CITICHAT 8/2008 - 29 February 2008
Providing for the practical and the academic in place management.
I’m in cold London for back to back conferences of the Institute of Place Management (IPM) and the Association of Town Centre Management (ATCM). In the case of the former, it is the inaugural conference of the Institute, in the case of the latter, it is one of many conferences that the organisation holds in different parts of the country, this one being an annual Strategic Leadership Conference. So here we have a newish organisation, IPM, focusing on research and education in the urban realm and a long established organisation in city management issues, ATCM, representing a wide range of urban stakeholders and role players, meeting over a couple of days in their own disciplines, but ultimately working for the same end – making cities better places!
Over the twenty something years that I have observed the city scene here in the UK, city centre management has seen a change from the traditional local government led model to include a variety of types of city partnerships between public and private sectors as well as the emergence of town centre managers (often with a team of specialists) that are paid for through a variety of funding streams, some by business others by business and council others by various combinations “helping town and city centres realise their natural roles both as prosperous locations for business and investment, and as focal points for vibrant, inclusive communities.” ATCM members and their partnership networks add up to a national constituency of some 10,000 leading businesses, government agencies and professions. Together, they enable a uniquely comprehensive exchange of know-how and ideas spanning a range of interests and skills represented in town and city centres……………..and achieving beneficial outcomes for all the following:
Government
Building successful town and city centres contributes to the policy objectives of central government and complements the economic, social and regeneration strategies of local government and development agencies.
Retailers
Improving the quality of the public realm is synonymous with delivering a better, more popular and more profitable trading environment for businesses of all kinds.
Property owners
A better trading environment enhances the status of town centres and the demand for property, increasing both its capital worth and rentable value.
Developers
Increasing competitiveness enlarges the customer base, fuels a continuing drive for differentiation and unlocks opportunities for new facilities and attractions.
Transport providers
More attractive, accessible town centres strengthen efficient transport hubs and increases demand for higher volume, modern, integrated transport systems.
Town centre managers
Effective policy development, training and information provision enhances the status and knowledge base that underpin sustainable management structures, leading to improved services and accelerating commercial growth.
Consultants
The growth of professional management and increasing expectations drives an escalating demand for high quality information, research and specialist skills across the spectrum of environmental, physical, economic and social development.”
Over the past five years, another urban intervention that has proved to be most successful here has been the establishment of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) or what we call City Improvement Districts (CIDs). I had written some years ago about the advent of BIDs in the UK when Central Government provided funding assistance to establish some 22 pilot BIDs in various towns and cities in Britain, the local constituencies (levy payers) having the final vote. Since 2003 that appears to have grown through 67 successful ballots (only 7 that have not succeeded.) Of course, like ourselves, some cities have a number of BIDs operating within their boundaries.
Scotland introduced their enabling legislation in 2006 which came into force in 2007 with a current pilot programme supporting six BID locations.
Jacquie Reilly, ATCMs BIDs Director (‘Talking BIDs’ January 2008) says that “there is no doubt that the formal and focused process of BID development is creating far greater business engagement and producing well honed business plans in many towns large and small. ……BID projects are becoming more and more sophisticated from in-house wardens with hand-held PDA systems to innovative marketing campaigns with town vouchers and dining weeks…”
Amongst some excellent addresses at the ATCM conference I was particularly interested in a report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers. This related to a sustained research programme they were commissioned to undertake over a two year period in some 21 towns, cities and areas across the country. The objective is to provide a more ambitious agenda for business engagement and Town Centre partnerships which will provide a model “universally accepted and valued by the business community” as well as increased funding sustainability, influencing local policy development contributing to success in the area and providing different models to market town, sub-regional centres, industrial areas, etc. The report will be published at the end of March and should make interesting reading.
The Institute of Place Management is very much a complementary body to ATCM. IPM is an international professional body “that supports people committed to developing, managing and making places better.” It aims to support and develop the profession of place management and to showcase the most important place management developments across the world, providing a reference point for practitioners. IPM provides place managers, academics and policy makers with access to valuable information on the topic of place management. They comment on the concept of ‘place’ as follows:
”One of the most central concepts to human existence is that of place. We spend our lives somewhere; whether we are working, relaxing or just existing - we pass our time in various locations; we may travel to a town or city centre to shop, commute to a business park to work, and return to a neighbourhood to sleep.
History tells us that successful places, or those that pass the test of time, evolve to meet the changing needs of those that use them. Increasingly, attempts are being made to manage this evolution through some type of proactive intervention process.
It may be regeneration, management, marketing, economic development or any permutation of these but the aim is the same - to improve a distinct area or destination for the benefit of its users. This is the essence of place management – the process of making places better.
Although this term is relatively new, place management has, in practice, become an established concept over the last twenty years in Europe, having existed in parts of North America for much longer. It is an emerging concept in other parts of the world such as Asia and Australia.”
There are few courses offered anywhere in the world that I know of that focus solely on the management of place. I know that the International Downtown Association (IDA) has been working on something for a number of years and is offering appropriate training in the USA, but I don’t know of anything at university level that would equip people in this rapidly emerging profession. “Two thirds of town centre managers in the UK alone have highlighted this as a problem and are keen to undertake place management specific qualifications.”
ATCM have therefore been working in partnership with the Manchester Metropolitan University to launch, through the Institute of Place Management, a range of place management specific qualifications to help people within the profession achieve their full potential. What will make the courses by IPM unique is that they will offer qualifications which reflect the true diversity of place management. Prof Cathy Parker, the Development Director of IPM says: “There is an enormous variation in what place managers actually do and how they do it. We also recognise the variety of subject disciplines that place management draws from, such as: social entrepreneurship; management; marketing; economic development; retailing; education; crime & security; planning & design; and tourism & leisure to name a few.
It is our philosophy that this diversity, merged with the experiences, opinions and beliefs of our participants, is the core strength of all the programmes we co-ordinate.”
Courses offered will include:
Introductory Diploma in Place Management
MSc in Place Management
MA Urban Regeneration
MA Place Regeneration & Marketing
IPM hopes to establish an international network of people committed to making neighbourhoods, towns, cities and retail districts the best they can possibly be. To this end they have also established a Journal of Place Management and Development which aims to provide a central repository for research into these issues pulling together theory and practice. Volume 1 2008 is due to be published shortly.
In a relatively short space of time urban management, space or place management or whatever you may call it, has come a long way.
