“Man, I hate Christchurch”

"Man I hate Christchurch," my friend said. I hadn't seen her in over a year, and those were some of the first words she said to me. It was January, and she got lost trying to pick me up from the central city on her drive up to the North Island. She was, of course, referring to the infuriating roads in the central city.
I wholeheartedly agreed with her, and not just with the roads. There were so many things about Christchurch I didn't like. It's flat and boring, most of it is just a series of suburbs based around the malls, and there was never any real need to go into the city. Last week I saw The Pledge For Christchurch book signing, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I felt like an asshole for not signing it, but it seemed trite and dishonest. Why would I now pretend to love Christchurch after its one true redeeming factor (the city centre) is destroyed? That would be like becoming a fan of Lady Gaga after she had a sex change and becomes Gentleman Gaga (you know this is going to happen).
Don't get me wrong: growing up in Nelson, Christchurch was the closest big city, and it was a wondrous place. I remember the trips we made down for Science Alive, the Antarctic Centre, Orana Park and Timezone. I completed my bachelors here, and even represented Canterbury for the U20 basketball team. After five years overseas, I came back to do postgrad. But I wasn't exactly excited to be coming back to live in Christchurch – it was just a good opportunity.
However, when I did come back in January, I noticed something slightly different. There was a giant line outside the Ron Mueck exhibit on its last day. This had already shattered the attendance record for a Christchurch art exhibit. I thought I noticed it too when the Buskers' Festival showed up. Maybe it was just me, but with the world attention it had received after the September earthquake (trust me, I was in Holland at the time, and it received a lot of attention), it felt like Christchurch was ready to become a truly important world city. Now – as much as it sucks for the many real victims of the earthquake – Christchurch has an amazing opportunity to finally turn into a city to really love; a city worth pledging for.
People like to talk about Kiwi spirit, ingenuity, and the will to rebuild, but this stubbornness could be exactly what could fuck it up again. I think the least of our concerns should be whether New Zealand designers, architects and companies are used to rebuild the city. We should get the world's most creative people, regardless of where they're from. Besides, as John Key beautifully (and yet ineloquently) said, people from many different countries died in the earthquake and the history of Christchurch is also theirs. So if there was ever an opportunity for Christchurch to become a world city, this is it. Screw Venice – in a few years, we could see James Bond in a high-speed gondola chase down the Avon.
A good city to look at is Kobe, where, in 1995, the Great Hanshin Earthquake killed about 6500 people, including over 4500 people in Kobe alone. I first visited in 2001, and didn't notice anything that suggested it had been destroyed by an earthquake. However, even then I did notice something different about it compared to other Japanese cities. In fact, later on, after spending several years in Japan, Kobe has to be my favourite large city. It was a great place to go shopping or to go on dates. As a city it's spacious. It makes sense. It's one of the few cities in Japan which is nice to walk around.
As I later learned, after the earthquake, the city put serious effort into city planning. Unlike every other place in Japan, the power lines are buried. Until then (and still in almost all other cities), the power companies said because Japan was earthquake-prone, it was too dangerous to bury the power lines. In reality, it was just cheaper to hang them between buildings, and after earthquakes, fallen power lines are a major hazard and start fires – not to mention that they are a major aesthetic eyesore. There are other measures the council took such as strategically-located parks with buried emergency supplies. There's surely more than I am aware of, but it all adds up to a city that has come back stronger than ever.
Sure, Kobe benefited from Japan having the world's second largest economy (they didn't have to resort to begging overseas graduates to repay their loans like a teenage boy begging to his girlfriend on prom night to "put-out"), and the issues we have to deal with in Christchurch are obviously completely different to what Kobe had. However, it shouldn't be controversial when I say that Christchurch can be far better than it ever was.
One thing we can already feel good about is that this disaster has mobilised the volunteering spirit of New Zealand. In the first three months after the Kobe quake 1.2 million people volunteered and Japan later recognised January 17 as national "Disaster Prevention and Volunteerism Day" as a commemoration. Because of this, the clean-up for the March 11 earthquake has no doubt gone much smoother.
Whether it be learning from small ski resort towns and making Christchurch a green city, or taking a page from Holland and putting in separated bike-paths, or copying cities like Hong Kong which requires all buildings to be approved by a feng shui committee, or 1850s Paris when Napoleon III's city planner Haussmann tore down 20,000 buildings in order to improve hygiene, safety, transport and the aesthetic of the Paris we know today, when I come back to Christchurch in probably in another five years, I hope I see a radically improved city. Otherwise, screw it; I'll go live in Kobe. That's my pledge to Christchurch.

