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 Washington has a lesson to teach VISITING two very different American cities, Neil Fraser is struck by the great quality of life offered by both. Read more Inner city liveability, why don't we rather try Sao Paulo? "SAO Paulo – a city of 18 million, populated by the fantastically wealthy and the severely poor with little in between – is, by some accounts, a vision of future urban life in the developing world." Read more Inner city review: the year so far THERE are pockets of work going on, with upgrades and refurbishments dotted around the inner city. Yet much more can still be done. Read more Residential demand, but what about green space? WITH a rapid urbanisation of the cities, and an ever-growing need for accommodation, particularly in Johannesburg, it is important to couple this development with the provision of social facilities and open space. 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 were made by the council of the time. 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 Curitiba is a model for Jozi development AN abundance of refuse, an absence of reliable public transport: 2010 looms - who would really want to be mayor? Read more Decade of Change - how are we doing in urban design and marketing? IN 1994, there was no cohesive master plan for the urban renewal of the city. Since that date a great deal has been done both in the production of an Inner City Framework and in a large number of area-specific frameworks and detailed urban designs for areas like Newtown, Chinatown, Constitution Hill, Braamfontein and so on. Read more International trends TRENDS experienced in US cities over the past few years have proved to be positive - the return of residential to downtowns; the growth and reinvestment in arts and culture; the diversification of local economies; the impacts of improvement districts and their evolving roles and the renewed interest of major retailers in centre city areas. Read more

Urban renaissance in US cities There are exciting developments happening in New York City and Philadelphia, where construction is booming and people are moving back into the city centres, writes Neil Fraser. October 1, 2007 By Neil Fraser SOME months ago I wrote about the fact that some 5 000 residential units had come on to the Joburg inner city market between 2001 and 2006 and that a further 5 000 were planned or under way between 2007 and 2010. In addition, the city is planning incentives to boost these numbers to a further 50 to 75 000 by 2013. And, having recently spent two weeks visiting Annapolis, Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York City (NYC) and attending the International Downtown Association's Annual Conference and World Congress on Cities in New York City, it is clear that a massive urban renaissance is in full flight, with city after city reporting floods of suburbanites moving to city living. In the States, the population equivalent of two New York Cities move annually from rural to urban areas! With this return to city living, the business improvement district (BID) movement (in our case, city improvement district or CID), is taking off - not only in numbers (New York City now has 61), but in the range and depth of services provided. There is a sense of confidence in cities that I haven't experienced in the past 20 years. Gone are the days of "clean and safe" being the only focus for BIDs; now they have lifted their sights and are becoming major partners with city governments in making cities livable. "Green" and "sustainable" are no longer buzzwords - the designers of Manhattan's skyscrapers look for choices that will make their buildings as energy efficient and environmentally friendly as possible. Traditional materials are giving way to those that are specifically produced for the new green era and whose production systems themselves are free of pollution processes. Within a matter of years, it will not be possible to have plans passed in NYC unless there is total conformance with the new "green" codes that are required to be met before the buildings can be certified for occupation. New York City The massive city of New York is in the throes of this renewal - $26-billion (that's about R200-billion) worth of new development is under way this year, which includes 35 000 residential units. The 1990 population of 7,3 million has swollen to 8,2 million and continues growing. Remember, too, that this all comes off the very low base that the city had plummeted to following 9/11, when it lost 100 000 jobs in three months. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who took over from Rudi Guiliani, faced a $7-billion deficit in the first year of his term of office. Now, New York is pumping with more construction activity than I have seen over nearly 30 years of visiting it. Daniel I Doctoroff, the deputy mayor of "economic development and rebuilding New York", stressed the overriding importance of four key issues in this urban surge – "quality of life"; fiscal discipline; thoughtful, objective strategic planning; and leadership. As people move into the city its tax income increases and more investment is ploughed back into quality of life aspects. More people bring more restaurants, fast food providers, delicatessens, and retail, each contributing to the city's income. The parks of New York - not just the traditional biggies like Central Park, but the dozens of smaller parks and street corner parks - are all looking great and attracting thousands upon thousands of people; the quality of streets and schools is being