I’ve been given the honour by the Africa Centre of opening the Spier Contemporary 2010, the largest biennale art exhibition in South Africa, this coming Saturday (13 March) at the Cape Town City Hall. Hmmm, what to say to a daunting array of artists, art critics, journalists, politicians and business leaders?

Today, in order to prepare myself, I was given a preview of the exhibition by Farzanah Badsha, project manager and member of the curatorial team. It gave me a chance to see most of the 132 works by 101 South African artists, chosen from 2 700 submissions countrywide. It also gave me a chance to see the ways in which the City Hall is being transformed into a new cultural space, albeit for only two months.

It won’t be fair for me to give the game away - you have to see the exhibition for yourself. However, what I can say is that the Cape Town public is incredibly lucky to have an opportunity to see some of the best art in South Africa today, art which amongst others things reflects on the sombre mood of the national political psyche.

Farzanah Badsha of the Africa Centre outlines the finer points of contemporary South African art to my colleagues Bulelwa Ngewana, Petro Mostert and Terri Carter of the Cape Town Partnership

The Press Gallery in the old Council Chambers restored to some of its former glory after a lick of paint

Performance art in beautiful rooms like this one will be a centrepiece of the exhibition

Its not just the interior spaces of the City Hall that are being transformed through the Spier Contemporary; the views of the surrounding city, in this case, the Old Drill Hall against the backdrop of Devil's Peak, are significantly enhanced

Under construction. The one piece of work I can reveal, because it is outside the City Hall in Darling Street, consists of a large tower made from fences taken from Robben Island

The exhibition will be open to the public from Sunday 14 March. For more information, go to http://spiercontemporary2010.co.za/2010/

Like the name says, one of the longest streets in Cape Town

There’s been quite a bit of discussion recently on the issue of street renaming. My colleague, Ryland Fisher, writing in the Cape Argus on 22 February, asked what has happened to the working group leading a renaming process set up by the City of Cape Town a few years ago: “This group, under the leadership of Rhoda Kadalie, produced what I thought was a fair report, given the city’s divisive history. However, nothing happened after they delivered their report.”

Ryland correctly points out that the renaming of streets in honour of people who gave their lives in the struggle against apartheid has to date been confined to former black townships: “It irritates me no end, and makes me ashamed to be a citizen of Cape Town and the Western Cape when I drive through Khayelitsha and I see that it’s only there that streets are named in honour of these leaders. I’m glad that they are honoured – but not in this ghetto fashion. It is almost as if Mandela and the others fought for the liberation of black people only, and so they must be honoured in black townships only… It galls me to drive around in the city centre where almost every street name harks back to apartheid, while township streets celebrate the leaders who fought for the liberation of all.”

I (mildly) disagree with Ryland’s view that “almost every street name (in the Cape Town city centre) harks back to apartheid” – many are good descriptive names like Long, Loop and Bree, or, for example, like Strand, Waterkant, Jetty and Sea Streets, tell a story about the historical shoreline of the city – but overall, Ryland is correct to ask the question: what has happened to the process?

Shortmarket St - telling a story of the origins of the Cape Town retail economy

Last week, the issue was raised again, this time at a public meeting in Cape Town called by the South African Geographical Names Council. The debates were reported heated, with traditional Khoi leaders in particular calling for a comprehensive name-changing process. “Many atrocities were committed during the changing of names (during the colonial period) in this country” said Frank Smith, national organiser of the SA Progressive Civic Organisation. Dan Fletcher, of the Indigenous Royal Council, pointed out that: “Not a single street in this province is named after a Khoisan”.

Perhaps in response to the criticism, Sakkie Jenner, Western Cape Provincial MEC for Cultural Affairs and Sport, announced last week that the Provincial Government would be establishing a provincial committee to deal with the process of name changing in the province.

So, where does this leave us? There is no doubt that many names of streets (and buildings and public places and amenities) in Cape Town continue to offend or hurt. I sometimes can’t believe that we still have a street (Oswald Pirow on the Foreshore) named after a prominent Nazi sympathiser. Or a major highway (Settlers Way) named in such an obviously provocative way.

