CIDs Citichat 18 May 2001

CITICHAT 19/2001 - 18 May 2001


CID Progress

The ‘Improvement District’ movement continues to grow in South Africa and to become part of our urban management scene. Although now known by a plethora of acronyms they all have one thing in common, providing supplementary services to those provided by local authorities to make urban areas more competitive and better places to work, shop and recreate in.

From time to time in the future, Citichat will report on the status of South African IDs (that seems the safest terminology given BIDs (Business), CIDs (City), MIDs (Municipal), UIPs (Urban Improvement Precincts), TIZs (Town Improvement Zones) and a couple of others!). As we do so we’ll showcase one ID in more detail than others, this week it’s a WID – the Wynberg Improvement District in Cape Town. The following list might well not be conclusive as it is drawn mostly from the direct or indirect involvement of either the CJP or PUR. It also doesn’t include literally dozens of initiatives to establish similar structures in residential areas. An (e) after the name means that the CID is approved by the appropriate municipality and established, a (p) that it is proposed and already some way down the approval process whilst a (v) means that it is up-and-running on a voluntary basis at this stage.

Western Cape.

Cape Town CBD (e)

Claremont (e)

Wynberg (e)

Sea Point (p)

Eastern Cape

Kingwilliamstown (p)

East London (p)

Gauteng

Johannesburg Inner City

Central (v)*

South Western (v)*

Retail (v)*

Northern (v)*

Braamfontein (v)*

Newtown (v)*

Legislature (v)*

Ellis Park Precinct (p)

Garment District (p)

Rosebank

Rosebank Management District (e)

Sandton

Sandton City Management District (e)

Sandton Business District (p)

Midrand

Midrand CBD (e)

Pretoria

Esselen Street (e)

Church Street (p)

CBD (p)

Paul Kruger Street (p)

Arcadia (p)

Hatfield (p)

Brooklyn (p)

Mapumalanga

Nelspruit (p)

Kwa Zulu Natal

Durban

Central City (e)

3 around the Convention Centre area (p)

* Will be covered by a single CBD-wide CID by mid-year

Some recent information from two of the established IDs illustrates the value of this type of initiative:

Claremont Improvement District Company (CIDC) in the Cape Town Unicity – operationalised in December 2000 – from police reports crime has fallen steadily in the area since the establishment of the CIDC, 54% in January; 28% in February and 53.6% in March.

We have just completed an ‘audit’ of this CIDs effectiveness for their Board. We had a good feel for the area having carried out the original Perception Survey now probably a year ago. The improvement is quite remarkable, Apart from the safety stats above which speak for themselves, pavements are noticeably cleaner, informal trading appears more ‘managed’ and there is a high awareness of the work of the CIDC. They also have taken a really pro-active approach to dealing with the problem that exists in the area of street children and were about to open a special facility to deal with this aspect.

The Essellen Street CID in Pretoria recently carried out a survey within their operating area from which the following was ascertained:

• 92% of respondents perceived the area as cleaner since the establishment of the CID

• 66% as safer

• 98% believe the CID is worthwhile

• 32% of tenants have reflected an increase in turnover, average 32%

Now for WID, the Wynberg Improvement District.

PUR was appointed in 1999 to undertake a Perception Survey of the Retail and Business Centre in Wynberg, Cape and then provided a consulting service for the establishment of the resultant Municipal Improvement District (MID) as they were called by the South Peninsula Municipality at that time. The Wynberg Improvement District was the first Improvement District to be formally approved by a Municipality in the Western Cape, in May 2000 and became operational in October of that year.

The Perception Survey highlighted an urban area under a great deal of distress presenting a completely unmanaged appearance which had resulted negatively on property values and property rentals, etc. The area was characterised by litter, unmanaged informal trading, illegal posters, damaged refuse bins, a particularly large number of homeless street people and a relatively high level of street crime.

