Originally published in 2015 (.id (informed decisions) newsletter intro)

How long does it take to build a city? 

At a conference in Christchurch last week, almost everyone I talked to about the post-earthquake re-build made the exasperated comment, "its taking forever". 

How long does it take to build a city? Probably not as long as it takes to re-build a city.

The thing about a catastrophic earthquake is that it destroys not only that which is visible - the buildings and bridges above the ground, but also that which is invisible - the underground infrastructure of the city. The progress of fixing wastewater infrastructure is not as visible or exciting as seeing new buildings going up.

Here is a fascinating article in Vanity Fair about what lies below New York City: What lies beneath

It is eerie to walk around the city centre of Christchurch at night with its apocalyptic atmosphere. Towards the end of an evening of wandering, I followed the strange sound of joyous music to find a lone couple dancing beautifully to Frank Sinatra on the ‘dance-o-mat’ – a public coin-operated dance floor, next to the rubble of the Christchurch Cathedral. 

This relates to the other invisible impact of a disaster – the effect on the psyche of the people. But when you see things like the pop-up container mall Restart and the public dance floor , you have to take your hat off to the Cantabrians, they are resilient, defiant, pragmatic and optimistic.

It does take forever to build a city because by their nature cities are constantly evolving. It is a common misconception to think of cities as complete.