On the other hand, the process of renaming, if not handled correctly, can lead to further divisions and conflict rather than nation-building. The way the street naming process was mishandled in central eThekwini/ Durban (see pictures) is a case in point. A few years ago, Mayor Pieter Marais’s attempts to try and to rig the voting process to force through the renaming of Adderley and Wales Streets (to Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk respectively) in the city centre, was highly devisive and helped lead to his demise as Mayor.

The renaming of streets in central eThekwini/ Durban has been a messy process

Any process of renaming needs to be open, transparent and inclusive. Personally, I dislike naming (or renaming) streets after politicians, no matter how great and good. I am particularly saddened when I see names such as Beyers Naude, Oliver Tambo, Joe Slovo and Lillian Ngoye given to roads (or hospitals or schools or places) that are then allowed to decay through poor maintenance and management. What an insult to honourable leaders!

I prefer names that tell a story, that are historically interesting, or geographically descriptive, names that above all, will endure long after our current generation has come and gone.

As a student of history, I am aware that a renaming process can be superficial and shallow if it is not part of broader efforts to genuinely build social cohesion and address the physical and materials needs of citizens. Like patriotism, the practice of renaming can become a refuge of scoundrels, enabling leaders to deflect from delivering on substantive issues. However, I don’t buy the arguement that the process of renaming certain streets and places is irrelevent or that there are ‘more important issues’.

Cities and towns are about people. As human beings, we express ourselves through culture and we value our personal, neighbourhood and community identities. If our roads and buildings and parks and beaches and statues and images and advertisements and designs do not reflect people’s cultures inclusively, then we will never succeed in becoming a city truly owned and respected and cared for by all citizens. And that’s not the sort of city I want to live in.

Its time for a process of more inclusive memorialisation in Cape Town (and in our country), but done in a such way so as to educate ourselves about different cultures, languages, communities and contributions, to bring ourselves closer together.

Contradictions in central eThekwini/ Durban: the historically evocative Brickhill Road, and the benign West Street, have been renamed, but Kitchener St, named after a British colonial warlord type, remains.

Know your history: What would Anton Lembede, political activist and founding president of the ANC Youth League, have to say about being placed alongside Theophilus Shepstone, who, as secretary for native affairs in Kwa Zulul-Natal for 30 years, was arguably the architect of separate development?

The 2010 FIFA Football World Cup Fan Walk in Cape Town is taking shape. This is the route that creates a pedestrian-priority route from the CT Station in the CBD to the CT Stadium to be used by an estimated 18 000 fans on match days.

My 2010 colleague Carola Koblitz briefs CTP and CCID staff members at the start of our recent Fan Walk inspection tour (corner St George's Mall and Waterkant St)

Up the hill to Long Street. Waterkant (Waterside) Street, the main route of the Fan Walk in the CBD, marks near where the historical shoreline used to be. The whole of Waterkant street is being transformed into a pedestrian-priority route and cycle lane

Broken street furniture in Waterkant St due to be repaired in time for 2010 as part of the City of Cape Town's beautification programme

Sea Street is another reminder of where the shoreline used to be before the reclamation of the foreshore after 1939

Greening the city. In future years, the Fan Walk will be a shaded avenue

The Fan Walk goes past several traditional shops, including the well-known Lusitania Fisheries, where you can get one of the best calamari and chip rolls in town!

Improvements to public space often prompt the upgrade of adjacent buildings. Here, a new design-related development on Waterkant Street behind the historic Lutheran Church takes shape

A new pedestrian bridge under construction, corner Buitengracht and Waterkant St

One of the busiest roads in the Central City is Buitengracht Street, which forms a hostile barrier for pedestrians between the CBD and Green Point. A new pedestrian bridge will begin to soften the interface between these two areas. There will also be a new at-grade pedestrian crossing

The Fan Walk passes the Prestwich Memorial in St Andrew's Square, which pays tribute to the thousands of poor Capetonians, many of them slaves, who were buried over the years in unmarked graves outside the historical city boundary (buiten die Buitengracht - outside the Outer Canal). The new Truth coffee shop provides a welcome respite along the route

