Thriving Neighbourhood

Thriving neighbourhood is visible and can be felt. You can describe a thriving neighbour the moment you step into it space, talking to the people, walking onto the streets, observing many on going and vibrant activities. This scenario cannot be faked and the negative feeling cannot be hide. Thriving neighbour can be built over the years with efforts from all walk of life. The Authority cannot keep telling the people and stakeholders what they intend to do, but to talk to the stakeholders what both can do together. Likewise the stakeholders cannot keep pointing finger on the atuhority for non-perfoming. It must be a mutual understanding and consensus of doing something together. This, of course require share value, vision and actions. Thriving neighbourhood must be a place for everyone, those who want to sleep there, those who want to study, those who want to work and those who want to spend leisure and free time there. Everyone will get to fulfill their need without jeopardising the need of others. All needs can be met and happened in harmony. Everyone will share the vision, value and actions of what they envision their neighbourhood to be in future. As the city is the sum of neighbourhoods, the moment the neighbourhoods doing well and thriving, there is no reason for a city of not performing well. Thereby, making a city thriving, we have no choice but to make sure that neighbourhood, as the basic unit in city ro start and do well.

Melbourne - A Liveable City

Melbourne Knowledge Week held throughout the week in different venue saw the presentation of more than 60 events. The Week saw the presentation of various knowledge gained from initiatives by the Council, Government Agencies, Universities, Private Sector, NGOs and more importantly the community and people. It is fascinating to witness many innovations and creativity on displayed and shared out with others. Melbourne voted as the most liveable city in the World for many years has certainly have many to share. Its planning, management, innovation, administration, social development, environmental and heritage conservation, transportation, education and learning. Walking on the streets is such a wonderful experience that you feel the most welcome and peaceful. Enjoying what on the Collins and Swanston Street are fantastic and bring back good memory. Observing the way construction work is carried out, so neat and tidy will make you refresh on why such a work ethic cannot be achieved back home. It is such a surprise to see a hawker conducting in a pretty small stall, but well managed and clean compared to the escalating high demand for bigger space from our own hawkers. These are perhaps the things we should learn and listen from the mouth of the Melbourne City Council. I am eargerly excited to wait for 31st October 2013 when we have the opportunity to meet them up.

Public Square

The recently opened King’s Cross Square in London raised the interest of discussing public space in the city development. The reversion started with Ken Livingstone, former Mayor of London’s brave decision to reverse the roundabout at Trafalgar Square and return it to the people and now the present Mayor, Boris Johnson whom launched the Great Spaces with the aim of bringing back village into city will see the atmosphere of trust and neighbourliness, the essential ingredient for public realm. To ensure it is truly public space, the city manager must make sure that private control such as security guards and brand advertising is negligible and insignificant. Instead, cosmopolitan sensibility, civic pride, social interaction and sheer enjoyment must be the value to be inculcated and instilled. This is especially important now with the mushrooming of gated communities with their own border and compound. We must create the enthusiasm about shared spaces and develop more and more of them. This is about public riches, not private wealth. With more public riches, the objective of social integration and nation building can be built naturally. Until then, the sense of ownership over the Petaling Jaya city will be remained ambiguous.

Localising Regional Transportation Infrastructure Planning

When we talked about transportation infrastructure, we will always say the discussion must be in broader view and macro scale simply because there are traffic from externality and the city cannot control the in and out of vehicles from within and also outside of the city. While there are traffic with origin and destination within the city, there are also traffic generated from the city and go out from the city as well as traffic come from elsewhere by passing the city with destination not within the city. Hence, strategic planning when it comes to transportation infrastructure provision is up most important. However, discussing the transportation planning without referring to local condition is also incomplete as although transportation infrastructure should serve the majority and for the good of national and regional context, the interest of local people should not be compromised without any serious consideration. For example, while the rail line is an important component of public transportation network that will lean modal split of travelling towards non private vehicles, the location of station , routing and beam column as well as the scheduling of construction work should have the input and feedback from the local community. This explained why while strategic planning is important in transport infrastructure provision, at time referral to local sentiments and localized issues is unavoidable. The discussion will be getting more complicated if few infrastructure projects with each other inter-linked and present bigger impact will have to be considered at the same time. This might encourage the possibility of power play and private negotiation in discarding projects that might bring in negative impacts to the particular community. It is definitely not an easy task in crystallizing local and individual project and upscale it to the strategic level.

