Peoples Planning Campaign in Kerala is a matter of great pride. Unlike the dramatic social changes that we have seen in our history, this one is genuinely home grown and therefore a rather slow and labored process. That needs to be seen as a healthy sign. We are slowly and steadily moving towards social equity as a component in the planning process itself. This could be closest form of democratic expression a society can aspire for.
This is real transfer of power and it is also a steady correction of an existing system; where one mechanism of power willfully, slowly loosens its grip over the power it wields. There are bound to be hiccups and since this is home grown, some amount of trial and error is bound to occur during the transition. The global climate too is undergoing extreme dynamics and the economy of Kerala is rather well connected to the global energies via its Middle East connections. This makes the transition even more difficult.
As the system invents itself and shuffles under the unevenness of the internal power corrections, newer institutional mechanisms are being created in the process of Development Plan preparation and its implementation.
The power to create Development Plans have been transferred from the State Town Planning Department to the Urban Local Body. The ULB is still ill-equipped to deal with this power in terms of its staffing and also, in terms of its understanding of the scope of using this dramatic power that has been gifted to it unsolicited.
So, the ball (the preparation of the Development Plan) has been bouncing around and finally, ended up at the table of the State Town Planning Department all over again. It is not easy to draw a boundary around the cities of Kerala. Such boundaries wouldn't justify the impact/ influence zones of these cities. So, an urban agglomeration was to be identified that would include the core city and its immediate surrounding villages (Municipalities or Panchayats). The Development Plans were to cover this Region.
The State Planning Department could foresee the need to create a legal entity to administer and implement the Plans that were prepared for this Region. This they have done and also, they have sought and created an administrative unit for the same called Joint Town Planning committee (JTPC). The JTPC comprises of the members of the Mother City and its surrounding Local Bodies, plus representatives of the Town Planning Offices.
The JTPC is composed of the following; the Mayor & the Secretary of the City Corporation, Chairman of its Standing Committee on Town Planning, all chairmen of the surrounding municipalities or panchayats, the Corporation Engineer and a couple of Town Planners from the Regional Town Planning Office. With no disrespect to the good offices of the constituent team, I wonder if this is arrangement can ever reflect the exigencies of the local planning issues? How does this team “listen” to the needs of the local people? How do they keep on updating the contents of the Plan to take care of the concerns voiced by the citizens?
We need a better “listening” mechanism for that to happen. Also, it is pertinent to bring in fresh ideas in the planning and design of urban places. This is where it is happening. This JTPC is to be advised by a Spatial Integration Committee comprising of technical people nominated by the JTPC. Where are the Urban Designers in the team? Where are the ecological planners? Where are the Transportation planners? Shouldn't they be part of the team that advices this committee?
Our education system subsidizes the creation of such professionally qualified personnel and we have no mechanism to hire and use their skills? This is where they are needed. Look at what we are doing instead.
All and sundry make extra-ordinary suggestions and sometimes ridiculously silly ideas as solutions to urban problems. Its good that the citizen is provoked enough to come up with their own solutions and feel they are good. We need to listen to that, but, where are our technical experts who can tell us which ones are good, and which ones need to be nipped in the bud. Shouldn't our technical team already have a Vision for the Development of the region? Shouldn't there be a Vision Statement that says what are the core values to be adhered to?
The Development Plan is a very important step for the city and its surrounding region and we need to bring in competent professional input into its formulation. There has to be a system that can hire profession consultants to provide inputs or the JTPC should ask institutions like ITPI, IUDI, ISLA, IIA (i.e., ecological & transportation planners, urban designers, urban conservationists, landscape architects, architects) to send in nominees from each of their ranks. Irrespective of from where they are chosen, they should be hired to deliver proper proposals and drawings that are consistent with the agenda set forth by the Vision Statement of the JTPC.
We see many too ad-hoc decisions taken on the urban development scene of the city by various agencies. Some of them are extremely dramatic decisions that will have large and irrevocable impact on the region. This adhoc-ism must give way to a proper institutional mechanism for hiring competent professionals and it is to occur between the JTPC and the Spatial Integration Committee. Lets us hope for some action here.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Participation, Transparency and Governance!
Participation, Transparency and Governance
Three vital forces that shape urban spaces.
How do we evolve public participation platforms for effective plan preparation (for urban design) that are ingrained to established democratic patterns of governance while ensuring transparency?
See, that's how they are connected! That way, I have already established my case for the need for such a platform. When the said platform for public participation in embedded in the internet and feeds into the governance system, we have a win-win situation. Lets face the fact that our modes-operand i for electing our “peoples' representative” to the Urban Local Body (ULB) is mostly crowded with political issues and political players. There is no escaping that and there is no need to escape that either!
What we probably miss out is a proper public debate on physical development issues of the local region. The powers to do something about this issue of City Planning is totally vested with these city councilors, though that was hardly discussed prior to the election or even that the election was never fought on those issues. It still doesn't take away our privilege to being privy in making qualitative contribution to the process that determines the fate of our neighborhood or our city. But, how do I comment on such issues? To whom? Where? Would anyone listen? We all agree that actually someone should listen.