visibly improved; crime is down 75 percent. Doctoroff says that the strengths and weaknesses of the city were analysed "brutally" and two of the major issues that emerged were New York's long-term competitiveness and the disproportionate loss it was experiencing in middle-class population. Long-term strategies The long-term strategies that emerged to counter these weaknesses were a clear focus on (i) industries and (ii) places. For example, emphasis and financial support is being given to tourism-related businesses (35 million tourists in 2002 has grown to 46 million by 2007); incentives are being provided to film and TV production, resulting in the single largest such facilities east of California; providing some 5 000 new jobs and generally encouraging many more "blue-collar" jobs; and making a clear effort to win back what it lost in the financial sector through 9/11 with many corporates now moving back to NYC. The development upsurge is not confined to Manhattan; all five boroughs are experiencing similar trends. For instance, what is being described as an "explosion of new development" in Brooklyn was set off by sweeping rezoning approvals by the city council some years back that allow for an additional 450 000m² of class A office space, 90 000m² of retail and 1 000 residential units in Brooklyn's downtown area alone, which will result in it becoming New York's third largest CBD. Brooklyn, which had no hotels only four or five years ago, now has a major chain hotel (which is about to extend its numbers of rooms) with two more under construction - over 1 250 new beds being provided. Nearly $6-billion in some 50 projects is being spent by the private sector in one area of Brooklyn alone, including hundreds of "market rate" apartments that will subsidise new apartments for the "formerly homeless". Everywhere one goes in New York City one sees construction activity and the streets are pumping with people and energy. There is a clear return to high-rise buildings after the concerns generated by 9/11, with a recognition that "building tall" is the way to go for density and anti-sprawl as well as for environmental reasons. Philadelphia At the time Johannesburg was established, Philadelphia was already the largest and most diversified industrial city in North America. But, as everywhere else, manufacturing decreased dramatically and today only 6 percent of Philadelphia's workforce is in the industrial sector. When I first visited the city centre in the early 1980s, it was dirty and unsafe, with hundreds of street people adding to the perception of decay and decline. The establishment of the Central Philadelphia Development Corporation in 1956 had led to major public investment but it wasn't until the establishment of a CID in 1990, the Center City District (CCD), that a focus was brought to "safe and clean" and the platform for the revitalisation of the downtown was laid. Now the area boasts new office towers, with rentals escalating from a low of $15,24 per square foot in 1996 to $24,23 last year; growth in its education, medical care and research facilities; hotel rooms (6 000 in 1986 to over 10 000 20 years later, with a 74 percent occupancy rate); a massive increase in convention attendance as tourists to the Philadelphia region soared to over 27 million in 2005, with similar escalation of visitors to arts and culture establishments. Booming residential As in Washington DC and New York, residential development has mushroomed, with over 200 projects coming on stream between 2001 and 2007 and at least another 30 known projects planned or under way. The downtown now boasts one of the largest residential populations in the US, with 88 000 centre city residents. Residential has, in turn, spawned a retail return to the downtown as well as large numbers of bistros, outdoor eating facilities and restaurants – the number of eateries has increased by 238 percent since 1991. A strategy, "Centre city: Planning for growth 2007 to 2012", was published earlier this year by the Center City District and the Central Philadelphia Development Corporation. It was the outcome of the work of seven design companies whose concepts were presented at a series of widely publicised forums held throughout 2006 that led to the incorporation of many comments and suggestions. Discussions were held with property owners, developers, business leaders, residents and public officials, and from these seven broad objectives were distilled: Increasing the attractiveness of the centre city as a place to work while creating opportunities for new, 21st century industries; Building on the residential boom by investing in key facilities, schools, playgrounds, parks and public access to the waterfront; Enhancing the walkable character of the centre city; Eliminating gaps in the pedestrian fabric and overcoming barriers to growth such as highways and railroads; Contributing to the diversification of the mixture of land uses while preserving an extraordinary architectural heritage; Allowing for the easy movement of cars, bicycles, trucks and buses so that they can co-exist with pedestrians; and Dramatically enhancing the quality, customer-friendliness and frequency of public transit through both small-scale and major infrastructure investments to link the city's neighbourhoods and residents of the region to opportunities downtown. These resonate well with us and our needs. It's great to experience what other cities are doing and seeing what we can learn from their efforts, but it's always great to come home! 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