Talking about a future "vision" for Christchurch:
Successive earthquakes have destroyed our wealth. No amount of insurance
money or government funding can restore what we've lost. Think of that
like the death of a loved grandparent, now gone. You may have insurance
money, the proceeds from assets sold, but the person lost cannot be
restored. That's our situation. We can buy some things with the money we
have available, while it lasts, but we have to buy a new future, not the
old one. For some people the value they once held in their land and
building is gone. Restoration of that value on the same site may not be
possible, nor even desirable. If we build slowly and spend wisely, we
should be able to create a new city that's much better adapted to the
future than the old city was. In the new Christchurch, it should be
cheaper to live, and easier to move about, and our lives might be less
dominated by commercial concerns and more bountiful in other ways. We
might buy less and grow more. We might spend less time working and more
time dancing.
More here:
http://johnsveitch.blogspot.com/