2y ago

Dirty old buildings in the central city and those ugly shipping containers

The other day I met a guy from Chengdu, so I looked it up on YouTube. I also follow a modest YouTuber who uploads videos of Saint Petersburg when he goes for walks with his wife and granddaughter.

I'm not suggesting that Christchurch should look like one of these big cities with 10 or 20 million people, but could we please knock down that derelict building that's next to the bus exchange? It has walls falling down, and graffiti everywhere. Then there's the case of shipping containers on the side of the road.

These inner-city features give third world vibes. I don't care what these buildings are, please destroy them.

We also need a city-wide land tax to encourage development. There are empty sections all around Christchurch that aren't being used for anything (or they are just for parking a jetboat). I saw two properties in Sumner that are used for parking a jet boat, and there are places in Riccarton like Kirkwood Ave and Leslie Street, each have an empty section which has been empty for 20+ years. The central and local governments aren't doing anything to solve these problems.

32 comments

If I’m elected mayor, I will increase rates by 50% every year on any derelict or empty central city property. I’m including gravel parking lots in that.
- In all honesty we should all be running for community board. They actually have a bit of power. It just costs money to register, that's my problem lol. Priorities.
  
  Or just get in touch with members of your existing board. Mine are really keen to help out, they’re mostly great people.
- The land owner will be bankrupt and end up in jail because of debt owed to the council. Then I guess the land can be confiscated by the city and the city can do whatever it wants with it.
  Good plan to confiscate property people.
  
  Or more likely they’ll sell it in a hurry to a developer who wants to - ya know - develop it. Why the media keeps calling these shameless landbankers “developers” is beyond me.
  Still fighting insurance? Too bad, it’s been more than 10 years. I’m sick of living in a half-finished city.
  
  Hey, now you're talking
- Man you really upset exactly one person with that policy.
This is an issue in Wellington as well, we have a few buildings of dubious "heritage" value, that cannot be torn down, as well as a few where the owner just seems unwilling to do anything with them.
It's really holding us back as well.
- You can't say it's bad until you've seen the mansion on Riccarton Road here in Christchurch. It's been gutted by arson, but it's still "heritage" lol. It's owned by a bank or investment firm or something. It should be knocked down and turned into apartments, with restaurants and shops on the lower level.
  
  Yeah, the last time I was in Christchurch was a few years ago now, and they had a number of empty lots in the CBD still, as well as a rotting pile of stone in the middle of the city.
  Hopefully those building owners are paying full commercial rates on those properties.
What could the council do? If they don't own the land they can't force the land owner to build a building on it. you really want to live in a city where the council tells people how they must use their land?
- Personally I think the concept of private land ownership is nonsensical, so that doesn't bother me. I want land to be used for the good of the common people, not for whoever has enough money to speculate on it.
  
  I wonder if the communist party of NZ is still active. It seems like they should have a successful recruitment effort here and elsewhere online.
- They could have such measure in place for 5 - 10 years and then get rid of it.
  
  What measure?

32 comments