Platform to an Arrival City: Johannesburg’s Park Station and Surrounds by South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning

6 Report 6 in the series Spatial Transformation through Transit‑Oriented Development in Johannesburg

Park Station Precinct PLATFORM TO AN ARRIVAL CITY: JOHANNESBURG’S PARK STATION AND SURROUNDS Dr Tanya Zack

Park Station Precinct

Partners

Agence Française de Développement (AFD) City of Johannesburg (CoJ) South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning, University of the Witwatersrand (SA&CP, Wits)

Steering committee members

Alexandra Appelbaum (SA&CP) Camille Chastagnol (AFD) Arthur Germond (AFD) Prof. Philip Harrison (SA&CP) Prof. Paul Jenkins (Wits) Herman Pienaar (CoJ) Dr. Margot Rubin (SA&CP) Prof. Alison Todes (Wits) Martha Stein-Sochas (AFD) Liana Strydom (CoJ) Dylan Weakley (CoJ)

Editors

Prof. Philip Harrison, Dr. Margot Rubin and Alexandra Appelbaum

Project manager

Alexandra Appelbaum

Authors

Dr. Margot Rubin and Alexandra Appelbaum

Spatial Transformation through Transit‑Oriented Development: synthesis report

Dr. Margot Rubin

The City as a Laboratory: Experimentation, Observation and Theorisation from Urban Labs

Dr. Sylvia Croese

International case studies of Transit-Oriented Development-Corridor implementation

Dr. Kirsten Harrison

Transit Corridors and the Private Sector: Incentives, Regulations and the Property Market

Neil Klug

The more things change, the more they stay the same: a case study of Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park informal settlement

Dr. Tanya Zack

Platform to an Arrival City: Johannesburg’s Park Station and Surrounds

Alexandra Appelbaum

Contestation, transformation and competing visions: a study of Orange Grove and Norwood

Lindsay Howe

Constancy and Change: Marlboro South as an interstice of marginalisation and development in the Gauteng City-Region

Prof. Umakrishnan Kollamparambil

Multiple Words and Experiences: Conditions of Life and Work along the Corridors of Freedom

Research assistance

Emmanuel Ayifah Kwanda Lande Mamokete Matjomane Lucky Nkali Lyle Prim

Survey company

Outsourced Insight

Maps

Alexandra Appelbaum and Reitumetse Selepe

Photographs

Mark Lewis

Historical photographs

Museum Africa Collection

Copy editing

Kate Tissington and Alexandra Appelbaum

Design and layout

Louise Carmichael

Park Station Precinct

At the time that these reports were researched and written, the City of Johannesburg was using the term Corridors of Freedom to refer to the Louis Botha, Empire Perth and Turffontein Strategic Area Frameworks. Although the name is currently under review we have used the original terminology throughout the reports. All quantitative data referred to without an explicit reference is drawn from the survey conducted by Outsourced Insight as part of the Spatial Transformation through Transit-Oriented Development project. 1200 people (a mix of residents, business owners and users) were surveyed in the four case study areas of this report series. All mapped data was also drawn from this survey. © City of Johannesburg 2016 To access the original data please contact the South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning, University of the Witwatersrand. www.wits.ac.za/sacp

Referencing the report:

Zack T (2016) “Platform to an Arrival City: Johannesburg’s Park Station and Surrounds”. Report 6. Spatial Transformation through Transit-Oriented Development in Johannesburg Research Report Series. South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning. University of the Witwatersrand: Johannesburg.

Park Station Precinct

Executive summary The Spatial Transformation through Transit-Oriented Development in Johannesburg report series is the product of a project undertaken between the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) and the NRF South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand. The project aimed to provide operational support to, and empirical evidence for, the City of Johannesburg’s Transit‑Oriented Development (TOD) programme – at the time known as the Corridors of Freedom (COF). It was a unique and important collaborative endeavour, in which the project proposal, research questions and final approach were co-produced by the three partners. The reports cover a range of topics, from an international comparison of TransitOriented Development Corridors, to an in-depth study of the regulatory, institutional and incentive environments in the COF, and the response from the private sector. It also included a survey of 1 200 residents, users and businesses and an indepth qualitative case study analysis of four nodes: Marlboro South; Park Station Precinct; Orange Grove and Norwood, and Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park. The case studies encompassed a wide range of the environments along Johannesburg’s corridors, including older suburbs, informal settlements, townships, public housing stock, industrial areas and transit nodes in the inner city. The team consisted of academics, officials, consultants and community members. Methodologically, all reports relied on academic and media sources, with the majority consisting of an integrated analysis of survey findings and key stakeholder interviews. The summary that follows looks at the key points from each report and offers a concise sense of the main findings.

Key findings: • The international experience supports the case for transit corridors, noting that they are useful and necessary planning instruments in urban regeneration – improving sustainability; increasing access for poorer communities, and improving rates bases in strategic areas. • Transit corridors have been associated with an improved municipal fiscus that is able to provide denser urban environments with consequently higher efficiencies in the urban form. • The current forms and institutional arrangements of TOD corridors in the CoJ demonstrate much promise and have some of the key features of successful corridors found elsewhere, i.e. a lead department with high levels of technical skill. • However, there is a need for greater coherence at both the planning and implementation level, and a need for more buy-in from all departments in the CoJ. • The CoJ has set an ambitious approach to the development of the Corridors – attempting to create a ‘guided’ enabling environment for the private sector that incentivises and attracts investment into these sites, whilst balancing the needs of the public good, and the larger developmental agenda.

