CITICHAT 25/2002 - 28 June 2002
The World Summit: A Potential Legacy in Physical and Cultural Capital.
Gave an illustrated talk at a northern suburbs Rotary Club dinner this week and used JHB ART CITY as the theme. As one of JHB ART CITY’s objectives is to showcase the city’s projects-in- progress, it gave me a chance to share visually where they all are at. As always with those who have generally written off the inner city, there was a great deal of surprise and interest and far less scepticism than I am accustomed to experience from the north!. Although I wasn’t directly talking about the World Summit –now less than 60 days away, - and counting – I was posed the following question. “Why does it need something like the World Summit to get the Council to do what it should be normally doing?”
As I’ve thought about this question subsequently, what has interested me more is the perception behind the question. After all, how many cities in the world let alone in developing countries can host an event of such magnitude without having to do anything at all? According to the Metro website, 70 000 people are expected (although I hear that bookings are currently far less than that figure) and the City is spending R65 million –R4.75 on roads; R4.5 on sewers; R220 000 on lighting; R4.2 on new buses – I hope someone has remembered to budget for teaching some of the bus company’s employees better manners, some of them must be the most objectionable group of public servants in the city! – R2 to upgrade traffic lights; R1.4 to paint road markings; R5 in upgrading Turbine Hall in Newtown; R2 upgrading parks; R2 on recycling; R1.4 on environmental issues and R6.25 in overtime for council and related agencies’ employees. OK, I know that only accounts for half the R65 million but that’s all I can get from the web! But I think it is cheap at the price!
One of the reasons quoted by the City as to why the Summit will boost the city’s economy is; “The summit has provided a catalyst for much-needed upgrades to city infrastructure. Most of these upgrade projects were already in the pipeline – but it required the urgency of the summit deadline to ensure that so many were executed swiftly” I don’t think so! I don’t buy the fact that most of the projects were in the pipeline but what the heck, none of us locals have ever witnessed so much local authority energy and activity ever! Nor such visual evidence that the City actually does have employees who work in the public realm! Everywhere one goes there are workers with pots of paint sprucing up pavement markings, cutting grass verges – (and destroying the city’s traditional ‘greening’, the weeds growing out and along pavements) – blacktopping roads ; providing new signs; painting, scraping, mowing, cleaning, fixing, straightening! I think that whatever the motivation, - it is just great! And at R65 million it is cheap! After all, the total investment in the current soccer World Cup was a staggering $2.5 billion by South Korea and $5 billion by Japan. That translates to not far off R100 billion in our Monopoly money! The direct and indirect economic benefits are estimated at $8.8 billion for South Korea and $26billion for Japan, 2.2% and 0.6% of GDP respectively, hardly chickenfeed!
I tried to check out what Rio spent on the last bash ten years ago and, more importantly, what the economic impact has been, but was unable to find any information. However, lots of info is available on the web in regard to the economic impact on cities of major sports events. Prior to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, the economic track record had not been impressive. The’72 Olympics in Munich reflected a loss of 178 million pounds sterling; the ’76 Olympics in Montreal lost nearly four times that! But LA ’84 made a surplus of 215 million pounds sterling whilst the Olympics in Barcelona in ’92 provided the impetus for an investment of over $8billion in infrastructure and housing!
In a paper by G.M.P.Swann of Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, the author, referring to work by French and Disher (1997), says “Planners identify four broad categories of benefits that can in principle result from such large scale events;
1. the new sports facilities and associated amenities built for the event
2. the short-term economic stimulus stemming from new construction and other investment in the advance of the event, and visitor spending during the event
3. the marketing opportunity to attract new business and promote tourism
4. urban redevelopment.
The first point doesn’t apply relative to the World Summit in so far as sports facilities are concerned, but what has been the experience of other cities in regard to the other points? In regard to the ’96 Olympics in Atlanta, French and Disher’s research suggests that the games were successful in achieving the first three of the four objectives. It reflects that the biggest disappointment was that the Games did little to help Atlanta solve the social problems of its inner-city neighbourhoods. Initial expectation was that the Olympics would benefit low-income residents but this was evidently too optimistic.
Swann says: “As “devil’s advocate” we should ask what might have happened in the absence of the event? Or in economists language what was the”opportunity cost”? Economists have coined the term, “crowding out” to describe how expenditures on one project may (unwittingly, perhaps) undermine expenditure on another. If those who invest in anticipation of the event had not done so, what investments might they have made instead? Could these other investments have left a more important legacy to the local economy? A hard question to answer but an important one to ask if one wants to take a hard-nosed look at the economic benefits of major sporting events. French and Disher conclude that the 1996 Atlanta Games did little for urban redevelopment in poor areas, and muse on what might have been achieved if a million dollars had been devoted to the most pressing urban problems rather than to building and renovating sports facilities.”
This wasn’t the case in Barcelona. Writing about the “Keys to Success of the Barcelona Games”, Miquel Botella says; “Everyone agrees that the real success of the Barcelona Olympic Games – and the Paralympic Games – was the transformation which the city underwent, with development which normally takes decades taking place in only six years. It was publicly stated right from the beginning of the candidature that the games were a pretext – or an opportunity, if you prefer – to transform and relaunch the city. And that is precisely what they have been.”