Strategic Transportation Planning

While transportation infrastructure requires strategic planning, this applies to all spheres of city development. Strategic planning requires visionary planning and macro scale of understanding the issues and solutions before embarking into micro and localized problems and actions. This is critical especially so for the city as all components of city are inter-linked and performance of any one component will affect the others. For example, if a neighbourhood area is not served well with an efficient transportation system, then urban problems such as traffic congestion, incompatible land use, safety and health issue will be occurred. Similarly, for an organization without a strategic plan is tantamount to planning to the failure. How can an organization work well if no clear direction and shared vision are put on the table for all stakeholders to understand and uphold to?

Competitive Factor of City

Dr Anil Menon of CISCO shared his thought with audience of the IFHP London Congress on competitiveness of a city. He reckoned that 5 criteria are essential for a city to attract talents and investment, and hence the preferred choice of corporate. Firstly, the visionary leadership of city. A city without vision is a city without future. Secondly the readiness of global standard in business dealing. In the absence of global standard, rules and guidelines might be changed more often than one's can imagine. This will become a business risk that many corporate might not want to undertake. Thirdly, smart regulations is critically needed as companies would like to have rules with social and scientific backing. No foolish action is welcome. Forthly, is the presence of public and private partnership policy. While public sector like to reduce cost in providing services or infrastructure, the private sector would like to minimise the risk of doing business. Hence, this policy must be a deciding factor for businesses to make choices. Lastly but not least, it is innovation in economic and ecological system that will attract the attention of investors and talents. In the green era and everyone is pursuing sustainability, it is not a choice for corporates of not embracing the green movement. Perhaps, these thoughts should become the underlying principles for city managers to plan their cities.

Tax Value Per Acre

In the City of Raleigh, North Carolina of United States of America, tax value per acre has been applied to calculate the contribution of an area of project towards the coffer of the local council. It is a technique to gauge the bottom line for determining how much spending on infrastructure or extra urban services should be put back to a community. It is a notion of the more you contribute the more you will get. The information is also useful as a tool to communicate with people on contribution of development project. More than often people objected to a development because of the negative impact of development without realising that the project might have tremendous economic contribution. Perhaps it should be used as a tool during discourse with general public on viability of development projects. Having said so, in order to maintain inclusiveness and social justice, spending on infrastructure for poverty eradication or providing affordable housing as well as economic opportunities for vulnerable group should have considerations beyond the tax value per acre only.

Role of Planning

This morning's Openning Ceremony of IFHP Centenary Congress in University College of London saw Mr Mitchell Silver, Past President of American Planning Association delivered an interesting address. He touched on the emerging trend and challenges of planning especially in America and the World in general. He reckoned that "P" is stood for planning and not the process as many planners have forgotten. He highlighted that the role of planning is to pay special concern on the consequences of the present action and of no action. Afterall no action to some issue means yes or consequences to other things. It is not about what actions have been taken but rather the consequences of a particular action that is important and critical. He shared with the audience on different aspiration, demand and need of people in different generation group. The baby boomers group have different idea about themselves and city compared to the X or Y Generation. Thereby, planning without identifying the need and target group is tantamount to failure in planning. He cautioused that the World will see more single unmarriaged family or even family without children. The presence of aging society and other demographic changes will also impact on the model of planning and how the city should response. He ended the talk by urging all audience to to fall back in love with planning again. An appeal that have been loss amongst the planners fraternity, I believe.

Sustainability of City or Local People?

