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The buildings around Beyers Naude Square are to be demolished, which is excellent news in a week of not-so-great news.
 WELL, the best news I've had so far this year is that those terrible edge buildings to Beyers Naude Square will be demolished starting in the next couple of weeks! Yay!
The buildings, erected in a rush by the previous local government regime in spite of vociferous opposition from many citizens, were a blight on the city's urban landscape and their demise deserves a party - rumour has it that Flo Bird said she was going to dance a jig on the ruins!
Other good news - activity is, in fact, taking place in regard to some of the 2010 issues I raised last week. I had an email from a Citichat reader who is involved in a number of initiatives being planned by one of the international sponsors. It will offer a reduction in entrance fees to a number of venues and places of interest in and around the inner city (plus greater Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth et cetera) as well as provide special tourist maps.
These services will be offered to persons, local and international, who qualify as clients of this sponsor and will be in place for the Confederations Cup from 14 to 28 June and then expanded for the "big one" next year.
Bad news
The bad news is that I was again in and around Joubert Park earlier last week, this time walking with a group, and the state of many of the buildings on the streets on the east and north boundaries of the park are just disgusting, as is the state of the pavements, et cetera.
Surely the City cannot allow this situation to remain - and not because of our football visitors but because of our own citizens who live, work and wander this area.
We visited a particular building where the top six floors were gutted by a fire a couple of years back, to which no repairs have been done and the ground floor space is probably illegally sub-divided.
Just south of it is a high-rise block of apartments that is in an awful state. North of it is Lorna Court, a jewel built in 1931 that looks as though it hasn't been painted or maintained since - smashed windows and an air of abandonment and decay that belies the fact that it is still probably still in use.
The group I was with kept asking the same question as I had been asked by the group I referred to the previous week: "Why?" "Why is this allowed, condoned, ignored?" How does one answer - "you see, no-one cares?" The buildings and streets need a massive facelift while the minibus taxi drivers need lessons in civility and the rules of the road! It is a huge job and we don't have that much time, or is this the face of the city we are going to put before the world?
I was talking to a friend who had to visit Home Affairs in Harrison Street earlier this week and tried to park in the adjacent parking garage. She says that the parking garage is largely occupied by a homeless community living in the most appalling squalor and unhygienic conditions, completely without services.
World-class city
She stumbled through the unlit building to the outside to be greeted by a poster, "Johannesburg, Africa's World Class City"! Something has to be done and the answer isn't sweeping these things under the carpet until the 2009 event is over and then again in 2010.
While in the Joubert Park area, I noticed some construction taking place on the prototype Rea Vaya (Bus Rapid Transit - BRT) station on the east of Joubert Park and that made me more sure that at least the pavement surfaces will be addressed along the BRT route. If not the entire project will be open to ridicule - but will someone from the council please come up with a plan regarding the buildings?
In fact, I was later at the Edith Cavell station under construction and overlooking this modern, slick steel and glass structure is another building in an awful state of decay - how can we allow this? Imagine disembarking from a bus (fully imported from Brazil, the latest and greatest in low-emission technology, nogal) and coming face to face with festering ruins?
We need some lateral thinking here. Like the mayor of a sizable American city who "sold" the potholes in the city's roads for Valentine's Day - the money he raised was used to paint a Valentine's heart around each pothole sold, complete with arrow and the name of the person it was dedicated to, and there was enough over to then fix the pothole!
Or the maharaj who required the population to mix limestone and water in large drums and then provided sachets of pink colouring so that the residents could cheaply transform the city into a "glowing jewel". Neat and effective!
The council must, if necessary, fix up the buildings and charge the owner both for the cost and for allowing the buildings to degrade to such a horrible state. Someone needs to take the initiative.
Station identity
Talking of the BRT - there will shortly be 16 Rea Vaya stations in the inner city that have to be provided with an identity. The diagram of the first phase of BRT shows the main trunk route as being from Regina Mundi in Soweto to Ellis Park in the east, with complementary routes linking Maponya Mall to Dobsonville and then on to Ellis Park, plus a north-south CBD loop and an east-west CBD loop.
There will be some 27 BRT stations along these routes. But, right now, there are about 16 in the inner city and the question is - what should they be called? The guidelines for naming come from some interesting research that has been done where three possible methods were examined:
- Numbering;
- Geographic location using landmarks or street names; and
- Names of important persons historically or politically.