Cheers, neil
Thursday, February 28, 2002
Friday, February 22, 2002
Joburg 2030 Citichat 22 February 2002
CITICHAT 7/2002 - 22 February 2002
Joburg 2030
This has been ‘Joburg 2030 week’, a period when the City Council has been presenting its Economic Development Plan to the private sector at a series of sessions. I drew what was obviously the presentation to the formal property industry over breakfast on Thursday morning. One of the first things that I was quickly reminded of, is that this sector is still extremely ‘pale male’! Most meetings that I attend these days usually reflect the demographics of the country but that doesn’t appear to be happening too rapidly in property. Looks like a great opportunity for someone because I bet such a meeting isn’t going to be that skewed in three years time!
Well we’ve had Egoli 2002 and Egoli 2010 which were largely the result of the Council looking inwards to determine its internal problems and its general direction for the future respectively. Joburg 2030 builds on the progress made from the previous exercises and looks outwards at the direction for the city. (the ‘city’ in this case is of course Metropolitan Johannesburg, not the Inner City.) The plan offers two refreshing approaches: it is using a sensible time-horizon (planners seem to look at short term horizons giving rise to short term solutions) and, secondly, it presents a considered economic strategy that has been sadly lacking in the past. The council has at last accepted that we are not going to get anywhere without growth in order to generate a “better life” for all its citizens. I certainly haven’t had the time since yesterday morning to read the impressive 150 page document that sets out the detail, so will confine myself to some issues that were highlighted at the session both by Cllr Kenny Fihla, who presented the Report, and by some of the attendees. Will provide more considered comment later when I’ve had time to study the full document.
I liked the Basic Paradigm (what word did we use before paradigm became consultant jargon?):
1. A better city can be founded on increased gross geographic product (GGP) growth.
2. A city can increase GGP growth by fully exploiting economies of agglomeration so as to increase total factor productivity.
3. Economies of localisation (sector specific) have a crucial role to play.
4. Normative issues must be applied to the above as a second layer and should not undermine agglomeration of productivity gains.
(The document translates the last point as “simply that the City must remain critically aware that it must not undermine productivity or efficacy gains that have been made in the process of implementing the Vision while attempting to manage short term challenges.”)
The summary of the Basic Paradigm is that if Council makes the city operate better in economic terms, so that total factor productivity increases, and, the city specifically supports key growth industries – then: on a year by year basis, given national policy, the GGP of the city can grow and the quality of life improve for all citizens in a meaningful and sustainable manner. The strategic implications of this are that Council redimensions itself as an agent for economic growth, its fundamental delivery horizon of a better city shifts out to 2030 and the council repositions itself with respect to other tiers of government.
I liked the creation of a condusive (sic) environment based on decreasing the weight of crime as a determining variable in the investment decision and ensuring that firms can find the skills they need to make such investments operational.
I didn’t like the strategy for crime reduction which was:
• refocus vision of Metro Police Departmentt to highlight reduction of crime as it relates to business
• closer strategic co-ordination and co-operation with other tiers of government
• “purchase of product” from province and national
• zero tolerance on by-law and traffic infringements
I think that this approach is all tired, old and hackneyed and needs some visionary thinking. I really had great hopes for MPD on its formation but it has yet to show it is a motivated force capable of sustained delivery. From the outside it appears to be an organisation of gatekeepers who aren’t willing to risk raising the bar by thinking laterally.
But then I LOVED the proposal to demarcate an urban boundary which “will stringently restrict urban development and within the boundary have demarcated nodes” as well as the proposal to workshop ideas regarding utilisation of existing infrastructure; commercial sprawl in residential areas and what to do with property in the CBD in the short term.
I didn’t like the couple of spelling mistakes on such a high profile presentation – zero tolerance means being concerned with the small things as well as the large and yes I do know that I spelt Gandhi’s name incorrectly last week.
Couple of the comments from the floor were particularly pertinent:
1. Good to have a long term horizon but short term measures are important to regain confidence – by-law enforcement in the northern suburbs is practically non existent.
2. Most South African cities are like ‘donuts’, a hole in the centre. In our geographic area we have two contiguous ‘donuts’, Johannesburg and Pretoria, and urban growth planning needs provincial support so that one doesn’t merely drive business from one donut to the other – but we must get the centre of the donut to be filled. This is all supply-side so we do also need to stimulate demand.
3. We mustn’t concentrate on the external at the expense of the inward looking exercises done in the earlier Egoli research – the Council is still not efficient and its inefficiencies are driving away investment
4. Some of the investment policies seem unsustainable and contain seeds for future problems
5. The city lacks a signature
6. We need to think big while we think small and a focus on precincts could offer a good merging of micro and macro - the term ‘Low Cost Housing’ engenders incorrect perceptions; it should be Housing for Lower Income.
Generally the comments were good and positive. I certainly didn’t pick up the usual snide remarks or the “here we go again” comments that many people are quick to make after the show has ended.
Cheers,
Joburg 2030
This has been ‘Joburg 2030 week’, a period when the City Council has been presenting its Economic Development Plan to the private sector at a series of sessions. I drew what was obviously the presentation to the formal property industry over breakfast on Thursday morning. One of the first things that I was quickly reminded of, is that this sector is still extremely ‘pale male’! Most meetings that I attend these days usually reflect the demographics of the country but that doesn’t appear to be happening too rapidly in property. Looks like a great opportunity for someone because I bet such a meeting isn’t going to be that skewed in three years time!
Well we’ve had Egoli 2002 and Egoli 2010 which were largely the result of the Council looking inwards to determine its internal problems and its general direction for the future respectively. Joburg 2030 builds on the progress made from the previous exercises and looks outwards at the direction for the city. (the ‘city’ in this case is of course Metropolitan Johannesburg, not the Inner City.) The plan offers two refreshing approaches: it is using a sensible time-horizon (planners seem to look at short term horizons giving rise to short term solutions) and, secondly, it presents a considered economic strategy that has been sadly lacking in the past. The council has at last accepted that we are not going to get anywhere without growth in order to generate a “better life” for all its citizens. I certainly haven’t had the time since yesterday morning to read the impressive 150 page document that sets out the detail, so will confine myself to some issues that were highlighted at the session both by Cllr Kenny Fihla, who presented the Report, and by some of the attendees. Will provide more considered comment later when I’ve had time to study the full document.
I liked the Basic Paradigm (what word did we use before paradigm became consultant jargon?):
1. A better city can be founded on increased gross geographic product (GGP) growth.
2. A city can increase GGP growth by fully exploiting economies of agglomeration so as to increase total factor productivity.
