CITICHAT 35/99 – 29 October 1999
Gandhi Square - History
Was interested to see Revel Fox's article in this morning's Business Day on the next phase of work to the Cape Town Waterfront, the residential marina. I have had the privilege of knowing Revel over many years and doing quite a bit of work with him in my previous life. I have an enormous regard and respect for him both as person and architect. His article refers to the "activity corridor" that is planned as a link between the Waterfront and the Cape Town CBD as well as to the fact that the Waterfront is a catalyst for revival in central Cape Town. I accept what he says because of who he is and the fact that he is on the spot. But, having spent a couple of days in Cape Town this week where we have been asked to advise in certain areas, I must say that I am most concerned for the CBD. It is reflecting many signs of major distress. It is extremely dirty. Posters are pasted on everything that doesn't move. Benches, tree gratings and manhole covers in what was once the city's showpiece, St George's Mall, are broken or missing. Signs hang off poles or have disappeared, flower boxes are used as refuse bins, etc. etc. But one of the most disturbing signs is the number of vagrants and beggars that throng the streets and provide an intimidating and threatening urban atmosphere. My colleague, Franco Andreone and I managed to avoid being mugged by four men (I guess Joeys has taught us to be a little bit street smart!). My concern however is that so little is being done everywhere, for this problem is mirrored in almost all our towns and cities, to tackle this overwhelming problem of unemployment. I think that we almost need to start focusing less on crime and more on how to create jobs for as many people as possible. Tourism is hailed as a potential saviour but is it going to provide jobs at the bottom end of the scale? National conventions are a waste of time. Maybe if every business put just a small percentage of executive time into dreaming up new avenues of employment or entrepreneurial opportunities rather than their total focus on the bottom line, I'm sure we would come up with some great ideas. Idealistic? I guess, but we aren't going to get anywhere unless focuses on this issue and DOES something!
Talking of tourism, some more news on Gandhi Square thanks to Mike Oelofse. He discovered a picture, a copy of which we now have, of the surrender of Johannesburg by the Boer appointed war administration to the British under Lord Roberts in 1900. Where? Right in front of the now demolished Court building more or less where the turning circle now is on Gandhi Square. In fact, the Boer Republic flag was lowered and the Union Jack run up a flagpole probably roughly where the central light on the circle now is. The Union Jack was apparently sown by Lady Roberts especially for the surrender. Mike says, "Dr Krause had managed to negotiate the terms of the surrender, including the preservation of the gold mines, sparing the city from destruction. Roberts then entered Johannesburg at 10h00 on May 31, 1900, having marched from Germiston. He was accompanied by Lord Kitchener and Dr Krause and the Grenadier Guards, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders followed by their four siege guns. I suspect Winston Churchill covered the event, he had bicycled from Doornkop across town to join Kitchener's detachment."
Mike suggests, and I think it a great idea, that apart from a plaque which the CJP are happy to provide, Johannesburg should celebrate the centenary of the end of hostilities with a memorial service on the Square on May 31, 2000. This would be a great symbolic gesture for the city as the 'Uitlanders' were denied any civic rights under the Boer Republic and had no vote or local government which led to the Jameson Raid and ultimately to the war. A foretaste of things to come! "Johannesburg," says Mike, "is a city that at long last has entrenched democracy for all respecting human rights and diversity". Interesting that the historical significance of the surrender at Gandhi Square, then called Government Square, was buried under a bus terminus! Cheers.
Friday, October 29, 1999
Saturday, October 23, 1999
Informal Trading Citichat 23 September 1999
CITICHAT No 31/99 - 23 September 1999
Informal Trading
Driving up Marshall Street to work one morning this week I encountered hordes of informal traders pushing grossly overladen trolleys, courtesy of the supermarkets and other major retailers, the trolleys that is, down Marshall and north up into Rissik.Street. I really mean hordes for there are some 600 who pour out of the old Irish Barracks building each morning en route to their trading 'pitches'. It is an awesome sight which reminded me of the films we constantly see on TV of long columns of refugees fleeing war torn countries. Only here, they come back each evening!