III

Park Station Precinct

• There are some important locations that will potentially satisfy private sector interests of lowered risk and higher demand; these include affordable housing along Louis Botha Avenue and investment opportunities in the Knowledge Precinct. • The TOD programme has a long-time horizon. However, after just four years it has seen some successes, including the provision and use of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) by certain communities; significant public environment and infrastructure upgrades, and the construction of vital services, such as clinics in areas that were previously under-served. • In order for the impact of TOD – which extends beyond just the BRT – to be maximised, the City must foster a multi-modal transport system, including the BRT, Gautrain, commuter rail, and minibus taxis. • Across the Corridors it is clear that there is significant youthful energy directed towards micro-businesses, with many residents starting new enterprises. Louis Botha Avenue, Marlboro South and Park Station are already showing signs of being complex multi-use sites that attract people from all over South Africa and the continent. • The transit corridors already have an important economic function in that they are attractive sites due to their accessibility and the ability of residents to save on transport costs. However, demand is forcing up the price of commercial and residential property, making these areas inaccessible for poorer households.

Nodal findings: Each node faces a set of specific conditions that require particular engagements and services. • Westbury, as a site of older public housing stock, faces severe social pathologies, and very low rates of employment. Residents feel isolated and parochial – despite being quite close to the inner city in terms of physical distance – and there is a need to consider social infrastructure as a key future intervention. • Slovo Park as an informal settlement requires better services and housing but also greater participation and engagement with residents about their future. • Louis Botha Avenue (Orange Grove in particular) is mixed-use and mixed-income area and has important businesses varying in size. Here care needs to be taken to support the organic processes of informal and formal entrepreneurship and to avoid potential gentrification and displacement that could result from interventions. While

the Paterson Park housing project is a vital intervention, the governance dynamics in the area provide important lessons for the CoJ in its future interventions in middle-class areas. • Marlboro South is an area of enormous potential, but has high rates of poverty and very poor living conditions. It is very well located and has a number of businesses, at a variety of scales, which would like to remain. This area requires housing interventions, service upgrades and consideration of the urban environment, especially safety and security. • Park Station Precinct, as arguably the most important transit node in Johannesburg, suffers from a governance crisis and as a consequence has not been able to capitalise on its cosmopolitan and vibrant nature. There is a lack of support for the economic activities in the area; insufficient affordable accommodation; and the station requires better linkages into the fabric of the inner city.

Recommendations: • Currently, there is a ‘toolbox’ of incentives that is being developed to enhance partnerships with private sector developers, and there is evidence to suggest that this could be enhanced by considering questions of urban management; the release and development of state-owned land, and examining the development of demand – rather than supply-side investments. • Safety and security, questions of urban management, and employment were themes that consistently appeared across the corridors. The City needs to pay close attention to these concerns, as they are affecting all aspects of the Corridors, such as the quality of life for residents and the potential future investment from private developers. • Public participation protocols require rethinking and possibly reconfiguration. In their current formulation they are not sufficiently able to include the voices of some of the poorest and most marginalised. They are also incorrectly conceptualised as information-sharing sessions, rather than real engagement or consultation. • Furthermore, public participation needs to be seen as part of long term-relationships with communities and stakeholders that occur throughout the process rather than a once-off compliance-led activity. • Given the need for cross-sectoral and interdepartmental co-ordination, area-based management models could be highly effective in addressing these issues and should be considered as a way of addressing the host of differentiated needs across the transit corridors.

• The current practice of having ‘point people’ – particularly within the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) – dedicated to specific nodes and corridors is excellent and should be continued. • All processes in the corridors must be supported by up-to-date websites that are current with ease of access to all relevant information. • The CoJ needs to promote and publicise its achievements, and let the general public and other departments know what it has accomplished. • Exceptional care needs to be taken to ensure that built environment interventions do not worsen conditions in vulnerable communities, highlighting the need for better empirical evidence and consultation before implementation. • Built environment interventions must be complemented with social development and engagement in order for the full potential of the transit corridors to be realised, in terms of addressing the social and economic aspects of marginalisation. • Overall, there is much to be learned from the first few years of the programme that can improve the CoJ’s TOD initiatives going forward: better engagement and participation; clearer plans; better marketing and overall communication within and outside the CoJ, and careful consideration of the limits of built environment interventions. In short, the research project revealed that transit corridors are an effective programmatic choice in restructuring the spatiality of the City of Johannesburg and dealing with some of the most intractable urban problems; there are a range of ways to improve Johannesburg’s TOD programme going forward. To realise the full value of the TOD vision, it is necessary for the CoJ to continue the programme with the vigour it has demonstrated thus far. The dedicated and skilled teams in the City have already been able to achieve some successes, and with the evidence base that this study now offers, interventions and plans can be more finely honed and refined to focus in on specific community needs, whilst addressing questions of a declining fiscus and the need to restructure and reinvigorate the City of Johannesburg. This project also included a series of urban labs – a number of engagements between City officials, academics, members of civil society and the private sector and other key stakeholders – on particular issues related to Johannesburg’s future. This report is also included in the series.

Park Station Precinct

1.4 million motorised person trips daily Passenger trips per day

¢¢ There is a shortage of ranking facilities and taxi routes are extremely inefficient. They bring commuters all the way into CBD for journeys that do not require passing trough the CBD. This is not feasible in the context of such extreme congestion. ¢¢ Institutionally blurred responsibility, competing mandates and poor lines of accountability compromise strategic planning and urban management. ¢¢ Physically the precinct is poorly connected, lacks legibility and permeability and suffers modal conflict in a highly congested public environment. ¢¢ Sidewalk informal trading space is severely crowded and poorly managed. ¢¢ The public environment is poor, with infrastructure in disrepair and inadequate management of cleanliness. ¢¢ The lack of public safety is an enormous concern. ¢¢ A severe shortage of basic facilities including public toilets and facilities to support informal trading adds to the hostility of the environment. ¢¢ There is high demand for lower income housing and this is provided in apartment blocks that are in many cases poorly managed and overcrowded. ¢¢ Overall the environment prioritises vehicles and where pedestrians have dominated the space their movement is not catered for in the public realm.