Swann suggests that people may be looking in the wrong place for benefits. “The really important legacy may not be seen in the physical infrastructure, nor in the accumulation of competencies in local industry but in a lasting effect on the consumption and culture of the citizen”
So, whilst the benefits of these massive events is seen by some as the legacy they leave behind in the form of capital, that capital does not have to be only physical but it may also be cultural. If you watched some of the games on TV in which South Korea participated, you may have been struck by the massive crowds in Seoul watching giant TV screens constantly collecting the detritus they themselves were generating. Why? Because the South Korean Ministry of the Environment saw the event as an opportunity to realise a “Green World Cup” because “environmental conditions are widely used as a yardstick for measuring the quality of life,” Their leadership on this aspect resulted in civic groups drafting a four-point action plan fo r citizens. This was posted in subways and included recommendations to grow flowers and plant trees for public display -“these little actions not only satisfy the individuals who do them, but also uplift other people by making our society a better place to live”.
If South Korea can do this through a football event, what should we be doing for the World Summit? A good start would be to heed the Executive Mayor’s call for Saturday 3 August to be ‘joburg clean-up day’ when joburgers have been called on to spring-clean our neighbourhoods. If it does nothing else, wouldn’t it be great if the Summit proved to be the catalyst to restore civic pride, local environmental awareness and improve our service attitude?
Miquel Botella completes his report on the Barcelona Games with this anecdote which he included because it “helped me realise the importance that the citizens had in the success of the event – ‘During the Games, a high-level executive from one of the multinational sponsors went into a dry-cleaner’s at eight in the evening when they were closing with a stained suit that he needed first thing the next day. The owner, who did not speak English, upon seeing that he had something to do with the Games by the accreditation he was wearing, made it understood to him that, despite the fact that his staff were closing up, he personally would see to the job. And the next day at eight o’clock in the morning he handed over the clean suit. This sponsor enthusiastically told me the anecdote of the dry cleaner with precision a few months after the Games, when his memory of the ceremonies, the medals and the records was already visibly fading.”
Regards, neil
Friday, June 28, 2002
Friday, June 21, 2002
Residential; Music Citichat 21 June 2002
CITICHAT 24/2002 - 21 June 2002
Residential; Music
Despite my advancing years – or maybe because of them - I love jigsaw puzzles! My wife seems to spend the year scouring the shops searching for the most impossible puzzle which she presents to me at the start of each Christmas holiday. I suspect it’s part of her therapy in moving me from frenetic to comatose before again entering the fray for another year! This last festive season, the picture was a black and white photograph, except there was very little of either of those colours for almost every one of the 1500 pieces was a different shade of grey.
Urban renewal is like a giant jigsaw puzzle in many respects yet is different essentially because it is such a dynamic process. You never finish the puzzle because pieces in previously completed sections are constantly being removed and replaced and even the edges never seem to completely join up. This week, as steady progress on the Johannesburg Inner City jigsaw puzzle proceeded, parts of the edge and a number of pieces in the middle have again fallen into place.
In regard to the latter - the pieces in the middle - it was the launch this week of two very different projects. The Johannesburg Housing Company (JHC) ‘Elangeni’ residential development in the south-eastern sector of the Inner City and the Music Industry Development Initiative (MIDI) ‘Newtown Music Centre’ on the western side of the Inner City. In regard to the former - the edges - details of which we’ll cover in a later edition, it is the very real progress that has been achieved in the development of an accurate Inner City Building Data Base (which is being accompanied by appropriate enforcement of city by-laws) as well as the launch of the City’s Spatial Development Framework. These two issues are very much part of the framework, or of the ‘edges’ in the jigsaw puzzle analogy. They also are very clear evidence of Council’s increasing commitment to the revitalisation of the Inner City.
Rather than deal with the statistical information related to the two buildings being launched,. I thought readers might be interested in some of the underlying philosophies that were expressed in some of the speeches. In fact, the highlights for me at both launches were some of the supporting speeches rather than those of the main speakers, with respect! In the case of the launch of the Elangeni housing project the welcome by two speakers, Santi Botha, Group Executive Director of the ABSA Group and of John Coulter the Chief Executive of J.P.Morgan were significant. In her welcome, Santi Botha confessed how satisfying it was for her to work in and be part of the inner city. ABSA were the main financiers of the Elangeni project, the first major institutional funding to be provided for inner city residential in the past twenty years so they have truly put their money where their mouth is! In his welcome, John Coulter spoke about J.P.Morgan’s part in the New York renewal programme and emphasised his organisation’s commitment to urban renewal through social and developmental support. But it was the speech of the Johannesburg Housing Company (JHC) Chairman, Bishop Mvume Dandala that highlighted why the urban renewal of Johannesburg is so different from those of other cities in other countries. The Elangeni project has been developed on a site known as 80 Albert Street. Only locals will appreciate the significance of that address. 80 Albert Street was the site of the infamous “pass” or “dompas” offices of the apartheid regime. Bishop Dandala – “The buildings, rising as they do on this historic piece of land where many of our people were forced through the oppression and humiliation of the pass system speak for themselves. They are the vessels which will provide a safe, secure and dignified passage for those who come back to reclaim this part of the inner city……..Some eight years ago I was part of the group that conceived the Johannesburg Housing Company, and piloted it through its feasibility stage. Many people said we were mad. The inner city was rough, uncontrollable, unbankable and should be abandoned to “them”. I often wonder about the assumption and consequences of following through this advice. For what was being advocated was the abandonment of billions of rands of investment in property and infrastructure. The term “them” was used to diminish literally thousands of people who had taken their futures into their own hands and moved from the physical and spiritual poverty of apartheid ghettos to the relative freedom and opportunity of inner cities. Were we really being asked by the conventional wisdom of the day to consign this massive investment, this huge human response to political and economic opportunity, to oblivion? Who indeed was being mad? Eight years of working within a very different paradigm have exposed the still conventional wisdom about the inner city as myopic, racist and indeed subversive of social and economic growth. JHC and its partners can proudly point you to 1535 homes, a figure which increases to 1709 with this evening’s launch, where over 4000 men, women and children live in circumstances which expose the myth of “them”. The buildings are clean, quiet and orderly. Rent is paid as a matter of course. Vacancies are below 5%. Children go to school, parents go to work. Communities discuss issues related to improving the management of the buildings, and participate in life skills, sports and cultural activities…….So, behind the physical project that you see this evening, is a social housing institution making a significant contribution to the regeneration of the city. However, and in my view more importantly, behind the organisation is an approach which is driven by a community based theory of social investment. “They” have become “us”. And “:we” are now a major asset to the community, the city and the country.” Great words by a man whom I believe will play an increasingly significant role in the future of this country.