So, we need a platform for us to comment and make suggestions. It may not be possible for all of us to gather at one place and for someone to actually make a presentation of these issues and then, we would all make our opinions and someone would record all this and something would happen. Aw, come on! It wouldn't work like that.
It would be better if I could study the matter in great leisure and create and articulate my comments in my own pace and words. I could post them where others could see them and I could see comments made by others. Yes, like the social networking sites, on the internet. That's where it should be.
The comments need to be recorded and numbered. They needed to be socially audited and referred to by the agency that prepares the plans. The comments can be generated based on feedback templates custom designed for the specific project put forth.
Take for example the Kochi Metro Rail project: The impression one gets through the media is that “everyone wants it”. Is it true? Did the city council debate it? What is the qualified summary of that debate? Has it been made a public document? Let's not deviate from the topic.
We need a website that is officially put up by the ULB on issues of Development Plan preparation. The site should have a feedback section that records all comments made by the “known or registered users” who are stakeholders in the city. The comments and feedback can be either text or entries on pre-designed (and presented) response forms or through interactive maps. These tools have varying impacts during different stages of project evolution.
Interactive maps could be the most powerful tool of them all. That's because interactive maps is not a one time affair. It would remain a constant live document on which all of the users could be adding information. This needs to be done on a GIS platform where users can locate their grievances or highlight the issues that concern them. The biggest asset here would be the idea of getting issues “located” on a map. This could revolutionize participatory planning in very fundamental ways. The elected representatives (councilors) can be trained to make all the feedback that they get from the grassroots onto this GIS platform.
Act two:
The other source: This is a new character in the urban play. Live feeds from sensors put in public realm. Sensors can bring in enormous data that get constantly updated in real time. For example, sensors can count the number of people waiting at a junction to cross the road. It gives us peak our volumes and helps in prioritizing projects and identifying hotspots for intervention. This information can be an additional layer on the GIS platform. Traffic data, waste water flow data, lack of public lighting, parking data etc can be brought in.
Some of the information collected could be converted into revenue like identifying parking slots through GPRS and SMS integration.
The opportunity is limitless. The idea is powerful and some action needs to be taken on this. It would need the right basic skeleton first. That's where we need to start now.
Three vital forces that shape urban spaces.
How do we evolve public participation platforms for effective plan preparation (for urban design) that are ingrained to established democratic patterns of governance while ensuring transparency?
See, that's how they are connected! That way, I have already established my case for the need for such a platform. When the said platform for public participation in embedded in the internet and feeds into the governance system, we have a win-win situation. Lets face the fact that our modes-operand i for electing our “peoples' representative” to the Urban Local Body (ULB) is mostly crowded with political issues and political players. There is no escaping that and there is no need to escape that either!
What we probably miss out is a proper public debate on physical development issues of the local region. The powers to do something about this issue of City Planning is totally vested with these city councilors, though that was hardly discussed prior to the election or even that the election was never fought on those issues. It still doesn't take away our privilege to being privy in making qualitative contribution to the process that determines the fate of our neighborhood or our city. But, how do I comment on such issues? To whom? Where? Would anyone listen? We all agree that actually someone should listen.
So, we need a platform for us to comment and make suggestions. It may not be possible for all of us to gather at one place and for someone to actually make a presentation of these issues and then, we would all make our opinions and someone would record all this and something would happen. Aw, come on! It wouldn't work like that.
It would be better if I could study the matter in great leisure and create and articulate my comments in my own pace and words. I could post them where others could see them and I could see comments made by others. Yes, like the social networking sites, on the internet. That's where it should be.
The comments need to be recorded and numbered. They needed to be socially audited and referred to by the agency that prepares the plans. The comments can be generated based on feedback templates custom designed for the specific project put forth.
Take for example the Kochi Metro Rail project: The impression one gets through the media is that “everyone wants it”. Is it true? Did the city council debate it? What is the qualified summary of that debate? Has it been made a public document? Let's not deviate from the topic.
We need a website that is officially put up by the ULB on issues of Development Plan preparation. The site should have a feedback section that records all comments made by the “known or registered users” who are stakeholders in the city. The comments and feedback can be either text or entries on pre-designed (and presented) response forms or through interactive maps. These tools have varying impacts during different stages of project evolution.
Interactive maps could be the most powerful tool of them all. That's because interactive maps is not a one time affair. It would remain a constant live document on which all of the users could be adding information. This needs to be done on a GIS platform where users can locate their grievances or highlight the issues that concern them. The biggest asset here would be the idea of getting issues “located” on a map. This could revolutionize participatory planning in very fundamental ways. The elected representatives (councilors) can be trained to make all the feedback that they get from the grassroots onto this GIS platform.
Act two:
The other source: This is a new character in the urban play. Live feeds from sensors put in public realm. Sensors can bring in enormous data that get constantly updated in real time. For example, sensors can count the number of people waiting at a junction to cross the road. It gives us peak our volumes and helps in prioritizing projects and identifying hotspots for intervention. This information can be an additional layer on the GIS platform. Traffic data, waste water flow data, lack of public lighting, parking data etc can be brought in.