Park Station Precinct should be a platform to the inner city. It requires:

2,000

Gautrain bus

If the inner city is a gateway to the rest of Johannesburg, as an arrival place for local and foreign migrants, then Park Station Precinct is the entry port. It is poised to be a successful TOD environment. It is a shopping hub - the major port for daily interprovincial and cross border consumer activity in the inner city. A new retail type – the cubicle shop – was innovated in this precinct in the early 2000s by Ethiopian entrepreneurs. This typology has spread to much of the inner city. The public transit conditions and the housing and mixed land use conditions exist; the key issue is enhancing the functionality and quality of the public realm. This requires positive open spaces, green spaces, social amenities, space for informal and formal economic activity.

But problems inhibit the TOD environment:

Metrobus

45%

2,900

32%

BRT

3,500

Long distance taxis

22%

11,400

Gautrain 17,000

Taxi congestion: 6800 taxis rank in the inner city per day

4000

¢¢ A bold public space redevelopment. ¢¢ Strong pedestrian connections, including a link between the station and the Joubert Park.

Long distance train demand

¢¢ Reduction in vehicular roads and increased space for pedestrian movement close to station and ranks (with some road closures and elevating new buildings to free ground level).

Peaks 200 000

¢¢ Taxi routes need to be rationalised to ensure that unnecessary taxi circulation in the CBD is drastically reduced. ¢¢ Improved management of street trading. ¢¢ More economically productive space, and the required supporting facilities to support residents and users. ¢¢ More well managed micro living spaces and communal accommodation. ¢¢ Improved facilities for cross border shoppers. ¢¢ Coherent signage and maps in the station and through precinct.

2800

formal ranks

rank on street

67.21%

April, June & December

Formal businesses operate from subdivided premises

passengers per month

17.5% Johannesburg 15% Zimbabwe 15% Nigeria

13% residents Occupy two rooms or more

20%

Occupy entire dwelling

51%

68%

Occupy just 1 room

residents originate from South Africa

of the household

Business types

54.7%

21.3%

22.7%

1.3%

retail

services

catering

motor industry

¢¢ Urban management in the precinct is weak.

Park Station Precinct

Table of Contents 01 INTRODUCTION 02

1.1.

Outline of Report

2.1.

Park Station Precinct 2.1.1 Heritage context

08 10

2.2. 2.3.

An Asset in Decline in the Inner City Property Market Diverse Surrounding Neighbourhoods 2.3.1. Braamfontein 2.3.2. Joubert Park 2.3.3. Hillbrow 2.3.4. Inner City Core 2.3.5. Inner City Eastern Core

11 14 14 14 15 15 17

2.4. 2.5.

Permissive Property Regulations in Park Station Precinct Land Ownership

17 19

02 THE CONTEXT

03 THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT

22 23 23 25 27

3.1. 3.2. 3.3. 3.4. 3.5.

Who Lives in The Inner City and Park Station Precinct? Diverse Local and Migrant Resident Community Increasing Demand for Short Stay, Smaller and Cheaper Accommodation Informal Subletting Social Environment Lacking in Amenities and Services

04 THE ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT

4.1. 4.2. 4.3. 4.4. 4.5.

Formal and Informal Business Informal Trade Formal and Informal Food Sellers Cross-Border Migrant Entrepreneurs and Shopping Micro Retail Economy as a Space of Innovation

32 35 38 38 43

5.1. 5.2.

Park Station as a Thoroughfare Transport Modes 5.2.1. Rail 5.2.2. Buses 5.2.3. Minibus taxi interchanges and routes 5.2.4. Private vehicles and delivery vehicles

5.3. Illegible Road Network 5.4. Hostile Pedestrian Environment 5.5. Transport Environment Requires Support Services 5.6. Conclusion

06 THE SPATIAL ENVIRONMENT

6.1. 6.2. 6.3.

Park Station as Blocking Rather than Linking the Inner City Park Station as a ‘Platform’ to the Transit Hub Park Station as a Place of Arrival

56 57 57

10.1. 10.2. 10.3.

Spatial Provocations Management Provocations Programmatic Provocations

76 81 83

05 THE TRANSPORT ENVIRONMENT

46 46 46 46 47 47 49 49 51 52 54

07 INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT: DIVERGENT APPROACHES 60 08 MUNICIPAL SERVICES AND URBAN MANAGEMENT 64 09 CRIME 70 10 RECOMMENDATIONS 76 REFERENCES 85

VII

Park Station Precinct

VIII

Abbreviations and Acronyms ABM

Area-Based Management

AFHCO

Africa Housing Company

AFTraX

Alternative Formalities, Transnationalism and Xenophobia

BRT

Bus Rapid Transit

CBD

Central Business District

CID

City Improvement District

COF

List of Tables and Figures Figure 1:

Context map of the transit-oriented development corridors and case study areas in Johannesburg

Figure 2:

Park Station Precinct in relation to the other case study areas in the Spatial Transformation through Transit-Oriented-Development report series

Figure 3:

Overview of the Park Station Precinct (Mark Lewis 2016)

Corridors of Freedom

Figure 4:

Map of Park Station and surrounds

CoJ

City of Johannesburg

Figure 5:

Residents' views on the state of the Park Station Precinct

GCRO

Gauteng City-Region Observatory

ICHIP

Figure 6:

Park Station concourse (Mark Lewis 2016)

Inner City Housing Implementation Plan

JAG

Johannesburg Art Gallery

Figure 7:

Micro retail surrounding Park Station (Mark Lewis 2016)

JDA

Johannesburg Development Agency

Map showing the zoning of Park Station (JDA 2008)

JOSHCO

Johannesburg Social Housing Company

Figure 8:

JPC

Johannesburg Property Company

Figure 9:

Map showing land use around Park Station (JDA 2008)

JRA

Johannesburg Roads Agency

Figure 10:

Employment in the Park Station Precinct

PRASA

Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa Retail Improvement District

Figure 11:

Personal monthly income of Park Station residents

RID

SACN

South African Cities Network

Figure 12:

Nationalities of residents and users in Park Station

SADC

Southern African Development Community

Languages spoken by residents and users in the Park Station precinct

SPRE

Special Relocation of Evictees

Figure 13:

TOD

Transit-Oriented Development

Figure 14:

