For those of you who are wondering just how the new Hospital Bend pre-selection scheme is going to work, here it is (inbound example):
Hospital Bend pre-selection scheme
Download a larger PDF (1,8MB) version Hosp_Bend_INBOUND
You can get a good idea of how the Green Point Urban Park is taking shape from the top of the Ritz Hotel in Sea Point
Ella Smook of the Cape Argus wrote an article this week on the new Green Point Urban Park, which describes the facilities being planned for the area after the 2010 World Cup. Located next to the new Green Point IRT station, the park will become more accessible to communities throughout the city as the IRT system is rolled out, although just looking at how well-used the adjacent Sea Point Promenade is by a wide range of Capetonians, I have no doubt that the Urban Park will become a popular regional facility from the word go.
The outline of the central common can be clearly seen. The Metropolitan Golf Course is in the background
The Urban Park will form part of a wider system of recreational areas and pedestrian and cycle routes, such as the Sea Point Promenade
The Urban Park is adjacent to the CT Stadium precinct, and will be managed by Stade de France and Sail, the stadium managers
Last year, the South African Government launched a review of local government, and came up with some pretty damning findings. This has resulted in the launch of an ambitious Local Government Turnaround Strategy aimed at addressing the internal factors (e.g. quality of decision-making by Councillors, quality of appointments, transparency of tender and procurement systems, and levels of financial management and accountability) as well as the external factors (e.g. revenue base and income generation potential, inappropriate legislation and regulation, demographic patterns and trends, macro and micro-economic conditions, undue interference by political parties and weaknesses in national policy, oversight and inter-governmental relations) bedevilling local government.
The focus by national government on local government is to be welcomed. It is after all the sphere of government that has the greatest impact on our day-to-day lives. Of equal significance is the stated abandonment of a ‘one size fits all’ approach that has predominated government thinking for the past 15 years. The adoption of a differentiated approach means that the governance of our metropolitan areas – the engine rooms of the SA economy as well as areas of growing poverty and unemployment – can finally be taken seriously.
The jury is still out whether Government’s new local government strategy is going to succeed when previous attempts, such as Project Consolidate, didn’t seem to make much impact. I hope to cover these issues in more detail as the strategy unfolds. For the moment, as a contribution to the debate, here is a paper on Lessons from South Africa’s Local Government Transition, focusing on metropolitan government, that I presented at a recent international workshop.
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
There are five key elements of the 2010 World Cup legacy for Cape Town:
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:
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:
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:
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?
While in Sydney, I was taken on a fantastic walking tour of some of the laneways that are part of a CBD lane revitalisation strategy. One of the ways in which this is being done is through an innovative urban art installation project called By George! Hidden Networks (George Street being the main street in the Sydney CBD). I particularly enjoyed the following projects:
The Urban Barcode
The Urban Barcode in Abercrombie Lane refers to suspended white fluorescent tubes that represent the bar code to Jan Gehl's influential book on public space 'Life Between Buildings'
Family Unit – Chill Trailer
Family Unit - Chill Trailer in Bond Street is a series of constantly changing performances in the hidden network of Sydney’s laneways. The Chill Trailer is an adaptable mobile unit that accommodates a multitude of uses.
The Seven Metre Bar
The installation in Underwood Street is a real bar located at the 7m point of the CBD that marks the projected rise in sea-water should the effects of global warming not be mitigated timeously
A picture taken from the By George website showing the bar in action at night. Weather projections that build in ferocity in response to increasing bar patrons flicker across the installation.
Forgotten Songs
Forgotten Songs in Angel Place references the bird species that used to sing in the region before urban growth forced them away, drawing attention to the loss of habitat
See Cities Matter and Christmas Lighting in Sydney for more stories about my trip to Sydney.
I participated in a roundtable discussion on metropolitan governance at the end of last year, hosted by the Ottawa-based Forum of Federations, the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government and the Australian Major Cities Unit.
