9.4 The ouTComes of The ComparaTive analysis: The Types of CirCulaTinG urban poliCies

9.4 The outcomes of the comparative analysis: The types of circulating urban policies

9.4.1 Land acquisition comparative analysis

In Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, the government develops and provides affordable housing units, while in Dubai, the government only subsidizes housing for citizens (Yuen, 2005)

Landuse planning

Land ownership

Dubai

The government of Dubai provides funds and fully-serviced land to citizens.

Dubai Authorities have approved several plans to regulate the development of urban areas in Dubai city.

The government is a significant landowner thanks to the property left by the colonial administration in 1971

Singapore

Assisted by the UN, the government completed Singapore’s first concept plan, to guide the country’s physical development for the next 20 years.

The government is a significant landowner thanks to the property left by the colonial administration in 1959

Land administration

Public housing

Dubai Municipality (DM) in the 1990s, power transitioned from DM to various public-private firms such as Dubai Holding, Emaar, Nakheel, and Meer

The government only subsidizes housing for citizens; private developers build for well-off immigrants, Urban Redevelopment Authority

The Singapore Land Authority

JTC Corporation (JTC).

The government develops and provides affordable housing units. Housing Development Board.

Kuala Lumpur

Town and Country Planning Act 1976 defines a local authority.

City Hall of Kuala Lumpur is the local planning authority that is treated as an agent of the public institution.

Malaysia uses the Torrens system of ownership

Transfer of land is a process to change the name of the registered proprietor in the title.

Federal Land Development Authority

For land settlers, the Ministry of Rural and Regional Development, as well as pertinent land and regional development agencies, have all played their roles in providing low-cost housing.

9.4.2 Circulation of Urban Policies

Cities with successful urban development in the process of becoming global cities have become a model to upcoming cities. This chapter will discuss Dubai and the possible models it has circulated from our case studies to enter the competitive world of globalization. It is in this sense that Singapore has become a paradigmatic example of “a site of the production of urban planning knowledge and ‘best practices” that gets assembled and translated into contemporary circuits of capital’ (Pow 2014: 287)

The extreme success of these urban models or policies for urban intervention has caused Dubai to import them assuming they would follow similar growth patterns. Dubai has simultaneously pursued two infrastructural strategies with respect to flow: one of extensification and one of intensification. (Ong, 2011; Roy, 2011a, 2011c) The strategy of extensification is based on Singapore’s urban model, one of the cities that Dubai aspired to be. This is where problems sprout.

Models that were successful in an East Asian context are applied to an Arab context with different social and political conditions. As Perera and Tang (2013: 14) say: ‘the central question is who and what gets left out . . . Planners and policymakers have a way of focusing on growth and remain silent about important tensions that emanate from ethnic, religious, and other cultural differences by portraying them as ‘“low-politics”’.

The ulterior (and often unintended) effects of policy outcomes – on people, places and the environment – should be given as much attention as the indicators and badges of urban success. We will examine some possible urban models circulated by Dubai to verify its success.

Dubai seems to share some similarities with Kuala Lumpur or Singapore in policy making methods, that anticipate health and well being of citizens, public private partnerships and destination making of cities.

Urban Policy 1 | Concept of Healthy cities

Healthy cities are those that identify health determinants of their occupants and the necessity to work on them through the collaboration of public, private and community sectors. The challenge in implementing this is understanding and defining the scale of the urban intervention. This urban strategy is becoming more relevant these days with the public health challenges of the 21st century. The authorities in Dubai recognized the health problems arising from their car-dependent urban development.

Their rapid urban transformation from dense fabric with walkable alleys to communities and neighbourhoods which could be accessed only by cars were taking a toll on public health. An article on the Gulf News dated July 10, 2019, reported the results of a study on 33000 Emirati men between the age of 18 and 20. Shocking statistics state that the majority of them suffer from obesity, diabetes and other lifestyle conditions Dr Mohammad Al Haddad, consultant bariatric surgeon and head of bariatric and metabolic surgery at Health Point, Abu Dhabi told Gulf News: “The obesity epigenetics is very high in the UAE and the statistics of incidence is three times higher than the rest of the world. Obesity begins at the time of conception of the foetus when mothers who are obese or have a bad lifestyle conceive” (Al Haddad, 2019).

Therefore, it is important to check obesity from childhood to be able to stop this trend of early onset of adult obesity, diabetes and other cardio-metabolic co-morbidities.” Among other causes for this, experts identified the lack of physical activity as the primary issue. Dubai’s development pattern inconvenienced the pedestrians and forced them to rely on automobiles for their commute. The road networks are completely car-dependent and lack interconnectivity making it impossible to walk even to close destinations. This has made the city infamous for its lack of walkability. The planning authorities with an intent to address this issue created some experimental projects through Meraas.