3. Economies of localisation (sector specific) have a crucial role to play.
4. Normative issues must be applied to the above as a second layer and should not undermine agglomeration of productivity gains.
(The document translates the last point as “simply that the City must remain critically aware that it must not undermine productivity or efficacy gains that have been made in the process of implementing the Vision while attempting to manage short term challenges.”)
The summary of the Basic Paradigm is that if Council makes the city operate better in economic terms, so that total factor productivity increases, and, the city specifically supports key growth industries – then: on a year by year basis, given national policy, the GGP of the city can grow and the quality of life improve for all citizens in a meaningful and sustainable manner. The strategic implications of this are that Council redimensions itself as an agent for economic growth, its fundamental delivery horizon of a better city shifts out to 2030 and the council repositions itself with respect to other tiers of government.
I liked the creation of a condusive (sic) environment based on decreasing the weight of crime as a determining variable in the investment decision and ensuring that firms can find the skills they need to make such investments operational.
I didn’t like the strategy for crime reduction which was:
• refocus vision of Metro Police Departmentt to highlight reduction of crime as it relates to business
• closer strategic co-ordination and co-operation with other tiers of government
• “purchase of product” from province and national
• zero tolerance on by-law and traffic infringements
I think that this approach is all tired, old and hackneyed and needs some visionary thinking. I really had great hopes for MPD on its formation but it has yet to show it is a motivated force capable of sustained delivery. From the outside it appears to be an organisation of gatekeepers who aren’t willing to risk raising the bar by thinking laterally.
But then I LOVED the proposal to demarcate an urban boundary which “will stringently restrict urban development and within the boundary have demarcated nodes” as well as the proposal to workshop ideas regarding utilisation of existing infrastructure; commercial sprawl in residential areas and what to do with property in the CBD in the short term.
I didn’t like the couple of spelling mistakes on such a high profile presentation – zero tolerance means being concerned with the small things as well as the large and yes I do know that I spelt Gandhi’s name incorrectly last week.
Couple of the comments from the floor were particularly pertinent:
1. Good to have a long term horizon but short term measures are important to regain confidence – by-law enforcement in the northern suburbs is practically non existent.
2. Most South African cities are like ‘donuts’, a hole in the centre. In our geographic area we have two contiguous ‘donuts’, Johannesburg and Pretoria, and urban growth planning needs provincial support so that one doesn’t merely drive business from one donut to the other – but we must get the centre of the donut to be filled. This is all supply-side so we do also need to stimulate demand.
3. We mustn’t concentrate on the external at the expense of the inward looking exercises done in the earlier Egoli research – the Council is still not efficient and its inefficiencies are driving away investment
4. Some of the investment policies seem unsustainable and contain seeds for future problems
5. The city lacks a signature
6. We need to think big while we think small and a focus on precincts could offer a good merging of micro and macro - the term ‘Low Cost Housing’ engenders incorrect perceptions; it should be Housing for Lower Income.
Generally the comments were good and positive. I certainly didn’t pick up the usual snide remarks or the “here we go again” comments that many people are quick to make after the show has ended.
Cheers,
Friday, February 15, 2002
SAPOA Vacancies; Launch JHT & JDA Citichat 15 February 2002
Citichat 6/2002 - 15 February 2002
SAPOA Vacancies/ Launch JHT and JDA
So Rudi Guilliani is an honourary knight, pity he can't use his title, "SIRUDI OF MANHATTAN" has a certain ring to it!
Back to Johannesburg and a busy couple of weeks it has been. Here are some selected ‘happenings and highlights’.
Latest Office Vacancy Survey (for December 2001) published by SAPOA reflects the following:
Braamfontein vacancies are 10.8% (A-grade) and 15.4% (B-grade) averaging 12.7% which is an increase over the previous 3 months of 9.1% and 12.2% respectively which averaged 10.3%. Not a trend as the comparative average 9 months ago was 13% and the figures are not a train-smash.
CBD A- and B-grade average vacancies have risen by 0.1% (24.1 from 24.0 three months ago and 23.6 nine months ago) which, whilst high, reflects a stable situation but there is some good news on the horizon, see later.
Local comparative average A- and B-grade vacancies (December 2001) are:
Hyde Park/Dunkeld 32.8: Illovo 7.9: Midrand 6,6: Parktown 19.8: Randburg 12.4: Rivonia 15.0 : Rosebank 12.0: Sandton 12.8.
National comparative averages :CBD Cape Town 15.9: CBD Durban 22.5: CBD Pretoria 11.9
Talking of SAPOA, they organised a panel discussion on the 6th Feb "The Johannesburg CBD in five year's time" which provided a valuable contribution to the ongoing debate regarding the Inner City. Conversations such as this, particularly with an organisation which represents the major property holders and institutions in the country, are important. The discussions certainly put some issues on the table that have generally been unsaid in public but SAPOA will be printing a resume of the session so I won't pre-empt them. Six panelists representing academe, local government, institutional owners and myself (as someone involved in the broader picture on a day-to-day basis) provided five year scenarios before a general conversation with the floor took place. I prepared a written five year scenario which I didn't quite get to deliver as written as I allowed myself to be somewhat sidetracked by comments of other panelists but the 'meat’ of my scenario was as follows:
"We will be a safe city where city users do not feel threatened in any way. We will be a city whose diverse community has pride in their city; we will have good urban spaces that are well used and adequately maintained. The city will accommodate a small number of major private corporations and a large public sector presence and a very large number of small businesses. There will be a substantial residential community, mainly a mix of low and middle income but ultimately a higher income component – the latter possibly not in the scenario period. There will be a number of well-defined specialist precincts - cultural/sport/education/fashion/jewelery and high-tech each of which will support an increasing number of small entrepreneurial companies.
The majority of informal traders will operate from informal trading markets housed in new or existing buildings but with well-defined and well-managed linear markets to retain the African flavour of the city. Formal retail will continue to serve the predominantly lower and middle income markets. Combi-taxis will be ranked in specially constructed ranking facilities or converted parking garages. Informal trading, taxis and residential will be integrated in multi-use projects.”
Other ‘happenings’.
First meetings of 2002 of the Johannesburg Inner City Business Coalition (JICBC), the Johannesburg Heritage Trust (JHT) and the Inner City Section 79 Committee. Highlight from the JICBC meeting was the news that the Road Accident Fund is re-locating to the city from Randburg (11 000 sq metres) and that a tender has just closed for 34 000 sq metres of office space in the CBD for the Receiver of Revenue.