The best indicator of gauging the sustainability of a city is to ask the people whelther they are happy or not? This question was raised by me towards the speaker in the Seminar entitled Developing London: Up or Out last two day. Obviously, Londoners are facing a big dilemma now. While internationalisation has spurred the economic growth in London, the influx of foreigners has affected the affordability of local to own houses, the opportunity for economic activities and jobs. Planning and managing a city is about making people happy with their living environment. If the beneficiaries of the plan are not happy with what in store for them, then the planning is planning to fail. So, when we talk about sustainability, we should qualify by saying whelther we are talking about sustainability of the city or sustainability of the people. Nowasday we always talk about the competitiveness of the city and if a city loss her competitiveness, the sustainability of the city will be gone as well. This, perhaps refer to the economic growth dimension of sustainability. However, is there fair of saying that a sustainable city with high achievement on economic is also a sustainable city for the people. We see many local people who has been displaced by the externality. The high price of houses because of international investment for example made many local people cannot afford to own a house. Many young generation has no choice but move further out from the inner city. The displacement of local people and replaced by the outside has further diluted the spirit of neighbourhood area and also local social amenities and community development were affected. Community spirit cannot be inculcated over night and need a lot of time, mutual understanding, tolerence amongst different segment of people. However, the outsiders who come to a new area will not be able to integrate with the existing community, and at time social tension did arise due to differences in culture, religions and social status. More so, some dwelling units remain unoccupied due to investment purpose will further dilute the liveability of a neighbourhood area. If this is what happened, then sustainability is obviously did not take place and fail even though the economic sustainability is very high and vibrant. For planners, how to narrow this gap is becoming very critical, ensuing the competitiveness of city, liveability of local people and sustainability ecologically.

Market for Planning

Planners always believe that planning is important to make sure that the human settlement is well planned and conducive for staying. In other words, without proper planning, the city development might not be systematic and in good order. However, in reality the city is planned and developed by the market. It is market demand and need that spur the direction and magnitude of development, in which planning is mere a tool to steer and guide this demand. For example, the demand for living in city centre and close to the work place has requested the development of apartment in the inner city centre area. The planning, has subsequently come out with the guidelines on service apartment development. We can plan, but if the market is not response well to the planning, then it will end up of failure of planning. Cases like industrial and commercial zones reserved in the new township development without takers are classic example. Although the authorities can plan and to push up the implementation of plan by providing incentives, the success of the plan is still very much depended on the market, I believe.

Public Reserved Land for Private Use

Is privately owned social facilities considered as part of the public facilities that are required to be provided for in any property development projects? For example, is the privately managed but Government accredited primary school be counted? While the need for education demand is fulfilled, the school is not opened and accessible to general public, especially if you cannot afford to pay the fees. Similarly, how about the postal service? Since postal service has been privatised and the post offices are establishing in the commercial premises, thus the question is wheather the reserve land for postal service is still required or the agency can have their own property portfolio. It is difficult now to demarcate clearly on the status of facilities or utilities. The reserve of land has to be done based on usage of facilities and not the ownership. If a piece of land has been demarcated for public use, then rightly so the land should be returned to public domain if the land is no more needed for public use. The question of utilities agencies, for example converting their land for other profitable use after discovering that the reserve land is not required any more. For example, the availability of extra land because of building a mechanical sewerage treatment plant in place of oxsidation pond which occupy bigger piece of land.

Future Cities

I attended the Expert Talk entitled The Future Cities last week. Future Cities are the cities people would like to stay and everyone will have their own vitality. The concept of Future Cities arises because it is projected that more than 70% of World population will be living in the urban area by year 2050. Hence, cities that conducive for living is crucial to accommodate to the need of these people. Rightly so, as city without a good living environment and opportunities will loss out to other cities offering better condition, and thus loss the competitiveness and vibrancy. My question however, is that what happen to the 30% people who are living in the so called "rural" area? Are we saying that the living environment in the "rural" area is so futuristic that no further action is required? Or are we saying that these people have no future since they are no staying in any of the future cities? Then again, future cities must be resilient on overcoming environmental degradation, emerging of aging society, challenges from the globalisation and also capitalising on local competencies. While aging and globalisation is unavoidable and progressively happen over time and in fast pace in which most of the time beyond control and influence, local competencies are something that any city managers and stakeholders should explore further. A city with future vision must explore their advantages and transform it effectively or else the competitive edge of the city will be diminished.

