Neil Fraser
March 1, 2004
THE inner city really suffers the lack of a decent, efficient, inexpensive and reliable public transportation system. In fact if we consider our quest for 'world class' city status, this is a huge hole that just must be fixed. Roberta Brandes Gratz, 'The Living City' wrote this back in 1994 "Healthy cities contain a rich mix of old and new buildings and uses, high style and ordinary, large and modest, all in place due to historical economic and social forces involving the actions of many different people and institutions over a period of decades, even centuries. And healthy cities recognise the crucial need to maintain or rebuild a mass transit infrastructure. Cities become suburban and cannot function as cities if auto-dependency overtakes mass transit options. They become office parks on top of shopping malls and parking garages instead."
This reference to 'healthy cities' probably owes its origin to guru, Jane Jacobs who made these comments in a 1993 radio interview: "There is a kind of mass transit cities used to be very rich in, and Toronto still is, the kind that is part of the fabric of the city itself, doesn't just go overhead and take people whoosh, but links all kinds of places within the city and that's the kind of mass transit we need to begin to reconstitute ... It's a necessity for people to go to work. It's a necessity for people to get to hospitals, to schools. It isn't just a frill. In a really healthy city, it's something that knots the whole thing together and has a great deal to do with the economy."
In November last year a consulting team, The Arup, Nyeleti and Booz Allen and Hamilton Consortium, was appointed by the Council to investigate an 'Inner City Distribution System' and to consider both road-based (bus and mini-bus taxi) as well as rail options.
Not the first time! I remember a very large investigation done in the mid '90s which came up with some expensive and improbable recommendations, improbable for the time. It died a natural death thus joining a number of similar initiatives in the graveyard of unrealistic dreams. But, as with so much else coming out of Council these days related to the inner city, this looks like a serious attempt to come up with a practical solution, emphasis on practical. It has even engendered additional financial support from the business sector in order to undertake extensive 'on the ground' research.
Initial input was provided at a workshop held a few weeks back with a large cross-section of stakeholders. Representatives of the Taxi industry had been invited to the workshop, but didn't bother to attend - wait for the "We were never consulted" mantra when a recommendation is made.
Roberta Brandes Gratz again; "Transportation's crucial relevance may be hardest to comprehend in cities and towns not yet paralysed by traffic congestion. Yet cities and towns alike will rise or fall on how transportation dilemmas are resolved. All development and redevelopment is shaped by transportation."
Over the weekend went to the deep north to see if the Homemakers Expo would provide me with inspiration in regard to some house alterations we've been thinking of. The Expo was on at the Dome and I was staggered at the thousands and thousands of people who paid R30.00 a head for the pleasure of getting lost in the confusing layout that this venue provides whilst struggling to elbow one's way through the crush! It made me wonder why the same thousands seldom if ever visit our numerous and memorable museums and galleries.
South Africans travelling abroad always include a large dose of cathedral, museum and art gallery visits on their itinerary but, heaven forbid that they should tear themselves away from 'Days of our Lives' or 'The Bold and the Beautiful' to do the same here. Yet, in the Johannesburg Art Gallery, Museum Africa, the Apartheid Museum and many others we have world-class facilities which are, sadly, generally ignored by the local population.
Such a relatively little visited facility is the James Hall Museum of Transport which has just celebrated the 40th anniversary of its founding. It was established by the late James 'Jimmie' Hall who was passionate about preserving all aspects and modes of transport. He also founded Operation Wild Flower in order to preserve indigenous flowers throughout South Africa.
The history of the Museum records that Jimmie's love for old vehicles started in 1954 during his reign as South African Power Boat Champion which he had just won for the fifth year in succession. One of the spectators approached Jimmie after the event to swap his complete racing rig for a 1912 Hupmobile. After a short discussion and a few celebratory drinks, Jimmie came home with the Hup, the spectator left with the rig and that was the start of a love affair that was to last his whole life. (I have an affinity for anyone who has a love affair with a Hup, my late grandfather owned one of the first Hupmobiles in the Northern Cape around which grew the most wonderful anecdotes.)