In a short space of time, the WID, under the management of Kristina Davidson, has had a significant impact on the public environment of the Wynberg Business and Retail centre demonstrating the effectiveness of the CID process.

Employment. The WID has a full-time Manager in the person of Kristina Davidson, a cleaning sub contractor (7 cleaners plus 1 supervisor), 2 Law Enforcement Officers (employed by the local authority but paid for by the WID) and 4 Community Patrol Officers. Whilst the cleaners are currently operating out of a room in the Town Hall and the law enforcement and SAPS from their respective stations, the WID is looking to set up an operations room for all personnel.

Budget. R 1 010 000–00 per annum

Number of Participants: 100 rateable properties

Service Agreement. A minimum service agreement has been signed with the local authority.

Parking areas – The WID has an agreement with the municipality to manage the parking areas and currently is engaged on a pilot project using street people as parking attendants, where possible, who sign a code of conduct. The project to date has been very successful in one respect - there are no longer hordes of illegal parking attendants trying to tell you how to park / drive! They are now moving to the next phase, with the introduction of distinctive uniforms and allowing applicants other than street people to apply to be parking attendants. They are also planning to employ a supervisor with a law enforcement background to check on all the parking attendants, extending if necessary into the surrounding streets.

Street People - Vagrancy in Wynberg is still a major problem requiring the WID to become extremely involved in seeking solutions. They do not profess to have all the solutions to this problem, which is made worse by chronic substance abuse. However, by working very closely together with the many role-players, the WID believes that short and long term solutions can be found to manage and control the influx of street people in Wynberg. One success, in partnership with the municipality, was to have the public toilets in Maynardville opened, under the supervision of one of the street people. This provides street people with supervised ablution facilities where they are also permitted to do their washing early in the morning, before the public is out and about. The WID is also very involved in the setting up of a multi-purpose centre in Wynberg, possibly on the site of a current night shelter. The emphasis would be on skills training and job creation, open during the days, so that the street people would have no excuse for sitting around in the parking areas all day. It is planned that the centre should include representatives from all service providers in the area, thus ensuring that a full range of services are available to the street people (continuum of care or development continuum).

Informal Traders - Law enforcement has been very successful in controlling the informal traders - there are no illegal traders in the WID area and Council now receives 100% payment of monthly rentals! The next step planned is to re-configure the trading bays and to educate the informal traders on keeping their immediate surroundings clean.

Greening and the Environment. The WID has started a programme of greening with trees and planting in terra cotta containers down the Main Road. Owners have been encouraged to do up their buildings and one building in Church Street and a number of buildings in Station Road have been repainted to great effect. The WID also plans to repaint all traffic light poles.

We took the opportunity whilst carrying out the Claremont audit to visit the WID and again were impressed at the visual improvement that has resulted from their efforts. Informal pavement trading which was quite out of control previously is now clearly managed and could be further improved through the use of appropriately designed stalls or small trading markets. The big problem in Wynberg is the proliferation of street people the majority of whom clearly having substance abuse problems. This is a major issue in our towns and cities and, given the roots of the problem, not easy to solve, but solve it we must.

So the CID movement is alive and well and growing!

Eating establishments in the Johannesburg CBD may not be growing, yet, but there are a number that are also alive and well! Following last week’s Citichat report on a Portuguese eaterie and staying in the East of the CBD, here’s another worth visiting. ABSA has provided a very pleasant coffee shop, Wiesenhof, in their new Campus serving light meals. Part of a growing chain owned by ex-Springbok rugby player Kobus Wiese, I have enjoyed breakfast over a number of early morning meetings in their bright and airy premises fronting onto Commissioner Street.

Reminder about the Johannesburg Inner City Investor’s Briefing on Tuesday 29th May from 08h00 BUT NOTE that the venue has changed from Newtown appropriately to the 50th Floor Top of the Carlton Centre. Parking available in the Carlton Basement Parking Garage. See you there!