The background to all this relates to the City at last reclaiming Oppenheimer Park. If you hadn't seen Oppenheimer Park over the past few years you won't understand what I mean by reclaiming it. Back to beginnings. The Johannesburg Saga by John R Shorten quaintly records the following in regard to Sir Ernest Oppenheimer; "He is commemorated in Johannesburg by the attractive fountain set in the centre of the Square on the eastern side of the Rissik Street Post Office. This memorial which adds a note of charm to the central area, was donated to the city by his son, H. F. Oppenheimer and unveiled by the Mayor, Councillor Alec Gorshel, on the 16th July, 1960."
In the late 1980s the then City Council decided that with massive political changes on the horizon it would be politic to stop enforcing the draconian informal trading bylaws that essentially banned street trading in the city. From fewer than 200 licenced traders in 1976 approximately 7000 licences had been issued by July 1988, but there were many more traders on the street by that stage than licences issued reflected.
The 1991 Businesses Act set out provisions for deregulating both formal and informal business. Importantly, it also removed the requirement that street trading be controlled through licences thus effectively liberating the streets. Street trading exploded and the huge gaps that resulted from apartheid planning were exacerbated. There was nowhere for street traders to store their goods nor for washing nor toilet facilities.
A local entrepreneur recognised the need and saw Oppenheimer Park as providing the answer. He started letting the Park to street traders and the "attractive fountain" and "charm" of the Park referred to by John Shorten disappeared instantaneously under hundreds of informal trader trolleys stacked like they were never designed to be. The fountain was now used for washing clothing et al and the walls of the adjoining historic Rissik Street Post Office as an open air urinal. The entrepreneur became wealthy, who wouldn't letting out someone else's property?
Lest you are concerned about the "leaping springboks" sculpture that adorned the fountain, rest well. It is no longer being used as an anchor for wash lines The Oppenheimers reclaimed it for incorporation into the Anglo precinct development in Main Street!
The Park was identified as a priority item on the 1999 agenda of the Inner City Committee. But it now became impossible to dislodge the entrepreneur! Reclaiming the Park would mean that he would lose his livelihood (renting public open space!) After much searching an alternative site was found for him, the Irish Barracks, and he was introduced to the owners being the State Public Works Department. An agreement was reached and 600 informal traders departed the Park and moved into their new storage facility from which they sally forth daily creating a new problem as we do not yet have trafficc lanes dedicated to informal trader carts overladen or not. The Inner City Office is now looking at how Anderson and Marshall Streets can be 'remodelled' to cope with this new and unique traffic.
Never a dull moment! And they say the city is dying! Have a good long weekend, cheers.
Informal Trading
Driving up Marshall Street to work one morning this week I encountered hordes of informal traders pushing grossly overladen trolleys, courtesy of the supermarkets and other major retailers, the trolleys that is, down Marshall and north up into Rissik.Street. I really mean hordes for there are some 600 who pour out of the old Irish Barracks building each morning en route to their trading 'pitches'. It is an awesome sight which reminded me of the films we constantly see on TV of long columns of refugees fleeing war torn countries. Only here, they come back each evening!
The background to all this relates to the City at last reclaiming Oppenheimer Park. If you hadn't seen Oppenheimer Park over the past few years you won't understand what I mean by reclaiming it. Back to beginnings. The Johannesburg Saga by John R Shorten quaintly records the following in regard to Sir Ernest Oppenheimer; "He is commemorated in Johannesburg by the attractive fountain set in the centre of the Square on the eastern side of the Rissik Street Post Office. This memorial which adds a note of charm to the central area, was donated to the city by his son, H. F. Oppenheimer and unveiled by the Mayor, Councillor Alec Gorshel, on the 16th July, 1960."
In the late 1980s the then City Council decided that with massive political changes on the horizon it would be politic to stop enforcing the draconian informal trading bylaws that essentially banned street trading in the city. From fewer than 200 licenced traders in 1976 approximately 7000 licences had been issued by July 1988, but there were many more traders on the street by that stage than licences issued reflected.
