Neil Fraser
January 20, 2003
Hi, I trust that the year-end festive season provided you with a break so that you are refreshed and ready to tackle the rigours of the year ahead.
This will be an important year for the inner city as many initiatives move from construction to functional whilst institutions established during the past year such as the Region 8 office face their first full year of operational challenges and opportunities.
New initiatives will be needed to keep the momentum going but this year restoring 'pride in the city' must be high on the agenda.
I checked the dictionary for some of the terminology we generally use in relation to the process that the city is experiencing, 'renewal', 'revitalisation' and 'regeneration'.
The first means to 'revive or make new again' – not what we want because we don't want the colonial, apartheid city of the past. Revitalise – "imbue with new life and vitality" – I like it - the 'new life' isn't necessarily the old one revived!
Regenerate – "bring into renewed existence, improving the moral condition" – I love it, revitalisation with a moral foundation!
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That chain of thought came about because ending one year and starting another provides a natural time for reflection, regrettably sometimes the only time!
Some of my recent reading also made me revisit the basic rationale behind what we are attempting to achieve in the city – revitalisation and regeneration.
Two books that stimulated this introspection were Ted Leggett's "Rainbow Vice" and "Texture and Memory – the Urbanism of District Six". I can recommend both highly – details at the end.
Legget's book focuses on drugs and prostitution and offers great insight into how these were influenced and affected by apartheid. He also throws light on sleazy hotels and the drug sub-cultures that have taken hold in our cities.
He exposes the inadequacies of current laws and policies and also points to massive police corruption. He doesn't sensationalise and offers thought provoking policy proposals that should be examined seriously at all levels of government and is really important in relation to the Johannesburg Inner City.
I'll write a detailed review on the issues that he raises relative to cities in a later issue of Citichat. This is a book that should be read by all those who are interested in urban issues (and concerned parents!).
The history of the brutal dismemberment of the vital, vibrant District Six community in Cape Town is both the history of the struggle from dispossession and separation and a launching pad to a just and democratic urban environment.
In her foreword, Penny Pistorius, who edited and updated this second edition, really touched a nerve with the following observations" "It is widely hoped that District Six will be a truly urban area, as it once was – an area that promotes integration, equity and opportunity, that facilitates the vibrant and dynamic urban processes that the city so desperately needs, and can serve as a model for future urban developments around the country."
When I look at what is happening in so many of our towns and cities I don't always see 'the promotion of integration, equity and opportunity' but rather the entrenchment of apartheid planning.
Writing about the City of Cape Town but the words equally apply to South Africa's 'Any City', the authors of the District Six account state: "The majority of the population lived away from the city centre in spatially and racially separated commuter suburbs. The widespread construction of freeways enabled the middle and upper classes to move further and further away from the city in search of open spaces and amenity. These new high-speed routes did not integrate existing areas; rather they isolated and fragmented different parts of the city. The construction of suburban shopping centres also drew commerce away from the city centre..."
These words epitomise the scenario faced by the first democratic local governments of all South African towns and cities as they assumed power in the mid-1990s.
Much of what must be done relates to the normalisation of urban life for all citizens as one provides facilities for a wide aspect of localised urban needs that have been historically totally disregarded. Not easy when over a third of the economically active population is unemployed and HIV/AIDS is rampant. Not easy when one is caught in the dichotomy of redressing the past on the one hand whilst striving to provide the ingredients of a world class city on the other.
Not easy but possible, and I did in fact eventually come to the conclusion that we have made a better start than most cities in the country. No, we don't have thousands of tourists flocking to the city; yes, we do still retain much of the negativity and poor perceptions of the past and yes, we have what often appears to be insurmountable issues to deal with.
But we are attempting to redress the imbalances of the past practically and not merely providing lip service which appears to be the case in many other cities.
Thus,
- We do have a policy - to be implemented, sensibly, over a number of years - of removing most of the informal street traders from the pavements, not to make them disappear as some might wish, but to create markets where they will experience and be given opportunities for growth and where the astute will ultimately become the formal traders of tomorrow - Yeoville Market, Metro Mall, the Quartz Street linear market and the soon to be completed Faraday Precinct are concrete examples of this approach.
- The removal of combi-taxi ranks from the streets and their accommodation in well designed structures that provide industry specific infrastructural support as well as hygienic facilities – Metro Mall and Faraday again, but also Park Central (nee Jack Mincer), Park City, Westgate.
- The provision of good quality accommodation for mixed income levels both new and refurbished – Carr Gardens, the Landdrost, Tribunal Gardens, Elangeni, and a number of others completed and planned.
- Serious initiatives offering training and education for the previously disadvantaged - The Music Centre catering for musicians and would be musicians – the Bus Factory which will provide craft training – the Business Place developing SMMEs – the CIDA City Campus with its innovative approach to tertiary education – the Fashion District showcasing local design skills and providing training in garment design and manufacture.
Sure Constitution Hill and the Braamfontein Upgrade, the Nelson Mandela Bridge, the Cultural Arc, Main Street pedestrianisation and so many others are more sexy, but the projects that deal with the normalisation of our urban society are those that provide great hope for the future. 2003 will be a good year for the city!
Now in case you are thinking that this is all too serious a beginning for the year, here's some light relief particularly for those who never lose an opportunity to come down on the country, the council and the city.
The latest edition of "The Civic Strategies E-Letter", a regular newsletter on American cities compiled by Otis White, asks the question: "who is the dumbest local government in America?"
And this is his answer: "Hard to say, but at least until recently New York's affluent suburb of Nassau County would have to be a contender. How dumb was Nassau's government? So dumb that it bought 1 200 computers a few years ago as backups for the Y2K problem, then left them in boxes for three years as employees begged for upgrades.
"So dumb that it paid for nearly 400 telephone lines that weren't used; most weren't even hooked up to phones. So dumb that it issued cars to eight employees who didn't have drivers licences.
"And more: Its records were in such disarray, it didn't know how many employees it had or how much property it owned. Its police department patrolled one upscale town under a contract but the county never collected its $450,000 a year fee.
It even had its nights and days mixed up: Cops were paid a "night differential" for work after dark. Problem was, it kicked in at 11am. The new county attorney was horrified by the chaos in her department. "I don't know if it's the funniest or saddest thing," she said, "but we found a local statute which had been repealed — then two years later was amended."
Thankfully, there's a new administration in Nassau County (says the new county executive, "It was far worse than I ever imagined").
"But it could take a while to straighten out a government this dumb. Take, for instance, the elevator at the county executive's building. When you took it to the ground floor, it told you you were at the seventh floor. Not just wrong, but dumb. The building has only five floors," added the executive.
So hang in folks, even the 'leaders of the western world' don't get it right!
All the very best for 2003.
