Mike's Minute: Is it time to flag the Christchurch Cathedral?

Published: April 8, 2024, 4:17 a.m.

The cathedral in Christchurch is what happens when you get bogged down in procrastination.\xa0

Of all the good Christchurch has done, and there is so much to be proud of, there remains well over a dozen years later some glaring holes, probably the biggest of which is smack in the middle of town.\xa0

A simple question to start - if we hadn't waited 12-plus years to not make a decision, would the bill be what it is today?\xa0

No.\xa0

Another question - is all the angst and upset and fighting and bitching worth the end result, which so far is nothing?\xa0

No.\xa0

So, what have we achieved? We have worn ourselves out with arguing and lawyers and protest and back and forward, and how much further on are we here in 2024? Not much.\xa0

So, what has been the point? My sense of it was it was always going to be a slightly contentious sort of debate. Religion, money and a city all mangled up in an argument was fraught.\xa0

But I never in my wildest dreams thought we would take so long to do so little.\xa0

There is no excuse. It's everything that happens when you get a committee involved. You become paralysed.\xa0

Three options always gave you the predictable road to nowhere; rebuild it new and different, build something a bit new and a bit like the old one, or do it right and build what got damaged.\xa0

That, of course, was the correct thing to do. But in this day and age, with associated lack of labour and skills and money, going to get done.\xa0

As we sit here now with the story of a mothballing I think most of us would accept anything is better than a 12-year scrap that led no place.\xa0

One argument, and I am increasingly heading towards it, is flag it.\xa0

Christchurch is big enough, new enough, bold enough and vibrant enough not to need a cathedral in the centre of it.\xa0

It\u2019s a nice nod to history and its origins, but if the guardians can't get out of their own way then flag it and move on.\xa0

And in 100 years no one will know the difference, nor will they care.\xa0

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.