The second launch was that of the Newtown Music Centre. A couple of years ago I was on a panel adjudicating the award of seed funds to various creative industry initiatives for the development of projects in Newtown on the western edge of the inner city. One of the ‘winners’ was the MIDI Trust – the Music Industry Development Initiative. General Manager, Rosie Katz, spoke about the work of the Trust and how the years of dreaming and planning had finally taken shape in the buildings which were now being officially opened. She later told me that the opening was for her personally the culmination of a seven year dream. Certainly for me, it was exciting to be able to see the results of the decision that had been taken just a few years ago, for Rosie it must have been mind-blowing! The Newtown Music Centre is a multi-purpose venue that features a 1000 capacity main arena, a smaller live music venue and hospitality suite, training facilities, 6 rehearsal studios and recording studios. The project is highly developmental focused and the live music provided at the launch was like wow, man! The whole initiative is just so exhilarating! In another supporting speech, Xoliswa Ngema, the JDA Project Manager for Newtown, provided a concise, focused update on the development of the area:
“Newtown is set to become the creative capital of Johannesburg and South Africa offering a wealth of arts and creative activities such as dance, music, craft, theatre, performance venues, museums, science & technology centre and a computer club The vision for the area is quite ambitious, with a number of strategies in place to achieve it.
The first is to make the area safe, secure and attractive to overcome the perception that Johannesburg has nothing to offer except crime and grime. We will be installing 10 additional CCTV cameras and these will be in place before the World Summit in August.
Second part of the strategy centres on infrastructure development and accessibility. Contractors are on site to develop the Nelson Mandela Bridge and the Carr Street interchange. The upgrading of infrastructure is ongoing. We are busy with the upgrading of Turbine Hall, The Electric Workshop, the walkways and pavements.
Thirdly, is turning Newtown into a 24 hour city, by building 2000 townhouses behind the Market Theatre, the area is called Brickfields, giving people an opportunity to work and live in the area.
Lastly is the clustering of the creative industries in one area. As mentioned, theatres, museum, craft, dance, science & technology and music. As we all know that these sectors play an important role and contribute meaning fully to job and wealth creation.”
So, the pieces in the puzzle are coming together more and more rapidly and the end result is going to be a unique and exciting city. But the bottom line in Bishop Dandala’s words; “they” have become “us”!
Have a good weekend, regards, neil
Residential; Music
Despite my advancing years – or maybe because of them - I love jigsaw puzzles! My wife seems to spend the year scouring the shops searching for the most impossible puzzle which she presents to me at the start of each Christmas holiday. I suspect it’s part of her therapy in moving me from frenetic to comatose before again entering the fray for another year! This last festive season, the picture was a black and white photograph, except there was very little of either of those colours for almost every one of the 1500 pieces was a different shade of grey.
Urban renewal is like a giant jigsaw puzzle in many respects yet is different essentially because it is such a dynamic process. You never finish the puzzle because pieces in previously completed sections are constantly being removed and replaced and even the edges never seem to completely join up. This week, as steady progress on the Johannesburg Inner City jigsaw puzzle proceeded, parts of the edge and a number of pieces in the middle have again fallen into place.
In regard to the latter - the pieces in the middle - it was the launch this week of two very different projects. The Johannesburg Housing Company (JHC) ‘Elangeni’ residential development in the south-eastern sector of the Inner City and the Music Industry Development Initiative (MIDI) ‘Newtown Music Centre’ on the western side of the Inner City. In regard to the former - the edges - details of which we’ll cover in a later edition, it is the very real progress that has been achieved in the development of an accurate Inner City Building Data Base (which is being accompanied by appropriate enforcement of city by-laws) as well as the launch of the City’s Spatial Development Framework. These two issues are very much part of the framework, or of the ‘edges’ in the jigsaw puzzle analogy. They also are very clear evidence of Council’s increasing commitment to the revitalisation of the Inner City.
