Time for city to face the ocean

The ‘‘rebuild’’ is a term sadly lacking in imagination for the process that Christchurch has been enduring for the last several years. It suggests that when our city resembles the one it was on February 21, 2011, then the work will be complete.

But we are not rebuilding the same city and really, why would we want to?

Although we shouldn’t forget the many beloved places lost in the earthquakes, the tectonic forces that destroyed also created the opportunity for an entirely new city.

The Press is as guilty as anyone for fixating on the CDB’s anchor projects as a guide to the progress of this new city.

With the justice precinct opening well behind schedule and the convention centre barely started, it is appropriate for journalists to be holding the Crown and other authorities to account.

But it can lead to us giving the impression that large expensive buildings in the centre city are what people value, whereas unless you work (or perhaps are sentenced) in the justice precinct, or really like going to conventions, that is unlikely.

People value their communities, their amenities and their free time.

That is why the news that work on the Coastal Pathway section between Peacock’s Gallop and Sumner is expected to start next year is so welcome.

Christchurch is a coastal city and the more we can make the coast accessible to people, the more valuable to their lives it will become.

The thousands of brightly dressed runners and walkers who puffed from New Brighton Pier to Redcliffs Park during Sunday’s Summer Starter were like a multi-hued signpost pointing to a city that embraces its coastal status.

They were helped by road closures and cones but imagine being able to safely walk the edge of Pegasus Bay all the way from Spencer Park to Scarborough. And getting some of the people out of the long stream of cars that wend their way to Sumner on a hot weekend would help make that journey safer too.

The Coastal Pathway from Ferrymead to Sumner is part of that vision, and a proposal to make a 19-km boardwalk along the Brighton dunes is another.

But filling the gaps in that vision will take boldness and funding, as well as imagination.

The most difficult and expensive part of the Coastal Pathway is the 800-metre section between Monck’s Bay, which is estimated to coast $10 million, as the pathway would have to be a cantilevered boardwalk built over the sea.

There is no city council money budgeted for that and a previous application to central Government through its cycleways fund was declined. Cycle path funding has mostly gone to the arterial route being built through the city.

If the work/life balance gurus are to be believed, recreation is as important as commuting. We should seize this chance to lift the city’s coastal profile and help create an amenity for us all.

We urge the Government to see the value in the Coastal Pathway and look more favourably on a renewed funding application from the Christchurch Coastal Pathway Group. And the city council and Regenerate Christchurch should look at moving the first 900m section of the Brighton dunes boardwalk off the back burner as our new city turns to face the Pacific Ocean.

Now, how about a solution to that pesky easterly?