Portion of dwelling occupied by each household

TUHF

Trust for Urban Housing Finance

Figure 15:

Nationality of business owners

UDZ

Urban Development Zone

Figure 16:

Home language of business owners

Figure 17:

Park Station Precinct businesses categorised by type

Figure 18:

Satisfaction with business performance over the past year

Figure 19:

Informal traders who sell goods from their person (Mark Lewis 2016)

Figure 20:

Where cross-border traders buying in Johannesburg sell their goods (GCRO 2015)

Figure 21:

Where cross-border informal shoppers buy their goods in Johannesburg (Peberdy 2016)

Figure 22:

Types of goods purchased by cross-border shoppers (Peberdy 2016)

Figure 23:

Estimated monthly turnover of businesses

Figure 24:

Estimated monthly profit of businesses in the Park Station Precinct

Figure 25:

Reasons for users being in the Park Station Precinct

Figure 26:

Frequency of users' visits to the Park Station Precinct

Figure 27:

Modes of transport utilised to get to Park Station

Figure 28:

Road and rail networks in the Park Station Precinct (JDA 2008)

Figure 29:

De Villiers Street densely populated by traders (Mark Lewis 2016)

Figure 30:

Wanderers taxi rank (Mark Lewis 2016)

Figure 31:

Residents who have heard of the Corridors of Freedom

Figure 32:

Business respondents' satisfaction with safety and security in the area

Figure 33:

Overall residential, business and user dissatisfaction in the Park Station Precinct

Figure 33:

Residents' satisfaction with cleanliness of the area

Park Station Precinct

INTRODUCTION The Park Station Precinct is loosely defined as the station and the surrounding three city blocks on all sides. This precinct encompasses important transport interchanges in addition to the station itself. It is fundamentally a transport-based precinct and is the key gateway to the inner city of Johannesburg. Park Station is the largest intermodal transport interchange in southern Africa (JDA 2008: 3), serving and interconnected with the whole of the inner city in terms of commuters, shoppers and transportation of goods (interview with Lisa Seftel, 6 August 2016). But the station operates at various levels: local, citywide, regional and continental. The precinct is a transport node, an economic hub, a cross-border trade hub, a residential node and a key inner city recreation space (Joubert Park). It both divides and connects the inner city. While not formally on the first phase Corridors of Freedom (COF) plans, it is undoubtedly the central hub for city transportation routes, and its functionality impacts on the functioning of the rest of the city’s transportation network. The COF are premised on transit-oriented development (TOD), and Park Station as a major modal interchange is by nature focused on transit. How it fits with TOD principles and the potential for enhancing the quality of the precinct as a TOD environment are therefore relevant. The objective of TOD is “to achieve in combination, higher density, mixed land use, improved pedestrian connectivity to public transport stations (developing a quality pedestrian public realm), reduction in parking provision and diverse accommodation for mixed income groups” (Bickford 2016: 20). The environment is centred on an efficient, integrated and reliable public transport system. These concerns are highly relevant to the complex environment of Park Station within the local context of the inner city. If Park Station is to respond to its broader context then it must play an integral role in the functioning and enhancement of the inner city. The Inner City Transformation Roadmap (CoJ 2014) outlines a set of key functions of the inner city, arguing that it “remains the most intense mixeduse centre as well as the primary entry point and transportation hub for most of the city’s commuter population.” The inner city serves a number of crucial functions that both manifest in the Park Station Precinct and are facilitated by the effectiveness of the transportation interchange. These include the inner city as a place of economic opportunity, a place of diversity of population, an employment node, a mixed residential neighbourhood, a commercial node, a regional transportation hub, a service centre (health and education), a cultural

Park Station Precinct

hub and an important marker of the city’s identity (CoJ 2014). In its mix of land use and services the Park Station Precinct is a microcosm of the activity and dynamics of the inner city. But it is also an environment that offers a uniquely intense concentration of varying interrelated activities. The precinct hosts mixed land use, varied formal and informal economic activity, multiple modes of transportation, an intense pedestrian realm, a congested road network, and high density residential and other development that cater to a range of incomes. The precinct covers multiple neighbourhood conditions. Indeed, if the inner city is a gateway to the rest of Johannesburg, as an arrival place for local and foreign migrants, then Park Station Precinct is the entry port. In economic terms, this precinct is the major port for daily interprovincial and cross-border consumer activity in the inner city. Customers from other Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries arrive and disperse from here or shop within the surrounding city blocks. With its high levels of public transportation, walkability, dense living and economic activity, and its role as a hub and a destination place, Park Station holds all the ingredients of a successful TOD environment. These base conditions should provide the platform for successful TOD development. The success of the precinct as the major interchange in the city is however compromised at an institutional, physical and management level. Institutionally blurred responsibilities, competing

Park Station Precinct

City of Tshwane

City of Johannesburg Tshwane City of

N1 N14

N14

Midrand

Roodepoort

Sandton Mogale City

Roodepoort

Randburg M1

Johannesburg CBD

Ekurhuleni

Empire Perth Development N14 Corridor

Turffontein Development Corridor

Soweto Development Corridor

Soweto Development Corridor Roodepoort

Mogale City

Marlboro South

Orange Grove andRandburg Norwood

Park Station Precinct

Johannesburg Westbury,CBD Coronationville

Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park

Ekurhuleni

Highway

N17

Arterial Roads

Rea Vaya BRT N12

Emfuleni

Coordinate System: GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994 Datum: Hartebeesthoek 1994 Date: 2017/05/19 Units: Degree

Johannesburg

3.25

6.5

City of Johannesburg N3

Marlboro South

Louis Botha Development Corridor

Orange Grove and N1 Norwood

Empire Perth Development Corridor CBD

Ekurhuleni Turffontein Development Corridor

rffontein

13 19.5 26 Soweto Development Km Corridor

N17 Soweto Development Corridor

Marlboro South

Orange Grove and M1 Norwood

Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park

Johannesburg CBD

Ekurhuleni

Highway N17

Arterial Roads

Johannesburg CBD

City of Tshwane Midvaal

Marlboro South

Orange Grove and Norwood Soweto

3.25

6.5

Emfuleni 19.5 26 Km

Coordinate System: GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994 Datum: Hartebeesthoek 1994 Date: 2017/05/19 Units: Degree