Rather than deal with the statistical information related to the two buildings being launched,. I thought readers might be interested in some of the underlying philosophies that were expressed in some of the speeches. In fact, the highlights for me at both launches were some of the supporting speeches rather than those of the main speakers, with respect! In the case of the launch of the Elangeni housing project the welcome by two speakers, Santi Botha, Group Executive Director of the ABSA Group and of John Coulter the Chief Executive of J.P.Morgan were significant. In her welcome, Santi Botha confessed how satisfying it was for her to work in and be part of the inner city. ABSA were the main financiers of the Elangeni project, the first major institutional funding to be provided for inner city residential in the past twenty years so they have truly put their money where their mouth is! In his welcome, John Coulter spoke about J.P.Morgan’s part in the New York renewal programme and emphasised his organisation’s commitment to urban renewal through social and developmental support. But it was the speech of the Johannesburg Housing Company (JHC) Chairman, Bishop Mvume Dandala that highlighted why the urban renewal of Johannesburg is so different from those of other cities in other countries. The Elangeni project has been developed on a site known as 80 Albert Street. Only locals will appreciate the significance of that address. 80 Albert Street was the site of the infamous “pass” or “dompas” offices of the apartheid regime. Bishop Dandala – “The buildings, rising as they do on this historic piece of land where many of our people were forced through the oppression and humiliation of the pass system speak for themselves. They are the vessels which will provide a safe, secure and dignified passage for those who come back to reclaim this part of the inner city……..Some eight years ago I was part of the group that conceived the Johannesburg Housing Company, and piloted it through its feasibility stage. Many people said we were mad. The inner city was rough, uncontrollable, unbankable and should be abandoned to “them”. I often wonder about the assumption and consequences of following through this advice. For what was being advocated was the abandonment of billions of rands of investment in property and infrastructure. The term “them” was used to diminish literally thousands of people who had taken their futures into their own hands and moved from the physical and spiritual poverty of apartheid ghettos to the relative freedom and opportunity of inner cities. Were we really being asked by the conventional wisdom of the day to consign this massive investment, this huge human response to political and economic opportunity, to oblivion? Who indeed was being mad? Eight years of working within a very different paradigm have exposed the still conventional wisdom about the inner city as myopic, racist and indeed subversive of social and economic growth. JHC and its partners can proudly point you to 1535 homes, a figure which increases to 1709 with this evening’s launch, where over 4000 men, women and children live in circumstances which expose the myth of “them”. The buildings are clean, quiet and orderly. Rent is paid as a matter of course. Vacancies are below 5%. Children go to school, parents go to work. Communities discuss issues related to improving the management of the buildings, and participate in life skills, sports and cultural activities…….So, behind the physical project that you see this evening, is a social housing institution making a significant contribution to the regeneration of the city. However, and in my view more importantly, behind the organisation is an approach which is driven by a community based theory of social investment. “They” have become “us”. And “:we” are now a major asset to the community, the city and the country.” Great words by a man whom I believe will play an increasingly significant role in the future of this country.
The second launch was that of the Newtown Music Centre. A couple of years ago I was on a panel adjudicating the award of seed funds to various creative industry initiatives for the development of projects in Newtown on the western edge of the inner city. One of the ‘winners’ was the MIDI Trust – the Music Industry Development Initiative. General Manager, Rosie Katz, spoke about the work of the Trust and how the years of dreaming and planning had finally taken shape in the buildings which were now being officially opened. She later told me that the opening was for her personally the culmination of a seven year dream. Certainly for me, it was exciting to be able to see the results of the decision that had been taken just a few years ago, for Rosie it must have been mind-blowing! The Newtown Music Centre is a multi-purpose venue that features a 1000 capacity main arena, a smaller live music venue and hospitality suite, training facilities, 6 rehearsal studios and recording studios. The project is highly developmental focused and the live music provided at the launch was like wow, man! The whole initiative is just so exhilarating! In another supporting speech, Xoliswa Ngema, the JDA Project Manager for Newtown, provided a concise, focused update on the development of the area:
“Newtown is set to become the creative capital of Johannesburg and South Africa offering a wealth of arts and creative activities such as dance, music, craft, theatre, performance venues, museums, science & technology centre and a computer club The vision for the area is quite ambitious, with a number of strategies in place to achieve it.
The first is to make the area safe, secure and attractive to overcome the perception that Johannesburg has nothing to offer except crime and grime. We will be installing 10 additional CCTV cameras and these will be in place before the World Summit in August.
Second part of the strategy centres on infrastructure development and accessibility. Contractors are on site to develop the Nelson Mandela Bridge and the Carr Street interchange. The upgrading of infrastructure is ongoing. We are busy with the upgrading of Turbine Hall, The Electric Workshop, the walkways and pavements.
Thirdly, is turning Newtown into a 24 hour city, by building 2000 townhouses behind the Market Theatre, the area is called Brickfields, giving people an opportunity to work and live in the area.
Lastly is the clustering of the creative industries in one area. As mentioned, theatres, museum, craft, dance, science & technology and music. As we all know that these sectors play an important role and contribute meaning fully to job and wealth creation.”
So, the pieces in the puzzle are coming together more and more rapidly and the end result is going to be a unique and exciting city. But the bottom line in Bishop Dandala’s words; “they” have become “us”!
