The colours of our land

All of Christchurch is now designated a colour, or is in the process of being decided. What the colour is says a lot about the official view of the status of your land post earthquake and in the event of more earthquakes.

If like me your land is green it's then tagged with an additional colour. Green-grey - undamaged and low risk of damage in another seismic event. Green-yellow - undamaged with a moderate risk of liquifaction in another event.
Green-blue - damaged but repairable (but at what cost, who will pay, when etc is all vague.
Orange - not in great shape but the final status is still being determined. Many previously zoned orange land is now green-blue.
Red - seriously munted land. Your home will be demolished (if it isn't already).

The additional green tags of grey and yellow only matter if land designated that way is built on in future. New foundation requirement must be met. But if like me your land is green-yellow and is undamaged then that's good and it's business as usual. That's not to say I won't have liquifacation in future, but there has been none up to now.

Where I feel increasingly uneasy is for those whose land is green-blue or red. They can't get access to the technical reports and there is no consultation. Often all they want is to be listened to, heard and be given information. Often they're labelled whinging moaners who should be grateful. Nearly all are passed from pillar to post by insurance companies slow to fork out payments and EQC who sends them back to their insurance companies.

Easy when your home has damaged that can be fixed and your land is fine. Really hard to understand if your land is munted and green and across the road is munted and red, yet apparently someone decided to draw the line just here.

Really hard if your house is stuffed and the value you're offered isn't enough to buy something similar. It's made worse by those wonderful things 'market forces' which have determined new sections cost heaps more.

And that's the story behind these crosses. Someone decided a cross coloured the colour of your land would represent the burden for each person. Rather than leave the crosses on the door step of CERA (Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority) and have a security dude chuck them out, St Luke's offered their land as a place to leave the crosses.

I tried to get inside the security fence (it's not that secure in places) but a man was watching me so I chickened out. Didn't stop me grovelling on the ground and lifting the bottom wire though ;-)

I'm out for a Christmas thingy tonight so I'll catch you later.