But the two weeks wasn’t all work. Two noteworthy social occasions took place, the joint launch of the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) and the Johannesbutrg Heritage Trust (JHT) on Thursday 7th February. The rain forced the planned street party in front of JHT’s building at 90 Market Street into the City Hall but a great time was had by all. Something that made a big impact on me was the dozen or so hostesses who directed participants to the venue and then looked after guests at the tables. These really beautiful young women wore contemporary design ethnic dresses from a number of the ethnic groupings in South Africa. They could only be described as STUNNING! I couldn’t but feel quite elated at how their presence complemented the Edwardian/neo-Classical grandeur and elegance of the City Hall, a blending of our colonial past with our free and democratic present.
During the course of the evening, in my address on the founding of the Johannesburg Heritage Trust, I had stressed the importance of maintaining what little was left of the city’s historic built environment “if we are to pass on to our children a city which recognises its history, as painful as that history might be for many of our citizens….a city with no history and no heritage will have no memories and no soul and it is the city’s soul from which its community must be nurtured.” Underscoring the issue of the importance of memories, I was able to make a somewhat ‘unusual’ presentation to our Executive Mayor, Cllr Amos Masondo, thanks to Beata Lipman. Beata and her daughter Jane produced the CJP film “Johannesburg, the struggle for a City” through their company ‘Current Affairs Films’. In 1985, during one of the country’s many “states of emergency” Beata, then living in exile in the UK, returned to South Africa to do some under-cover filming for the BBC. A strike of tyre workers was taking place in Johannesburg and the strike leaders had gathered in Chancellor House (the building that once housed the legal practice of “Tambo and Mandela”) and Beata filmed the proceedings. She came across the secret 1985 filming when she was reviewing her archives for the CJP film and recognised one of the Trade Union organisers ( she described him as ‘a handsome young man’), as our Executive Mayor. I was thus able to present him with a tape prepared by Beata as a ‘memory’ of that event.
On Monday of this week a street party that did happen on the street, celebrated the Chinese New Year (we are now in the Year of the Horse) as well as the official launch of the Johannesburg First Chinatown Association which will be an important roleplayer in the revitalisation plans for the city’s Chinatown which I covered some weeks ago. It was a great evening with the traditional lion dance followed by a truly spectacular fireworks display. Lots of people on the street, lots of fun.
Have a good weekend, regards,
neil
P.S. It’s always good to receive comment on Citichat, good or bad, as it does mean that someone is reading them! Here is just some of the input received on Citichats 2 and 3/2002 in respect of Chinatown and the City Hall/Legislature Building:
1. I called Eric Itzkin’s book on Ganhdi ‘inciteful’ which was clearly a Freudian slip, it is of course ‘insightful’!
2. The City Hall was designed by the Cape Town architectural practice of Hawke and McKinlay and their design was chosen from over forty different designs received following an invitation from the Town Council in 1910 and was not designed by Sir Edward Luytens! A Sir Edwin Luytens designed the Art Gallery in Joubert Park and the Rand Regiments Memorial in the Zoo grounds.
3. Whilst I mentioned Marcus Holmes as leading the professional team on the 1994 refurbishment of the Eastern half of the City Hall into accommodation for the Gauteng Provincial Legislature I omitted to mention that the work was the responsibility of the architectural practice of Fassler Kamstra Holmes.
4. Gauteng did not succeed the Transvaal but rather the PWV Province (which succeeded the Transvaal) and the name change was effected after the seat of Government was announced.
5. The Director:Operational Support for the Gauteng Provincial Legislature has taken issue with my comment that the sale price of the City Hall building was “unrealistically low” pointing out that “whilst the building may have historical value, there is no way that it can be run at a commercial operating profit – let alone pay back the capital expenditure needed to turn it into a marketable building”.
6. In the early 1900s Indians were evidently allowed into the Transvaal only if they could write their names. As a result Gandhi and his friend and supporter Hermann Kallenbach sat at a table a mile from the border teaching those coming through how to write their names!
SAPOA Vacancies/ Launch JHT and JDA
So Rudi Guilliani is an honourary knight, pity he can't use his title, "SIRUDI OF MANHATTAN" has a certain ring to it!
Back to Johannesburg and a busy couple of weeks it has been. Here are some selected ‘happenings and highlights’.
Latest Office Vacancy Survey (for December 2001) published by SAPOA reflects the following:
Braamfontein vacancies are 10.8% (A-grade) and 15.4% (B-grade) averaging 12.7% which is an increase over the previous 3 months of 9.1% and 12.2% respectively which averaged 10.3%. Not a trend as the comparative average 9 months ago was 13% and the figures are not a train-smash.
CBD A- and B-grade average vacancies have risen by 0.1% (24.1 from 24.0 three months ago and 23.6 nine months ago) which, whilst high, reflects a stable situation but there is some good news on the horizon, see later.
Local comparative average A- and B-grade vacancies (December 2001) are:
Hyde Park/Dunkeld 32.8: Illovo 7.9: Midrand 6,6: Parktown 19.8: Randburg 12.4: Rivonia 15.0 : Rosebank 12.0: Sandton 12.8.
National comparative averages :CBD Cape Town 15.9: CBD Durban 22.5: CBD Pretoria 11.9
Talking of SAPOA, they organised a panel discussion on the 6th Feb "The Johannesburg CBD in five year's time" which provided a valuable contribution to the ongoing debate regarding the Inner City. Conversations such as this, particularly with an organisation which represents the major property holders and institutions in the country, are important. The discussions certainly put some issues on the table that have generally been unsaid in public but SAPOA will be printing a resume of the session so I won't pre-empt them. Six panelists representing academe, local government, institutional owners and myself (as someone involved in the broader picture on a day-to-day basis) provided five year scenarios before a general conversation with the floor took place. I prepared a written five year scenario which I didn't quite get to deliver as written as I allowed myself to be somewhat sidetracked by comments of other panelists but the 'meat’ of my scenario was as follows:
"We will be a safe city where city users do not feel threatened in any way. We will be a city whose diverse community has pride in their city; we will have good urban spaces that are well used and adequately maintained. The city will accommodate a small number of major private corporations and a large public sector presence and a very large number of small businesses. There will be a substantial residential community, mainly a mix of low and middle income but ultimately a higher income component – the latter possibly not in the scenario period. There will be a number of well-defined specialist precincts - cultural/sport/education/fashion/jewelery and high-tech each of which will support an increasing number of small entrepreneurial companies.