There are pros and cons to all of these methods but the preferred approach appears to be using well-known landmarks - I personally feel that the names must have destination recognition. So my first thought suggestions for some of the Rea Vaya stations are as follows - location followed by suggestion in brackets:
- Westgate Station/Soweto Highway/Pat Mbatha - (Westgate)
- Commissioner and Ntemi Piliso
- Commissioner and Rissik (Rand Club)
- Commissioner and Troye
- Market and Ntemi Piliso (Diagonal Street)
- Market and Rissik (Market Square)
- Market and Troye
- Troye and Pritchard (Fashion District)
- Claim and Pritchard
- Edith Cavell and Noord (Johannesburg Art Gallery)
- Edith Cavell and Kotze (Bath House)
- Smit and Claim
- Wolmarans and Claim
- Saratoga and End (University)
- Charlton and Sivewright (Ellis Park North)
- Bertrams and Erin (Ellis Park East)
The locations are a bit confusing as the stations aren't on corners but are along the length of the streets first mentioned - some of them stretching over a block, others over two blocks.
Let me have your suggestions. The City is hoping for three suggestions for each station, which will then be referred to a focus group that will have representatives from various stakeholders. They will be taken to each BRT station site and will vote on the most relevant of the three names. Their proposals will then be submitted to the council for approval.
Joburg's loss
Not on the good news list is that Taffy Adler, the chief executive of the highly successful Johannesburg Housing Company, will be leaving the JHC to head up a company being established by the national Department of Housing to speed up the acquisition of land for housing.
A great loss to the city but no one can be better qualified to address this enormous challenge. Adler has built up the JHC since its founding in December 1995 as one of the most dynamic non-profit organisations in the field of social housing in the country. The JHC has transformed the delivery of housing in the regeneration process of the inner city with a well managed and socially relevant rental approach as opposed to the previously predominant focus on ownership.
An article on the company sums it up: "JHC standards of management and maintenance are international best practice, and JHC levels of customer satisfaction, rental arrears, bad debt and vacancies are admired by social housing institutions worldwide. Innovative architectural design and rigorous contribution management have become a JHC trademark, as have its firm, fair and caring approach to building management and administration."
The JHC has also pioneered an extremely successful community approach in establishing eKhaya neighbourhoods in difficult urban environments such as Hillbrow. eKhaya uniquely addresses the social disintegration that has accompanied so much of our urban transition.
Adler's leadership has been recognised through a string of awards both to him personally and to his company - including the Ernst & Young and the Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur Award and the prestigious UN Habitat Award, among many others.
His talent and leadership will be sorely missed in the inner city but he takes on a national and much more complex challenge for which we can only wish him every success.
Au revoir
Finally, talking about leaving - I write this surrounded by packing cases ready for the movers to collect and start the trek down to Montagu - the next Citichat in mid-March will be the first on a monthly basis. It will still be focusing mainly on Jozi as I will be spending some time here each month.
Nearly six hundred Citichats have been written since I started in 1997/8 and it has been great fun for me and I hope of value to you in keeping you apprised of what's happening in Jozi and in cities all over the world.
Its origins grew from my being increasingly incensed at the media's treatment of the inner city in those early days when all they could do was rubbish the city. While over the past few years their reporting has become not only more positive, but generally more balanced, mine may have become more critical because I see the vast potential that this city has of becoming a "world-class African city" and am often frustrated by the bureaucratic pace of change, especially when it comes to uplifting the many marginalised who are also citizens and residents of the city.
So, chat to you in March, au revoir,
Neil
Bus tour: Primrose and Germiston Mining
Saturday, 21 February
This tour of Germiston has some surprising treasures of mining history and architectural gems. Visit first the historic mines, an old cemetery, one of the largest railway marshalling yards in Africa, a famous gold refinery, a Victorian village and a magnificent Baker Church, St Boniface, where we will be treated to tea and organ music.
Meet Winnie and Ernest Job at 2pm at the Sunnyside Park Hotel, 2 York Road, Parktown.
The cost is R120 for members of the Parktown and Westcliff Heritage Trust and R140 for non-members - booking is at Computicket, on 083 915 8000 or 011 340 8000, or through the Computicket website.
For more information, telephone Eira Bond on weekdays between 9am and 1pm on 011 482 3349.
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