Te Wai Pounamu / South Island

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Dirty old buildings in the central city and those ugly shipping containers (self.southisland)

submitted 1 year ago by jeff11 to c/southisland

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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.

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[–] cloventt 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It’s not that it wouldn’t be profitable to build on it. It’s that it’s more profitable not to build on it.

How would you incentivise these owners to fix their hideous eyesore properties? The carrot approach clearly hasn’t worked, so I think its time for the stick.

[–] BalpeenHammer -3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It’s not that it wouldn’t be profitable to build on it. It’s that it’s more profitable not to build on it.

Why do you say that? What's the profit in parking your boat on a piece of land?

How would you incentivise these owners to fix their hideous eyesore properties?

I don't know. How about we round them up and put them in jail? How about public hangings? How about we flog them in the town square?

I mean why do people need to be punished and hurt because they don't use their property the way you want them to? Why can't we just leave people alone FFS!

I can't stand this attitude. Let's hurt people because they don't act like I want them to! It's fucking sadistic.

[–] cloventt 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If the owner knows the value of the land is just gonna keep going up with no additional effort on their part, why spend the money to build anything on it? May as well just sit on it with the eventual promise of a fat untaxed capital gain. This is how land banking works.

People need to be punished because it’s been over ten years and as I look out my office window right now I can see two derelict decaying buildings and two enormous empty gravel lots. You’re really happy for our central city to remain half-finished indefinitely? It’s a national embarrassment that we haven’t managed to rebuild the city yet.

[–] BalpeenHammer -3 points 1 year ago

If the owner knows the value of the land is just gonna keep going up with no additional effort on their part, why spend the money to build anything on it?

First of all doesn't the value of land go up every year even he does put something on it? Wouldn't it go up even more if it there was something on it?

Secondly why do you want to punish the owner just because land values go up.

What are you going to do to make the value of the land go down anyway?

People need to be punished because it’s been over ten years and as I look out my office window right now I can see two derelict decaying buildings and two enormous empty gravel lots.

I don't think people should be punished because of your feelings though.

You’re really happy for our central city to remain half-finished indefinitely?

If that's the price of freedom then yes.

It’s a national embarrassment that we haven’t managed to rebuild the city yet

I could go on and on about national embarrassments in this country. You think empty lots are an embarrassment? Take a look at the buildings in most cities, take a look at most houses FFS. Leaky, poorly insulated, mouldy, run down, fragile buildings as far as the eye can see.