FIVE ACTUAL CITIES THAT CAME BACK AFTER A BIG QUAKE

KOBE, JAPAN
17 January 1995
Magnitude 7.2
6434 fatalaties
Japan's worst earthquake in over 70 years saw the collapse of 200,000 buildings and one kilometre of an expressway, the destruction of 80% of the quays in the port, and the outbreak of fires across large portions of the city. It resulted in US$102.5 billion in damage in a city where only 3% of property was covered by earthquake insurance.
But recovery was swift. Just over a year later, manufacturing in the area was at 98% of its projected pre-quake level, and import volumes had recovered fully, with export volumes just behind. The disaster also resulted in an outpouring of volunteerism, and prompted Japanese authorities to install rubber blocks under bridges to absorb shock, rebuild buildings further apart to prevent a domino-falling effect, and improve their disaster response policies to be faster and more effective. Emergency food and water supply networks were established, and earthquake-proof shelters were constructed in public parks.

SANTIAGO, CHILE
3 March 1985
Magnitude 7.9
175 fatalaties
The earthquake, which was centred north west of Chile's capital city at a depth of 33 kilometres, destroyed 142,489 houses and left about a million people homeless. It caused landslides, damage to highways, and considerable damage to infrastructure, with basic services interrupted for a long period. Damage was then valued at more than US$1.046 billion.
The earthquake did not put a stop to the city's growth. The estimated 4.25 million population in 1985 has grown steadily to an estimated 6.68 million today.

SAN FRANCISCO, UNITED STATES
18 April 1906
Magnitude 7.7 – 7.9
3425 fatalities (estimated)
Enormous fires swiftly followed this earthquake, which are estimated to have caused 90% of the total destruction. Officials and businesspeople were quick to downplay the full impact of the disaster, and planning and reconstruction plans were quickly put in place (though delayed as the major banks had to wait 7 – 10 days to open their fireproof vaults, lest the heat cause the money inside to combust.
The reconstruction gave birth to many great improvements, including many developments synonymous with the city today. The poverty-stricken Chinatown was rebuilt in a more modern form (with many Chinese immigrants able to claim citizenship after the Hall of Records was destroyed), a neoclassical civic centre complex was established, wider streets put in place with arterial thoroughfares, a subway was built, a more people-friendly Fisherman's Wharf developed, and a monument to the city was erected. San Francisco is today the 13th most populous city in the United States.

NAPIER & HASTINGS, NEW ZEALAND
3 February 1931
Magnitude 7,8 (approx)
256 fatalaties
Nearly all buildings in the central areas of Napier and Hastings were levelled, and coastal areas around Napier lifted around two metres. As in San Francisco, fires quickly followed the earthquake in Napier, blown across the city by strong winds. Broken water mains meant the fires could not be fought effectively, and many buildings that had survived the quake were destroyed by the flames – along with people trapped inside them.
But good came out of the destruction. It prompted a review of New Zealand building codes, which were found to be inadequate. Buildings of that era became heavily reinforced. Aesthetically, both cities thrived; with fashionable art deco being used through much of the area. Today, it represents one of the world's finest collections of art deco.

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO
19 September 1985
Magnitude 8.1
10,000 – 40,000 fatalaties
Although the earthquake struck more than 350km away from the city, off the Mexican Pacific Coast, Mexico City's old lakebed foundation meant the strong quake caused considerable damage to the city, with an estimated cost of US$3-4 billion. As many as 700,000 people may have lost their homes.
A Civil Protection Committee was created in the aftermath to help better deal with major disasters; drilling in cooperation with other emergency services. Affiliated with the Committee is the "Brigada de Topos de Tlatelolco" (Mole Brigade of Tlatelolco), which began as a group of youths who volunteered to crawl into collapsed buildings to look for survivors (and successfully saved a number of lives including babies trapped in a collapsed hospital). This group has now evolved into a group of highly-trained specialists who have helped out in Taiwan, Haiti, and in the countries affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.