Water Bodies as public spaces

Much has been written about the Water Crisis that looms on our heads in the present century, and I do not think I need to elaborate on it. Water shortage has hit us, and it is for real. That's it. Nothing can be more direct than that.

We Indians have been historically connected to our water bodies. Cities of our civilization have flourished on river fronts, with trade, agriculture and economy thriving due to water. Ports like Bombay, Surat and Madras have held immense significance in our history. With an agricultural economy with mostly rain-fed agriculture practiced, water forms an integral part of our past, present and hopefully our future as well.

Lakes and ponds in cities like Kolkata and Udaipur were used for filling water and bathing, supported local fishermen, and served to regenerate and recharge local ecosystems. Rivers acted as highways, as modes of transport connecting cities along their banks. Mumbai thrived due to its sea shore. In short, citizens connected with their water bodies. And hence they protected them.

But in time, we have disconnected from these water bodies in our cities. Mumbaikars have no time for their Marine Drive and Juhu beach. Lakes and ponds have either dried up, turned to nallahs or have been filled up to construct buildings. People don't conduct their routines on the banks of rivers, riverways are no longer used as means of transport and hence don't consider these water bodies as a part of their lives. We are, in short, disconnected from our water bodies. And hence we don't think twice before dumping our garbage in canals, ponds or lakes, or polluting rivers and seas with our septic waste. We encroach without guilt, and hence we destroy our water systems.

I feel the way forward is to reconnect cities and its citizens to its water bodies. To use the banks of rivers, lakes and ponds, sea shores, as public spaces. Not in what is now perceived as subaltern, like washing clothes or bathing in ponds and lakes, but as spaces for public events and community gatherings. In this manner, unwanted activities could be avoided on beaches after dark, and lakes and ponds could be saved from being filled up for new constructions.

I base my argument on the paradigm that as people become "distanced" from the water body, no matter how less the physical distance may be, they cease to protect it.

I believe we need to address this "distance" in order to conserve our water bodies.

The one thing Indian cities lack (among many others)

"I believe that the greatest challenge to a city’s administrator is to maintain and create self-esteem within the citizens, the feeling of love for what is local and lives here. The cities live a reality of demographic growth. Migration exists due to the search for opportunities. When there are no opportunities where people live, they search for alternatives. In this changing process, the existing problem is the citizen’s lack of identity with his or her new local dwelling. It is up to the mayors to win the challenge, making all citizens feel like the legitimate owners of the town, making everyone feel at home."

-  Cassio Taniguchi

Mayor of Curitiba

Curitiba, for the uninitiated, is a city in Brazil, with about 1.8 million people and covering 435 sq km (about the size of Ahmedabad). Brazilian cities share a lot with their Indian counter parts - rapid rates of urbanization, socioeconomic disparities, unemployment rates and as a result, slums in the city. 

But the difference in Brazil has been powerful local leadership. Curitiba has a Mayoral system of local urban governance, where the Mayor is directly elected by the members of the public. A Mayor directly accountable to the citizens of the city, with the power to change, and most importantly, with a vision and will to bring about a change in the city.

This has made a difference to the planning scenario of Curitiba. The Mayor led the city authorities to Plan for a robust and equitable transport network way back in the 1970's along with spatial plans for the city. He envisioned a city where employment is generated and quality of life improves. And the backbone of this level of urban regeneration, he realised early, is a sound transport system.

If someone had the vision, the power and the will to bring about a similar change in Indian cities, our cities wouldn't have grown in a haphazard and unchecked manner. Planning would have been more formalized, and organized. And we would have had happier cities to live in. 

State of our Governance

Azam Khan orders demolition of "poor quality" houses built during BSP regime.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/cities/azam-khan-orders-demolition-of-poor-quality-houses-built-during-bsp-regime-213828

Ads of Chief Ministers' achievements in the fields of power, water supply, housing to poor, keep surfacing in national dailies with unnerving frequency. And not to mention the plain irritation of looking at a full first page advertisement of the achievements of a party in power in a particular state first thing in the morning.

I often ask myself why aren't Indian cities able to emulate the progress in urban development of their Latin American and South African counterparts. After all, they share similar pasts, comparable socio-economic development statistics and demographic profiles. And I have always reached the same point and stopped: the politics in cities of India. Our politicians and our governance structure do not allow our cities to grow beyond petty issues of partisan politics and vested interests of those in power.

I feel it is our fault that these men are in power. We have voted them to power, or worse still, we haven't voted at all.

Local governance is, according to me, the root cause of why our cities are the way they are. And governance also happens to be a topic I have a lot of opinions on.  I shall not be doing justice to it through only one post, and so, more on that later.