Randburg

Coordinate System: GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994 Datum: Hartebeesthoek 1994 Date: 2017/05/19 Units: Degree

3.25

6.5

Marlboro South Orange Grove and Norwood M1

Park Station Precinct

Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park

Sandton

Louis Botha Development Corridor

Arterial Roads

Randburg

Rea Vaya BRT

Empire Perth Development Corridor

Orange Grove and N1 Norwood Stationmap Precinct FigurePark 1: Context of the transit-oriented development corridors and case study areas in Johannesburg Westbury, Coronationville

City of Tshwane

Park Station Precinct

Highway

Park Station Precinct

Sandton

N12

Empire Perth Development Corridor Turffontein Development Corridor

Soweto Development Corridor

Rea Vaya BRT

Westonaria

Midvaal Louis Botha Development Corridor

Midrand

Randburg

City of Johannesburg

Sandton

City of Tshwane Westonaria Midvaal

Sandton Development Turffontein Corridor

Rea Vaya BRT

N12

Midrand

Turffontein

Sow e to

N17

Empire Perth Development Corridor

Park Station Precinct

Highway Soweto

Turffontein

Sow e to

City of Johannesburg Louis Botha Development Corridor

N1 N1

Orange Grove and M1 Norwood

and Slovo Park

Soweto

Turffontein

N1 Empire Perth Development Corridor Midrand

Randburg

Soweto

Louis Botha Development Corridor

Marlboro South

Sow e to

Louis Botha Development Corridor

Sandton

City of Tshwane

City of Johannesburg

Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park 13

19.5

Km Louis Botha Development Corridor

Turffontein

0.75 1.5

4.5

6 Km

Empire Perth Development Corridor Turffontein Development Corridor Soweto Development Corridor Highway Arterial Roads Rea Vaya BRT

Turffontein Development Corridor

Figure 2: Park Station Precinct in relation to the other case study areas in the Spatial

Transformation through Transit-Oriented-Development report series Soweto Development Johannesburg CBD

and Slovo Park

Corridor

Highway Park Station Arterial RoadsPrecinct

Highway M2

Arterial Roads

Park Station Precinct

mandates and poor lines of accountability compromise strategic planning and urban management. Physically, the precinct is poorly connected, lacks legibility and permeability and suffers modal conflict in a highly congested public environment. The latter is poor, with infrastructure in disrepair and the inadequate management of cleanliness. Design interventions have focused on particular market or taxi rank spaces but not on a coherent connected and enjoyable public space. Therefore the area around the station fails to read as the integrated TOD and station platform that it could potentially be. The lack of public safety is an enormous concern, and a severe shortage of basic facilities (including public toilets and facilities to support informal trading) adds to the hostility of the environment. Overall the environment prioritises vehicles, and where pedestrians have dominated the space their movement is not catered for in the public realm. Management responsibilities for security and for urban management are problematic. The property market is buoyant and there are positive investments taking place. At the same time there may be a threat of displacement and the narrowing of options for low-income and shortstay accommodation. There are few social and recreational facilities to support a resident and user population.

Figure 3: Overview of the Park Station Precinct (Mark Lewis 2016)

Park Station Precinct

This report will therefore interrogate how governance, place, movement and socio-economic conditions operate in practice, and what the inhibitors of each are to successful TOD in the Park Station Precinct. It will explore the detailed dynamics of the neighbourhoods and land uses surrounding and within the Park Station Precinct. The report is based on the findings of desktop research, interviews, a qualitative survey and observation of the Park Station Precinct. Because it serves so many functions at various scales the precinct impacts upon a range of stakeholders, including public transport users and operators; local residents, businesses and their employees; landowners and property developers; entrepreneurs and job creators; tourists and visitors to the area; and local, provincial and national government. A survey was commissioned to solicit the views of residents, business operators and users of the area. In addition, key interviews with local government officials, property developers, a Passenger Rail Agency

of South Africa (PRASA) official and consultants were conducted. Less formal conversations were held with business and accommodation operators in the area. Desktop reviews of previous plans helped to identify key issues and opportunities, while physical observation of the environment grounded the findings.

1.1. Outline of Report The key elements to be considered in optimising the role of the Park Station Precinct are interrelated. However for coherence they are discussed in the following sequence in this report: • Section 2: TOD environment of the station and its surrounds in the inner city context; • Section 3: Social fabric of the precinct, including residential environment which supports activities and draws benefits from it, and is also disadvantaged by factors in the precinct; • Section 4: Economic conditions in the area and their relationship to the transportation function; • Section 5: Transportation function of the precinct as a major point of arrival and distribution on the transport network of the wider city, and a central point on the corridor network; • Section 6: Spatial environment and responses to the functions of the precinct; • Section 7: Impact of the institutional and regulatory environment; • Section 8: Municipal services and urban management • Section 9: Crime in the precinct; and • Section 10: Provocations and recommendations arising from the case study.

Park Station Precinct

THE CONTEXT The Park Station Precinct is located at “the geographical centre of Johannesburg’s inner city” and has “the potential to knit together all the surrounding precincts such as Braamfontein, Constitution Hill, Hillbrow/ Berea, Ellis Park, Fashion District, Retail Improvement District (RID), Gauteng Government Precinct and Newtown Cultural Precinct” (JDA 2008: 55). The precinct consists of extremely diverse neighbourhoods, with some of these exhibiting varied qualities and types of activity and built form. The neighbourhoods that surround and bleed into the Park Station Precinct are feeders to the transport interchanges and to the economic activities in the precinct. The variances in these neighbourhoods indicate the many spatial conditions that exist in the precinct.