The 1991 Businesses Act set out provisions for deregulating both formal and informal business. Importantly, it also removed the requirement that street trading be controlled through licences thus effectively liberating the streets. Street trading exploded and the huge gaps that resulted from apartheid planning were exacerbated. There was nowhere for street traders to store their goods nor for washing nor toilet facilities.
A local entrepreneur recognised the need and saw Oppenheimer Park as providing the answer. He started letting the Park to street traders and the "attractive fountain" and "charm" of the Park referred to by John Shorten disappeared instantaneously under hundreds of informal trader trolleys stacked like they were never designed to be. The fountain was now used for washing clothing et al and the walls of the adjoining historic Rissik Street Post Office as an open air urinal. The entrepreneur became wealthy, who wouldn't letting out someone else's property?
Lest you are concerned about the "leaping springboks" sculpture that adorned the fountain, rest well. It is no longer being used as an anchor for wash lines The Oppenheimers reclaimed it for incorporation into the Anglo precinct development in Main Street!
The Park was identified as a priority item on the 1999 agenda of the Inner City Committee. But it now became impossible to dislodge the entrepreneur! Reclaiming the Park would mean that he would lose his livelihood (renting public open space!) After much searching an alternative site was found for him, the Irish Barracks, and he was introduced to the owners being the State Public Works Department. An agreement was reached and 600 informal traders departed the Park and moved into their new storage facility from which they sally forth daily creating a new problem as we do not yet have trafficc lanes dedicated to informal trader carts overladen or not. The Inner City Office is now looking at how Anderson and Marshall Streets can be 'remodelled' to cope with this new and unique traffic.
Never a dull moment! And they say the city is dying! Have a good long weekend, cheers.
Friday, October 8, 1999
Philadelphia Citichat October 8 1999
CITICHAT 33/99 - OCTOBER 8 1999
Philadelphia
Between last week's and this week's Citichat I attended the 45th Annual Conference of the International Downtown Association (IDA) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The theme for this year's conference was "Developing, Managing and Promoting the 24 Hour Downtown".There was a wide choice of workshops, round table discussions and plenary keynote speakers, over sixty sessions in all from Saturday through to Tuesday afternoon.
The local IDA member, in this case the Philadelphia Center City District (ie one of the local Business/City Improvement Districts), together with the IDA, came up with some outstanding keynote speakers. Two that I found of great interest and relevance were Theodore Hershberg from the Center for Greater Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania who spoke on "The Role of Cities in Regional and International Competition" and Andreas Duany of the professional urban practice Duany Plater-Zyberk of Miami Florida who spoke on "Levelling the Playing Field between Cities and Suburbs". More about his input next week.
I love speakers who are clearly passionate about what they speak on even if I don't always agree with what they are saying. This wasn't the case with Hershberg, for, whilst incredibly passionate about his subject matter, he also made a great deal of common sense. ;Some of the challenges and opportunities that he felt that CITIES must square up to:
*Ensuring that communities have a strong, diverse economic base
*Maintaining greenspace
*Integrating sectors of development (retail/housing/sports/cultural,etc)
*Providing accessible transport
*Improving quality of life
*Being concerned about runaway growth and managing it, and
*Fostering private/public partnerships.
He felt that these issues could not effectively be addressed on a purely city level for the unit of competition today is REGIONAL. This required Downtown leaders to;
*Get involved in local metropolitan planning and to
*Support sensible regional growth policies
He pointed out that in the USA regionalism has to struggle to overcome four dichotomies between city and suburb.1. Race: American inner city communities are almost all black, suburbs almost all white. 2 Class: American cities cater for lower income levels; suburbs for middle and upper income groups. 3. Politics; American city communities are largely Democrat, suburbs largely Republican. 4. Parochialism is widespread.