The Importance of Creating Awareness for Modal Shift while Integrating Land use and Transport

Land-use Transport Integration is the newest mantra for planning livable cities. The concept utilizes the idea of integrated planning for infrastructure development in order to check sprawl and create compact cities. The underlying idea behind Transport Oriented Development and Compact City Approach is that people will be encouraged to use public transit as the transit stations will be accessible.

This may be true for some countries where people have a sense of belonging and have instilled ownership for their cities. But in case of India, from my primary surveys in Ahmedabad for the impact on land development for the BRTS, I have sensed a resentment brewing within people living in the vicinity of the transit nodes. They resent the "usurping" of their road space, the hindrance in crossing for pedestrians and the lack of parking space for their vehicles. I see a similar situation in Mumbai in the case of the failure of Sky walks, the pedestrian foot-over-bridges connecting the local railway station with the bus depot and the main road.

So, in my limited experience, I felt it is extremely important to generate a general positive public sentiment before any development in public transport infrastructure. I feel it is time that the urban planning authorities realise that the people know what they want - they are more "self-actualised" than generally perceived - and start considering public opinion while planning. Consultations are not a mere process of preaching; a step that needs to be done with while drafting a plan for the city. Instead public hearings and consultations should be taken as opportunities to involve people in the process of planning for their cities, for their future.  

Ideally, planners should use their expertise to facilitate the process of planning, adding their input only in technical areas in which the general public is not trained. Such a process shall ensure that collective rationality prevails, instead of individual rationality, in the growth of the city. The statistics and projections should be worked out by planners and different scenarios should be placed in front of the public to discuss and debate upon. Initial ideas could be put forth by the planners as options which are not necessarily exhaustive in nature. 

In case of TOD, the projections of growth in the number of vehicles, per capita road space and congestion, and air quality should be put in the public domain. The people should also be shown the benifits of a modal shift, at an individual as well as a community level. A sense of ownership would be thus instilled for the infrastructure of their cities; infrastructure that they have planned for. I believe this would be instrumental in creating a positive sentiment about the public transit infrastructure, and ensure higher ridership. Problems like acquiring land, resettlement and rehabilitation of those displaced, would become much smoother processes.

Finally, although the process may be more time consuming, it can always be planned in advance. This process may also make people in our cities more politically active and ensure higher participation in suffrage. Thus, this process could be a concrete step forward in our quest for livable cities.

Creative Uses, Creative Spaces

The current times are the undisputed times of new forms of media. The pulse of the public can be felt through twitter, facebook, youtube and still newer forms of social media like WhatsApp and BBM. People are connected; more now, than ever. 

But, at the same time, our open spaces are fast disappearing. Beaches are reclaimed, playgrounds become buildings, and gardens turn to garbage dumps. At such times, physical meeting spaces for urban communities have all but disappeared. The French Cafes of Renaissance Paris, the Gowalia Tank of Pre-Independence India or the Tiananmen Square of China are becoming difficult to find. So while people are connected every minute, and public opinion matters like never before, a Renaissance becomes difficult with urban spaces disappearing.

In the field of performing arts, theatre in India has become an elite sphere. The audience, the performers and those behind-the-scenes mostly belong to middle and upper class backgrounds. Meanwhile, our policy direction is on the lines of FSI increases and high rise buildings in our cities, not recognising a need for spaces for the performing arts.

Theatre is not an urban phenomenon. Rural India has a rich heritage of folk performing arts and folk theatre. But with rapid urbanization, and a loss of spaces to perform these arts with a sufficient remuneration and respect that the performers deserve, these arts could meet a slow end. Urban places like Kalaghoda were conceived to convert the streets into stimulating influences for creative outputs of individuals with drama, music and the literary arts, but they too have been reduced to nothing but commercial avenues for pseudo-artists to cash in on the Kalaghoda brand name.

It is necessary that we as urban citizens realise that man is not a working machine, and humans are intrinsically artistic. Every human needs a space to release this artistic trait, to relax and unwind. Hence, the idea of community spaces where individuals could meet, perform and enjoy performances has to be incorporated in the policy discourse of urban planning. 

Also, the earlier idea of physical spaces for a confluence of ideas, a starting point of revolutions reinforces the need for urban spaces where another creative revolution may be born.

Meanwhile, the optimist in me waits for people to connect and protest the loss of spaces to unleash creativity..

Auto woes

Urban India and auto-rickshaws are synonymous with each other. The symbol of the loud, chaotic conundrum that is the Indian City. As Indian cities grow unchecked and with minimal planning, auto-rickshaws are fast turning into inevitable evils.

I do not doubt the importance of para-transit. It is extremely important in the transport network of any city, but trouble brews when it becomes the mainstay of the transport system of any city. Office going population in cities like Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi is increasingly dependent on auto-rickshaws to travel long distances from their homes to workplaces. This means that autos are almost never ready to travel shorter distances, like the nearest public transport node like a bus-stop, train station or metro station.