2.1. Park Station Precinct Park Station consists of a 22.6 hectare site that includes station buildings, administration offices, taxi and bus ranking facilities, canteens, shops (within the station building), informal trade (in courtyard space and associated with the taxi rank), heritage buildings with variable intensities of use, substantial portions of vacant patches of land, and railway lines and associated yards. The area is served by minibus taxis and train—as well as Metrobus, Rea Vaya, Gautrain and long distance buses—and is in walking distance to town and central inner city suburbs. Defunct postal tunnels exist underground, linking Park Station to the Jeppe Street Post Office and to Kazerne. The station is surrounded by varied urban conditions and, unsurprisingly, solicits a wide range of responses. Residents’ perceptions of the precinct surrounding Park Station were solicited in a survey of 100 residents in three city blocks on all sides of Park Station. Opinions on the conditions of the environment varied widely, but were split relatively evenly between those who believed the area was getting worse, staying the same, and improving (see Figure 5). According to Horowitz, “The station itself is bleak, empty and windswept on its north and western side. On the south and east it is jampacked” (interview, 19 May 2016). The precinct is dominated by transport operations and huge crossborder shopping in the vicinity. It hosts the taxi ranks of Kazerne, Wanderers (Park City), Jack Mincer (Noord Street) and Metro Mall (Bree Street). Joubert Park and the Drill Hall are public amenities.

Park Station Precinct

The eastern side of the station, despite being the most densely used boundary, is particularly poorly integrated. It is unsafe and there are problematic connections through the Wanderers taxi rank to the eastern CBD. The inner city’s largest open space, Joubert Park, is located here and it also hosts the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG). However, the potential of connecting the station to Joubert Park is not exploited. This environment includes highrise apartments, hotels, mixed-use developments with retail at ground floor, and shopping centres. It is an intense retail area, comprising dense formal and informal trade. Retail occurs at the Bridge Shopping Centre and informal retail along various streets. Small-scale and micro retail occupies the ground floors and higher floors of many buildings between Park Station and the Fashion District in the southeast of the CBD. The residential environment is mixed, with some well-managed buildings and many sectional title buildings that are weakly managed with high densities and poor services. The area hosts many so-called ‘bad buildings’. There are also empty and underutilised heritage buildings immediately south of the station. Beyond that, the core CBD has a tight street grid densely occupied by medium- and highrise buildings averaging six storeys in height. It is the heart of formal large volume retail, with informal trade on sidewalks and commercial or residential use occupying upper floors. Schools and clinics exist in high-rise buildings. The Newtown precinct southwest of the station houses larger low-rise commercial, entertainment and cultural developments that interrupt the grid. It hosts the Market Theatre, Museum Africa, SciBono and a recently developed shopping mall. Warehouse Park Station Precinct

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City of Tshwane

City of Johannesburg Park Station Precinct

buildings are being redeveloped for entertainment Louis Botha Development Park Station and residential use. It offers some courtyard and Corridor Louis Botha open Corridor space but these are underutilised in a CBD Empire Perth Development Empire-Perthwhere Corridor open space is in short supply. Corridor Open Spaces Turffontein Development Braamfontein lies north of Park Station. It is an CorridorHighways educational, commercial and student housing

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Braamfontein

Midrand Hillbrow

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Roads and municipal zone. According to Horowitz, “The SowetoArterial Development CorridorMain Roads north and south of Braamfontein are completely

Sandton

unrelated to each other. And are extremes of each other. One is congested and crowded (south), the OrangeRailway Grove and other feels unoccupied (north)” (interview, 19 May Norwood 2016). Modernist buildings with concrete platforms Rea Vaya BRT are common in Braamfontein immediately north of Park Station Precinct X Taxi Ranks the station. It is an area with public and privatised ! Westbury, Coronationville ! P Museums/Galleries open space that is dominated by hostile surfaces and Slovo Park and blank façades. Central Braamfontein is ¬ Health Facilities & Highway dominated by a commercial core of tall buildings; ! Schools both this area and the west Braamfontein host a Arterial Roads D Police Stations ! mix of building heights and a walkable street Rea Vaya BRT grid. Ground level retail offers interest and relief to pedestrians. Recent developments have opened a square and enlivened streets within a finer grid

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Johannesburg CBD

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The Joubert Park

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Newtown D !

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Arterial Roads

Date: 2017/05/19

Main Roads ! Precinct Park Station

Local Roads

Park Station

Railway

Louis Botha Corridor

Rea Vaya BRT Taxi Ranks

Empire-Perth Corridor ¬ & The Joubert Park Open Spaces

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P Highways!

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ArterialJoubert Roads Park

Main Roads X ! Local Roads

D Police Stations !

Railway Rea Vaya BRT

X Taxi Ranks ! Figure 4: Map of Park Station and surrounds ! P Museums/Galleries ¬ Health Johannesburg CBD &

Louis Botha Corridor ¬ ! P & Empire-Perth Corridor

Facilities

Schools

Park Station Precinct 09 D Police Stations !

Museums/Galleries Schools

The high-rise developments of Joubert Park and Hillbrow to the northeast are situated on a tight street grid. Large buildings (including the Civic Centre) dominate the link from the station to Hillbrow (via Braamfontein). They offer no respite at ground level – neither in terms of accessibility nor of interesting building frontage. Furthermore, the steep topography and unattractive or narrow sidewalks make the pedestrian connection between the station precinct and Hillbrow uncomfortable. While some of the high‑rise residential blocks are well-managed, several are stressed sectional title developments. Hotels serving long-distance traders are found in the area. Low-fee private schools and clinics (that might be oversubscribed) are located in the area. Contraventions of land use regulations are widespread in Hillbrow, Joubert Park and the eastern sector of the inner city.

2.1.1 Heritage context ¬ &

Looking back: Design of Park Station

Johannesburg CBD

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Highways

Coordinate System: GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994 D Datum: Hartebeesthoek 1994 Coordinate System: GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994 Units: Degree Datum: Hartebeesthoek 1994

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Open Spaces

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Park Station Precinct

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Date: 2017/05/11 Units: Degree

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of small ground level retail and restaurants space, enhancing walkability and offering opportunity for lingering in the urban space.