The other half of the new pedestrian bridge under construction, against a backdrop of the old Lutheran Church and Table Mountain

The old tram rails show where the trams coming from Sea Point and Green Point used to turn towards town along Waterkant Street

The Fan Walk continues past the historic St Andrew's Church into Somerset Road, Green Point

Somerset Road is at the moment a jumble and clutter of traffic, in places very pedestrian unfriendly. The Fan Walk upgrade is an attempt to allocate addition space to pedestrians and cyclists through this busy area

The Fan Walk passes by the popular Cape Quarter extension

The Gallows Hill (another reminder of our conflict-ridden past) Traffic Department parking lot being converted into a temporary access road onto the Western Boulevard as part of the 2010 transport plan

For sale. Another example of how the upgrade of public space can prompt potential private development

The pedestrian and cycle route along Green Point Main Road is now well established, although concrete benches have been placed in awkward places, causing a potential hazard to a crowd of pedestrians and to cyclists

The new Green Point Circle pedestrian underpass links the Fan Walk to the IRT station, the Waterfront, the CT Stadium and the Green Point Urban Park

Looking back. The Fan Walk provides a pleasant 2,6km (approximetely 30 minutes) walk from the CBD to the Stadium, and will become a means of accessing the stadium over and above the bus shuttle systems that will be provided on match days. It will also contibute to the 2010 legacy in the form of permanent cycling and pedestrian-priority routes through the city, which will no doubt lead to ongoing intensification of urban economic activities

Like the man said, imagine...

I’ve never been a fan of the Cape Town City Hall from an architectural and aesthetic point of view. I always find it a bit gloomy – two buildings in one rather awkwardly joined together with a rabbit-warren of corridors and rooms. However, there is no denying its symbolic and historical significance, and its imposing edifice is instantly recognisable against the backdrop of Table Mountain.

With a bit of imagination, I believe that the City Hall can become one of Cape Town’s leading cultural centres. Already preparation for the forthcoming Spier Contemporary 2010, which is stripping out the detritus of the past few decades, is revealing the future potential of the building. This is why Creative Cape Town, together with the Africa Centre and Cape MIC, has recently launched an Imagine City Hall campaign – an opportunity for citizens to register support for the City Hall as a dedicated cultural venue, and to imagine ways in which the building can come alive again.

For more information, check out the Creative Cape Town webpage  and sign up at the City Hall Facebook Group.

The logo for the Imagine City Hall campaign

The Africa Centre’s Infecting the City Public Arts Festival kicked off in public spaces in the Cape Town Central City this morning. The theme for this year’s festival is Human Rite. I saw two very powerful yet different performances – Quiet Emergency on Thibault Square and Meet Market on Church Square.

Quiet Emergency

“Cape Town: a patchwork map of dislocation, where communities are separated by history and inequality, isolated by high walls and indifference…”

Quiet Emergency is created by Anthea Moys, Gilbert Douglas and Margie Mackay

"Honouring that which unites us as human beings, that which gives us connection, hope and continuity"

"Every community has its boundaries, each interaction its limitations... we live in a state of quiet emergency"

Creating a halfway meeting space - street children, sex workers, security guards, street cleaners and professional performers

Meet Market

Meet Market tranforms Church Square into a startling new green space in the city

"The procedure is not pretty, it concerns dis-ease"

"A new rite is exercised... an infected wound is lanced, disinfected and then sealed to allow healing"

The act of passing water for a cleansing ritual from the site of the old slave tree to the Slave Memorial on Church Square brings traffic to a halt in Spin Street. The Slave Lodge is in the background.

"The putrification of centuries of denial and shame requires removal"

"Conflicting memories and fragmented histories"

Arriving on one of the new "Dutch Team" pedicabs to watch the performance

Jan Hofmeyer, founder of the Afrikaner Bond, contemplates a 'Home for All' on the side of the Provincial Government building in Wale Street

Meet Market is created by Andrew Buckland, Athina Vahla, Ibrahim Quraishi and Lerato Shadi. Infecting the City is on until 20 February.

