“To hell with resilience, more action, please.”
These words of a disgruntled, uncited local have restrained
me from writing an anticipated article on Christchurch’s ‘urban resilience’.
While resilience might well be urbanism’s most prevalent buzzword since
‘sustainability’ itself, I feel I must honour the above-quoted, unnamed radio
personality who rhetorically asked: “can we please stop patronising people by
gushing about their resilience?”
Indeed Cantabrians, being those who hail from the Canterbury
region in which Christchurch City is located, dealt and are dealing with the earthquakes
of 2010 to present remarkably well. But people are resilient. It’s what we do. Notwithstanding
how fantastically adaptable humans are, this article instead considers the
positive urban planning outcomes which have come out of Christchurch’s
preliminary recovery.