City Walk and Boxpark are two such experimental projects in which Meraas attempts to stimulate physical activity in its users. City Walk

Left to right

Walkways in Dubai City Walk, Kuala Lumpur city market and Singapore’s Suntec city (Source: Google images)

partially succeeded in attracting people with its multiple shaded and open walkways inspired by shopping districts in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Though the drawback is the shopping districts in the latter cities are perfectly connected to public transportation unlike City Walks as seen in the site study in the previous chapters. Boxpark was another similar attempt by Meraas but unlike City Walk, it failed to attract many pedestrians because of its location. Boxpark is another circulated project, originally from London and from there on the concept has been in circulation in many other cities. In most places, they are placed in an ideal location with transit stops nearby but Boxpark Dubai is located along the residential stretch on Al Wasl street with no transit stop nearby.

The two sites selected to compare and understand the importation of this model are Downtown Dubai with Raffles place in Downtown Singapore. Both sites are shaped by developments that re-imagine the respective cities towards globalization, Singapore earlier than Dubai. The commercial hub designated by Singapore’s Raffles town plan served as the centre for Raffles place, an area of 10700 sq.m with a garden serviced by one transit station and flanked by skyscrapers on either side. Spread over 200 hectares, downtown Dubai also flanked by skyscrapers is the city’s centre with interventions to encourage cycling and walkability. There is a pedestrian link of 820m from Dubai mall to Burj Khalifa station however it seemed inefficient as it can be accessed only from inside the mall. The streets surrounding raffles place are closed to vehicular circulation and to discourage traffic inflow, even the nearby streets have been converted to one-way streets.

Similarly in downtown as well only the spine surrounding the Burj is allowed to host vehicles. From this spine, there are about 13 intersections that are pedestrianized. Both sites have walkways amid greenery and landscaping. However, what works in Singapore’s climate cannot be circulated directly without shade to be used in Dubai’s scorching heat. The circulation pattern and transit connections for both sites can be seen in the figure below.

Left to right top to bottom

Maps highlighting Pedestrian network in Downtwon Dubai (L) and Raffles place (R) Pedestrian paths (Source: Author Sneha S Kumar and Open street map contributors)

Walkways in DowntownDubai and Raffles place with almost identical context (Source: Author, Sneha S Kumar and Google images )

Urban Policy 2 | Public-Private Partnerships

It can be a topic of debate that corporations between public (government) and private (companies) sectors are used around the world for multiple reasons fiscal deficit, budgetary pressure, demand-supply gap, inefficient public services to infrastructure, operational efficiency, innovative technology and management skills and more active involvement of private players in public services. Possibly the most important one is the lack of sufficient funds in either party to handle projects individually and the ability to carry it out efficiently with the involvement of both parties. The formation of a public-private partnership to assume responsibilities that were solely performed by the public sector is beneficial for both, citizens and the government.

In Asia, public-private partnerships gained popularity in the development of infrastructure as they seemed more effective in achieving the money’s worth. In Kuala Lumpur, the concept of public-private partnerships has helped in overcoming the challenge of scarce housing for the urban poor. The Privatisation Policy was launched in 1983 to support the Malaysia Incorporated Policy towards increasing the private sector’s role in the country’s economic development. Though the government tried and tested the implementation of many policies, insufficient funds were the ultimate barrier to overcoming this social challenge. Wangsa Maju, a township north of downtown Kuala Lumpur is one such example of a successful PPP project. The private party was able to reap profits through success and the government was able to fulfil its social responsibilities. Some other examples include KL Sentral, Light Rail Transit (LRT), medical facilities, many highways, bus stations and others (Abd Karim, 2011). The methods used for the implementation of PPP projects in KL include Build - Operate - Transfer (BOT), Build - Lease - Transfer (BLT), Build - Operate - Own (BOO), Build - Lease - Maintain - Transfer (BLMT), Land Swap, Contract Management, Corporatisation (Source- Official portal of PPP unit)

In Singapore, public-private partnerships were introduced in 2003 and since then multiple PPPs have been successfully completed. As part of the government’s continual search for better value

for money and better ways of delivering public services, it is an alternative procurement method that public agencies can consider. PPP offers the Singapore government an additional source of quality services through tapping on the capabilities of the private sector in service delivery. The government ensures public service quality will not suffer due to PPP by specifying the service standards and appropriately incentivizing the private partner to meet these standards. Subsequently, the government outsourced projects worth S$1.3 billion to the private sector for the next 3 to 5 years (Li, 2006). The government ensures public service quality will not suffer due to PPP by specifying the service standards and appropriately incentivizing the private partner to meet these standards.

