PJ Car Free Day 2011

Given a choice, you would like to save cost and feel good. That's the sentiment of those people participating in the Car Free Day 2011 celebration organised by MBPJ recently. The Campaign saw the councillors and officers came to work and meeting by LRT, Community Bus, Walking and cycling on 28th September 2011. It is a symbolic gesture of showing the Council seriousness in supporting effort to reduce carbon emission and creating a green and low carbon city of Petaling Jaya.

Save cost means reducing expenses on the fuel of car and feel good means you are doing good towards protecting the environment. Many do not mind taking the public transportation if the mode is efficient, reliable and affordable or even walking and cycling if it is conducive, comfortable and safe of doing so. Providing feeder bus service to ferry people from their origin to the LRT, Bus and Commuter Stations and later from the stations to place of destination are important to encourage people to shift to public transport as a way of commuting. It is no point of talking tireless to people of asking them to reduce generation of car trip without providing viable option. Similarly asking people to cycle and walk on busy road is not of help. Dedicated and well connected lanes should be built.

While waiting for that to realise, it is right to do something within the influence and means of everyone and not to waiting everything falls in place. For example, do we drive and shop within the neighbourhood centre with vicinity of less than 10 minutes walk? If yes, is that possible to change the habit? Do we develop the habit of switching on the engine of car while waiting someone? If yes, then perhaps we should get down from the car and wait elsewhere if we anticipate to wait for longer time. Many daily routine can be changed and brought benefits to the environment but was overlooked due to our negligence or even attitude of do not bother. So, it is time to change from within.

In this respect, the celebration of Car Free Day in which some councillors are cycling in short distance is not only about raising public awareness, but a statement made on our commitment. Study showed that if a person doing something repeatedly for 3 months, then it will become a habit. Hopefully, this will develop into a habit and routine in time to come.

Macau Guests

I welcomed two delegations from Macau for the past one week. They are social workers and volunteers involving in social work at all field of community development in Macau, ranging from children, elderly, disabled, under privilege and others. With the help of Government, they provide financial and kind assistance to these groups. These include shelter, food, transportation, leisure activities, spiritual and opportunity to interact with other segments of community. I was make to understand that they work tirelessly and with full love and cares.

I briefed them on the community development undertaken by MBPJ and other neighbourhood groups. Many of the programmes are done with partnership and collaboration between the local council and community members. It is the partnership spirit that keep activities going and effective at Petaling Jaya. Of course, with more resources, more actions can be taken.

It is a good interaction and exchange of ideas and views of how to bring humanitarian works to higher ground. And, it is a common goal for every human beings.

Concept of "R-Urban"

Recently, I have a chance to chit chat with Mr Sebastian Moffat, President of Consensus Institute, Vancouver, Canada in Kuala Lumpur. He spoke about "rurban" concept in years to come, may be 5 to 10 years time from now. According to him, 70% of population will be staying in the urban area and hence sustaining themselves without relying much on rural area is very critical. This is so because the agriculture land in rural area will be left idle without young force. The improvement of public transportation network system will reduce the need for travelling with private vehicles and at the same time ICT advancement as well as emerging new planning concept of integrated landuse development will reduce trip generation. All these will make the road system and car parking space redundance. What should we do when such time is approaching?

He forecasts that perhaps the big land bank of road and car parks can be turned into urban farm land for the urban dwellers supplying own produces. The "RURBAN" is in the making with farm land creation in the urban area. This is logical from the environmental point of view since finding ways to carbon emission reduction is becoming a challenge now. By producing our daily need at source will reduce the trip generation and hence carbon emission. Using the domestic organic waste for composting and as fertilisers for plants will also reduce the emission of green house gases. Having big piece of land covering with soil and plant will serve as large rain water retention pond and hence help in preserving runoff during heavy downpour and possible of flash flood.

As city manager, the local council has to prepare for this possibility. It is time to strategies and plan the immediate use of road and car park space if public transportation system is efficient, effective and affordable enough for public to abandon their private vehicles, I presume.

Catch 22@PJ: Environment vs $

When it comes to the need of protecting the environment and expenditure for doing so, how do you strike a balance? This is a question many people will like to skip and avoid. Given an opportunity, everybody would like to make good and hence feel good by doing more for the betterment of their living environment. People tend to collect old newspaper for recycling and then earn some return. Some might go extra mile of planting trees and flora not only within their house compound, but also the surrounding area like garden and road shoulder in front of their house. This partly because of immense benefits they are enjoying and also the cost involved is not that high.