Strata Development

Challenge on planning especially for the highrise strata building development is tougher now. With the issuing of strata title for individual parcels, no further development even for the renovation work with increased of intensity can be allowed. This can only be allowed unless all owners agree to terminate and cancel their individual title for the issuing of new ones. This will become a big challenge for development project with phasing stage and unclear development direction at the initial stage. For example, if a planning permission has been given for a project with 2 phases. After selling of Phase One Strata properties with agreement indicated the accessory parcels and common properties are fixed and located, no further adjustment is allowed unless the the owners or buyers agree collectively. Hence, refining planning at the later stage or even changes made because of market demand might not be possible anymore based on current practice. New set of rules and practices will have to set accommodating this changes. For project proponents, they might need to have clearer idea what they want to develop or to expedite their development for fear of changes later. One of the advantages is protecting the interest of buyers in which the sale of accessory parcels or common properties is more difficult now without their consent. It is good also for the management corporation to control over the common properties, I believe.

Relevance of Shop House?

It is a sad case that 2 person cannot escape from fire died on the spot. They were contained in the 2nd floor when fire set free on the 1st floor. The back portion of 1st floor and whole of 2nd floor have been converted to hostel for workers. This is a safety issue in the commercial building. While commercial buildings have been approved for business purpose, many especially those floors on higher part are vacant and idle. The floors are later used for residential prupose or many have turned into workers hostel. This bring in the issue of safety and also the question on fulfilling the objective of planning. Planning of commercial floor space is usually decided upon the growth of population in the small town centre and based on economic activities and anticipation of in flow of investors for the bigger commercial town centre. If the space is used for non commerical purpose, then indirectly it indicated that there is either oversupply of commerical floor space or diminish of market demand over the shop office concept. Many big corporates prefer to move into Class A office or those with better facilities and addresses like lift or escalators, car parking facilities and etc. Many do not mind to pay for having a premium address or in the prime commercial area. This bring in the question of suitability of shop office or shop house development in urban area. Or even the storey height is in doubt now. Many convenience and comparison goods activities like retails, services are occupying the ground floor of building due to the movement of pedestrian and visibility. Many do not want to be at 1st floor as potential customers do not want to climb up the stairs if possible. Given the choice, they will patronise other shops offering similar services. The shopping behaviour is changing now. Even some prefer to patronise shopping centre for convenience services rather than visiting the shop house for fear of safety and comfortable reason. In a way, the concept of shop house and its' effective functionality within the scope of urban planning in cities is diminishing. Shall we continue allowing shop house to be developed? While project proponents might want to offer properties easily absorb by the market and without having long term committment, the impact of having shop house in the town centre is left with local authorities to handle. Local authorities have to look after the problem of cleanliness of unattended back lanes and drains, provision of car parking facilities which are often insufficient from the beginning, enforcing on the obstruction of corridors and etc. If these services can be centralised in a complex, then the need to encounter these problems is for sure can be minimised. Taking the case of Bandar Utama, no shop houses are built, but instead a complex in the name of CentrePoint was built with all neighbourhood facilities are provided. The complex becomes a must visit place of all residents for their convenience needs. The area is well maintained and ample parking lots are provided. The neighbourhood area is funactional well. This vindicates that a township development without the existance of shop house is workable and shall be the way forward, if a city wants to be in forefront. For offices and comparison goods, leave it to the tower office, I think.

Pole is Structure

At the recent ruling by High Court on the case of Beta Tegap Sdn Bhd vs Sepang Municipal Council over the issue of AES, the Court ruled that erecting pole is considered a structure for which development is committed. With this interpretation, it means planning permission under Town and Country Planning Act, 1976 and building plan approval under the Street, Drainage and Buildings Act, 1974 are applicable. Anyone intends to put up any structure regardless of the size, side or use is required to obtain permission first. The arguemnt over the need for submiting planning permission application for constructing a detached house or an outdoor signboard or a hoarding or a fencing does not arise any more. It is the obligation of the project proponent to adhere to the requirement of the law. While many might cited the administrative burden and extra load on the submission, this should not become a valid arguement. Submitting application for planning permission will allow local planning authorities to impose conditions they think fit and to suite the need of local circumstances. For example, conditions imposed for building a house in the flat area and a hilly area is definitey varied. The clearance is welcomed.