In smaller metros like Ahmedabad where public transport has never been the first choice of the public, autos almost always want to charge exorbitantly. Fares are revised regularly, and changes is hardly ever returned to customers. Autos do not want short-distance passengers. In cities like Mumbai, a single passenger per auto is a common occurrence and hence, causing an increase in per capita road space occupied. Increase in the number of autos in these cities is one of the causes of traffic jams during peak hours.

And don't even get me started on the traffic sense of these auto drivers. Every morning I leave home with a resolution (irrespective of the city I am in at that point of time, as I have been in a frequently relocating phase of my life for quite some time now) that I shall not lose my temper on an auto driver and spoil my day, but I end up doing just that - losing my cool and ending up quarreling with one auto driver or another. Most of them drive badly, talk on cell phones while driving, and in Tier II cities like Baroda, their legs act as indicators for turning; the left leg juts out of the auto to indicate a left turn and likewise for the right.

The most important crisis here is road safety, and there needs to be a strict procedure of obtaining licenses for auto-drivers, which should be renewed on a regular basis. I propose a biennial exam to renew licenses, and the driving test should include road behaviour lessons as well as traffic rules. At the same time there needs to be a stress for more comfortable public transport, targeting the middle class office-going population. The introduction of AC buses in Mumbai has been a positive step in this regard. Also, auto unions have to be regulated, and fare revision should be supervised. The helpline is a great step against the rude behaviour of auto drivers, but surely more needs to be done in that regard.

Finally, I feel alternative modes of transport need to be thought of by policy makers and needs to be included in the Transport Policy specific to each city. There needs to be an understanding that options apart from autos, like cycles on hire or pedestrianization of certain streets, like the ones connecting the local train stations and the arterial roads in Mumbai. Entrepreneurs should seriously consider developing a business model for para-transit options in a city. Lastly, there needs to be an awareness drive for sustainable, faster and affordable para-transit options in Indian cities.

Why Ur-bane?

Like I wrote in my last post, cities are the present, and very much the future too. But at such rapid rates of urbanization - for the first time in India, the absolute increase in population is more in urban areas than in rural areas, according to the Census 2011 (http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2230211.ece) - policy needs to be dynamic and flexible to suit the needs of a rapidly changing country. Indian cities are ridden with problems, manifested in a lack of vision of the policy-makers, vested interests of local politicians and apathy of the common man.

The urban stands for everything that is chaotic, cacophonous and quite literally, a conundrum. It stands for all that is a bane to human development. And urbane stands for sophisticated, refined and elegant.

The play of words is the precise resign why I chose the name. I want to explore the question, is the urban a bane? Or is being urban becoming a bane? And why isn't being urban and urbane the same for India? What needs to be done to avert it from becoming a bane to human lives? How to make urban urbane from being a bane?

And hence, the title.

Introductory Post

My passion for the urban- it was probably always there, hidden somewhere in the recesses of my mind. But my conscious self stumbled upon it during my long introspection phase while working in a beverage MNC.

Okay, my background first - I am a Chemical Engineer from one of India's premier Engineering Institutes, which unfortunately is in a Godforsaken place. My love for social sciences was more than visible ever since my school days, but fate pushed me into engineering (and believe me, that is one heck of story; but I shall reserve it for another day, and another post). I landed a rather plush job in an beverage major and was doing rather well there. But I did not want to resign to fate and accept what i was doing; start loving it because I was in it. I wanted to do what I loved; what I was passionate about; what I could eat, sleep and breathe.

So I had this long introspection phase, wherein I toyed with a lot of ideas for a career change. A cousin of mine-my confidant for career blues- helped me think by gifting me a bagful of books to read. Her not-so-hidden agenda was to get me to write; and to study literature. But then I chanced upon and miraculously got into Masters' in Habitat Policy and Practice at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, a premier social sciences institute. This is an inter-disciplinary course on Urban Development Policy in the Indian context. I enjoyed my course thoroughly, but I still would not say I had realized my passion for it.

And then it happened. My first semester had ended and I was going home. I had taken a flight departing from Mumbai at 11 p.m. And there, I saw, a sight that was nothing short of divine. The city by night. An aerial view of the urban form, lined by a million tiny lights. And it was love at first sight for me. I realized I had an epiphany at that moment; I almost felt like the Buddha under the Bodhi tree.

The moment had dawned. I felt I had made the right choice. And I had fallen in love with everything urban.

So about the blog - I shall write about anything and everything urban. Cities are where the present is, cities are where our future lies. And for a happier future, we strive for happier cities. and that's what I am going to post about.