Have a good weekend, regards, neil
Friday, June 14, 2002
Art; Creativity Citichat 14 June 2002
CITICHAT 23/2002 - 14 June 2002
Cities and Creativity vs “institutionalised sclerosis!
A quick update on JHB ART CITY which I covered originally in Citichat 16/2002. JHB ART CITY is the Outdoor Art Gallery conceived by Wits student Saul Symanowitz and now a public/private project between the City Council; the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA); the Central Johannesburg Partnership (CJP); the Johannesburg Inner City Business Coalition (JICBC) and supported by Business & Arts South Africa (BASA). The art competition phase closes today and, as at last night, we already had over 100 entries.(Total eventually received about 170) Next week our selection panel which includes Bongi Dhlomo; Natasha Fuller; Maishe Maponya, Clive Kellner and Monna Mokoena, gets down to the hard task of selecting twenty entries which will be displayed in the city as huge enlargements together with selections from ten private galleries of the best of their South African art. Check it out on our website – www.jhbartcity.org.za – and watch out, because it’s COMING SOON TO A WALL NEAR YOU!
Staying with creativity, a recently published book which offers some fresh and refreshing thinking relative to successful cities and regions is “The Rise of the Creative Class and How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life” by Richard Florida. Florida is the Professor of Regional Economic Development at the Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
What is the Creative Class? According to Florida it is a ‘fast-growing, highly educated, and well-paid segment of the workforce on whose efforts corporate profits and economic growth increasingly depends’. Members of the creative class do a wide variety of work in a wide variety of industries – from technology to entertainment, journalism to finance, high-end manufacturing to the arts. They do not consciously think of themselves as a class. Yet they share a common ethos that values creativity, individuality, difference and merit. Florida states that all these people contribute more than intelligence or computer skills – they add creative value and creativity is itself increasingly valued. Therefore, he suggests, the key to econ“t omic growth lies not just in the ability to attract the creative class, but to translate that underlying advantage into creative economic outcomes in the form of new ideas, new high-tech businesses and regional growth.”
In order to measure a region’s underlying creative capability, Florida developed a “Creativity Index”. This index is a mix of four equally weighted factors; the creative class share of the workforce; high-tech industry; innovation measured as patents per capita and diversity measured by the Gay Index which he describes as a ‘reasonable proxy for an area’s openness to different kinds of people and ideas.’
The resultant top ten cities with populations in excess of a million are San Francisco; Austin; San Diego; Boston; Seattle; Chapel Hill; Houston; Washington; New York and Dallas.
The corresponding bottom ten cities are Memphis; Norfolk VA; Las Vegas; Buffalo; Louisville; Grand Rapids; Oklahoma City; New Orleans; Greensboro and Providence.
What can we learn from Florida’s research? Well, in Florida’s words; “ More and more businesses understand the ethos and are making the adaptations necessary to attract and retain creative class employees – everything from relaxed dress codes, flexible schedules, and new work rules in the office to hiring recruiters who throw Frisbees. Most civic leaders, however, have failed to understand that what is true for corporations is also true for cities and regions: Places that succeed in attracting and retaining creative class people prosper; those that fail, don’t.” What he is saying is that cities stuck in the old paradigms of economic development “building generic high-tech office parks or subsidising professional sports teams” – have lost their economic dynamism to places more tolerant, diverse and open to creativity!
But it is from his research into what the creative class is looking for that we can learn what our cities need to provide. Talented people, he finds, seek an environment open to differences; creative minded people enjoy a mix of influences – they want to hear different kinds of music and try different kinds of food. They want to meet and socialise with people unlike themselves, trade views and spar over issues. They desire nightlife with a wide mix of options. The most valued options are experiential ones. Interesting music venues, neighbourhood art galleries, performance spaces and theatres. A vibrant varied nightlife, active participatory recreation over passive institutionalised forms, indigenous street-level culture - a teeming blend of cafes, sidewalk musicians, small galleries and bistros where it is hard to draw the line between performers and spectators. They crave stimulation not escape. They want to pack their time full of high quality multidimensional experiences. They value outdoor recreation highly and are drawn to places and communities where many outdoor activities are prevalent. Creative people value places for authenticity and uniqueness. Florida finds that “Authenticity comes from several aspects of a community – historic buildings, established neighbourhoods, a unique music scene or specific cultural attributes. It comes from the mix – from urban grit alongside renovated buildings, from the commingling of young and old, long-time neighbourhood characters and yuppies, fashion models and ‘bag ladies’. An authentic place also offers unique and original experiences. Thus a place full of chain stores, chain restaurants and nightclubs is non-authentic -–you could have the same experience anywhere.”
The warning that Florida provides to civic leaders is that they must stop paying lip-service to the need to attract talent whilst they pour resources into recruiting call centres, underwriting ‘big-box’ retailers, subsidising downtown malls, squandering precious taxpayers dollars on extravagant stadium complexes, trying to create fascimiles of neighbourhoods or retail districts, replacing the old and authentic with the new and generic. Cities inability to or unwillingness to adapt is nothing more than an organisational and cultural hardening of the arteries, the late economist Mancur Olson called “institutional sclerosis”.