Misuse of Building

Under the Broken Window Policy, one's has to fix the problem the moment it was discovered and no lax of time is allowed. If we have spotted a problem but do nothing and let it there idle, the chances for it to become worse will be there. For example, a mountain of rubbish might be accumulated if at first only a small pile of rubbish was found at the road side and nobody cleared it the first time. The newcomers might have thought that the side is reserved for rubbish throwing or since nobody cares about clearing it, then perhaps it is all right to do so. For city management, solving the problem as soon as possible without the problem becoming worse and beyond remedy is critical and important. I attended a meeting to discuss possible solution on the widespread of building being abused for use that is different from the original approved use. For example, houses on the main road being used for commercial activities. We see the rampant existance of car showrooms along the main road. All these happened because lacking of enforcement at the first timer. Most of the time we saw the starting of a house being used for other than residential purpose and do nothing as the magnitude of problems generated is not that great. However, once a house being "successfully" converted to other use without any hazzle, it will give encouragement to the adjoining lot owners to follow suit. At the end, it gains momentum and involves with so many owners that taking enforcement actions become a very difficult task as socio-political consideration will come in. If the Broken Window Policy has been implemented earlier, I believe cases of misuse of building and land might not have occurred.

Bye 2012

Another year is gone and we are awaiting the arrival of New year, 2013. It is time now to share the endeavour of last one year. For the MBPJ OSC Unit, end of October must be a time to be remembered. The Unit moved to a new office after squatting in a highly congested space since its' inception in Year 2007. Early of 2013, the Unit will also welcome its' 3 new staff which is long over due. Such an amazing transformation is in waiting. The full force will hopefully gear the Unit forward in achieving targets set. With less manpower, however the staff has given all they can afford and managed to pull through a tall order on enhancing the efficiency, reputation and image of MBPJ and in particular the Unit. Thousand thanks also to the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Councillors and technical departments for realising the target set, e.g. OSC MBPJ: Pioneering the Gateway of Development. On the core business of OSC, it is also time for celebration as many innovations/activities were carried out. These include the achievemenet of 85% KPI compared to 84% last year. The publishing of policies and guidelines via the web site of MBPJ. The requirement for planning permission application for development project be submitted through the OSC Online system. The workshop amongst all technical departments resulting in better coordination. The inception of OSC Technical Committee Meeting to discuss technicalities of project before forwarded to the OSC Committee for discussion. The exemption of planning permission given to detached houses in the residential area with previous master plan approval. Starting from 1st January 2013, all submission for development will be done through the OSC Online and at the same time, lanscape plan approval will have to be submitted together with planning permission application. For low carbon green initiative, many were done and preparation for a hectic 2013 is anticipating. These include the implementation of Strategic Partnership with KeTTHA, the setting up of organic waste composting centre in Jalan Othman Market, Retrofiting HQ of MBPJ for green features, potential use of wastewater for landscaping purpose, organising the Green Tour, capacity building programme for kindergarten teachers and others ongoing programmes. Without initiatives and cooperation from other stakeholders especially the departments, I believe the achievement can be possibly meeting its target effectively. Green Assessment Rebate MBPJ's Efforts Are Commendable Recycle for Good Reason Going Green for CNY Cycleways LED Lighting for Backlanes Launching of 2012 Green Assessment Rebate Online Billing for Low Carbon Green Personality I thank you all. Happy New Year 2013.

