18 September 2006
By Neil Fraser
I MENTIONED the SA Cities Network's State of the Cities Report 2006 last week. This is the second such report, the previous edition having been published in 2004. The new report is a big improvement on the earlier one and contains a wealth of information. We are sadly lacking dependable stats throughout the country in almost all aspects and this publication is beginning to fill a very important space in this regard.
The SA Cities Network (SACN) is described as a "collaborative of South African cities and partners that encourages the exchange of information, experience and best practices on urban development and city management. It is an initiative of the minister for provincial and local government and nine city municipalities, in partnership with the South African Local Government Association and national and provincial departments".
The nine cities are Buffalo City, Cape Town, Ekurhuleni Metro, eThekwini, Johannesburg, Mangaung, Msunduzi, Nelson Mandela Metro and Tshwane.
A chapter dealing with the "Dynamics of the Urban System" considers a further 12 towns and cities: Emfuleni, Midvaal and Mogale City in Gauteng; Stellenbosch in the Western Cape; Sol Plaatjie in the Northern Cape; Emalahleni, Steve Tshwete, Mbombela and Govan Mbeki in Mpumalanga; uMhlathuze in KwaZulu-Natal; Sasolburg in the Free State; and Rustenburg in North West Province.
As an aside, isn't it interesting to see the comparatively rapid change in the names of our towns and cities? Only five of the 21 retain their original names - begging the question, for how much longer? This is certainly something that doesn't fuss me as it reflects the ongoing dynamics that quite correctly permeates our new democratic society - not to say that all of the changes are that great.
These 21 urban areas cover only 2 percent of the country's land surface but account for almost 70 percent of the national Gross Value Add (GVA), accommodate 41,7 percent of the country's population and approximately 24,7 percent of persons living below the Minimum Living Level. Further, they contribute 66,78 percent in community, social and personal services and the following as a percentage of the national GVA:
- 79,13 percent in manufacturing;
- 69,79 percent in construction;
- 74,2 percent in wholesale and retail trade;
- 80,96 percent in transport, storage and communication; and
- 85,77 percent in financial, intermediation, insurance, property and business services.
I could use up this and a number of future Citichats by quoting masses of facts and figures extracted from the publication, but if you are interested in these then it would be best to get hold of the document for yourself. I rather want to stay with the theme of the past few weeks as it is such a critical issue - sustainability.
Sustainable city
As in 2004, the report uses four specific aspects of cities to guide its analysis - the productive city, the inclusive city, the well-governed city and the sustainable city.
In regard to the latter, the publication admits that "the SACN cities are far from models of urban sustainability. But in the last five years cities have made important advances in setting sustainability objectives and in strategising about how these might be achieved."
The publication, however, deals with "the more narrow understanding of sustainability which focuses on environmental issues". This more narrow understanding is to be seen in Joburg's Strategic Agenda, an annually determined set of priorities that sits at the heart of the 2004/5 Integrated Development Plan. The agenda comprises 13 strategic thrusts, including "sustainable development and environmental management. Key targets include issuing food hygiene management certificates for informal and formal food premises across the city, implementing an energy refit and waste treatment works project to reduce energy demand, increasing the volume of waste recycled in the city by 5 percent and [I kid you not] increasing the number of fines for contravening environmental health regulations to 2 112 by June 2005 and 2 376 by June 2006."
Nowhere does the report mention historic preservation. And I'm sure that it is also not mentioned in any of the SACN cities' strategic agendas. Yet the definition of sustainable development I referred to last week - "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" - is resonant with our National Heritage Resources Act, the preamble to which states the following: (to) "empower civil society to nurture and conserve their heritage resources so that they may be bequeathed to future generations".
The conservation of heritage resources or historic preservation is a cornerstone of sustainability, yet our authorities are not only ignoring this aspect but, in relation to the proposed Gauteng Provincial Government Precinct, are reneging on their responsibility in this regard. Can we take solace in the fact that we are evidently not alone?
My good friend Donovan Rypkema, the president of Heritage Strategies International, wrote to me in response to last week's Citichat saying that "the broadened definition of sustainable development is very important but most of the environmental movement in the US is clueless about any component of sustainable development beyond environmental protection - an important element but far from the only element".
He says that King Sturge, an international property consulting company with its headquarters in England, has been at the forefront of broadening the concept of sustainable development. "They further identify these important nexus: for a community to be viable there needs to be a link between environmental responsibility and economic responsibility; for a community to be liveable there needs to be a link between environmental responsibility and social responsibility; and for a community to be equitable there needs to be a link between economic responsibility and social responsibility.
Historic preservation
"When we think about sustainable development in this broader context, the role of historic preservation becomes all the more clear."
Rypkema comments that he has been unable to identify "a single example of a sustained success in downtown revitalisation where historic preservation wasn't a key component of that strategy. Not one.
"Conversely, the examples of very expensive failures in downtown revitalisation have nearly all had the destruction of historic buildings as a major element. The relative importance of preservation as part of the downtown revitalisation effort will vary, depending on the local resources, the age of the city, the strength of the local preservation groups, and the enlightenment of the leadership. But successful revitalisation and no historic preservation? It ain't happening."
Rypkema's letter is so pertinent to us that I want to share more of it with you - if you would like the full text, drop me a line.