He pleaded forcibly for scarce investment capacities to be used wisely and for urban sprawl to be contained. Toronto has recently taken a stand that no moneys from urban sources may be used to fund urban sprawl. Portland, Oregon and Minneapolis/St Paul are way ahead with the establishment of urban growth management and the creation of urban growth boundaries and are seeing the benefits whilst other cities merely talk about the issue..
For cities to survive, the cost of goods and services must be lowered, the cost of capital must be lessened by controlling sprawl, the central cores of cities must be stabilised and human resources must be developed to the full. The major source of comparative advantage is to develop human resources. If cities and regions do not have well educated people "you can kiss your cities goodbye". We need to anchor our children to strong economic growth in the future for new technologies will favour the educated.
Pointing out that a concentration of poverty in inner cities must become more and more expensive to service, he stressed that the real stakeholders of inner cities are in fact the suburbanites for it is the suburbanites who ultimately will be most affected by inner city decline. It is the suburbanites who should be taking the initiative and setting down their requirements for inner city revitalisation instead of walking away from the problem or living as if there weren't one.
Philadelphia
Between last week's and this week's Citichat I attended the 45th Annual Conference of the International Downtown Association (IDA) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The theme for this year's conference was "Developing, Managing and Promoting the 24 Hour Downtown".There was a wide choice of workshops, round table discussions and plenary keynote speakers, over sixty sessions in all from Saturday through to Tuesday afternoon.
The local IDA member, in this case the Philadelphia Center City District (ie one of the local Business/City Improvement Districts), together with the IDA, came up with some outstanding keynote speakers. Two that I found of great interest and relevance were Theodore Hershberg from the Center for Greater Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania who spoke on "The Role of Cities in Regional and International Competition" and Andreas Duany of the professional urban practice Duany Plater-Zyberk of Miami Florida who spoke on "Levelling the Playing Field between Cities and Suburbs". More about his input next week.
I love speakers who are clearly passionate about what they speak on even if I don't always agree with what they are saying. This wasn't the case with Hershberg, for, whilst incredibly passionate about his subject matter, he also made a great deal of common sense. ;Some of the challenges and opportunities that he felt that CITIES must square up to:
*Ensuring that communities have a strong, diverse economic base
*Maintaining greenspace
*Integrating sectors of development (retail/housing/sports/cultural,etc)
*Providing accessible transport
*Improving quality of life
*Being concerned about runaway growth and managing it, and
*Fostering private/public partnerships.
He felt that these issues could not effectively be addressed on a purely city level for the unit of competition today is REGIONAL. This required Downtown leaders to;
*Get involved in local metropolitan planning and to
*Support sensible regional growth policies
He pointed out that in the USA regionalism has to struggle to overcome four dichotomies between city and suburb.1. Race: American inner city communities are almost all black, suburbs almost all white. 2 Class: American cities cater for lower income levels; suburbs for middle and upper income groups. 3. Politics; American city communities are largely Democrat, suburbs largely Republican. 4. Parochialism is widespread.
He pleaded forcibly for scarce investment capacities to be used wisely and for urban sprawl to be contained. Toronto has recently taken a stand that no moneys from urban sources may be used to fund urban sprawl. Portland, Oregon and Minneapolis/St Paul are way ahead with the establishment of urban growth management and the creation of urban growth boundaries and are seeing the benefits whilst other cities merely talk about the issue..
For cities to survive, the cost of goods and services must be lowered, the cost of capital must be lessened by controlling sprawl, the central cores of cities must be stabilised and human resources must be developed to the full. The major source of comparative advantage is to develop human resources. If cities and regions do not have well educated people "you can kiss your cities goodbye". We need to anchor our children to strong economic growth in the future for new technologies will favour the educated.
Pointing out that a concentration of poverty in inner cities must become more and more expensive to service, he stressed that the real stakeholders of inner cities are in fact the suburbanites for it is the suburbanites who ultimately will be most affected by inner city decline. It is the suburbanites who should be taking the initiative and setting down their requirements for inner city revitalisation instead of walking away from the problem or living as if there weren't one.
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