Some of the information collected could be converted into revenue like identifying parking slots through GPRS and SMS integration.
The opportunity is limitless. The idea is powerful and some action needs to be taken on this. It would need the right basic skeleton first. That's where we need to start now.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Cultural Medium
The World is one single unified market. How would Kerala fit in? Or rather, how should Kerala fit in? The World is a market place for those who produce in excessively large volumes, be it cars, textiles, buttons, tiles or IT enabled services. We are not a large volume producer. We are a specialized niche value producer. (rather than saying an unapologetic “we are just consumers”!)
Plus, our land is owned in a highly equitable pattern. There are few landless folks and there are even fewer folks who own vast tracts of land. Vast tracts of land for enterprise are basic to participate in the world economy directly.
We need to focus on high value and not mass volumes. 8 lane highways are meant to exploit the ecology and move huge volumes of whatever produce. That idea runs counter grain to the nature of our opportunity in the world economy.
High value is a concept that needs a cultural medium to exist in and nourish it. Cultural medium takes shape in public expressions. They are expressed through festivals, in art shows, in theatre, in social art, in public protests etc. And all these happen in PUBLIC PLACES.
That's why we need quality public spaces in Kerala and very urgently. Because, our life depends on it.
Plus, our land is owned in a highly equitable pattern. There are few landless folks and there are even fewer folks who own vast tracts of land. Vast tracts of land for enterprise are basic to participate in the world economy directly.
We need to focus on high value and not mass volumes. 8 lane highways are meant to exploit the ecology and move huge volumes of whatever produce. That idea runs counter grain to the nature of our opportunity in the world economy.
High value is a concept that needs a cultural medium to exist in and nourish it. Cultural medium takes shape in public expressions. They are expressed through festivals, in art shows, in theatre, in social art, in public protests etc. And all these happen in PUBLIC PLACES.
That's why we need quality public spaces in Kerala and very urgently. Because, our life depends on it.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
We need Public Spaces!
"The measure of any great civilization is its cities and a measure of a city's greatness is to be found in the quality of its public spaces, its parks and squares." -John Ruskin
Kerala's tryst with urbanism has an interesting history. Our urbanism has almost always been in places where cultures from 'elsewhere' have interfaced with the local. The Jews Street and the other inner street network spaces in Mattancherry, Kochi or Kalpathy Street in Palakkad are good examples. We do have interesting local urban places too like the Market Square at Changanassery or Ernakulam and the Chalai market at Thiruvananthapuram.
Our Temple grounds too aspired to be quality urban places, though they fell short most of the time. The pooram grounds at Thrissur could be close to a good one.
Lets admit that historically, we weren't so great in our “publicness”. The average malayali still finds it difficult to include his neighbourhood as part of his imagined territory. We are seriously confined to the boundaries of our plots, to our withins, to our familial bonds!
But, the need for urban space is a much larger issue. Its an expression of our culture, our civility, our togetherness, a reflection of the quality of our association with Nature around us and a lot more. We need to come to terms with this aspect. There is a feedback process too. A city with no open space structure or semblance of public spaces shall never produce people of quality. A decadence would set in and turn cancerous on the quality of our culture. Has it already?
Today, we gather together in our cultural referral space, the Movie Hall! A space that is closed and dark that makes do with an illusion of reality thrown in as compensation. Its a one way communication. There is no cultural exchange. The stars are our cultural artefacts!
We need public spaces. For ourselves, for our children, for the worth of the nature around us.
Kerala's tryst with urbanism has an interesting history. Our urbanism has almost always been in places where cultures from 'elsewhere' have interfaced with the local. The Jews Street and the other inner street network spaces in Mattancherry, Kochi or Kalpathy Street in Palakkad are good examples. We do have interesting local urban places too like the Market Square at Changanassery or Ernakulam and the Chalai market at Thiruvananthapuram.
Our Temple grounds too aspired to be quality urban places, though they fell short most of the time. The pooram grounds at Thrissur could be close to a good one.
Lets admit that historically, we weren't so great in our “publicness”. The average malayali still finds it difficult to include his neighbourhood as part of his imagined territory. We are seriously confined to the boundaries of our plots, to our withins, to our familial bonds!
But, the need for urban space is a much larger issue. Its an expression of our culture, our civility, our togetherness, a reflection of the quality of our association with Nature around us and a lot more. We need to come to terms with this aspect. There is a feedback process too. A city with no open space structure or semblance of public spaces shall never produce people of quality. A decadence would set in and turn cancerous on the quality of our culture. Has it already?
Today, we gather together in our cultural referral space, the Movie Hall! A space that is closed and dark that makes do with an illusion of reality thrown in as compensation. Its a one way communication. There is no cultural exchange. The stars are our cultural artefacts!
We need public spaces. For ourselves, for our children, for the worth of the nature around us.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)