Delegates to the roundtable on metropolitan governance, Sydney, December 2009
I had an opportunity to engage in very interesting urban policy discussions and visit a number of urban regeneration projects in Sydney. Here are a couple of observations:
Cities in National Government Policy
Traditionally, national (or federal) governments around the world are not clear on city or urban policy. Sometimes, this is because of the strength of the rural or small town lobby. Sometimes, it is as a result of an over-romanticised view of a rural past, and a denial of urban demographic trends. Particularly in federal systems, cities are often regarded as ‘falling under’ provincial or state governments, and treated as subordinate elements of a government hierarchy rather than engines of national economic growth and centres of innovation. Often, federal governments adopt either a ‘hands-off’ or a ‘one size fits all’ approach to cities.
This may be changing in Australia, a strong federal state. Under the Rudd government, there has been a shift in national urban policy, with two significant developments taking place. Firstly, a national infrastructure strategy has been developed to provide a platform for future growth and development. This has been done via Infrastructure Australia, a new body charged with prioritising billions of dollars of investment in infrastructure, on the basis of National Infrastructure Priorities:
North Sydney
As the 5th point indicates, the role of cities has been explicitly recognised: “… the rapid growth and development of major cities in Australia has imposed complex planning and governance challenges on scales never experienced in this country before. What makes our cities more productive, liveable and sustainable has become a matter of national importance. What makes one city more successful or more competitive than another, or how they should be organised to promote social inclusion and environmental sustainability, are now fundamental questions of national productivity and well-being” (A Report to the Council of Australian Governments, page 40).
This is being given effect to in two ways. Firstly, a Major Cities Unit has been established by the government to “identify opportunities where federal leadership can make a difference to the prosperity of our cities and the wellbeing of their residents.”
Secondly, an innovative Capital City Strategic Planning Systems scheme was launched in December 2009. The objective is to ensure Australian cities “are globally competitive, productive, sustainable, liveable and socially inclusive and are well placed to meet future challenges and growth”. The mechanism consists of developing city strategic plans based on national critera by January 2012. These plans will then guide future infrastructure investment decisions. Cities around the world will be watching the Australian experiment with interest!
Sydney City Strategy and fragmented metropolitan governance
Sydney CBD
I had an opportunity to spend time with Alan Cadogan, Strategic Director of the City of Sydney’s 2030 Vision and Strategy. Entitled Green| Global| Connected, it’s an excellent strategic framework based on a thorough public process, easily accessible on the city’s website. However, I was surprised to find out that that the City of Sydney municipality only covers the Sydney inner city area, a total of 26 square km. The 2030 Vision therefore only applies to a small portion of the Sydney metropolitan area, which is home to over 4,5m people and covers a huge geographic area fragmented into 43 local municipalities. The difficulty is that the City of Sydney Vision relies on metropolitan-wide strategies for implementation, particularly with regard to issues such as public transport, climate change mitigation and affordable housing. As Alan put it, in the absence of metropolitan forms of governance, it’s a bit like ‘herding cats’ to get a coordinated approach to development amongst all the local authorities. It will be interesting to see how the Sydney city plan is translated into meaningful action.
Sydney Harbour Bridge
Barangaroo Delivery Authority – using state land to leverage urban regeneration
I also visited the Barangaroo urban regeneration project in Central Sydney, a prime 22ha site owned by the New South Wales State Government. There are potential lessons which we can apply to the Western Cape Provincial Government Property Project currently underway here in the Cape Town Central City.
The goals of the project are as follows:
ECONOMY
ENVIRONMENT
COMMUNITY
In order to develop the site, the NSW State Government has set up the Barangaroo Delivery Authority (BDA). The BDA is governed by a small independent board, which includes the Mayor of the City of Sydney, and has a number of key functions, including:
The BDA has a CEO but employs no other staff. It must utilise public sector employees from state departments. There is a City of Sydney design advisory team.
Key development debates have included the size of the public realm to be developed, an appropriate housing mix, activation of the sea shore, the level of commercialisation, carbon neutral development, mixed use, and integration with the surrounding parts of the Sydney CBD and waterfront.
Barangaroo site
See Laneways, Sydney: Using Public Art to Revitalise City Spaces and Christmas Lighting in Sydney for more stories about my trip to Sydney.
The waiting continues: District Six adjacent the Cape Town CBD (Pic: Ed Suter)
Cape Argus 24 November 2009
When Jan Gehl, world-renowned architect who focuses on ’life between buildings’ visited in 2004, he described pedestrians in Cape Town as a ‘hunted race’. He was right. Thanks to grievous urban planning errors in the 1970s, a six-lane race track called Strand Street intersects with an eight-lane monstrosity called the Heerengracht, creating an urban wasteland in the central of the city, right where tens of thousands of public transport users emerge from the Cape Town Station every day.