I normally eschew using the description ‘world class’ – it often means trying to measure up to someone else’s standards rather than setting our own. But in the case of the opening of The Fugard Theatre in the Cape Town Central City last night, I’m prepared to make an exception. It was brilliant, bloody brilliant, world class!

We were privileged to see a magnificent performance of Mozart’s The Magic Flute/ Impempe Yomlingo by the Isango Portobello Company in their new home – the beautifully renovated Fugard Theatre in Caledon Street, next door to the District Six Homecoming Centre in the old Sacks Futeran Building.

It was a joyous occasion, attended by Athol Fugard himself, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, at least five Cabinet Ministers, actor Alan Rickman (aka Professor Snape in the Harry Potter movies), scores of playwrights, artists and writers, and a healthy cross-spectrum of Capetonians.

Hats off to producer Eric Abraham, artistic director Mark Dornford-May, executive director Mannie Manim, music directors Pauline Malefane and Mandisi Dyantyis and all the members of the Isango Portobello Company. Welcome to the East City. We look forward to becoming Friends of the Fugard!

For more information on what is happening in the East City, see East City Design Initiative.

There are five key elements of the 2010 World Cup legacy for Cape Town:

• R14bn of infrastructure, much of it funded by National Treasury (e.g. CT Stadium, Green Point Urban Park, CT Airport, rail station upgrades, first phase IRT, highway intersections, pedestrian routes, cycle routes, public squares) – There has been nothing like the immovable deadline of the World Cup to get decisions made and things done
• Higher levels of local skills and experience in the public and private sectors (e.g. negotiating with FIFA and National Government, building infrastructure on time, planning and coordinating diverse work-streams and events, issuing complex tenders and managing multiple contracts, up-skilling in the construction industry)
• Enforced cooperation: Government departments, city agencies, organisations and private companies learning to work more closely together to get things done on time
• Stronger Cape Town profile and brand (especially with the positive impact of the Final Draw on 4^th December)
• Better social cohesion – Capetonians enjoying the same space together – an intangible but important part of the legacy

The new raised traffic circle in Green Point, allowing pedestrian access to the CT Stadium and Urban Park, is part of the 2010 infrastructure legacy

So, Cape Town is already a winner because of 2010. How do we build on this legacy? Cape Town is well poised to continue the momentum through key initiatives that are already taking us into the future:

• City Development Strategy
• Integrated Rapid Transit Strategy
• Central City Development Strategy 
• Bid to make Cape Town the World Design Capital in 2014

We still don’t have a clear vision of where we want to be as a city in 20-30 years time, and how we are going to get there. This means that we tend to continue with ‘business as usual’ type thinking and doing.

What we need is a city development strategy – a planning process used by many cities around the world to set out a vision for the city’s future and a roadmap on how to get there.

A city development strategy or CDS is not a ‘plan’ but a way of getting city leaders and citizens to agree to make the right choices. A successful city strategy cannot be all things to all people – it must provoke choices. To be really useful, a CDS needs to contain a set of ‘change levers’ to ‘bend’ our current unsustainable development path towards a more desirable future.

Khayelitsha - a poor but potentially vibrant economic node

Examples of issues (indicative rather than exhaustive) that would need to be addressed by a CDS include:

• Employment and greater distribution of incomes
• Entrepreneurship and the establishment of businesses
• Social cohesion and common city identity
• Urban land question (unsustainable low-density urban sprawl and the need for a more compact city; shortage of adequate housing and basic services; car-based planning or make a fundamental shift towards a city organised around proper public transport)
• Looming resource constraints: energy, water
• Impact of climate change on our coastline and agricultural production
• Human capital development: education, health, skills
• Impact of rapidly changing technologies

The good news is that the City of Cape Town has recently signalled its intention to lead an inclusive and participative city development strategy process later this year. Much good work has already been done by Accelerate Cape Town’s 2030 visioning process, which can be built upon.

It is imperative that we take this process seriously and get involved so that we can collectively shape the future of our city.

