| Saturday, July 21, 2012 9:00 AM

Are you suffering from strategy fatigue?

The city council is gearing up to try and engage a jaded community on its draft transport strategy for the next 30 years. Aside from a gaggle of policy wonks, fringe lobbyists, retired academics, and anti-car crazies, how many people really have the appetite to actively wade their way through another public consultation exercise?

Over the course of the past year, we have been bled dry and run down by the consultation juggernaut. The central city plan, the annual plan, CERA’s Recovery Strategy… and on it goes. Enough! It is a paper shuffling industry that is out of control.

I note that at the same time that the city council is crystal-balling on public transport, the regional council is soliciting the public’s views on the future shape of the metro bus service. What an earth do these public policy planners do when they’re not throttling the public with another strategy document? 

Last year’s ‘Share an Idea’ central city plan delivered the city council a very clear message. Public opinion strongly supports commuter rail on the existing corridors from Rolleston and Rangiora, but light rail is largely viewed as an unnecessary, unaffordable absurdity.

The Earthquake Recovery Minister appears to support that view, believing that commuter rail must be given the priority. Yet, that has not stopped the city council pushing its light rail hobby horse again, by thrusting it onto the draft transport strategy agenda. Does it really make sense to splash out $400 million on a light rail connection from the city centre to the university, down the middle of Riccarton Rd?

 

Carr’s vision

Congratulations to the young architectural graduate James Carr, who has energised the city with his uplifting designs for new quake-safe, neo-Gothic buildings to be part of Christchurch’s future. The legacy of Benjamin Mounfort’s iconic buildings has always been this city’s point of difference. Is Benjamin’s baton being passed to the young cub Carr?  Amongst the cooker cutter malaise of modern architectural mediocrity, it would be nice if form could trump function in some of our new buildings. And a few more neo-Gothic buildings, as part of eclectic new Christchurch, would not go amiss. Bring on the turrets!

 

Bang for your buck

A frisson of primal excitement rippled across Canterbury at lunchtime on Monday, as news spread that the old Newstalk ZB building would be detonated. It’s the kind of spectacle a lot of people have been longing for. Mark the date in your diary, Sunday August 5, for the explosive climax. The radio station is strongly encouraging the building owner to give the public the chance to win the right to “push the button” as a charity fundraiser. Bang for your buck.