The majority of informal traders will operate from informal trading markets housed in new or existing buildings but with well-defined and well-managed linear markets to retain the African flavour of the city. Formal retail will continue to serve the predominantly lower and middle income markets. Combi-taxis will be ranked in specially constructed ranking facilities or converted parking garages. Informal trading, taxis and residential will be integrated in multi-use projects.”
Other ‘happenings’.
First meetings of 2002 of the Johannesburg Inner City Business Coalition (JICBC), the Johannesburg Heritage Trust (JHT) and the Inner City Section 79 Committee. Highlight from the JICBC meeting was the news that the Road Accident Fund is re-locating to the city from Randburg (11 000 sq metres) and that a tender has just closed for 34 000 sq metres of office space in the CBD for the Receiver of Revenue.
But the two weeks wasn’t all work. Two noteworthy social occasions took place, the joint launch of the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) and the Johannesbutrg Heritage Trust (JHT) on Thursday 7th February. The rain forced the planned street party in front of JHT’s building at 90 Market Street into the City Hall but a great time was had by all. Something that made a big impact on me was the dozen or so hostesses who directed participants to the venue and then looked after guests at the tables. These really beautiful young women wore contemporary design ethnic dresses from a number of the ethnic groupings in South Africa. They could only be described as STUNNING! I couldn’t but feel quite elated at how their presence complemented the Edwardian/neo-Classical grandeur and elegance of the City Hall, a blending of our colonial past with our free and democratic present.
During the course of the evening, in my address on the founding of the Johannesburg Heritage Trust, I had stressed the importance of maintaining what little was left of the city’s historic built environment “if we are to pass on to our children a city which recognises its history, as painful as that history might be for many of our citizens….a city with no history and no heritage will have no memories and no soul and it is the city’s soul from which its community must be nurtured.” Underscoring the issue of the importance of memories, I was able to make a somewhat ‘unusual’ presentation to our Executive Mayor, Cllr Amos Masondo, thanks to Beata Lipman. Beata and her daughter Jane produced the CJP film “Johannesburg, the struggle for a City” through their company ‘Current Affairs Films’. In 1985, during one of the country’s many “states of emergency” Beata, then living in exile in the UK, returned to South Africa to do some under-cover filming for the BBC. A strike of tyre workers was taking place in Johannesburg and the strike leaders had gathered in Chancellor House (the building that once housed the legal practice of “Tambo and Mandela”) and Beata filmed the proceedings. She came across the secret 1985 filming when she was reviewing her archives for the CJP film and recognised one of the Trade Union organisers ( she described him as ‘a handsome young man’), as our Executive Mayor. I was thus able to present him with a tape prepared by Beata as a ‘memory’ of that event.
On Monday of this week a street party that did happen on the street, celebrated the Chinese New Year (we are now in the Year of the Horse) as well as the official launch of the Johannesburg First Chinatown Association which will be an important roleplayer in the revitalisation plans for the city’s Chinatown which I covered some weeks ago. It was a great evening with the traditional lion dance followed by a truly spectacular fireworks display. Lots of people on the street, lots of fun.
Have a good weekend, regards,
neil
P.S. It’s always good to receive comment on Citichat, good or bad, as it does mean that someone is reading them! Here is just some of the input received on Citichats 2 and 3/2002 in respect of Chinatown and the City Hall/Legislature Building:
1. I called Eric Itzkin’s book on Ganhdi ‘inciteful’ which was clearly a Freudian slip, it is of course ‘insightful’!
2. The City Hall was designed by the Cape Town architectural practice of Hawke and McKinlay and their design was chosen from over forty different designs received following an invitation from the Town Council in 1910 and was not designed by Sir Edward Luytens! A Sir Edwin Luytens designed the Art Gallery in Joubert Park and the Rand Regiments Memorial in the Zoo grounds.
3. Whilst I mentioned Marcus Holmes as leading the professional team on the 1994 refurbishment of the Eastern half of the City Hall into accommodation for the Gauteng Provincial Legislature I omitted to mention that the work was the responsibility of the architectural practice of Fassler Kamstra Holmes.
4. Gauteng did not succeed the Transvaal but rather the PWV Province (which succeeded the Transvaal) and the name change was effected after the seat of Government was announced.
5. The Director:Operational Support for the Gauteng Provincial Legislature has taken issue with my comment that the sale price of the City Hall building was “unrealistically low” pointing out that “whilst the building may have historical value, there is no way that it can be run at a commercial operating profit – let alone pay back the capital expenditure needed to turn it into a marketable building”.
6. In the early 1900s Indians were evidently allowed into the Transvaal only if they could write their names. As a result Gandhi and his friend and supporter Hermann Kallenbach sat at a table a mile from the border teaching those coming through how to write their names!
Friday, February 8, 2002
Terrorism Citichat 8 February 2002
CITICHAT 5/2002 - 8 February 2002
Terrorism
The recently released Brookings Institution study I mentioned last week “The Potential Impacts of Recession and Terrorism on U.S.Cities” states that the implications of September 11 for cities are still unpredictable but offered the following speculations:
• Cities have a long history of rebuilding and reviving after natural and manmade disasters – if there is a long term impact of the terrorism attacks it will be the result of attitudinal changes not physical destruction.
• There will probably be very few buildings of 50 storeys or more erected in American cities for decades to come. But not necessarily just because of the attacks but because the World Trade Centre was not considered a commercial or aesthetic success and any replacement would be of a more mixed use nature and to a more human scale.
• The attack highlighted the importance of mass transit and redundant systems in an emergency.
• For large companies, concentrating key personnel in one location is risky and headquarters may be more decentralised in the future but probably both within a city or between a number of cities.
• Having back-up computer systems in diverse locations pays off and there will be renewed investment in back-up systems.
• Many companies have been moving back-office functions out of cities in recent years to take advantage of cheaper rents and whilst the fear of terrorism might reinforce such moves, the primary motivation will continue to be cost reduction.
• Terrorism-induced fear to air travel combined with rapidly improving technology for internet communication and video conferencing may slow the rate of growth of business travel and reduce the demand for business conferencing facilities.
• Diverse threats - biological, chemical, nuclear – will not necessarily prompt an exodus from cities. “Some people may feel safer in remote areas, which they believe will be less likely terrorist targets. Others may feel more vulnerable if they are farther from population centres and from the resources – such as expert medical care, highly trained police, fire and other public safety personnel – that might protect them in a city.”
