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OHANNESBURG has put substantial resources into turning around the central business district (CBD), a victim in the 1990s of capital flight to the northern suburbs. Crime rates are down thanks to intensive policing; occupancy rates are up, thanks to a combination of quality properties and low rents; investment is increasing as confidence improves; and cleanliness has returned, thanks to an intensive campaign from Pikitup, the City's waste collection utility. The Gauteng government, the biggest tenant in the inner city with 120 000m², has major plans to develop the area around Market Square into a government precinct.

Demographics
The inner city has 217 000 residents in 37 000 dwelling units. Some 800 000 commuters enter the city every day, and 300 000 - 400 000 migrant shoppers visit the city each year. The city has 7-million m² of floor space and 3-million m² of office space. The office buildings represent a R19-billion investment, and the housing a R1.2-billion capital investment.

An October 2003 survey by Trafalgar Property & Financial Services provided these statistics about inner-city residents:

• Not all of are poor: 12 percent earn more than R15 000 per month, and 79 percent earn more than R1 500 per month
• Many are well educated: 19 percent have university educations, and 35 percent have technikon diplomas
• 90 percent have cellphones, and 44 percent use e-mail
• 31 percent own their own cars, 74 percent use minibus taxis as their chief form of transport, and 32 percent use municipal buses
• Reasons given for choosing the inner city included affordability (22 percent), proximity to work (11 percent) and proximity to schools (11 percent)

• Pivotal location in the city's centre
• Major public transportation hub: all major arterials, all rail, and all bus services run into the city centre
• Low rentals and property prices for high-quality offices
• Access to a large workforce due to easy access from Soweto
• Under-served markets
• Significant infrastructure
• However, the CBD has also posed certain major challenges to city government:
• Curbing the high crime rate
• Lack of sufficient capacity to enforce by-laws, particularly relating to informal trading
• Poor condition of certain buildings
• Properties that are in arrears with rates or monthly bills
• Management of taxis

Inner city regeneration strategy
The goal of the City government's Inner City Regeneration Strategy is to raise and sustain private investment in the inner city, leading to a rise in property values. The components of the strategy are:

• Intensive urban management, including improvements to service quality, strict enforcement of by-laws, management of taxis and informal traders, and sound credit control.
• Upgrading and maintenance of infrastructure to create an environment attractive to both residents and business.
• Support for those economic sectors that have the potential to thrive in the inner city, and encourage growth in those sectors.
• Discouraging "sinkholes", meaning properties that are abandoned, overcrowded or poorly maintained, and which in turn "pull down" the value of entire city blocks by discouraging investment.
• Encouraging "ripple effect" investments that can lift an entire area.

Golden heartbeat of Africa
Urban renewal expert Neil Fraser, executive director of the Central Johannesburg Partnership, describes the efforts to regenerate the inner city of Johannesburg:

In mid-1997 the then-deputy president, Thabo Mbeki, enunciated the first 'democratic' vision for the city centre. Known as 'The Golden Heartbeat of Africa', the vision had been negotiated over the previous 18 months between the first representative local and provincial governments and organisations representing community, labour and business.

In 2000, the process received a massive boost when the City's first executive mayor, Amos Masondo, announced that the inner city was to be one of the six priorities of his term of office. A councillor on his mayoral committee, Sol Cowan, was appointed with specific responsibility for the inner city, the only appointee with a geographic portfolio on what is in essence the mayor's cabinet. All council departments and agencies, a number of which had treated the inner city previously as a step-child, now were required to focus on this mayoral priority.

The Johannesburg Development Agency was established as the City's implementation authority with an initial remit for the inner city. The council's Region 8 (inner city) office was also established. It proceeded to set up an Inner City Task Force to co-ordinate and drive council's services management and by-law enforcement.

The provincial government came to the party through their initiative to develop Gauteng as the 'Smart Province', channelling funds into strategic inner city projects via Blue IQ, their financial intermediary. Business, recognising the emergence of a strong political will backed by serious public-sector funding, became willing to invest again, in both their own enterprises, and in upgrading and maintaining public space and providing new amenities.

