http://www.streetgroups.co.nz/christchurchforums.html
First Published in September 2010.
Given an event scheduled for 1st February that nobody has yet chosen to
tell us about, (Is it supposed to be a secret?) it seems appropriate to
post these lines that I wrote last September. (Note Item 4.)
[quote]
These Neighbours Forums connect you online to a real-world local
community. We can talk to people who live near us about what's important
to us. We can talk about what is and is not working. About what we need.
About what we can do for each other.
A central purpose for the forums is to help each of us step up and be
responsible for the development of the new Christchurch. Prof. Douglas
Ahlers, tells us that individuals who do that recover quicker. Your
"recovery" is not unnoticed, it spreads to the people you know. Streets,
where people talk together and rebuild together, recover quicker and do
better. Whole districts can recover, but it happens person by person,
and street by street and block by block.
There are four reconstructions to do.
1. A rethinking and a reconstruction of the natural environment. How do
we build a better city here?
2. A rebuilding of the social and cultural fabric of the city, fixing
the damage we can't see. This means less reliance on "professionals" to
"fix us" and more reliance on ourselves, on family values, and on
community connection.
3. A rebuilding of the physical infrastructure, safer, with provision
for the future built in. The cultural centre of the city is likely to be
in the same place. People are asking for a sustainable city, but that
demands a lot of change that we won't get unless we work hard.
Sustainablity demands a lot of hard thinking about really basic issues,
and it's easier to avoid that effort. I expect at least for the next few
years we won't have the money to continue with unsustainable practices.
Hard choices will be forced upon us.
4. Finally we have to restore the full democratic function of
Environment Canterbury and the Christchurch City Council.
These OPEN forums are open, to everyone to join, open for you to have a
say. There are no experts here. You have the knowledge you have, and
that's all any of us know. When we share our knowledge sometimes we can
see more clearly what's going on. There are no secret places in open forums.
Many people have told us that we don't understand and can't comprehend
what's happened to the city yet. By talking to each other, by exploring
the city, by quietly having a cup or tea and thinking about it, slowly
we will process all the new information we need to understand. This is a
task we can do. We need to help each other to do it.
[end quote]