The Cape Town Central City features very positively in a recent article by Alan Cameron at iafrica.com entitled ‘Why Cape Town works’. The article is based partly on comparisons between the Cape Town Central City and the Johannesburg and Durban CBDs.
Many of the subsequent responses from readers to the article unfortunately tend to politicise the issues. It is worth remembering that the Cape Town Partnership was started, and the first Cape Town City Improvement District By Law promulgated, at a time when the ANC were in charge at the City Council. The point is that different political parties have contributed to the success of the Central City over the years, and that since 1999, we have worked in partnership with a range of mayors, politicians and City Managers. In fact, one thing that characterises our work is consistent engagement between the public and private sectors, no matter who is in power at city hall.
We also work with our CBD colleagues in Johannesburg and other South African cities. As one of the respondents points out, good things have been done in the Johannesburg CBD over the years, for example, on affordable housing and in the Newtown Precinct. The scale of the challenges in Johannesburg is much greater, however, and a genuine public-private partnership has never been sustained. But at the end of the day, it is not in Cape Town’s interests for Johannesburg, or any other South African city, for that matter, to fail. We are too closely connected.
Johannesburg CBD - a tough challenge, but one that must succeed for the good of all cities in SA
I got a bit irritated by Prof Dave Dewar’s rather glib comment about ‘elitist’ solutions in the article. Even the question posed at the end – Is Cape Town’s elitism as bad a side-effect as Johannesburg’s degenerating CBD? – is based to my mind on a false dichotomy.
A safe and clean environment benefits all Central City users, not just the middle classes. The working class and poor have as much right to a well-governed urban environment as the wealthy, perhaps even more so, since they spend far more time in the public realm and on public transport. The Central City Improvement District’s social development and job creation programme, which works in close conjunction with NGOs and the public authorities, specifically looks to find ways to support the poor and homeless.
CCID social development and job creation team
The Cape Town Partnership’s Creative Cape Town programme focuses inter alia on the promotion and development of small and medium businesses in the creative sector, finding spaces and places for non-profit and community organisations, encouraging young performers and artists, and finding connections between ‘town’ and ‘township’.
The Partnership also focuses heavily on creating a better public realm, i.e. public spaces, active streetscapes, pedestrian routes, as well as promoting better public transport – hardly elitist solutions. Generally, we are not well-disposed towards planning for private vehicles. The Central City is even making some progress on affordable accommodation, for example, through the provision of new student housing in the East City by the company South Point, although as we have noted in our 2008 Central City Development Strategy, we have not been able to crack the overall issue of affordable housing in the Central City for a variety of reasons, and this remains a major challenge.
Proposals for increased densification contained in the City's recent Development Guidelines for Land Use Management, a project that originated out of the Central City Development Strategy
Because we operate on a partnership basis, we are in a position to encourage the private sector to go further than their traditional ’bottom line’, and over the years, many developers and property owners in the Central City have done just this. We do not support privatisation of public services, assets or spaces, but focus rather on how the private sector can assist the public sector to work better and stretch their resources further.
Is Cape Town working? I see that most respondents agree and 55% put it down to ‘old fashioned hard work’. But 20% are still not convinced. There is clearly still a long way to go and a lot more work to be done.
Thanks a million for raising the issues with regards to the importance of a good public realm/interface.
Often urbanistas or planners get caught up in dated thinking and myths with regards to what a city and its people needs.
It is in fact public transport users who need to move between St. George’s mall and other spaces, who benefit from the NMT legacy. Tourists and public transport users who use the new bridges to access their places of work at the waterfront and surrounds.
The higher income groups simply need parking to move in and out of the city. The need for good public spaces is also needed in low cost and social/affordable housing projects. Children needs a safe, pleasant place to play, just as many of us enjoy our local parks.
The needs of Capetonians extend from the most basic e.g. housing, access to water, lighting, security etc. to the spaces they share,use, inhabit daily. Whether its a taxi rank, bus stop, boulevard en route to work, a pleasant city can work for all of us.
The same urban myths and outdated thinking is still prevalent in the selection of a stadium site. Urban planners stuck in “their ways” will still propose distant sites outside the CBD with tons of space, a rail station…and that’s it.
When in fact, stadium site selection has evolved significantly, especially in light of Homebush Bay in Sydney, an example that a stadium site outside the CBD does not regenerate an area on its own.
A modern stadium should form part of the natural entertainment, tourism and accommodation hub of the city. Every aspect of attending the venue, before, during and after becomes part of a “stadium experience”.
We must be careful in Cape Town not to get stuck in these outdated views, which in many ways have resulted in many of the urban obstacles we face today.