work, or to shop, also had rights.
The earthquake is a SOCIAL Disaster. All this work with the community rebuilds
the social fabric of the community. In Kobe the council's expenditure on
planning and communication with the public was very large. (I need to find the
numbers but unbelievably large.)
There is a G A P between the need to involve people and our ability to do
it. People have almost zero experience of successful organisation online.
They think "public meetings". Followed by, "I don't need to go".
If we can really build the numbers involved in the online discussion, and build
the quality of the discussion, the meetings will be attended by a critical core
of people who have a better grasp of the issues. We should be able to get a
better result for the effort.
What we are attempting to do here, in these forums has never been done before.
However, with the current effort to build the forums being entirely inadequate,
the attempt is certain to fail.
That wouldn't matter, if I was sure the direction the Christchurch is on was in
capable hands. I don't have that confidence. I do know that Kaiapoi had success
that was not replicated in Christchurch, and that was all about leadership.
(Mostly that Sandra James didn't know what to do, and she looked for help and
found two things: "Asset Based Community Development" and the personal
connections into the community of the Kaiapoi people who worked in her office.)
As I see it, Christchurch is handicapped by people who KNOW exactly what they
are going to do. People who want quick runs on the board, and the credit for
scoring those runs. We work with what we've got.
CERA can be made to work, but only if there is a means for the public to
influence what happens. That process doesn't exist. The members of the
community boards are working very hard to create a process, but they are
overwhelmed.
Besides, a representative approach doesn't do enough to involve people, in a
way that rebuilds the social structure. People have to be involved in the
decision making and in the re-building. Personally involved, not at a distance.
The more that can be achieved the better the success. That takes us back to
"Asset Based Community Development", asset mapping, street groups, active
community workers, engaging people in ways that recognise and use their
strengths.
Sorry if that was a rant.