A 1910 Maxwell joined the Hup and then between 1958 and 1961 Jimmie collected a further 40-odd vehicles consisting of animal drawn and steam conveyances, motorcycles, motor cars, and an assortment of commercial vehicles. It wasn't long before storage and protection from the elements became a problem and this led to Jimmie's vision of a museum where these vehicles could be preserved for future generations. In 1960 he got a number of councillors and Museum officials excited with the idea and this led to the Council eventually approving the allocation of a piece of land for the initiative in Pioneer Park where a council nursery operated.
The Museum's West and North Halls were completed in the early '60s and the Museum opened on 24 February 1964. The East and South Halls followed and were completed in 1970. At the request of the Council the Museum was named the 'James Hall Museum of Transport' and today it is managed by Jimmie's son, Peter.
Little and not so little boys are always enchanted by the vehicles of yesteryear and one can spend hours being engrossed by this fascinating collection - the first horse-drawn tram used in Joburg from 1891 to 1902; the last electric double-decker tram to run in the city in 1961; two double-decker busses from the Cape Town Council a Daimler Diesel Bus and an AEC Electric Trolley Bus; a single- decker tram from Kimberley; fire fighting vehicles including a 1913 Merryweather Steam pump, a 1929 Morris Magirus Fire Engine, a 1936 Magirus-Duitz with a 45 metre extension ladder and a 1947 Dennis with an 8-cylinder Rolls Royce engine.
A c1895 animal drawn hearse from Takastad; ox-wagons, two and four seater Cape Carts designed to carry the mail (and a few passengers), a 'spider', a governess cart, a 'Victoria' (they were mostly used as taxis); penny farthings, vintage and veteran motorcycles including a c1869 velocipede. A large number of cars including a 1900 Clement Panhard and the Mayoral Rolls Royce long out of service. A large collection of vehicles were donated by Consolidated Main Reef Mines including a number of steam vehicles, which included 'Texas Jack', the 1927 Sentinel Steam Tractor which is still operational and draws the crowd as it steams sedately along. Then there are steam locomotives some dating back to the Anglo Boer War, mine locomotives (one that ran purely on compressed air), a large collection of council horse-drawn vehicles and farming implements and machinery.
The museum is located at Pioneer Park, Rosettenville Road, La Rochelle and is open Tuesdays to Sundays 09h00 to 17h00.
What about someone acquiring the beautiful Park Station structure now standing quite forlornly in Newtown just west of the Nelson Mandela Bridge and reinstating the building to its former glory to house this magnificent collection. Then we could run one of its turn-of-the century trams from it to the Sci-Bono Museum (the old Electrical Workshop) and Museum Africa! What an addition to the Newtown Museum hub!
Think of the concentration of museums and galleries in Washington DC. Mike Lescarbeau who runs an ad agency in Minneapolis said in an interview recently; "People will tend to find the same things to say about a city - we're friendly, we're accommodating, we have these facilities. But I think you have to find something unique, and it gets harder and harder. With all cities having the same national chains, coffee shops and restaurants, it's getting harder and harder to distinguish one from the next." Here's an opportunity for us.
I hope the Wits University planning isn't going to result in a lost opportunity for both that institution and the city. Last week Wits made a preliminary presentation of the recommendations of the team appointed to look at its current and future spatial needs - projecting over the next twenty or so years.
The proposals to create more permeable edges to the north, south and part east of the 'Braamfontein' campus was good news. It should attract at least a limited interaction with neighbouring areas instead of the current impregnable and unfriendly situation. However the plan to acquire the Council land to its west for expansion was disappointing as was the desire to create more retail facilities within the campus. I know nothing about university planning so maybe should just shut up - but I did attend universities in Cape Town and in the States.
I don't accept the argument against decentralised inner city campuses that claim that all faculties must be on the same introverted campus because of their need to interact. A lot of my overseas colleagues talk about the growing number of university faculties that are relocating to city centres. The city has appropriate building stock and a growing city lifestyle that would embrace students. Just as business is slowly changing its own introverted approach and staff are returning to enjoy street life, so the University should be looking to genuinely become an integrated part of the city and not merely consolidate itself further on the edge.
Two months of 2004 gone already, can you believe it?