We need to get behind the Integrated Rapid Transport System (IRTS)

The question we ought to be asking is not, can the Cape Town afford the IRT, but rather, can we afford not to build it. To continue as a primarily car-based city without a decent, safe, reliable public transport system is not sustainable. A large proportion of our citizens don’t have cars in any case! Rising energy costs will make car travel less affordable. We need to reduce our city’s carbon footprint. The economic cost of congestion on our roads increases exponentially every year. Finally, we cannot continue with the political, economic and social cost of not connecting the disparate parts of our city together and enhancing mobility and access for our citizens.

The IRT is not just a transport project – it is a city transformation project. It is the cheapest form of car-competitive public transport available to cities. It has the potential to drive the necessary city densification processes, with more compact development clustering around stations and along public transport corridors. It can link isolated communities to the mainstream urban economy, offering opportunities to reduce poverty. It can complement the existing rail network. It can provide jobs for taxi- and bus-drivers and many others.

IRT lanes under construction (Pic: Bruce Sutherland, City of Cape Town)

IRT is probably the single most important infrastructure project in the city over the next 10-15 years. It is the main 2010 World Cup legacy project – if we mess it up, we will have squandered the development opportunity of our generation.

It is a complex project, not for the faint-hearted. The City of Cape Town’s initial estimates of costs were too low, the initial project management processes not systematic enough. However, I believe that the City has rectified these issues, and that we are back on track. There is a top team with experience in place under Mike Marsden, which has instituted proper programming and planning. The Department of Transport and National Treasury are firmly behind the project – but this window of funding opportunity will not last forever. If we are not seen to be actively behind the project, driving it beyond 2010 to all corners of the metropolitan area, the funding will peter out, and with it, our chance to experience a decent public transport in our lifetime.

Central City Development Strategy (CCDS)

The CCDS is an existing ten-year framework to guide public and private planners, investors and developers in the Central City (defined as stretching from Green Point to Salt River), published by the City of Cape Town and CT Partnership in 2008.

There are two exciting new projects currently underway that will potentially have a large impact on the future development of the city:

Land Use Change Management: This project aims to address issues that often cause difficulties when it comes to deciding on applications for rezoning and departures, such as building height restrictions, development densities, views, heritage and conservation, active streetscapes, parking ratios in buildings, amongst other things. The intention is for the City to be able to publish development parameters to guide future developments in the Central City and thereby give more certainty and predictability to developers when they are drawing up their applications, investors when they are considering funding projects and planners when they are making approvals. The City of Cape Town intends to consult publically in April. If successful, this path-breaking planning project could be used to guide development in other parts of the city.

Cape Town Central City by night as seen from Table Mountain

Provincial Central City Regeneration Project: The Provincial Government is a major owner and occupier of space in the Central City (some 200 000m²⁾. MEC Robin Carlisle has begun a process whereby all Provincial assets in this area are evaluated in terms of their development potential, for example:

• Reconfiguration of Provincial Government accommodation
• Provision of public services
• Better use of educational and health facilities
• Possible public-private partnerships for commercial, mixed-use or affordable residential developments

The MEC has brought in the participation of the four universities through the Cape Higher Education Consortium. He is also currently liaising with Intersite and Passenger Rail Services (Prasa) with regard to the Cape Town Station phase two regeneration project (in itself, a major potential post-2010 initiative) and Transnet with regard to their Culemborg site, to ensure an integrated public asset management strategy.

This project, which will hopefully be implemented over the next 5-10 years, could have a dramatic impact on the momentum of development in the Central City, and provide ways of addressing the need for affordable housing, spaces for small businesses and non-profit organisations, and additional educational and social facilities. If successful, the intention is to be able to use the model elsewhere in the City and Province.

Cape Town CBD and harbour, with Blaauwberg on the other side of Table Bay

World Design Capital Bid 2014

Creative Cape Town is a programme of the Cape Town Partnership which promotes the development of the creative and knowledge economy in Cape Town. One of our projects is the East City Design Initiative (ECDI) which aims to create a precinct for design, innovation, creativity & entrepreneurship in the Central City.