Ecomobility City

Ecomobility becomes an agenda for ICLEI. Many discussion and best practices around the World were shared. The first ecomobility city at Suwon, Korea will be further refined during the Ecomobility Festisval to be held on 1-30 September this year. Some presenters at the World Congress 2012 highlighted that connecting people from dot to dot should be an efficient way, ecological friendly and equitable. Some said it is a case of moving people without the fuel or less consumption on the non renewable energy. Some said why are we making so much fuss on walking afterall every trip is starting and ending with walking. Even we drive, we walk to our car and similarly to board a train need walking as well to the platform. Thereby, if the driving journey is less than 10 minutes, is that any difficulty of walking? Of course Malaysian including me will qoute hot weather and safety as excuse of not walking at all. Cycling on the other hand is promoted as an viable alternative transportation mode. Conpenhegen, Denmark for example took less than 15 years to inculcate the value of cycling in which 35% trips are cycling based with target of 50% by 2015. Cyclists are given top priority when it comes to traffic management and urban planning. Special lanes with cyclists to decide their own speed are built throughout the city. Connectivity is without disruption but rather vehicles are required to make way at the cross junction. It is all down to the political choice and commitment. It is interesting to note that car ownership rate in Copenhengen is high but ownership of bicycle is even higher. People using bicycle to work, shop and even for leisure. Cars are stored in the garade for weekend long distance outing. Contrast to this, China and Vietnam , the two nations with high cycling rate is threatened by the enroute of traffic vehicles. More and more highways and lanes are built. The question ponder here is this the price of development we so used to talk about? Number of vehicles is reflection of the developed status of a nation? Is it a symbol of prosperity and wealth creation? I believe this mind set is hard to change, but unavoidable need to be recorrected. We might need to learn from the experience of Denmark in CEPA (communication, education and public awareness) campaign of getting people to prioritise the cycling on normal routine with short distance and car trip for out station journey as a start. However, without sufficient infrastructure with connectivity, affordability, comfort and convenience as well as perceived safety in place, nothing will be forthcoming. Providing pedestrian street and cycling path above the ground is a place for humanity in making. Our cities are losing their humanity now. We witnessed the reduction of places for social integration. We do not bother to see vehicles be given priority when it comes to resource allocation for infrastructure development, perhaps because we are part of it. We forget that only minority of us owning cars but majority relies on other mode of transportations. Thereby, designing a ecomobility city is talking about restoring humanity and life to the city. Try to imagine a 24 feet 2 lanes 100 feet length street can accommodate approximately 14 cars compared to 100 bicycles or more. With same construction cost but higher turn over of people, will the businesses prefer cyclists over the drivers? I presume yes. It is also about fundamental right of the mass as walking and cycling is cheap and affordable. With the environmental degradation is real and the need for paradigm shift in planning our cities, do we bold enough to have ecomobility as top priority? I presume we have a choice, the political one.

Brazil - City Initiatives

While waiting to transfer to the Congonhas Airport of Sao Paolo, Brazil on 13 June, I took a casual morning walk along the streets within the vicinity of San Raphael Hotel. I saw some of the most talked about initiatives of sustainable city or liveability city or low carbon city or whatever we call on a city people prefer to live are in practice. I saw majority of the buses are operating without the exhaust pipe because buses are running on gas. I took picture about bus special dedicated lane at both site and the centre of road for passengers on board from both directions. The bus platform is on higher ground, same level with the landing platform of the bus. And with that level, ramp is built as part of the universal design concept. I noticed that textile symbolising stop are placed at the road junction and crossing as well as surrounding the phone booth. No textiles along the whole street are built and I wonder why? After some observation, I presume this is possible because no other obstructions including the signboard, flower pots, rubbish bins and commercial products are placed on the pedestrian walkways. Even at one of the street I walked by in which automobile services centres are located. To my surprise if compared with those service centres back home, no car waiting to be service, no machinery and no unwanted flat tyres are put on the pedestrian walkway as well as no bins for illegal reserving of parking lot in front of the shops are seen. It is free of any obstructions. Perhaps these are some small, but meaningful gestures toward sustainability should be practiced. I think I know too little about cities in Brazil.

Barrier Free City

Congratulation to Petaling Jaya City Council for being shortlisted amongst the top 40 entries for the Commonwealth Association of Public Administration and Management, or in short CAPAM Innovation Award. The entries will be further considered for the final round to be held in Delhk, India in September this year. It is indeed a good news considering that 120 entries have been submitted. It is also good cause for celebration after the entry of Mobilising Elderly for Community Development by the Council was voted the best 10 in Year 2002. The entry of Barrier Free City has reinforced again efforts by the Council more than a decade ago is the right move and way forward. I could recall when the idea of incorporating barrier free features into the infrastructure development, many were skeptical and worried about the cost. Many said that incurring extra cost for minorities convenience is not cost effectiveness and waste of public fund after all not many were seen on the road. This proven wrong after the first barrier free pedestrian walkway with traffic light intervention and ramp was built in SS2 town centre. The disabled friends used the facility to the fullest and enjlyed going outing in the park. Subsequently more barrier free facilities are built. It is becoming a common norm in Petaling Jaya that barrier free is a must requirement for all development. The Council has been recognised as the leading local authority in the field of creating barier free environment. Hence, I think the Council deserves such recognition. Hopefully the practice will be given wider opportunity tobe shared wit h others.