Fortunately, some progress has been made during the ensuing five years to shift from a car-dominated to a more people-centred city centre. Strand Street and the Heerengracht are still there, but cars, taxis and buses are slowly being tamed and pedestrians (and cyclists) are beginning to find their rightful places and spaces. And we have been doing it in the way Jan Gehl suggested – by stealth!
Company’s Garden
One of the historic green spaces in Cape Town, the Company’s Garden had by the late 1990s become unsafe and unkempt. A process, led by the City of Cape Town, and supported by a range of stakeholders, has revived the fortunes of the Gardens, which is now a well-used and beautiful green space in the heart of the city.
Company's Garden - a tranquil space (Pic: Ed Suter)
Company's Garden - Part of an expanding Central City pedestrian route
Jetty Square
Named because of its proximity to the site of the original Cape Town jetty but now part of reclaimed land known as the Foreshore, Jetty Square has been upgraded and adorned with ghostly shark-like creatures to remind us of our marine heritage.
Jetty Square - still undiscovered by most Capetonians, but part of an expanding pedestrian network connecting the Foreshore to St George's Mall via Thibault Square
Shark-like statues in Jetty Square move with the prevailing winds
Children using public space
Church Square
For decades, Church Square near the South African Parliament was little more than a motley car-park. In 2007, cars were removed and the Square was transformed into a people-space.
A new car-free Church Square
Church Square - slowly attracting people out of office buildings and motors vehicles and into public spaces
Goemarati - a series of music performances in Church Square in 2007 to attract public life back into the area. The juxtaposition between the statue of 'Onze Jan' Hofmeyr, founder of the Afrikaner Bond political party in the 1880s, and the Goemarati performance derived from the music of the slaves at the Cape is supremely ironic
Inclusive memorialisation. Slaves in Cape Town between the 1660s and 1800s made up the majority of the city's population but were effectively written out of history books for two centuries. Following a public competition, the City of Cape Town erected a memorial to slaves on the newly-upgraded Church Square
Reflecting on a divided past. Church Square was chosen as the site of a slave memorial because of its proximity to where slaves were previously bought and sold, and to the old Slave Lodge, where slaves of the Company were kept in inhuman conditions.
Grand Parade
It was inevitable that sooner or later, attention would have to be paid to Cape Town’s (and South Africa’s) oldest public space – the Grand Parade. A public place at the center of economic and social life in Cape Town for over 300 years, the Grand Parade had become by the late 1990s a run-down, cluttered and inhospitable space. Following a heritage assessment commissioned by the Cape Town Partnership in 2006, and a public consultation process, the City of Cape Town decided to upgrade the Grand Parade at a cost of R22m.
The Grand Parade - historically a place for soldiers, citizens, circuses and markets
The Grand Parade as scene of Nelson Mandela's first address to the world as a free man in February 1990 and his first address to the nation after his election as President in 1994
Grand Parade as a run-down parking lot (Pic: Ed Suter)
The Grand Parade is the site of South Africa's oldest continous fleamarket (Pic: Ed Suter)
Long term plan for the Grand Parade. Phase one will be completed by the end of 2009
Aerial view of phase one upgrade underway
A new people's space emerges
Homeless World Cup on the Grand Parade in 2006 - inspiration for the 2010 FIFA World Cup Fan Fest in Cape Town
The Mandela Bay Development Agency uses innovative postcards to get their message across
Govan Mbeki Avenue in the CBD has received a R90m upgrade, resulting in a pleasant pedestrian-friendly space
Informal traders have been given permanent booths
The public transport area under the freeways is being upgraded and connected by a pedestrian link to Govan Mbeki Avenue (Note: as in Cape Town, the Nelson Mandela Bay CBD is cut off from the harbour and the sea by ugly freeways)
Communicating a vision is central to the NMDA's urban regeneration process
The historic Feathermarket Hall, which has been well preserved
The Priester John memorial in front of the Feathermarket Hall
Reviving the heart of the city
Love this city!
Copyright & Copy 2009 Andrew Boraine