The East City Precinct is already attracting major attention. It was recently designated a Cape Catalyst project by Provincial Government. It is the home of the successful Cape Craft and Design Initiative, Fabrication Laboratory, the District Six Museum and Homecoming Centre, and the new Central Library in the restored Old Drill Hall. The Old Granary Building is scheduled to be upgraded into a cultural hub.

The new Fugard Theatre opens this week in the old Congregational Church Hall (one of the best restorations of an historic building I have seen) and is destined to become one of the best theatres in SA. The Spier Contemporary is opening in March in the City Hall – showcasing 100 SA artists and 132 works of art – which in turn is helping to restart the process of using the City Hall as a dedicated music and cultural centre.

On the basis of these trends, we will be launching a process to bid for World Design Capital status for Cape Town in 2014 at the forthcoming Design Indaba.

This award is conferred biennially by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) to a city that is dedicated to using design for social, cultural and economic development. If we are successful, this title will give Cape Town a chance to showcase our achievements and aspirations through a year-long programme of design-led events and activities – just as World Design Capital designees Seoul (see YouTube video) and Helsinki will do in 2010 and 2012 respectively.

More importantly, pitching for this title will also give city stakeholders an opportunity to once again work together towards a common goal – just as we have done with the 2010 World Cup. Already, many key stakeholders including the Mayor of the City of Cape Town have endorsed the project, and prominent individuals associated with design innovation have agreed to join a bid advisory body.

We have to be ready to submit our bid in February 2011. That gives us a year to get our act together. I invite any individual, organisation or business who is interested in getting involved to contact the Partnership, which is acting as a bid secretariat on behalf of all the stakeholders.

Conclusion

I know of many other examples of initiatives and projects in Cape Town, which have the potential to take us beyond 2010. However, time does not permit me to list them all here.

Plans and projects on their own are not good enough – we need to look at how we do things. In implementing plans for 2010, we have shown that we can do things differently. We have taken complex decisions. We have met deadlines. We have mobilised people out of silos and compartments, beyond ‘business as usual’. We have become less parochial and more outward looking.

The key question is: can we continue on this basis, or will we slip back into comfortable mediocrity?

Capetonians came together in 1989 to help get rid of apartheid. Can we again come together around a common vision?

I toured the East City precinct in the Cape Town Central City yesterday – and saw two amazing projects, and one disaster.

I first went to the City Hall to see the installation of the Spier Contemporary biennial Arts Competition and Exhibition, set to open on 14 March. In my view – we’re in for a treat! The exhibition is organised by the Africa Centre and will showcase 132 pieces from 100 South African artists. The best news is that the City Hall is finally receiving a bit of a – albeit temporary – makeover, showing what the space could look like if it is properly restored.

Clutter and debris dating back to the 1970s being removed from the City Hall to create bright modern exhibition spaces

Majestic spaces - where the City Library (now next door in the restored Old Drill Hall) used to be

Next, I went around the corner to Caledon Street to the Sachs-Futeran building to look at the new Fugard Theatre. Its going to be the home of the award-winning Isango-Portobello Theatre Company. Situated in an old Congregational Church Hall and an adjacent warehouse, it is one of the best restorations of an historic building I have seen in a long time. The Fugard opens on 12 February with Mozart’s The Magic Flute-Impempe Yomlingo. Situated next door to the District Six Homecoming Centre, and the Old Granary Building (also due for an upgrade in 2010), the complex is set to become the heart of the Cape Town Partnership’s East City Design Initiative.

The entrance to The Fugard in Caledon Street, off Buitenkant Street

Rehearsal space on the second floor

Terri Carter of the Cape Town Partnership auditions on stage

The roof terrace boasts some of the best views in the Central City

See recent Sunday Times article on The Fugard by Marianne Thamm

And finally – the bad.

I walked around the newly-upgraded Grand Parade and was bitterly disappointed in what I saw. The Grand Parade is Cape Tow’s oldest public space. It is one of our most important heritage sites. It was where Nelson Mandela first spoke to the world as a free man 20 years ago. It is the venue for the official FIFA Fan Fest in June. The City of Cape Town has recently spent R22m on upgrading the Parade. It looks like this:

The brand new brickwork is covered in ugly oil stains due to the vans and bakkies that are allowed to park there

New paving turning to rubble due to lack of maintenance

The vandalised base of a monument

Lack of cleansing and refuse removal mars the environment

The main problem is that the City does not have a public space management policy and strategy in place. No one is responsible or accountable for maintenance and management, even though many of the spaces have been beautifully upgraded by the City in recent years. This issue, which has been kicking around the Civic Centre for the past four years, needs to be resolved once and for all. Watch this space!