If you are asked to contribute more than you are willing to do so, would you still have no problem of carrying out the contribution towards environment that you are used to do? I was asked this question during a meeting. I made a proposal recently for replacing the billing with electronic and digital format. Instead of receiving hardcopy of the bill by postal, the receipients will be asked to voluntary himself to not receiving the bill and make payment through online system. By doing so, the cost on printing and sending the bills will be reduced and carbon footprint can be deducted. While the saving on billing is not that significant compared to the potential total collection from billing and possibility of non-payment, the process will bring in positive message to the public that carbon emission is possible even though with a small process of business doing that have a risk of non collection of due. In this respect, shall we go ahead facing the potential financial risk for the good of protecting our environment later?

I am fortunate that members of the meeting brought the arguement and agreed with the proposal. Perhaps many people out there would do the same if given proper guidance and information, that is preferring environmental conservation for public good rather than taking financial outflow as the only consideration.

Gateway

Petaling Jaya is the gateway for Selangor State as well as Malaysia. Physically, the city is the front passage for people from Kuala Lumpur commuting to Klang Sea Port. The city is also the stepping stone for newcomers from rural area or other States looking for job and education opportunities. By all means, the city is the first choice for residential, working, leisure and study purpose.

Gateway is not the first entry point by chance, it can be created through innovation and creeativity by utilising and optimising the available resources and advantages. People come here first instead of going elsewhere in itself is considered a gateway. Facilitating this to happen is obviously a great task. For a city having tough competition globally, projecting itself to be the gateway for visitors and investors is critical and important. For example, visitors will make all efforts coming over because the city offers various choices that no other place can match, in itself is a gateway. This requires positioning the city in the right place at the right time for the right people.

Gateway should also be supported with other complimentary activities or functions. For example, coming over to the PJ Old Town to source for kitchen utentils might open up other opportunities for people looking at living room and dining hall equipments. Without complimentary supoort, the gateway might be overtaken by others very fast. To sustain its status as gateway, obviously long term strategies to maintain it is very crucial.

Gold and Trust

The worth of trust is equivalent to gold. A trustworthy man is a beloved man that is able to win over everyone's heart without much a problem. You cannot earn that by offering gold to everyone. Some might like to befriend with you simply because of the offering of gold or money. This relationship, however is short lived and would not last longer as it can. While a gold can buy you any material need or even companion, the trust cannot be converted to monetary return. The trust, however will help to fulfill your spiritual engagement and of course earn respect from others, not only for yourself but also your family. Hence, trustworthy is important and pre-requisite in our life.

It is fine for having the gold and trust. For businessman, it simply means they are making money with ethic and good deed. For general public, it means earning a living with dignity. It becomes a crisis when you have to make a choice between gold and trust. You are required to choose either gold or trust such as cheating people by earning the money or providing empty promise in return for love or financial gain.

While everyone will prioritise the trust over gold, in reality we are surrounded by many people who do not mind to sacrify their trustwortiness for own self-interest. This trend is compounded by the individual urge for success in life, peer pressure to do better, family expectation to earn higher than the neighbours, collegues to compete with each others and the fear of losing their advantages due to the competitive world we are living in now. The practice of using GDP and physical measurement for quality of life is not helping either. We tend to compare with each others based on material gain and not how happy we are. Perhaps the happiness index as applied by some countries should be adopted widely and extensively.

Top Down Planning

Malaysian Institute of Planners hosted a delegation from Iraq which include the The Hon. Minister last Saturday. Briefing about the history, challenges, governance system, approaches of Malaysian Planning was given to the guests. They are interested to know the appropriate process of training personnel, governance system and planning practice for the planning and development of the country. All these are related to the professional planning services which include the government, private sector and the academia.

One of the interesting point was raised, that is the hierarchy of planning. It is always the case of having higher level of planning at the Federal or Central Level and zoom it down to the local level. This was done so for the purpose of national interest, coordination at the federal level especially for development projects with national significance, resources allocation as the Federal Government is the central agency to distribute the national wealth as well as the notion of "we know best". However, in view of the emerging trend of community voicing out and demand for their right to be heard and consulted, the need for bottom up planning instead of solely the top down approach is getting higher now. The guest asked about the bottom up approach in planning in which how local planning influences the planning direction at the national level.

Participatory planning is rather important now. People want to be involved, heard and participate in the planning and decision making process. It is now the planning with the people rather than the commonly believe of planning for the people. Thereby, soliciting people's views and proposal at the local level, the closet to the community is critical. It is rightly so as ultimately they will be the users and beneficiary or even the victim for bad planning, not for a short term but perpectually. The Local Planning Authority is facing tremendous pressure now to engage and listen to the stakeholders and to decide the development direction and decision with their input in mind. People are not afraid of voicing out their views and demand for reasonable explaination.

The attitude and approach of planners need changes as well. It is no more a job for technocrat. It is a multi-dicplinary approaches in which human skill is getting very important now. It is not how can you draw a plan better and comply with all the technical requirement only, but how can you engage not only the project proponents to like your plan as well as the stakeholders and authority to buy your idea with pleasure, I think.