"Like it or not, we live in an economically globalised world. To be economically sustainable it is necessary to be economically competitive. But to be competitive in a globalised world a community must position itself to compete not just with other cities in the region but with other cities on the planet. A large measure of that competitiveness will be based on the quality of life the local community provides, and the built heritage is a major component of the quality of life equation. This is a lesson that is being recognised worldwide.
Globalisation
"Here's what the Inter-American Development Bank has to say, 'As the international experience has demonstrated, the protection of cultural heritage is important, especially in the context of the globalisation phenomena, as an instrument to promote sustainable development strongly based on local traditions and community resources.'
"What neither the supporters nor the critics of globalisation understand is that there is not one globalisation but two - economic globalisation and cultural globalisation. For those few who recognise the difference, there is an unchallenged assumption that the second is an unavoidable outgrowth of the first. Economic globalisation has widespread positive impacts; cultural globalisation ultimately diminishes us all. It is through the adaptive reuse of heritage buildings that a community can actively participate in the positive benefits of economic globalisation while simultaneously mitigating the negative impacts of cultural globalisation.
"So there are some ways that historic preservation contributes to sustainable development through environmental responsibility and economic responsibility. But I saved the third area - cultural and social responsibility - for last, because in the long run it may well be the most important.
"First housing … affordable housing is central to social responsibility. Older and historic homes will continue to provide affordable housing if we just quit tearing them down.
"At least as important as housing affordability is the issue of economic integration. America is a very diverse country - racially, ethnically, educationally and economically. But on the neighbourhood level our neighbourhoods are not diverse at all. The vast majority of neighbourhoods are all white or all black, all rich or all poor. But the exception - virtually everywhere I've looked in America - is in historic districts. There rich and poor, Asian and Hispanic, college educated and high school drop out live in immediate proximity, are neighbours in the truest sense of the word. That is economic integration and sustainable cities are going to need it.
"Economic development takes many forms - industrial recruitment, job retraining, waterfront development and others. But historic preservation and downtown revitalisation are the only forms of economic development that are simultaneously community development. That, too, is part of our social responsibility …
"I'd ask you to take a moment and think of something significant to you personally. Anything - you may think of your children, or your spouse, or your church, or your childhood home, or a personal accomplishment of some type. Now take away your memory. Which of those things are significant to you now? None of them. There can be no significance without memory. Those same things may still be significant to someone else, but without memory they are not significant to you. And if memory is necessary for significance, it is also necessary for both meaning and value. Without memory nothing has significance, nothing has meaning, nothing has value.
"That, I think, is the lesson of that old Zen koan, 'If a tree falls in a forest and no-one hears, did it make a sound?' Well, of course it made a sound; sound comes from the vibration of molecules and a falling tree vibrates molecules. But that sound might as well not have been made, because there is no memory of it.
"We acquire memories from a sound or a picture, or from a conversation, or from words in a book, or from the stories our grandmothers told us. But how is the memory of a city conveyed? Here's what Italo Calvino writes, 'The city … does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand, written in the corners of the streets, the gratings of the windows, the banisters of the steps … every segment marked in turn with scratches, indentations, scrolls.'
Historic buildings and memory
"The city tells it own past, transfers its own memory, largely through the fabric of the built environment. Historic buildings are the physical manifestation of memory - it is memory that makes places significant.
"The whole purpose of sustainable development is to keep that which is important, which is valuable, which is significant. The definition of sustainable development is '… the ability to meet our own needs without prejudicing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.' We need to use our cities and our historic resources in such a way that they are available to meet the needs of future generations as well.
"Historic preservation makes cities viable, makes cities liveable, makes cities equitable. I particularly appreciate that the broadened concept of sustainable development is made up of responsibilities - environmental responsibility, economic responsibility and social responsibility.
"Today throughout America there are thousands of advocacy movements. Most of them are 'rights' movements: animal rights, abortion rights, right to life, right to die, states rights, gun rights, gay rights, property rights, women's rights, and on and on and on. And I'm for all of those things - rights are good. But any claim for rights that is not balanced with responsibilities removes the civility from civilisation and gives us an entitlement mentality as a nation of mere consumers of public services rather than a nation of citizens.
"A consumer has rights; a citizen has responsibilities that accompany those rights. Historic preservation is a responsibility movement rather than a rights movement. It is a movement that urges us towards the responsibility of stewardship, not merely the right of ownership. Stewardship of our historic built environment, certainly, but stewardship of the meanings and memories manifested in those buildings as well.
"Sustainability means stewardship. Historic preservation is sustainable development. Development without historic preservation is not sustainable. That's what your stewardship is assuring today, and future generations will thank you for it tomorrow."
That's telling it like it is - but is anyone listening out there?
Ciao, Neil
PS: And the Gauteng Provincial Government Precinct? Our appeal against the proposed wilful destruction of numbers of historic buildings was heard on 19 July. At the appeal hearing, on more than one occasion, the chairman undertook that we would have a reply within 30 days. Thirty calendar days would take us to 19 August, 30 working days to 31 August. So far there has been zilch, niks, nada. As has been the case throughout every aspect of this issue, our National Heritage Authority ignores its own commitments.
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