A story on the state of the Grand Parade appeared in the Weekend Argus on 30 January 2010:

Vandals trash Grand Parade after upgrade

City’s main fan park ‘not managed’

By Helen Bamford

The Grand Parade, the site of Cape Town’s main fan park for the World Cup, was upgraded at a cost of R24 million but within weeks has been damaged and vandalised, apparently because of a lack of management.

In his blog, the chief executive of the Cape Town Partnership, Andrew Boraine, described his disappointment after walking around the newly-upgraded site.

He posted photographs of what he saw: brickwork covered in oil stains from vehicles permitted to park on the parade, new paving turned into rubble due to lack of maintenance and the vandalised base of a monument.

He says the main problem was that the city did not have a public space management policy and strategy.

“No one is responsible or accountable for maintenance and management, even though many of the spaces have been beautifully upgraded by the city in recent years.”

The city’s 2010 co-ordinators are also concerned.

Shameel Ho-Kim, project co-ordinator for the city’s 2010 operations office, said the Grand Parade was a high priority for 2010 and they wanted it closely managed.

He said that they had raised their concerns with the city’s sports and recreation department, under which the Grand Parade fell.

“They have indicated it will be managed more closely with increased patrols.”

The Parade will be fenced off from May 1 for construction of the fan park which will create a stadium atmosphere accommodating an estimated 25 000 people, with an overflow along Darling Street which will take 15 000 people.

All 64 World Cup games will be screened live at the fan park which will be open from 10am until midnight on match days with hospitality areas and beer tents.

The city has appointed an operator called Grand World Visions, a consortium of World Sport, VWV and Grand Parade Investments, to plan, implement and manage the fan fest on its behalf.

Paul Williamson, city service co-ordinator for business areas management, said the city had identified two alternative sites for existing traders during the World Cup.

The city would ensure that the Grand Parade was in a suitable condition for the fan fest, and the damage identified would be repaired.

 Weekend Argus sent written questions to Gerhard Ras, the councillor in charge of sports and recreation under which the Grand Parade falls, on Thursday asking who was responsible for managing the site and why it was not being done.

He did not respond but Gert Bam, director of sport, recreation and amenities, said the areas requiring attention since the upgrade were not substantial.

In one area the electricity department had “disturbed the paving” during an installation.

“This caused a ripple effect on the surrounding paving. We have asked the electricity department to correct this.”

In other areas the paving seemed to have sagged.

“As we are still in the maintenance period of the contract a snag list has been drafted and the urban design department which managed this project will interact with the contractor to attend to all the snag items,” Bam said.

Published on the web by Cape Argus on January 29, 2010.

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© Cape Argus 2010. All rights reserved.

On Saturday morning, I cycled around the Green Point Common area (Fan Walk, IRT Station, pedestrian underpass, CT Stadium, Granger Bay Boulevard, Urban Park) to investigate the car-free recreational cycling opportunities and to check the progress of all the 2010 developments in the area.  The date (23 January) was particularly significant because the first football match ever in the new CT Stadium was due to be played that afternoon (for great pictures of this event, click here). All in all, with the pavement next to the Sea Point Promenade thrown in, I experienced 18km of mainly car-free cycling which I enjoyed so much, I returned the next morning, this time with my sons, Mano and Angelo.

Fan Walk from Station to Stadium. This wonderful pedestrian and cycle path provides a new connection from the CBD to the CT Stadium, Waterfront, Urban Park and Promenade

Pedestrian underpass – nearly completed and now navigable on a mountain bike

IRT Bus Station under construction – designed to handle large crowds before and after matches

An army tent guards the horizon at Fort Wynyard in the shadow of the stadium

Fort Wynyard, a centrally-located and valuable heritage site, is currently under the control of the Cape Garrison Artillery. It was built in 1861 by convicts from the nearby Breakwater Prison (now UCT Graduate School of Business), although the site was first used for coastal defences by the Dutch in 1795. It makes sense to consider upgrading and opening this facility to the public to make it part of the overall Green Point Common experience. At the moment, grumpy army guards do their best to keep one away from the site.