Success in Exhibition

I attended 2 exhibitions recently and noticed that for a booth to attract more visitors than others, special strategies are required. These range from the location of the booth, design of the booth, information and material exhibited, free bees, friendly care takers, products or services required by the visitors and of course on site marketing.

In the Guangzhou Fair, MBPJ Booth was a hit amongst the visitors as it was located at the main hall and pedestrian corridor. Visitors visiting the pavillion will have no choice but by passing MBPJ booth even though they have no intention of coming inside the booth. Secondly, the Minangkabau design of the booth is so unique and refreshing for the Chinese visitors that many come over for a photograph session. Even our collegues wearing the Malay and Indian dressing are in demand for photograph shooting. Thirdly is the exhibits must be simple, attractive, informative and photogentic for viewing. Nobody will like to come cross to every exhibition panel to read through the details. Many will not spend time to get to the details unless it is required so for answering some questions in exchanging gift. Forthly, of course offering free gift will be another attraction. Many even come approaching for free bees rather than spending time visiting the booth. However, ensuring that people at least spend some time visiting the booth and not come solely for the free gift, some kind of games in relation to the exhibition should be held. On site marketing is another method to attract attention. For example, scheduled shows such as dancing and magic show will stimulate interest.

For a successful promotion during exhibition, I beleive the above are important ingredients. For this to happen, proper planning and preparation is required.

Good Can Be Better

People always say if good can be better, then good is not good enough. Similarly, if there is room for improvement, then what have achieved is definitely not good enough. This perception did arise because everything we do might not be done in wholeheartedly or with the best efforts or some time constrainted by the circumstances that handicapped the result. I believe everything we do will have room for improvement either immediately or at later stage when the circumstances warrant. Hence, what we do daily is considered a process rather than a result as continue improvement is pending all the time.

Planning is in the similar situation. Thereby planning should be flexible with changes according to the local circumstance, aspiration of the stakeholders or even market forces. Planning for an area might not be possible and feasible presently, but does not means similar consideration cannot be given when the time is right. For example, changing of landuse to a more compatible use should be allowed if the residential houses are no more conducive for living due to traffic and environmental condition. Having said this, a thorough and holistic study is required as the changes can be indefinite and resulted in long term impacts to the surrounding area.

Underground Shopping

Travel with Metro in Guangzhou City is a pleasant experience. While the well connected rail is so accessible, affordable and convenient, shopping underground from the entrance leading to the gate of rail station is equally impressive. Plenty of shops offering variety of goods and services are lined up along the axis to the station. You will not miss it, perhaps you do not want to miss it.

While commercialising the corridor with high pedestrian movement is a commercial decision, the planning itself must be right. Putting some commercial activities along the corridors no doubt will attract attention and customers, it must however according to what we aspire and want. For example, is that ok for having the street artists performing there? Is that right for hawkers cooking and selling food there? We must have a good tenant mix catering to the need of travellers and perhaps shoppers so that walking leading to the rail station is a pleasant experience, and not a boring and unsecure trip.

I wish to see similar happenings in our LRT, commuter and MRT line, one day.

Special Area Planning

I was impressed with the special zone planning in Guangzhou City after a briefing done by the city planners last week. The demarcation of an area for speciality and land use or activities with its own uniqueness and characteristics is not something new, the successful exercution however is something new and difficult.

Most of the time, city planners would like to see their plan comes to reality. However, the implementation stage which come much later is normally failing the plan. It can be the problem of securing financing, disagreement of the market forces, readiness of the stakeholders, capacity of the city managers and etc. Even though implementation is carried out as planned, it might be turned out to be different thing or not according to the plan. For example, although business park is envisioned for Section 13, the development itself without proper coordination might realise the place as another conventional type of commercial centre without its unique features, such as the green business hub with amble accessibility and connectivity.

Guangzhou City manages to differentiate area with its own features. When you are in ThianHe area, it is cosmopolitan like commercial centre and likewise in Baizhou, it is M.I.C.E convention centre. The YueSiao area is the older part of the City with many greenery and historical building and places of interest. Similarly, along the Pearl River is the leisure centre.

For Petaling Jaya, I believe similar exercise has to be carried out. Perhaps starting with the place making exercise should be held. Place making means developing an area with its soul and characteristics. For example, Old Town can be the wholesale centre for PJ. And to encourage related activities there, incentive scheme shall be offered and development should be facilitated. In this respect, Local Authority should play a bigger role for promoting and guiding the development at the level of daily routine. The time of approving and licensing the development projects only without nurturing the growth of an area with its special features is gone, to me.

City Marketing

Marketing a city is not an easy task, especially for the cities without unique identify or do not come with any historical value, special or natural characteristic or with national significance. 21st Century is the era for cities. Cities become the growth engine for the nation. It is the cities that reflecting the true image and characteristics of a country and hence presenting first impression to the visitors and outsiders about how the city is doing. Thereby, getting people acquitte with the city is becoming more and more complicated as all cities are competing each others for attention, in flow of capital and investment, visitors and tourists as well as businesses. Local Governments are pushing unlimited efforts to market their cities. However, not many manage to make it successfully.