How do you build a truly creative community? Florida argues that the key isn’t to be found in recruiting companies nor trying to become the next Silicon Valley. Whilst it is important to have a solid business climate, having an effective people climate is more essential. An effective people climate is found through implementing strategies aimed at attracting and retaining people – especially but not limited to, creative people. “This entails remaining open to diversity and actively working to cultivate it, and investing in the lifestyle amenities that people really want and use often, as opposed to using financial incentives to attract companies, build professional sports stadiums or develop retail complexes.” “An effective people climate needs to emphasise openness and diversity and to help reinforce low barriers to entry.”
The Inner City already contains some of the basic ingredients that are needed. The Inner City already includes a number of individuals that I wouldn’t hesitate to define as “Creative Class”! The Inner City certainly has diversity in abundance. We need to sharpen our focus and attract/recruit the lifestyle amenities that will develop an effective people climate.and market, market, market.
Have a great long-weekend, regards, neil fraser
Cities and Creativity vs “institutionalised sclerosis!
A quick update on JHB ART CITY which I covered originally in Citichat 16/2002. JHB ART CITY is the Outdoor Art Gallery conceived by Wits student Saul Symanowitz and now a public/private project between the City Council; the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA); the Central Johannesburg Partnership (CJP); the Johannesburg Inner City Business Coalition (JICBC) and supported by Business & Arts South Africa (BASA). The art competition phase closes today and, as at last night, we already had over 100 entries.(Total eventually received about 170) Next week our selection panel which includes Bongi Dhlomo; Natasha Fuller; Maishe Maponya, Clive Kellner and Monna Mokoena, gets down to the hard task of selecting twenty entries which will be displayed in the city as huge enlargements together with selections from ten private galleries of the best of their South African art. Check it out on our website – www.jhbartcity.org.za – and watch out, because it’s COMING SOON TO A WALL NEAR YOU!
Staying with creativity, a recently published book which offers some fresh and refreshing thinking relative to successful cities and regions is “The Rise of the Creative Class and How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life” by Richard Florida. Florida is the Professor of Regional Economic Development at the Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
What is the Creative Class? According to Florida it is a ‘fast-growing, highly educated, and well-paid segment of the workforce on whose efforts corporate profits and economic growth increasingly depends’. Members of the creative class do a wide variety of work in a wide variety of industries – from technology to entertainment, journalism to finance, high-end manufacturing to the arts. They do not consciously think of themselves as a class. Yet they share a common ethos that values creativity, individuality, difference and merit. Florida states that all these people contribute more than intelligence or computer skills – they add creative value and creativity is itself increasingly valued. Therefore, he suggests, the key to econ“t omic growth lies not just in the ability to attract the creative class, but to translate that underlying advantage into creative economic outcomes in the form of new ideas, new high-tech businesses and regional growth.”
In order to measure a region’s underlying creative capability, Florida developed a “Creativity Index”. This index is a mix of four equally weighted factors; the creative class share of the workforce; high-tech industry; innovation measured as patents per capita and diversity measured by the Gay Index which he describes as a ‘reasonable proxy for an area’s openness to different kinds of people and ideas.’
The resultant top ten cities with populations in excess of a million are San Francisco; Austin; San Diego; Boston; Seattle; Chapel Hill; Houston; Washington; New York and Dallas.
The corresponding bottom ten cities are Memphis; Norfolk VA; Las Vegas; Buffalo; Louisville; Grand Rapids; Oklahoma City; New Orleans; Greensboro and Providence.
What can we learn from Florida’s research? Well, in Florida’s words; “ More and more businesses understand the ethos and are making the adaptations necessary to attract and retain creative class employees – everything from relaxed dress codes, flexible schedules, and new work rules in the office to hiring recruiters who throw Frisbees. Most civic leaders, however, have failed to understand that what is true for corporations is also true for cities and regions: Places that succeed in attracting and retaining creative class people prosper; those that fail, don’t.” What he is saying is that cities stuck in the old paradigms of economic development “building generic high-tech office parks or subsidising professional sports teams” – have lost their economic dynamism to places more tolerant, diverse and open to creativity!
But it is from his research into what the creative class is looking for that we can learn what our cities need to provide. Talented people, he finds, seek an environment open to differences; creative minded people enjoy a mix of influences – they want to hear different kinds of music and try different kinds of food. They want to meet and socialise with people unlike themselves, trade views and spar over issues. They desire nightlife with a wide mix of options. The most valued options are experiential ones. Interesting music venues, neighbourhood art galleries, performance spaces and theatres. A vibrant varied nightlife, active participatory recreation over passive institutionalised forms, indigenous street-level culture - a teeming blend of cafes, sidewalk musicians, small galleries and bistros where it is hard to draw the line between performers and spectators. They crave stimulation not escape. They want to pack their time full of high quality multidimensional experiences. They value outdoor recreation highly and are drawn to places and communities where many outdoor activities are prevalent. Creative people value places for authenticity and uniqueness. Florida finds that “Authenticity comes from several aspects of a community – historic buildings, established neighbourhoods, a unique music scene or specific cultural attributes. It comes from the mix – from urban grit alongside renovated buildings, from the commingling of young and old, long-time neighbourhood characters and yuppies, fashion models and ‘bag ladies’. An authentic place also offers unique and original experiences. Thus a place full of chain stores, chain restaurants and nightclubs is non-authentic -–you could have the same experience anywhere.”
