Seven years on – a day to reflect

Today marks seven years since 185 people were killed and many more injured in the most significant earthquake to shake our region since September 2010.

Our community will fall silent at 12.51pm to remember that day and the lives lost or changed forever.

Today is also a day for us to take stock.

The Press examines seven of the most significant challenges still facing our city, celebrates seven of the best places to have emerged from the rubble, and talks to seven of our most influential figures about their hopes for the city.

We also cast forward to imagine how Christchurch will look seven years from now, in 2025.

Christchurch now has more people, more homes, and higher incomes than it did in February

2011.

Statistics NZ figures show

36,000 new homes have been consented in Canterbury and the region’s economy grew by $8 billion in the five years after March 2011.

The statistics underpin a growing sense of optimism, with several leaders describing Christchurch as a ‘‘city of opportunity’’.

Thousands are returning to the central city to shop, work and socialise – though fewer have chosen to live in the inner city than planners had hoped.

The fate of the Christ Church Cathedral is finally agreed.

Leading developer Richard Peebles says Christchurch is ‘‘on the verge of something spectacular’’.

But he also warns its success is ‘‘vulnerable’’ and decisions must be made on the remaining anchor projects.

Momentum is indeed needed. While the new central library, Tu¯ ranga, nears completion, the convention centre is years away

‘‘The statistics underpin a growing sense of optimism, with several leaders describing Christchurch as a ‘city of opportunity’.’’

with a scheduled opening date in 2020. The metro sports facility and the stadium have yet to get off the ground.

It is likely to take a generation to fully realise developments in the residential red zone.

And despite $1b earmarked by the Christchurch City Council for a decade of repairs and improvements to the roading network – including $206 million for cycleways – it will be 20 years before the city’s roads reach the standard expected in other cities.

Thousands still await repairs or re-repairs to their homes, despite more than $30b in insurance claims having been paid.

A looming question mark remains over who will fund the remediation of hidden problems in quake-damaged homes sold to unwitting buyers.

Today, the Government is expected to announce new money for tackling mental health.

Hopes remains that a preelection pledge from Labour for a $300m capital fund for the rebuild will be realised in the May Budget.

The theme of today’s 12.30pm service at the Canterbury Earthquake National Memorial Oi Manawa is ‘‘Keeping their dreams alive’’.

What more could we hope for?