The following are just some of the many practical issues that I noted from the various comments of private sector city practitioners/managers involved in the tragedies as well as from those of other cities.
There needs to be an emergency/catastrophe plan in place before the event!
Private sector organisations with security interests need to be involved in the city’s emergency services planning.
Memories are short and everyone quickly gets back into their comfort zones.
A public official’s most important job in an emergency is to reassure the public that they are in control. Authorities who can’t answer questions from the public heighten anxiety. (One city practitioner graphically described the state of the council in a particular large American city when it came to emergency planning as “all still tangled up in their underwear”).
Over-reaction has resulted in non-sustainable policies and procedures being put in place. (The question was posed as to whether the concrete barriers hastily erected around buildings were going o be removed if Bin Laden is apprehended!)
Some complex security procedures have been initiated and are then in the hands of low-paid security personnel poorly supervised.
The Dallas Improvement District maintains a roster of building managers, engineers and security directors to assist the city’s security authorities.
Building evacuation procedures have historically been confined to books on a shelf –now evacuation drills are the order of the day. (One of our major Johannesburg corporation recently held an emergency drill. They discovered that the city now uses ambulances that are higher than the traditional vehicles for which access to the building was designed. As a result, the ambulances couldn’t access the building!)
It is important that there is more than one way to get to work but more important that one can get home after an emergency. (In New York the first people to respond to the emergency were the transit authorities because they had well defined plans. Within two minutes of the first plane hitting the WTC, all trains carrying hundreds of thousands of commuters to the city were being turned around. In Washington DC, train commuters got home in the normal time, road commuters took five hours. Our local inner city transportation system is inadequate and this would be a good time to totally review public transportation. We are about to add a state of the art rapid rail system linking the city with Pretoria and the airport but our own internal city transportation is abysmal. What would happen in a catastrophe?)
Back-up computer systems in diverse locations are critical.
An issue that came out of the riots that accompanied some World Trade meetings as well as from natural disasters such as earthquakes was the need to ensure that communication systems can be kept working. One needs to choose a cell phone provider that has its transmission/repeater masts strategically located in ‘safe’ areas. E-mail facilities used for mass communication need to have alternate transmission points.
The secret is in Planning (sensible procedures sustainable over time); Practice and Partnering (the network is critical)
Lots of food for thought although some feel that the probability of a local disaster of such magnitude is remote. Interesting story in last week’s Mail and Guardian on the likelihood of a major earthquake hitting Johannesburg because of the extensive undermining and plans for new 5 kilometre deep mines!
Terrorism
The recently released Brookings Institution study I mentioned last week “The Potential Impacts of Recession and Terrorism on U.S.Cities” states that the implications of September 11 for cities are still unpredictable but offered the following speculations:
• Cities have a long history of rebuilding and reviving after natural and manmade disasters – if there is a long term impact of the terrorism attacks it will be the result of attitudinal changes not physical destruction.
• There will probably be very few buildings of 50 storeys or more erected in American cities for decades to come. But not necessarily just because of the attacks but because the World Trade Centre was not considered a commercial or aesthetic success and any replacement would be of a more mixed use nature and to a more human scale.
• The attack highlighted the importance of mass transit and redundant systems in an emergency.
• For large companies, concentrating key personnel in one location is risky and headquarters may be more decentralised in the future but probably both within a city or between a number of cities.
• Having back-up computer systems in diverse locations pays off and there will be renewed investment in back-up systems.
• Many companies have been moving back-office functions out of cities in recent years to take advantage of cheaper rents and whilst the fear of terrorism might reinforce such moves, the primary motivation will continue to be cost reduction.
• Terrorism-induced fear to air travel combined with rapidly improving technology for internet communication and video conferencing may slow the rate of growth of business travel and reduce the demand for business conferencing facilities.
• Diverse threats - biological, chemical, nuclear – will not necessarily prompt an exodus from cities. “Some people may feel safer in remote areas, which they believe will be less likely terrorist targets. Others may feel more vulnerable if they are farther from population centres and from the resources – such as expert medical care, highly trained police, fire and other public safety personnel – that might protect them in a city.”
The following are just some of the many practical issues that I noted from the various comments of private sector city practitioners/managers involved in the tragedies as well as from those of other cities.
There needs to be an emergency/catastrophe plan in place before the event!
Private sector organisations with security interests need to be involved in the city’s emergency services planning.
Memories are short and everyone quickly gets back into their comfort zones.
A public official’s most important job in an emergency is to reassure the public that they are in control. Authorities who can’t answer questions from the public heighten anxiety. (One city practitioner graphically described the state of the council in a particular large American city when it came to emergency planning as “all still tangled up in their underwear”).
Over-reaction has resulted in non-sustainable policies and procedures being put in place. (The question was posed as to whether the concrete barriers hastily erected around buildings were going o be removed if Bin Laden is apprehended!)
Some complex security procedures have been initiated and are then in the hands of low-paid security personnel poorly supervised.
The Dallas Improvement District maintains a roster of building managers, engineers and security directors to assist the city’s security authorities.
Building evacuation procedures have historically been confined to books on a shelf –now evacuation drills are the order of the day. (One of our major Johannesburg corporation recently held an emergency drill. They discovered that the city now uses ambulances that are higher than the traditional vehicles for which access to the building was designed. As a result, the ambulances couldn’t access the building!)
It is important that there is more than one way to get to work but more important that one can get home after an emergency. (In New York the first people to respond to the emergency were the transit authorities because they had well defined plans. Within two minutes of the first plane hitting the WTC, all trains carrying hundreds of thousands of commuters to the city were being turned around. In Washington DC, train commuters got home in the normal time, road commuters took five hours. Our local inner city transportation system is inadequate and this would be a good time to totally review public transportation. We are about to add a state of the art rapid rail system linking the city with Pretoria and the airport but our own internal city transportation is abysmal. What would happen in a catastrophe?)
Back-up computer systems in diverse locations are critical.
An issue that came out of the riots that accompanied some World Trade meetings as well as from natural disasters such as earthquakes was the need to ensure that communication systems can be kept working. One needs to choose a cell phone provider that has its transmission/repeater masts strategically located in ‘safe’ areas. E-mail facilities used for mass communication need to have alternate transmission points.
