Neil Fraser

Neil Fraser is Executive Director of the Central Johannesburg Partnership (CJP), a non-profit company dedicated to the revitalisation of the inner city of Johannesburg. He is also a Director of Kagiso Urban Management (KUM) a company that provides urban management and regeneration solutions to communities throughout South Africa. He can be contacted at (011) 688-7800 or (011)442- 4949 or neilf@cjp.co.za. Citichat is a free weekly publication concerning cities and Johannesburg in particular. To subscribe, contact info@kum.co.za or visit the CJP's web site at http://www.cjp.co.za Views expressed in Citichat are not necessarily those of the CJP or KUM. READ previous editions of CitiChat Neil Fraser - passionate city man HE'S got a full white beard and moustache to match his white hair, he smiles often, and he's passionate about cities, particularly Johannesburg . . . he's Neil Fraser, executive director of the Central Johannesburg Partnership (CJP), an inner city renewal initiative Read more Joburg's heritage Discover Joburg's secret character with our features on the city's many diverse suburbs and places Click here ALSO: Johannesburg's early history

Decade of Change Scorecard Roundup vs Latest JDA Indicators Neil Fraser September 6, 2004 Safety and Security SAFETY and security was scored 6 out of 10 with an attainable 8 or even 9 as the target for 2010 if the new City Safety Strategy really bites, and there is no reason why it shouldn't. Read more Informal Trading I felt that the overall ten-year improvement is probably about 4 out of 10. Should have been boosted higher through the development of the new trading markets, but dragged down because of the chaos on the pavements in many parts of the city. The key to improving the score to a reasonable level by 2010 is enforcement, enforcement, enforcement. The undisciplined march recently underlined the fact that many traders are not interested in an African World Class City! Read more Residential Accommodation 5 out of 10 was a fair score, maybe a bit harsh given the tremendous surge of activity in this aspect. But whilst there have been positive improvements on the investment front, we are faced with the enormity of what must still be done and, again, enforcement reaction-times to slum-lording and illegal occupations is too slow. The latter problems are compounded by our lack of a clear policy regarding the urban poor. Read more Transportation and Taxis 7 out of 10 for planning, 7 out of 10 for facilities provided, but 1 out of 10 for the on-the-street shambles - an aggregate of 5 out of 10. Not good enough, although some feel that my 1 out of 10 was a bit harsh! Read more Urban Design From no cohesive master plan for the urban renewal of the city to a City Framework and a continuing process of precinct framework development, I scored this a good 8 out of 10! Read more Marketing I felt that we were doing a good job Metro-wise, but still not too cohesive inner city-wise so I gave marketing 8 out of 10 and 4 out of 10 respectively, averaging 6. Read more Summary Without weighting the importance of each of the categories, the above averages out to 5.67 out of 10. Whilst this might appear low, I'm quite upbeat about the figure. Firstly, there are many other areas that, if measured, would make this even more positive - political will, to name but one. Secondly, what improvements there are, have all happened over the last few years. These were the six major problems identified in the early '90s, so let's stay with them for the moment. Progress in the City 2004 Given the paralysis of the first five or six years, the advances have really been made only over the past few years. This is clearly borne out by another more scientific set of recently published indicators that have been tracking performance since 2001. These are the Inner City performance indicators published by the JDA as prepared by Professor John Luiz, School of Economic and Business Science at Wits University. (the full report is on www.jda.org.za) Again there are six indicators, four reflecting changes in economic statistics and two reflecting changes in perceptions by people who use the inner city. (The sixth indicator, not reflected below, relates to the JDA itself which shows a massive improvement in their awareness and satisfaction index from 53 in 2002 to 77.6%.) 24 Hour City Measured by attendance at various inner-city entertainment venues, against a target of 5% per annum, this aspect scored a 23% increase over three years. Property Market Measured by both value of building plans passed and vacancy rates, the target was to see a steady improvement in the former and a stabilisation of A and B grade office vacancies in the latter. So how did we do? Building activity increased by 500% between 2001 and 2002 and vacancies have declined decidedly. Rentals Measured by the median rentals charged for A grade property with a target to stabilise them between 2001 and 2003 - a stable trend has been achieved. Business Activity in Impact Areas This is measured by RSC levies in respect of employment with the goal to see a steady increase. The report records a 17% increase in turnover and a 34% increase in salaries. Confidence in the Inner City The aim is to see an overall increase in confidence with a 10% target improvement by 2004. The overall index has in fact risen 57.5%, an increase of 32% on 2002 baseline figures. Summary From these and other indicators there can be no doubt that the inner city is improving over many fronts and, overall, moving forward steadily - 2004 shows a massive improvement over 1994 even though the bulk of that came only in the past two to three years. Long way to go, sure, but we're on the right path and we'll continue to improve. 2010 will help to leverage our momentum even more - watch this space! Print this Page E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za