Marketing a city is not about putting up exhibition and showing people some nice pictures on places of interest. Marketing a city is about telling people what uniqueness can I offer that you might not seen elsewhere. Even if you have seen elsewhere you might only saw the best here in my city. People travelling to Melbourne for her status as liveable city. Similarly Singapore is known for its' cleanliness, safety and greenery. Bangkok City is known as leisure, shopping and entertainment paradise. Tokyo for its cosmopolitan appearance and etc.

Hence, marketing a city must first started with identifying the unique characteristics of a city or what the city can offer. Without that, it is difficult to tell people what the city all about. For example, people might know Kuala Lumpur because of the Petronas Twin Tower, once the tallest building in the World. People aware about Banglore of India because the city is the World IT Hub. Many know Cambriage or Oxford City because of the renowned university and ambience for studying. It is easy to market a city upon associating the city with symbolic gestures or images.

Guangzhou is known as a business city and it is not uncommon to be labelled as the World Manufacturing City as well. The presence of many products makers, wholesellers, retailers and buyers from all over the World speaks for itself. To facilitate the ease of doing business, The City Government of Guangzhou maintains good friendship with a lot of cities apart from making the urban infrastructure and facilities in tip top condition.

What to market for Petaling Jaya City? It is one of the most vibrant and dynamic city in Malaysia, but globally it is not that significant. I presume this is a big question mark for many...

Effective Implementation (2)

Effective implementation of urban regeneration programmes is always depended on the support of the stakeholders especially the land and building owners. It means nothing even though the authority can formulate a comprehensive master plan without the participation of them. As brown field development is always touching on the living community, it is also a difficult task to to meet entire community's aspiration and agenda, even sometime the objective of majority is not an easy venture. Thereby, engaging the land and building owners are critical and pre-requisite for any successful urban regeneration programme.

In Guangzhou, I was told instead of compulsory acquisition of land, the owners are allowed to look for their development partner first. Failure with, they can request the city government to auction their land for development. They will get 60% of the amount without the city government acting on their behalf for disposing the land. Third option is the owners can stay put and continue with their line of business, but of course to comply with all the city regulation. Nothing to stop them from continuing with their activities unless the law is broken.

I think it is a good move of encouraging urban regeneration without jeopardising the right and responsibilities of the land and building owners. They are given the chance to be consulted and to part share the profit of the programme. It is truly another form of public participation in practice, I presume.

Metro in Guangzhou

I was in Guangzhou City of China attending a fair and discussion with the city officers last week. One of the development impressed me the most is the well connected, accessible and affordable public transportation and pedestrian network. I was told the network was in place prior to the Asian Games in Year 2010. I visited the city 5 years ago and I must admitted the speed of urban transformation equally surprised me to say the least. I cannot recall any cities in the World except China that have gone this pace of rapid development.

The public transportation system is very efficient and connectivity is covering almost every corner of the city. It is reachable from one end to the other end within set time frame. On top of that, the pricing structure make travelling affordable. I paid RMB 12 to travel from down town to the Baiyun Airport. I cannot recall of city-airport transfer with similar pricing. Apart from that, the whole metro lines are underground, not even at grade or elevated. With the efficient public transportation, it will stimulate tourism and travelling. My collegues without the knowledge of Chinese of language are able to travel to tourist destinations without any difficulty. Of course, their only inconvenience is how to bargain for the best price.

Effective Implementation

It was reported that rebate scheme for energy efficiency electrical appliances offered by the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water does not meet the anticipated result. After 2 months of implementation, many qualified purchasers of new appliances do not care of applying for the rebate. It was quoted as a complicated process and the restriction is too much to fulfill with. While the scheme is a good start to encourage low carbon and energy saving living, the process itself becomes a hindrance for achieving the target.

People always say for effective implementation of a programme, 3 factors are important, namely the content, context and process. While the content itself of going green is noble and by right should be welcome by all like-minded people in dollars saving and environmental friendly, it does not mean that everyone will aim for it. Right context is also important such as the right target group, timing and circumstances. For example, affordability is one issue. If i can purchase an air-con with life span of 5 years but with more than 50% cheaper than the energy efficiency product, then for those concern about paying higher capital expenditure at the initial stage, the cost factor will be prioritised. Similarly, right process is also critical. We should facilitate the process by making application is an easy task and not adding eextra burden to the decision process of purchasing. If you request me to visit the Ministry in Putrajaya for the form and to submit again, then it might be not cost efficient for me to do so.

I wish the assessment rebate scheme for environmental friendly house owners offered by Petaling Jaya City Council will be an easy process.