The point of making submissions?

I posted something like this on my greenpress blog but it has got lost and I found myself talking to someone about it the other day so thought I'd write it here.

Sometimes the whole business of writing and presenting submissions is depressing and feels like a waste of time. Once a plan is in draft, it seems to me that very little is likely to change. However despite our best efforts, this process is still all that we mostly have at least in our little corner of the world.

However I was talking with a local councillor who gets to hear all these submissions and she noted that unless people like me DO write and present submissions, people like her (who are in the minority on Council in terms of being a little Green and slightly left wing) cannot defend that perspective. So my writing to suggest safer measures for cyclists or pedestrians does have a purpose even though actually very little comes of it through the process.

So now I write fewer submissions, but when I write them, I think of them as placeholders rather than necessarily as instruments of change. I guess I"ll just have to cast around for the latter (if such things are possible in our current political climate here in Christchurch).

Designing services to get people meeting

Now here is an interesting idea! When a courier calls, what if they left the package with a neighbour rather than taking it back to the post shop. Then people have a reason to knock at the neighbour's door and so to meet their neighbours. I like this idea because I must admit that I find it difficult to knock for no reason!

Reflecting on the Good things of the last year

Its holiday time again, and it also a new year and a good time to reflect on all the things that have happened over the last year. For many of us in Christchurch, it's easiest to remember the earthquake (and for me to remember having a car accident and breaking a few ribs about a month later) and to forget that a lot happened last year. It is for this reason that I keep a note in my diary of what happens each day and what I get up to.

I started doing this because I found it was too easy to get to the end of a week and wonder what I"d actually filled it with. I also found that I would somehow forget the enjoyment I'd had as part of my 'everyday' life. About half way through last year I also did an a community education course called the Science of Happiness and from that time on I've pretty much kept as part of that diary, a note about the things I am grateful for - good things both big and small that happen to me on a daily basis. Again it has taught me how easy it is to take these good things for granted. Keeping a note of them at the end of each day keeps them more at the front of my mind.

So as well has having an earthquake and a car accident (as a result of which I discovered what a lovely supportive group of people I know), going back through my diary has helped me remember that I've set up a new business, I had some wonderful work experiences of which the best was probably at Easter handing out questionnaires to people in Deep Cove, a magical place in Southwestland (New Zealand). I met some great people (too many to list here) and have developed some new friendships, and started a community newsletter which I think people do appreciate and which has certainly helped me get a handle on what happens in my own community. I am grateful for the people that I meet and work with in various ways and grateful that I"m able to contribute into a range of activities and spaces and to the lives of others and that they do the same for me. One of the most wonderful things that happened for example was a group of people turning up one Saturday morning and helping me recover an area of my garden that was lost under weeds.

So while there have been some things about the last year that made it challenging, quite a lot of good stuff has actually happened too and its fantastic to be able to reflect on that.

Earthquake Recovery

Well I"m back on Blogger since it appears that Greenpress disappeared off the face of the internet and my blog there went with it. Hi Ho!

I live in Christchurch, New Zealand where we experienced an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter Scale. It disrupted life quite considerably and continues to do so for many people who suffered extensive damage to the houses and in some cases to their land.

What has been most interesting to me is the observation that while our Civil Defence guys and girls pretty much had things sorted in the immediate aftermath of the quake, the phase known as recovery has been much less smooth sailing.

Recovery is much longer term. People move from being grateful for being alive to being angry that life is not returning to normal as quickly as they had hoped. The aftershocks continue (we're still getting them 3 months on although they are much less frequent now than they have been). Social Services are bracing for a particularly bad Christmas from a domestic violence point of view because men particularly find it difficult to cope with the uncertainty and lack of "control" involved in the earthquake and it effects. streets remain closed, sewers remaing damaged because the amount of repair work is just massive and the limiting factor is equipment and manpower.

Insurance companies are reeling with the extra work, Councils are trying to make decisions quickly but they need to grapple with a lot of questions that needs input from scientists, engineers and so forth.

Despite all this some great things are happening. Community groups are taking things into their own hands. One of the most interesting things that has been the development of initiatives aimed at filling in the gaps left by demolished buildings. Check out Gapfiller and Greening the Rubble for examples. For most, this is to avoid the default turning of these areas into carparks which then contribute to traffic congestion and the development of an ugly and unattractive City.

May these kinds of community activity continue and from the rubble we may get a range of new intiatives and ways of living.

My blog has moved

my blog can now be found at http://ChrysH.Greenpress.com

Community Gardening

I recently started working at a community garden in Christchurch - the Strickland Street or Spreydon Garden. It is an interesting place and I"m meeting some very interesting people with an interest in green issues in a very practical grass roots sort of way.

The garden has a spectacular composting system and takes in kitchen waste from a number of nearby households as well as composting everything that comes from the garden (weeds, prunings etc). I've been learning about the art of teaching people about composting (which like every other form of teaching I've had anything to do with involved a lot of learning). I've also become the promotions person which is a slightly novel experience for one with my background!

I suppose what I'm concluding from all this that the whole idea of social learning and on reflecting on action is as useful gardening and composting as it is in lots of other places. No compost heap or garden is ever the same and on top of that everyone who gardens has learned a great deal through their own experimentation and assessment of success or failure.

This means that actually it is feasible to learn something from everyone who has every tried to plant and grow something and that good gardeners have to be good at reflecting on their efforts because the environment in which they garden is continually throwing new issues and problems their way.

Planning, public participation & learning humility!

I've been presenting submissions at planning hearings this week and last. Yesterday I took a different approach and presented very little so that we could get into questions and discussion. I'm very glad I did because I learned a lot all in quite a short space of time and want to reflect on that.

I'm intrigued at how the system we have here in New Zealand sets submitters up to feel powerless. I sent in my written submission. Then I received feedback that indicated that everything I said was rejected. Unfortunately, this made me feel that it was "me against them" and that I needed to convince and persuade. However if I had done that I would have missed the mark completely and learned nothing.

I had talked about my feelings prior to going into the hearing which was very useful because I had determined that I should go into the hearing with compassion, and to learn, or as another friend, Lucy Baragwanath put it, with humility - the assumption that I didn't know it all (which I already knew!). This worked well, although I found it a bit scary because I was worried that I would look like a fool when the conversation went outside my level of knowledge.

What I learned was a lot more about what the committee could and could not change and just how limited their power is in the system. It also left me thinking that any significant change is impossible once a plan is drafted because of the way various plans and strategies articulate.

The bulk of the work of an advocacy group needs to be done before the plan is put out for submissions.