Green Point Urban Park under construction. I have no doubt that when this facility is completed, it will become one of the best used public open spaces in Cape Town

Mouille Point Lighthouse. The Urban Park will provide a magnificent pedestrian and cycle link between Green Point Main Road and the Sea Point Promenade.

Urban Park under construction. A row of cranes that look as if they could be from that best loved children's book Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel

Green Point Urban Park under construction

Different angles. The stadium is framed by Signal Hill and Table Mountain

Different angles: CT Stadium and Devil's Peak

Different angles: The stadium resembles a giant paper lamp in front of Table Mountain

Reporting for duty. Security staff get ready for the first match to be played at the new stadium (Santos vs Ajax Cape Town, 23 January 2010)

Mike Mulligan, Mary Anne and friends wave goodbye

Sunday morning

A club cricket match in a stunning setting - surely more use could be made of these grounds?

Mano Boraine was keen to pose in front of the CT Stadium tunnel onto the pitch

Paragliders circle Signal Hill and Lion's Head

Angelo Boraine outside the new CT Stadium

Ports d’Attache, or Home Ports, is a Canadian documentary series on 13 major port cities*, currently in the process of production. One of the cities is Cape Town, and I had the opportunity earlier this week to show reknowned Canadian photographer Heidi Hollinger, the host of the show, and her crew, around the Central City. The documentary series is looking, amongst other things, at the impact that ports have had on a city’s history, people, culture and development. 

The series is specifically not focusing on popular tourist spots but what it terms ‘the soul of the city’. Walking only a short distance, we were able to discuss the origins of Cape Town as Camissa, the ‘place of sweet waters’ where for centuries, indigenous inhabitants watered their herds until their dispossession by the Dutch East India Company; the consequences of the importantation of slaves from Africa, India and the East to build the Castle, dig the canals, plant the Company’s Garden and construct the early settlement; the origins of Greenmarket Square, Church Square and the historic role of Eerste Berg Dwars Straat (St George’s Mall); the devastating impact of forced removals of tens of thousands of families from the Central City through the Groups Areas Act; the gradual separation of the city from the sea with the construction of the modern industrial harbour and the reclamation of the Foreshore, and current efforts to reconnect the mountain to the city to the sea, and the many other issues that have shaped the history of Cape Town.

The Purple Shall Govern - telling the story of the September 1989 march in town that defied the apartheid police alongside the public sculpture by local artist Conrad Botes on the corner of Berg and Church Streets that commemorates the event

With photographer Heidi Hollinger at the Rainbow Experience in Church Street

Celebrating the release of Nelson Mandela on 11 February 1990 (almost twenty years ago!) and his first speech to the world as a free man from the Cape Town City Hall balcony

All pictures courtesy Heidi Hollinger and crew, with thanks. The Cape Town Partnership conducts regular walking tours in the Cape Town Central City – all welcome!

*Cities: San Francisco, Helsinki, Marseille, Lisbon, Havana, Cape Town, Tel Aviv, Moscow, Houston, Buenos Aires, Bangkok, Melbourne and Reykjavik 

The rich tradition of Cape Jazz continues at the Rainbow Room Jazz Club. Last night I had the pleasure of listening to the Denay Willie Band. What was even more impressive was the showcasing of new Cape Town talent, as impressive young musicians aged 14-19 joined the band for various songs. The Rainbow Room Jazz Club is part of the Rainbow Experience, one of Cape Town’s newest cultural landmarks, based at Mandela-Rhodes Place in the Central City. A must for every jazz lover and supporter of the development of young Cape Town musicians! Well done to Alison McCutcheon and Frank Gormley for such a creative enterprise.

The Rainbow Experience at Mandela-Rhodes Place at 23 Church Street