The warning that Florida provides to civic leaders is that they must stop paying lip-service to the need to attract talent whilst they pour resources into recruiting call centres, underwriting ‘big-box’ retailers, subsidising downtown malls, squandering precious taxpayers dollars on extravagant stadium complexes, trying to create fascimiles of neighbourhoods or retail districts, replacing the old and authentic with the new and generic. Cities inability to or unwillingness to adapt is nothing more than an organisational and cultural hardening of the arteries, the late economist Mancur Olson called “institutional sclerosis”.
How do you build a truly creative community? Florida argues that the key isn’t to be found in recruiting companies nor trying to become the next Silicon Valley. Whilst it is important to have a solid business climate, having an effective people climate is more essential. An effective people climate is found through implementing strategies aimed at attracting and retaining people – especially but not limited to, creative people. “This entails remaining open to diversity and actively working to cultivate it, and investing in the lifestyle amenities that people really want and use often, as opposed to using financial incentives to attract companies, build professional sports stadiums or develop retail complexes.” “An effective people climate needs to emphasise openness and diversity and to help reinforce low barriers to entry.”
The Inner City already contains some of the basic ingredients that are needed. The Inner City already includes a number of individuals that I wouldn’t hesitate to define as “Creative Class”! The Inner City certainly has diversity in abundance. We need to sharpen our focus and attract/recruit the lifestyle amenities that will develop an effective people climate.and market, market, market.
Have a great long-weekend, regards, neil fraser
Friday, June 7, 2002
Barcelona Citichat 7 June 2002
CITICHAT 22/2002 - 7 June 2002
Places and spaces 2 – Johannesburg to Barcelona.
The 20th century history of Barcelona and of the Catalan people has resulted in interesting 21st century parallels to our own current situation particularly relative to culture and heritage. The Catalans had fiercely resisted the nationalist government of General Franco and, as a result, he was particularly harsh in dealing with them both in terms of reprisals and in suppressing all aspects of their own culture. Amongst other issues, the Catalan language was banned - it could not be taught in schools and it was not allowed to be spoken publicly nor were publications in Catalan permitted. I believe that the city was even flooded with Madrid numberplates on motor vehicles so that everyone would be reminded where the seat of power lay. All Catalan culture was suppressed. Resistance was dealt with quickly and brutally and we visited some public places where surrounding walls were pockmarked with the scars of the bullets of the execution squads. Since Franco’s death in 1975, the province and the city have been recapturing the long period of cultural suppression and today one is able to enjoy the results.
Whilst the Catalans have had some twenty-seven years to re-establish their local identity, heritage and culture off a base of many centuries, in our case, we are still at the earliest stage of grappling with our colonial and apartheid past. Because Johannesburg is a young city in world terms and because we possessed a ‘mining mentality’ of ‘when it’s served its purpose pull it down’ we have far less left physically for us to build on. That makes preservation all that more important for us so we can learn from how other cities and countries are tackling the issue. I was for instance interested to learn that whilst France has education as their first priority, culture comes second and this is reflected in that country’s budget spending. On the other hand Spain appears to be more conscious of controlling the effects of globalisation on urban areas than France. The French certainly do not seem to be too particular in regard to their planning and many of the towns that dot the countryside of Southern France are branded with the “Golden Arches” and traditional Big Mac buildings. In the little bit of Spain that I’ve seen, McDonalds appears to be confined to existing buildings
Globalisation has a neutralising effect on cities, Donovan Rypkema whom I quoted last week actually defines it as the “McDonaldisation”, “Disneyfication” or just plain “westernisation” of towns and cities. He says; “Downtown’s strength is not homogeneity with everywhere else, the strength of downtown is its differentiation from anywhere else. The trip from someplace to anyplace and the trip from anyplace to no place is far shorter than many would like to admit.” In one of the British weekend papers I recently read of how a group of people in Primrose Hill, a north London enclave of writers, lawyers and intellectuals, have successfully petitioned their town council to refuse an application for the establishment of a Starbucks coffee outlet in their town centre. Somehow we seem to have lost that passion, a passion that once had Joburgers loudly denouncing proposals to demolish buildings that differentiated us from other cities and added to the value of the city.
Barcelona is a city that has differentiated itself from other European cities in many ways. It is described as “obsessed with playful and innovative interpretations of everything from painting to theatre to urban design and development.” In many ways it is of course physically similar to other European cities with its wide tree lined avenues offering shade to pedestrians and to those sipping coffee and stronger in its many pavement cafes and in its dozens of squares. Its tapas bars offer a huge assortment of delicious food to be enjoyed over numerous glasses of wine and a continuous stream of buskers provide background music played on a wide variety of instruments from South American pan pipes and Aboriginal digeridoos to classical Spanish guitars.
Its differentiation comes more through its art and architecture than anything else. Joan Miro, Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso all had strong links with the city. Its Romanesque and Gothic history endowed the city with many fine buildings of those periods. But it was in 1854, when the medieval walls surrounding the city as it was then were removed to accommodate huge expansion pressure, that the real individualism of the city blossomed. A rigid grid system of streets was introduced but with the corners of each intersection chamfered giving the city a unique footprint. The new plan coincided with a period of economic prosperity and nationalistic fervour that in turn gave birth to the Modernisme movement, a variant of Art Nouveau. Pragmatic design gave way to ornamental profusion, the curve replaced the straight, coloured facades, stained glass and undulating roof lines and ceramic clad turrets and chimneys were combined as a reaction to “the misery and massification brought about by technology and the industrial revolution.”