The successful fulfilment by the government of their social responsibilities in these examples was possibly a source of inspiration for Dubai. A city in which all major interventions were solely handled by the ruling family and the authorities appointed by them with no involvement from the public changed its regulatory framework. This reform was much welcomed by the public who had been demanding more participation in this otherwise zero political system. In order to win the citizens over and regain trust and confidence in the system, in 2015, the government of Dubai issued a new law (Law No. 22 of 2015). This created a legal framework for greater collaboration and contractual partnership between the public and private sectors in respect of major projects in Dubai (the new PPP law). Apart from the primary concern, the law was issued with the aim to distribute the government’s financial budget with the involvement of the private sector. Some of the benefits of the PPP law are, it allowed efficient implementation of urban development projects, brought in financial, technological expertise from the private sectors, allows citizens to have access (at least seem like it) in the decision-making procedures, trains citizens to manage such projects.

The passage from public managerialism to public-private entrepreneurialism allowed foreign investments to flow allowing financial and public image growth of Dubai. Giant holding companies partnered with the state in which the ruling family

and its allies hold a majority. For example, Meraas the large holding company developed City Walk near Dubai downtown in partnership with the Government. Though it appears to the world that these companies are authorized to function in accordance with international standards they can’t disassociate them from the vision of Sheikh for Dubai. So much so that the ruling family indeed holds companies that are directly involved in the urban development of the city and most importantly the ownership of land.

Comparison table of PPP in the three downtown cases Dubai, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur (Source-Thales group)

PPP Model in Dubai (Concession type)

• The private company acts on behalf of the public authority.

• The citizen pays the private company for the service.

• Public authority keeps control and benefits according to the concession contract.

PPP Model in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur

• Public authority pays for the service.

• Public authority keeps the public service mission.

• A private company acts as a supplier to the public authority.

Urban Policy 3 | Concept of Destination making and Branding

Place branding has been used as a new marketing strategy that brands the unique characteristics of a place, thereby stimulating the location’s growth (Kavaratzis 2004; Zenker and Martin 2011). The process of branding a place is like that of branding a product. When a product is branded, a symbol, name, design, or sign is applied to distinguish the product from its competing products, thereby forming a unique image in the minds of consumers (Kneesel, Baloglu, and Millar 2009; Kotler 1997). The strategy is driven by the necessity to boost the economy through tourism, leisure, entertainment and by attracting locals, tourists, investors and stakeholders to keep the economic cycle going. When a place is known for something unique or something that is available in only that place, be it an experience, a place, a store, it is bound to attract visitors. The problem arises when the brand is marketed to only tourists the locals are not involved. This could make the area highly touristy leave the locals disinterested and cause conflicts between both parties eventually. Destination Dubai is building an image based on iconographic prominence, immense novelty and invention, and super-modernism. Culture and identity are not the primary design considerations for architects planning buildings and spaces in Dubai.

The concept of using shipping containers to develop a leisure destination was started as Boxpark for the first time in London, UK. As seen in the previous chapters it was a successful project first as PUMA city and then as Boxpark in the original context from there on it was being circulated in several other cities including Dubai. The two cases we’ll be comparing for the importation of this model are Boxpark in Shoreditch, London and Boxpark Dubai. The fact that Boxpark strips and retrofits shipping containers that are supposedly waste to create low-cost retail space became a revolution and granted London popularity for creating the world’s first pop-up mall. It intrigued people and brought them in just to be able to experience the world’s first pop-up mall. This feeling of wanting to visit or revisit a place is what creates their Brand Experience. Dubai has jumped on to this wagon by importing this model to help with self-branding by becoming the first one to have a Boxpark in the Middle East.

Left to right Top to bottom

Map of contexts of Boxpark Dubai and Boxpark Shoreditch and Burj park exposing the contrasting choice of location. In Dubai it is located in a residential area and in Shoreditch it is sensibly located in an already commercial area (Source: Google earth)

Entrance to Boxpark Dubai and Boxpark Shoreditch

(Source: Arjun Mani and Google images) Marketing for Boxpark Shoreditch in London (Source: Marketing brochure)

Boxpark Shoreditch with an ideal location alongside a metro station and heavy marketing became the talk of the town in no time. Though the urban model by itself is something that has the potential of bringing in an economy in Dubai, it runs along the residential area on Al Wasl street for a stretch of 1 km with no transit stop nearby. In a car-dominated city like Dubai which is still trying to crack the issue of lack of walkable places, a destination like this has just brought in more traffic. In the maps sourced from google, we see Boxpark Shoreditch located in a commercial area right in the hustlebustle of the city whereas Boxpark Dubai is completely isolated from any commercial activity failing its purpose of activating street life. Talking to a few residents in Dubai in the age group 20-35 about Boxpark as a destination for socializing left us in surprise. Most of them did not know about its existence. The destination was not marketed as wholly as it was in London (see image in previous page) and something that is so unique, it is the first of its kind in UAE should have helped build a brand towards Dubai tourism and as a destination city but it unfortunately, did not.