The secret is in Planning (sensible procedures sustainable over time); Practice and Partnering (the network is critical)
Lots of food for thought although some feel that the probability of a local disaster of such magnitude is remote. Interesting story in last week’s Mail and Guardian on the likelihood of a major earthquake hitting Johannesburg because of the extensive undermining and plans for new 5 kilometre deep mines!
Saturday, February 2, 2002
Terrorism Citichat 1 February 2002
CITICHAT 4/2002 - 1 February 2002
Terrorism and Cities
In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon on September 11th there were various predictions that fear of terrorism would devastate big cities. Last weekend I had an opportunity to hear a number of city practitioners from New York and Washington DC provide an update on the situation in their cities. This was followed by a discussion amongst about 60 practitioners representing towns and cities spread throughout the States and Canada.
The Alliance for Downtown New York Inc. (the Alliance) manages the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Business Improvement District (BID). The BID stretches East/West from the East River to West Street (which is on the Western edge of Manhattan contiguous to the Hudson River) and North/South from Chambers Street down to Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan. The BID area embraces many of the attractions and icons of New York City. The economic downturn in 1995, with its corporate mergers and downsizing, resulted in acres of empty office space, reaching a vacancy rate high of 25%. Then Mayor Guilliani introduced the Lower Manhattan Revitalisation Plan offering substantial incentives to developers wishing to convert empty commercial space to residential. The Alliance was established to provide private sector intervention in the implementation of the Revitalisation Plan and urban management services. Whilst the BID provides security, city ambassador and cleaning services as well as major streetscape improvements its most critical thrust was in acting as a catalyst for the redevelopment and usage of the huge empty commercial space. The Alliance planned that some 7 000 housing units would be created by 2002, then seven years into the future. Within four years, 6 000 units were either completed or under construction of which 4 000 were in buildings previously used for office accommodation. The Alliance targeted high tech companies to take advantage of the bigger spaces, lower rents and the variety of incentive programmes that the area offered. High tech companies wanted reliable power supplies, fibre-optic telecommunications and energy efficient heating and air conditioning. The new residential accommodation on offer complemented the fact that many of the high tech companies operate around the clock and their employees wanted to be close to their work. The Alliance also developed a “Plug ‘n Go” programme offering high tech companies pre-wired space at affordable rental levels. Technology companies attracted to the area ultimately employed nearly 40 000 people, occupied 6.2 million square feet of commercial space and generated 4.5 billion dollars in annual revenues.
Carl Weisbrod, President of the Alliance, recounted that by mid-2001 the vacancy rate was down to 6%, the economy of Downtown was once again diversifying and all residential accommodation was taken up.
As he said, Downtown was ‘the hot place to live and work, in fact in the best shape it had been in since World War 2!’ And then came September 11!
Carl witnessed the destruction of the World Trade Centre, personally lost many friends and confessed that his life will never be the same for the tragedy unfolding before him also signalled the destruction of much of the highly successful pioneering work that his organisation had been responsible for over the past seven years in revitalising the area. 25 million of the 110 million square feet of commercial space in Downtown New York was either totally destroyed or critically damaged, (that represents office space larger than many small or medium sized cities offer in total!) 100 000 jobs had been lost. Major transportation services were damaged, some totally destroyed – a twenty minute trip to work from New Jersey is now a two hour commute. The residential vacancy has rocketed to 25%. There are few cities that are resilient enough to withstand cataclysmic events of this magnitude. But from the initial knee-jerk reactions of property owners and the development community to look elsewhere for future development has come a fresh resolve. Carl says that there is recognition now of the fact that the tragedy offers the unique opportunity for the development of a 21st century Downtown – a state-of-the-art Downtown. So, the future is being positively addressed. A redevelopment body has been appointed by the State Governor and over the next months, the various bodies involved in the area will come together to start planning the new Downtown.
To the South East of Downtown Manhattan, across the East River is Downtown Brooklyn. Mike Weiss,the Executive Director of the Metro-Tech BID which operates in this area, told of how the tragedy affected his area. All Wall Street transactions are relayed through computers that are situated in Downtown Brooklyn, had they been in Downtown New York, the Stock Exchange probably would still not be up and running. In addition it is the centre of emergency services including the 911 service. The police therefore viewed the area as one of high security risk and immediately sandbagged large areas, threw up concrete barriers and created all kinds of physical and psychological problems. They made it extremely difficult for people who had a legitimate right to be in the area to move around and carry out their normal business. A bitter-sweet result of the tragedy is that Downtown Brooklyn now has no vacancies – some of its last developable open space is being built on - one previous tenant in the World Trade Centre, has bought and broken ground to provide a new 800 000 square foot office facility.
Fred Cerullo, the executive director of the Grand Central Partnership, one of the largest BIDs in NYC and situated in Midtown Manhattan told how, although quite removed geographically from the physical destruction, his BID suffered directly from the fallout - all communication facilities were lost. All landmark buildings, the Empire State Building is amongst a number of others in the BID, were evacuated resulting in over 100 000 people being moved onto the streets. No one wanted to go into the Grand Central train terminal and no buses were running, yet there was great calm on the streets. The BID staff had to remove much of the street furniture it had put in place over the years - flower pots, newspaper vending machines and anything on the pavements that could house a bomb. Although the area was flooded with police and FBI and other government security and law enforcement agencies, the public turned to the more familiar BID personnel on the streets for information and guidance. The area absorbed a phenomenal amount of the office displacement although it had appeared to have had no vacancies previously.
Barbara Askins who runs the 125th Street BID in Haarlem tells of the sharp increase in unemployment in her area. Many of the waiters and building janitors who worked in Downtown New York are now unemployed. As they constituted the shoppers in Haarlem, retail has declined sharply. One local business employing 90 staff laid off 20 at the beginning of this year, their turnover had dropped from 15 000 dollars a day to 6 000. Restaurant and night life is down.
Wall Street literally walled in by the Dutch settlers to keep the ‘natives’ out.
And so the stories continued. One recurring theme however was the reassurance that uniformed BID personnel provided to the public on the streets during the initial post event period. With staff from all levels of government drawn into the direct area of the attack, the high visibility of BID staff became an important psychological icon in restoring some sense of normality to the streets.
What of the future? A study by Alan Berube and Alice Rivlin of The Brookings Institution, “The Potential Impacts of Recession and Terrorism on U.S.Cities” concludes in part with the following observations: “Over the longer term, fears of terrorism may have at most, a marginal economic impact on cities. Larger market trends such as globalisation, immigration, industry consolidation and evolving technologies will continue to dictate more about the future of cities than terrorism alone.”
