What happens when you move the centre?

Sketched this in 2008.
But how could Cape Town de-centralise?
Isn't `the city' actually the historic centre? Isn't `the city' this entity that encompasses all below?
Uptown is Khayelitsha, downtown is Tableview?
We haven't changed the language we use. Cape Town was Long St, the Grand Parade, Buitengracht etc a very long time ago. Cape Town is now Klipfontein Rd, Lansdowne Rd, NY1, Thames Avenue, Modderdam Road, Voortrekker Rd as well as Long St et al.
East City nowadays is the Khayelitsha Mitchell's Plain coastline. West City is Tableview Milnerton.
`Cape Town as we call it today is the `old city'.
nesce pas?
Can we change the economics of the city if we change the way we see it?


Comments

  1. Andrew BoraineSeptember 8, 2010 at 4:09 PM

    Dear Ian,

    I agree with your sentiment (changing the way in which we see the city in order to better focus on the needs of the majority of citizens located mainly in the metro south east) but not your analysis or conclusions.

    Cape Town is now a multi-nodal or polycentric metropolitan area, as opposed to the historical city with a traditional Central Business District (CBD) of 50-100 years ago. In fact, we no longer have a CBD, but a dispersed range of economic centres, which play different economic, social and cultural roles at different levels, i.e. neighbourhood, local, regional, global. So to search for a new, more spatially central CBD is not particularly helpful or relevant.

    The key question is how do we best coordinate and plan for growth and investment, and job creation and poverty reduction, in a multi-nodal metropolitan economy? How do we ensure that poor communities get better access to all nodes within the formal metropolitan economy (including but not limited to the Cape Town central city) by, inter alia, provision of well-located affordable housing and more effective public transport systems?

    Instead of calling for decentralisation, which has been taking place in the city for over 100 years and which has resulted in unsustainable urban sprawl and (mainly) car-based transport options, we should be calling for greater centralisation of people and the economy i.e. higher densities, a more compact urban form that supports public transport, more mixed income, mixed use, higher levels of connectivity, etc.

    Cities are about people and their places, so I agree with your point that Cape Town is no longer just the historic central city. As you say, Cape Town is now Klipfontein Rd, Lansdowne Rd, NY1, Thames Avenue, Modderdam Road, Voortrekker Rd as well as Long St. However, history does matter, and I think there will always be a role that the traditional centre plays on behalf of all the people of Cape Town, especially if all communities are empowered to take ownership of the space, and that an inclusive city identity is projected in the names, spaces, memorials, symbols and uses. It still is, after all, one of the few spaces in our divided city where a relatively diverse range of Capetonians meet each other on the streets, in the public spaces and at events. I can't think of too many other parts of Cape Town to this day where this happens.

    So, I say Cape Town central city and Langa (and Mitchell's Plain, Khayelitsha, Athlone, Bellville and Claremont). It’s not an 'either/ or' (false) dichotomy but a 'both/ and' connectivity.

    ReplyDelete
  2. They SaySeptember 23, 2010 at 1:48 PM

    Hi

    We're doing some research into the city centre and came across your site. Would you by any chance be able to provide us with the gps co-ordinates of the place you declare to be the 'dead centre' in Langa?

    If you are able to help us with this information it would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete

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