Neil Fraser

RELATED LINKS: About Citichat NEIL Fraser is a partner in 'Neil Fraser & Associates trading as Urban Inc', an urban consultancy dedicated to the revitalisation and regeneration of cities and of the inner city of Johannesburg in particular. He can be contacted on 083 456 0242 or 011 444 4895 or by e-mail at neil@urbaninc.co.za Citichat is a free weekly publication concerning cities generally and Johannesburg specifically. Please forward Citichat to your colleagues who may wish to be placed on the subscription list. To subscribe please contact us at info@urbaninc.co.za 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, an inner city renewal initiative. Read more The changing city, part two THERE is a groundswell of new investment into the inner city. While the profile of property owners is changing - along with property uses - money is being poured into sprucing up Joburg's CBD. Read more The changing city, part one FAR from being a recent problem, the decline of the inner city had its roots way back in the 1950s, and some short-sighted decisions made by the council of the time. Read more Some Easter musings on the city SPARKED by the recent cleaning up of the Kaserne Parking Garage, which had been allowed to become an informal settlement, Neil Fraser thinks about the consequences of allowing a city to lose its soul. Read more Distilling the issues for the Inner City Summit and charter THE third round of stakeholder working group meetings for the Inner City Summit are almost over, and the list of issues and concerns is being drawn up. This is what has come out of the meetings so far. Read more Four fixable inner city issues PREPARING for the Inner City Summit later this year, a workshop identifies places in the inner city that have been neglected and allowed to decay. Read more Residential issues on agenda for Inner City Summit HOUSING is an emotional topic, yet it needs critical analysis for all citizens' needs to be addressed. Some of the pertinent issues were raised at the first residential development working group meeting ahead of the Inner City Summit. Read more Social issues on agenda for Inner City Summit THE Inner City Summit workshops have continued, with a meeting of the social, or community, development stakeholders' working group. In line with concerns raised, we can learn some lessons from South America. Read more Call for proactive residential planning in inner city COMPARING inner-city planning in Jozi with Canada and the US, the conclusion is that our inner city residential revival is great, but … Read more

There is good news and no news Private sector investment in the inner city is moving ahead, with work already under way on one of the first private high-rise commercial developments in ages. July 23, 2007 By Neil Fraser I SEE preparatory work has started at the "gateway to Braamfontein" - the corner of Ameshoff and Bertha (Jan Smuts) streets - for the erection of a large new piece of public art. Some months ago a Braamfontein Art Committee selected Clive van den Berg's Eland as the winning entry in a public art competition and, from the look of current progress on the site, it will be erected shortly. But most exciting is that work has also started on what will be one of the inner city's very first new private sector high-rise commercial developments in aeons. The area to the west of the magistrates' courts has been used for parking for many years, but was bought some time back with plans to develop it as an office park. The first of the buildings in this area has been tied up and construction work is under way. Refurbishing, extensions or additions to existing buildings, conversions from commercial to residential or commercial to institutional or even new institutional buildings as is happening throughout the inner city are all well and good, but what can be more positive for the inner city revitalisation process than a brand-spanking-new commercial building? Up until now, the southwest end of the inner city has been pretty crumby. North of it is Newtown, which has had a considerable amount of attention over the past few years, resulting in a whole bunch of exciting initiatives; although there appears to have been a deceleration in some of the City's efforts with no visible action on the Transport House redevelopment nor on the Johannesburg Development Agency's Central Place projects. Activity in Newtown At Newtown's eastern junction with the traditional CBD there has been a lot more positive performance, all coming out of the private sector – the refurbishing of the AA building for FNB; the refurbishing of 11 Diagonal Street for Absa and the completion of the redevelopment of the Turbine Hall site for AngloGold Ashanti. Between this Diagonal Street precinct and the magistrates' courts lies a vibrant retail area of local Indian ownership with some magnificent old buildings, mostly in need of a good coat of paint. Then, down Commissioner Street, is the traditional Chinatown. The urban design framework here was completed some years back – hopefully it is to be resuscitated with the exciting development on its southern border. An office park on the vacant land to its south promises a massive upgrading of the current urban environment. Open parking ground is not the kind of activity that one needs in rebuilding a city and this particular area has been quite desolate for decades. I believe it was home to the Hubert Davies group many years ago, which would mean that it was mainly an industrial area. New buildings will bring people, new activities and new life to the area, so it's all good news for the inner city. The charter On the other end of the scale is no news good news? I received an email last week asking me for a copy of the final Inner City Regeneration Charter document, with the sender asking how he could be involved in the process. Having been completely "out of the loop" for the past few weeks, I must admit that I had to think twice before admitting that I hadn't yet seen such a document – but that doesn't mean that there isn't one. I just don't know at the moment, but I will find out where we are and, hopefully, report progress on that front in next week's Citichat. Cheers, Neil Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 Print this Page Send an online postcard E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za