This year Barcelona celebrates one of its most famous architects of this period, Antonio Gaudi, and many Gaudi buildings are open to the public for the first time. We visited a number of these including the stunning “Temple of the Sagrada Familia”. This Cathedral, under construction since 1896 and now only 50% complete completerly blew my socks off!
So what can we learn from a very old, very European yet unique city such as Barcelona? Well it has the diversity of meanings which Rypkema talks about – aspiration, civic pride, prosperity, confidence, responsibility, sustainability, evolution. Its buildings have meanings and its buildings reflect its values. That provides a great challenge to us and challenges provide great opportunities! Regards, neil.
Places and spaces 2 – Johannesburg to Barcelona.
The 20th century history of Barcelona and of the Catalan people has resulted in interesting 21st century parallels to our own current situation particularly relative to culture and heritage. The Catalans had fiercely resisted the nationalist government of General Franco and, as a result, he was particularly harsh in dealing with them both in terms of reprisals and in suppressing all aspects of their own culture. Amongst other issues, the Catalan language was banned - it could not be taught in schools and it was not allowed to be spoken publicly nor were publications in Catalan permitted. I believe that the city was even flooded with Madrid numberplates on motor vehicles so that everyone would be reminded where the seat of power lay. All Catalan culture was suppressed. Resistance was dealt with quickly and brutally and we visited some public places where surrounding walls were pockmarked with the scars of the bullets of the execution squads. Since Franco’s death in 1975, the province and the city have been recapturing the long period of cultural suppression and today one is able to enjoy the results.
Whilst the Catalans have had some twenty-seven years to re-establish their local identity, heritage and culture off a base of many centuries, in our case, we are still at the earliest stage of grappling with our colonial and apartheid past. Because Johannesburg is a young city in world terms and because we possessed a ‘mining mentality’ of ‘when it’s served its purpose pull it down’ we have far less left physically for us to build on. That makes preservation all that more important for us so we can learn from how other cities and countries are tackling the issue. I was for instance interested to learn that whilst France has education as their first priority, culture comes second and this is reflected in that country’s budget spending. On the other hand Spain appears to be more conscious of controlling the effects of globalisation on urban areas than France. The French certainly do not seem to be too particular in regard to their planning and many of the towns that dot the countryside of Southern France are branded with the “Golden Arches” and traditional Big Mac buildings. In the little bit of Spain that I’ve seen, McDonalds appears to be confined to existing buildings
Globalisation has a neutralising effect on cities, Donovan Rypkema whom I quoted last week actually defines it as the “McDonaldisation”, “Disneyfication” or just plain “westernisation” of towns and cities. He says; “Downtown’s strength is not homogeneity with everywhere else, the strength of downtown is its differentiation from anywhere else. The trip from someplace to anyplace and the trip from anyplace to no place is far shorter than many would like to admit.” In one of the British weekend papers I recently read of how a group of people in Primrose Hill, a north London enclave of writers, lawyers and intellectuals, have successfully petitioned their town council to refuse an application for the establishment of a Starbucks coffee outlet in their town centre. Somehow we seem to have lost that passion, a passion that once had Joburgers loudly denouncing proposals to demolish buildings that differentiated us from other cities and added to the value of the city.
Barcelona is a city that has differentiated itself from other European cities in many ways. It is described as “obsessed with playful and innovative interpretations of everything from painting to theatre to urban design and development.” In many ways it is of course physically similar to other European cities with its wide tree lined avenues offering shade to pedestrians and to those sipping coffee and stronger in its many pavement cafes and in its dozens of squares. Its tapas bars offer a huge assortment of delicious food to be enjoyed over numerous glasses of wine and a continuous stream of buskers provide background music played on a wide variety of instruments from South American pan pipes and Aboriginal digeridoos to classical Spanish guitars.
Its differentiation comes more through its art and architecture than anything else. Joan Miro, Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso all had strong links with the city. Its Romanesque and Gothic history endowed the city with many fine buildings of those periods. But it was in 1854, when the medieval walls surrounding the city as it was then were removed to accommodate huge expansion pressure, that the real individualism of the city blossomed. A rigid grid system of streets was introduced but with the corners of each intersection chamfered giving the city a unique footprint. The new plan coincided with a period of economic prosperity and nationalistic fervour that in turn gave birth to the Modernisme movement, a variant of Art Nouveau. Pragmatic design gave way to ornamental profusion, the curve replaced the straight, coloured facades, stained glass and undulating roof lines and ceramic clad turrets and chimneys were combined as a reaction to “the misery and massification brought about by technology and the industrial revolution.”
This year Barcelona celebrates one of its most famous architects of this period, Antonio Gaudi, and many Gaudi buildings are open to the public for the first time. We visited a number of these including the stunning “Temple of the Sagrada Familia”. This Cathedral, under construction since 1896 and now only 50% complete completerly blew my socks off!
So what can we learn from a very old, very European yet unique city such as Barcelona? Well it has the diversity of meanings which Rypkema talks about – aspiration, civic pride, prosperity, confidence, responsibility, sustainability, evolution. Its buildings have meanings and its buildings reflect its values. That provides a great challenge to us and challenges provide great opportunities! Regards, neil.
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