She worked with the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery
Authority, to rebuild communities after the bushfires of 2009.
This presentation went far to fast for me to take good notes.
The scale of the disaster was similar to the Christchruch Earthquakes.
173 died
2133 properties destroyed
1500 properties damaged
33 local community recovery committees were formed, but the VBRRA was in
overall control.
There was a lot of pressure to spend the available money to assist
people, and to do it quickly. On reflection some of that early money
wasn't well used, and there is an ongoing need for funding two years
later, that would now be spent much more effectively.
There were several individual projects chosen as examples.
The chain of time that links the past, to the present, to the future,
has meaning for people.
After the disaster, the future needs to be made clear so that people can
have confidence in what they need to do in the present. A vision of the
future allows people to make decisions today. What we become is created
by the compounding of all those individual decisions.
Projects like Share an Idea, generate expectations that may not be
deliverable.
The city should be open to new possibilities but also bounded by
feasibility.
Communication strategies were critial to success. There was a page full
of different ideas that worked to some degree. Planners spent a lot of
time asking people about what was lost. Where did you shop? Where was
the meeting place? Where did you rest? What view do you remember? What
was your favourite place in the street? Where were the important trees?
This detail was used to map "cultural hotspots", street by street. What
works and what doesn't work. From detail like that the design of new
streets was developed. New shops were developed and the planners staged
events in the street, to make sure the stores had customers. Public
money was spent promoting new businesses because it wass important that
each new business was a "success", so that more investment would be
attracted into the scheme.
The VBRRA develped some early win projects to build confidence. Then
they created "catalyst projects", public works that would make private
investment attractive. For instance a project to build affordable public
housing for the elderly in the CBD was suggested. The project needs to
demonstrate excellence in design, and meet the highest standards in
terms of energy efficiency and sustainability. Start as you mean to go
on. Set an example.
Make places for people to go.
Bring art, and artists and musicians into the city. Use the vacant land
for temporary projects.
In the end, local people must "own" what they had created. Christchurch
has to BE SOMETHING, something different and identifyable; marketable;
to have enough uniqueness and life, that people want to be here, rather
than be somewhere else.