0 00.1 3.25 0.2 6.5

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19.5 0.8 26 Kilometers Km

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Designed over a period of two decades from 1946, the new Johannesburg station involved the decking of the railway lines to create a vast building podium on 56 acres of land (Chipkin 1993: 253). The podium separated two concourses – one for white commuters and the other for black commuters. The station complex took over the original Wanderers cricket ground. The recreation space offered by that facility was not replaced in the inner city. In the 1950s major traffic bridges were constructed across the railway line on Harrison, Sauer and Rissik Streets to connect the routes from the south to those that led north. In the 1950s and 1960s Braamfontein was transformed from “railwaymen’s verandahed, semi-detached cottages, with small hotels, The Park Station precinct is home to many culturally and historically significant sites. These are identified in the heritage study undertaken by Osmond Lange (JDA 2008): • “Park Station, historically the arrival point of migrant labourers to work on the Witwatersrand gold mines

saloon bars, flats and shopping streets into a high-rise, high‑density business area, a natural extension of the CBD” (Chipkin 1993: 253). The volumetric station complex introduced the concept of comprehensive design to Johannesburg – space where buildings and pedestrian precincts occupied a site that restricted motor traffic to the perimeter. However Chipkin (1993) points out that the station buildings fail to dominate their surroundings and the Rissik Street concourse is a desolate space. This and the concourse that was originally reserved for black passengers, offer the potential for additional social amenities, in the view of Chipkin. He finds influences of Le Corbusier, Niemeyer and Italian modernism in the station architecture. • Park Station Concourse, site of 1964 bomb attack by John Harris • The Drill hall, venue for the 1956 Treason Trial • Rissik Street, historically up to today a route for protest marches • Shell House, former African National Congress Headquarters and site of the 1994 massacre Park Station Precinct

• Two of the singularly most important buildings in Johannesburg, Leith and Moerdyk’s Old Park station Building on Eloff Street and Lutyens’ Johannesburg Art Gallery in Joubert Park • Important religious buildings, including St Mary’s Anglican cathedral on Hoek Street • Numerous fine examples of art deco architecture, particularly in the Joubert Park area • Buildings linked to military history, including

the MOTH building and memorial obelisk on Noord Street • A rich sporting heritage linked to the previous location of the Wanderers Club in Kruger Park (today’s Park station)” (JDA 2008 69). The plan offers recommendations for celebrating this heritage, for the adaptive reuse of historic spaces and for decluttering the edges to key places such as Joubert Park. It also calls for memorials, plaques and monuments to significant events and historical narratives.

Residents views

36%

38%

Improving

Getting worse

CBD. Residential use remains the core demand with very low vacancies (0.5%). The demand in the low middle-income bracket is still high but demand for low-cost accommodation has increased. This is in line with recent census data that indicates that some 30 000 households in the inner city cannot afford the formal accommodation on offer. As the cost of conversion has risen, so the opportunity to create affordable, unsubsidised apartment space is constrained. The residential demand has inspired listed property investors to invest in the inner city. These recent investments include a R600 million investment in residential stock in Johannesburg and Pretoria inner cities by Octodec Investments and Premium Properties, the purchase of the Africa Housing Company (AFHCO) Group by SA Corporate Real Estate Fund, and the purchase of Jika Properties by Arrowhead (JDA 2016: 37). Conversion of space to small-scale and micro retail is prevalent south of Park Station. There is a distinct

difference in the extent of subdivisions of business premises in Braamfontein versus the rest (south and east) of the precinct. Survey information indicates that 21.43% of formal businesses surveyed were located in subdivided premises. By contrast, 67.21% of formal premises scanned in the rest of the area operated from subdivided premises. The general trend within retail space in the eastern quadrant of the CBD is for subdivision of the older and larger retail spaces into smaller shops. This trend is significant as it has spread westwards and is picking up as a mainstream retail footprint. These conditions impact on Park Station. A status quo report on the Park Station site acknowledges that there is not the market demand for the commercial ‘big box’ shopping centre suggested in previous Park Station plans at this stage. Moreover, the recently developed Newtown Junction mall and the proposed retail developments on the Civic Centre site would compete with such developments (ARUP 2016: 15).

26%

Staying the same

Figure 5: Residents’ views on the state of the Park Station Precinct

2.2. An Asset in Decline in the Inner City Property Market The inner city hosts 13.4% of the total population of Gauteng (ARUP 2016: 27) and the neighbourhoods surrounding Park Station exhibit considerable residential densities. The residential heartland of this area remains the neighbourhood of Hillbrow, which hosts a population density that exceeds international norms of high-density neighbourhoods at 68 418 persons per km2.1 These figures have given rise to a residential demand that dominates the property market. The City of Johannesburg (CoJ) is considering an application to National Treasury for the extension of the Urban Development Zone (UDZ) benefit to Park Station Precinct and to other station precincts along the Corridors. While this benefit is not the major driver of investment in the inner city, it is an added benefit that

Park Station Precinct

indicates state commitment to regeneration. This regeneration takes particular forms in the inner city and the precinct under consideration. An investigation conducted for the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) provides a number of indicators around property market trends in the inner city during the period 2007-2014 (JDA 2016). There are noteworthy findings that are pertinent to the Park Station Precinct. The volume and total value of transactions, as well as the returns on investment, have declined since the 2007 peak. There is on-going conversion of commercial space to residential space. But returns on commercial space have dwindled; office vacancies have increased; and rents lag at about R70 per m2. The inner city must compete with oversubscribed commercial space in decentralised nodes. The retail sector is strong and there are conversions to both large retail chains and small sized shops across the

y way of comparison the population density of the most densely populated district in Hong Kong, B namely Kwun Tong, is 57259 pp/km2 (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government 2015)

Figure 6: Park Station concourse (Mark Lewis 2016)