What can we learn from the debate? I will pick up some pointers from the above study and try to bring them back to a local context next week.
Till then, regards, neil
Terrorism and Cities
In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon on September 11th there were various predictions that fear of terrorism would devastate big cities. Last weekend I had an opportunity to hear a number of city practitioners from New York and Washington DC provide an update on the situation in their cities. This was followed by a discussion amongst about 60 practitioners representing towns and cities spread throughout the States and Canada.
The Alliance for Downtown New York Inc. (the Alliance) manages the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Business Improvement District (BID). The BID stretches East/West from the East River to West Street (which is on the Western edge of Manhattan contiguous to the Hudson River) and North/South from Chambers Street down to Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan. The BID area embraces many of the attractions and icons of New York City. The economic downturn in 1995, with its corporate mergers and downsizing, resulted in acres of empty office space, reaching a vacancy rate high of 25%. Then Mayor Guilliani introduced the Lower Manhattan Revitalisation Plan offering substantial incentives to developers wishing to convert empty commercial space to residential. The Alliance was established to provide private sector intervention in the implementation of the Revitalisation Plan and urban management services. Whilst the BID provides security, city ambassador and cleaning services as well as major streetscape improvements its most critical thrust was in acting as a catalyst for the redevelopment and usage of the huge empty commercial space. The Alliance planned that some 7 000 housing units would be created by 2002, then seven years into the future. Within four years, 6 000 units were either completed or under construction of which 4 000 were in buildings previously used for office accommodation. The Alliance targeted high tech companies to take advantage of the bigger spaces, lower rents and the variety of incentive programmes that the area offered. High tech companies wanted reliable power supplies, fibre-optic telecommunications and energy efficient heating and air conditioning. The new residential accommodation on offer complemented the fact that many of the high tech companies operate around the clock and their employees wanted to be close to their work. The Alliance also developed a “Plug ‘n Go” programme offering high tech companies pre-wired space at affordable rental levels. Technology companies attracted to the area ultimately employed nearly 40 000 people, occupied 6.2 million square feet of commercial space and generated 4.5 billion dollars in annual revenues.
Carl Weisbrod, President of the Alliance, recounted that by mid-2001 the vacancy rate was down to 6%, the economy of Downtown was once again diversifying and all residential accommodation was taken up.
As he said, Downtown was ‘the hot place to live and work, in fact in the best shape it had been in since World War 2!’ And then came September 11!
Carl witnessed the destruction of the World Trade Centre, personally lost many friends and confessed that his life will never be the same for the tragedy unfolding before him also signalled the destruction of much of the highly successful pioneering work that his organisation had been responsible for over the past seven years in revitalising the area. 25 million of the 110 million square feet of commercial space in Downtown New York was either totally destroyed or critically damaged, (that represents office space larger than many small or medium sized cities offer in total!) 100 000 jobs had been lost. Major transportation services were damaged, some totally destroyed – a twenty minute trip to work from New Jersey is now a two hour commute. The residential vacancy has rocketed to 25%. There are few cities that are resilient enough to withstand cataclysmic events of this magnitude. But from the initial knee-jerk reactions of property owners and the development community to look elsewhere for future development has come a fresh resolve. Carl says that there is recognition now of the fact that the tragedy offers the unique opportunity for the development of a 21st century Downtown – a state-of-the-art Downtown. So, the future is being positively addressed. A redevelopment body has been appointed by the State Governor and over the next months, the various bodies involved in the area will come together to start planning the new Downtown.
To the South East of Downtown Manhattan, across the East River is Downtown Brooklyn. Mike Weiss,the Executive Director of the Metro-Tech BID which operates in this area, told of how the tragedy affected his area. All Wall Street transactions are relayed through computers that are situated in Downtown Brooklyn, had they been in Downtown New York, the Stock Exchange probably would still not be up and running. In addition it is the centre of emergency services including the 911 service. The police therefore viewed the area as one of high security risk and immediately sandbagged large areas, threw up concrete barriers and created all kinds of physical and psychological problems. They made it extremely difficult for people who had a legitimate right to be in the area to move around and carry out their normal business. A bitter-sweet result of the tragedy is that Downtown Brooklyn now has no vacancies – some of its last developable open space is being built on - one previous tenant in the World Trade Centre, has bought and broken ground to provide a new 800 000 square foot office facility.
Fred Cerullo, the executive director of the Grand Central Partnership, one of the largest BIDs in NYC and situated in Midtown Manhattan told how, although quite removed geographically from the physical destruction, his BID suffered directly from the fallout - all communication facilities were lost. All landmark buildings, the Empire State Building is amongst a number of others in the BID, were evacuated resulting in over 100 000 people being moved onto the streets. No one wanted to go into the Grand Central train terminal and no buses were running, yet there was great calm on the streets. The BID staff had to remove much of the street furniture it had put in place over the years - flower pots, newspaper vending machines and anything on the pavements that could house a bomb. Although the area was flooded with police and FBI and other government security and law enforcement agencies, the public turned to the more familiar BID personnel on the streets for information and guidance. The area absorbed a phenomenal amount of the office displacement although it had appeared to have had no vacancies previously.
Barbara Askins who runs the 125th Street BID in Haarlem tells of the sharp increase in unemployment in her area. Many of the waiters and building janitors who worked in Downtown New York are now unemployed. As they constituted the shoppers in Haarlem, retail has declined sharply. One local business employing 90 staff laid off 20 at the beginning of this year, their turnover had dropped from 15 000 dollars a day to 6 000. Restaurant and night life is down.
Wall Street literally walled in by the Dutch settlers to keep the ‘natives’ out.
And so the stories continued. One recurring theme however was the reassurance that uniformed BID personnel provided to the public on the streets during the initial post event period. With staff from all levels of government drawn into the direct area of the attack, the high visibility of BID staff became an important psychological icon in restoring some sense of normality to the streets.
What of the future? A study by Alan Berube and Alice Rivlin of The Brookings Institution, “The Potential Impacts of Recession and Terrorism on U.S.Cities” concludes in part with the following observations: “Over the longer term, fears of terrorism may have at most, a marginal economic impact on cities. Larger market trends such as globalisation, immigration, industry consolidation and evolving technologies will continue to dictate more about the future of cities than terrorism alone.”
What can we learn from the debate? I will pick up some pointers from the above study and try to bring them back to a local context next week.
Till then, regards, neil
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