Editorial: $20m to open Opera House again a big ask

The Hawke's Bay Opera House and the Municipal Buildings.

Spending a large amount of money on something is always cause for debate.

When that "amount of money" comes in at around $20 million well, yes, there will be talk.

Over the past few years, since a couple of terrible earthquakes shattered Christchurch, a lot of money has been spent in the wake of engineering reports sparked by fears that many buildings, across the whole land, may not be up to full-strength scratch.

Millions and millions of dollars have been spent to bring buildings up to the percentage standard as determined by engineers, although on some occasions those figures appeared slightly subjective.

Two groups of consultants would almost certainly come up with two different answers.

The most savage economic effect of the Christchurch earthquakes was the closure of shops.

Not just in that battered city but in cities far away, but deigned to be susceptible to quakes.

Landlords could not afford to spend the big money to take them up to an acceptable standard, and if they did, the resulting rents they would have to charge to pay for it, would scare any prospective tenants off.

So the financial hit Christchurch took as the result of a serious seismic shake was certainly not confined to its city limits. The economic aftershocks easily rippled north to Hawke's Bay. Which, given our record for such events, was no surprise.

The new engineering standards have been applied to everything from schools to businesses and even council buildings.

The wonderful Napier Community Rooms in Memorial Square, which look rock-solid to me, have been closed for well over a year now and there seems no rush to bring them back to life ... all to do with the tile roofing, I understand.

And of course the biggest victim in the "earthquake-prone" arena is the Hawke's Bay Opera House complex in Hastings where it is estimated bringing it up to the point where they can open the doors again is about $20 million.

The public will be asked how it feels about spending that sort of amount. This is a quite remarkable, historic and beautiful building and deserves to stay ... but, oh, the cost.

No easy solutions here.

The whole "quake-prone" issue led to one businessman telling me it was all "over the top" and he reckoned if they were going to close buildings then they needed to close footpaths as well.

"Because that's where most of the rubble falls," he said.

"Far too dangerous."