Private investors, sensing that the downward cycle had been largely halted, started moving in to benefit from the now palpable up-turn in the inner city's fortunes.

The value of building plans approved in 2002 (R122 467-million) was six times that of the previous year (R19 441-million) while the private sector component (R57 100-million) was nearly three times that of the previous year (R18 900-million). Since 2002 an unofficial scorecard reflects R3.5-billion of new investment (slightly less than half from the private sector), not including the value of existing property changing hands which could be between R1 and R2-billion. Not bad for a city that many have written off time and again as a basket case!

• Growing private sector residential interest, with projects ranging from middle income rental units (R1 500.00 to R2 500.00 per month) to high income sectional title units (R350 000 to over R1-million)
• Heavy public sector spending on infrastructure - the Constitutional Court, Nelson Mandela Bridge, Metro Mall and Faraday markets and transportation facilities, the Hillbrow Medical Precinct
• Private sector investment in parking provision - in excess of 8 000 bays have recently been completed or are under construction - and in the upgrading of public space - Braamfontein, Main Street, Hollard Street, the Sappi Park in Braamfontein
• Public sector investment in commercial space and upgrading of related public areas - the Provincial Government Precinct
• Private sector commercial investment - the Sappi headquarters consolidation in Braamfontein, Standard Bank Superblock growth
• Economic precinct support and development - Jewel City, Fashion District, Newtown. The list goes on!

Safety and security
THERE are three major initiatives to improve Johannesburg's security:

• Central Improvement Districts (CIDs)
• Closed circuit television (CCTV)
• Metropolitan Police Department

In the CIDs, property owners take charge of security and cleaning. There has been an enormous drop in muggings in these areas. The CIDs began in the core of the inner city, and have since spread as far as Newtown and Braamfontein.

CCTV was implemented in April 2000 and covers crime hotspots. In the first year, crime in these areas dropped by 48 percent. A total of 240 new cameras have been installed.

The Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department checks on crime prevention, road traffic policing and by-law enforcement. It operates 24 hours a day. The department's five-year target is to reduce crime by 25 percent and by-law infringements by 45 percent.

Economic development
THE city needs economic rejuvenation and the strategy is threefold

• Implementation of urban renewal projects
• Development of SMMEs
• Encouragement of creative industries and cultural tourism

The urban renewal projects involve precinct plans, which target major nodes of the inner city. Such projects include:

• Newtown (additional cultural facilities, new housing units, upgrading existing historic buildings)
• Constitutional Hill (new home for the Constitutional Court, various museums and a hotel)
• Jewel City (40 000 m² of factory and office spacing housing 80 percent of Gauteng's diamond and jewellery industry)
• Joubert Park (R10-million Greenhouse Environmental Centre)

SMMEs have grown in the city: The fashion district is home to a number of micro and small garment manufacturing enterprises as well as printing and publishing establishments. The city is establishing and strengthening the Local Business Service Centres in the inner city to support this development.

Culture is alive: A number of community radio stations have developed, as has the live music industry, with several venues featuring jazz, classical, rock and kwaito. Additional cultural facilities will complement the existing Market Theatre, Museum Africa and MegaMusic facilities in the inner city. The craft industry is seen as a crucial SMME sector in Johannesburg with the Mai-Mai bazaar in downtown Johannesburg.

Informal traders
THERE are an estimated 4 000 streets traders in the city. The plan is to put them into a formal trading environment. Special markets have been constructed in Yeoville, Hillbrow, Berea and at Metro Market. Additional markets are in the process of development at Jack Mincer Square/Park Central Taxi Rank, Faraday, Westgate Station and the city centre.

Community projects
THE renewal programme needs healthy communities, so various community development initiatives have begun. They are:

• The Hillbrow/Berea Regeneration Initiative, whose goal is to build community and develop and implement a co-ordinated local action plan
• The Western Joubert Park Project, which involves physical upgrading, community development programmes and the development of the Greenhouse Environmental Centre
• The establishment of a People's Centre and satellite neighbourhood offices where residents will be able to obtain and access community development and support programmes
• The development of community education programmes that focus on youth development, promoting citizenship and provision of sport and recreation activities.