The implications for this immense trend in the inner city, particularly for the balance of uses and the required supporting facilities, have not been established. There is a high risk around an imbalance of land use in the inner city as residential use is prioritised by developers over all other uses. As Horowitz (interview, 19 May 2016) asks: where is the replacement of the economically productive commercial or light manufacturing stock? Where are the small start-up companies? What is the economic activity other than retail? To the east of

the CBD the loss of manufacturing stock is also a threat to the possibility of developing artisanal training and entrepreneurship. The property market considerations on the PRASA site consider decline in the area and highlight opportunity. This is intimately linked with urban management concerns. The Park Station asset has been in decline owing to poor asset management, underperforming rentals, a poor public environment and space management in the vicinity, low levels of

Park Station Precinct

investment, a changing demography, and competition from surrounding retail. Several stakeholders echo the concern noted by this report about urban management in Park Station and surrounds: There has been a general inability by the local authority and the asset owner in managing the precinct(s) around and within Park Station with the result that the public spaces and areas within the assets are not properly managed. The poor management of spaces also does not allow re development strategies to be implemented successfully and the income from the asset does not allow or cope with asset management costs. Also, there needs to be the active participation of the local authority in the management of the spaces surrounding Park Station (ARUP 2016: 17).

2.3. Diverse Surrounding Neighbourhoods 2.3.1. Braamfontein

Figure 7. Micro retail surrounding Park Station (Mark Lewis 2016)

Park Station Precinct

Braamfontein has been fully developed with predominantly high-rise developments and there is little opportunity for building densification. There is a need for more affordable student accommodation. According to the CEO of student accommodation provider South Point: “Proximity is core to our business. The value of our offering for students depends on proximity to campus and to transportation” (interview with Ndumiso Davidson, 4 August 2016). There are various design frameworks in place for Braamfontein and these have inspired City investment in public environment upgrades. In addition, the Braamfontein City Improvement District (CID) has actively put in place security and cleaning measures. Private investment has inspired loft apartments, student accommodation, public environment upgrades and the development of a creative hub of design shops, boutique food outlets and art galleries. A weekend market has also been established. However the turnaround in property prices and investment has been criticised for its gentrification (the displacement of poorer residents and users as enhanced property and environments attract more affluent people) (Burocco 2014; Local Studio 2016). The informal trade sector particularly has been removed and is not catered for in the Braamfontein street level environment. The restriction of street trading leaves sidewalks as pedestrian domains. The issue of space for informal trade has been raised in City negotiations for a new street trading plan.

The character of Braamfontein varies from west to east. Braamfontein is dissected by major routes that create sub-neighbourhoods (Local Studio 2016), namely: North Braamfontein (comprising corporate head offices and the civic node); South Braamfontein (comprising South Point and Play Braamfontein); East Braamfontein (the Gautrain Station precinct); and West Braamfontein (Wits University). Over the past decade the energy of Braamfontein has shifted from the corporate space in the north to the Play Braamfontein environment of the core. The dynamic has changed in favour of youth capital (interview with Yael Horowitz, 19 May 2016). Decline in Braamfontein is generally concentrated to the south of the neighbourhood. This distinct concentration of decay has tended to focus new investment in the north. However investment in both the southeast and southwest has recently accelerated. To the west this is spurred by acquisitions and developments associated with Wits University. The Gautrain Station has generated building development by the state, and private residential investment is taking place through the refurbishment of buildings. Furthermore, a new plan for Braamfontein has recently been conceived. However the intentions of Walkable Braamfontein to make Braamfontein a ‘space of pause’ conflicts with the City’s managed lane policy, which envisions fast moving traffic on Jorissen and De Korte Streets. It is important to find ways to reconcile these conflicts. Wits University is suggesting that it appoints architects and planners to work with the City to develop and coordinate plans that reconcile the range of interests (interview with Yael Horowitz, 19 May 2016).

2.3.2. Joubert Park The neighbouring suburb of Joubert Park hosts a large number of buildings in decline, along with renovated rental and social housing developments. This residential environment consists of high-rise apartment buildings in a tight grain and built right up to the street edge. Sidewalks accommodate pedestrians and street traders, while private open space is confined to balconies (where these have not been appropriated for living space). The JDA urban design framework for this precinct emphasises the importance of reinforcing residential uses around the park and converting existing office space overlooking the park to residential wherever this is feasible. It also makes detailed proposals for the treatment of residential uses that front the park. Park Station Precinct

There are also proposals for pedestrianising streets that connect the station and park, and for expanding the residential offering in this area (JDA 2008).

2.3.3. Hillbrow Hillbrow is an extremely dense residential area with predominately large multi-unit residential (rental and sectional title) apartments. It also accommodates a wide mix of uses and includes ground floor commercial and entertainment use along high streets, as well as commercial use scattered through the area. There is an intensity of informal activities along streets and inside buildings. The urban form is compact, high-rise and high-density, with bulky residential tower block developments. All buildings have been built right up to the street edge giving the area a tight, urban character. All informal retail activity takes place on the very narrow and already congested pavements or at the ends of the service lanes (Silverman and Zack 2007). Most buildings are taller than five storeys, which suggests the need for lifts. However lifts are often the first services to break down in the face of inadequate maintenance, making it difficult – if not impossible – for the elderly or the disabled to continue living in these buildings. There is a shortage of formal social and community services, although some of these exist informally, and there is a need for play areas. Directly relevant to the Park Station Precinct is the Braamfontein/Hillbrow sub place, where the data indicates there are 7 333 apartments for 11 210 households (CoJ 2016). Decaying and dilapidated buildings tend to be evenly distributed throughout Hillbrow, with Silverman and Zack (2007: 22) noting that in Hillbrow: There is some evidence that retail establishments like spazas, shebeens, hairdressing salons, laundry services and crèches are being operated from the upper floors of residential flat blocks where access control is not vigorously enforced. These businesses are generally run from private flats. In some instances, these businesses operate without the knowledge or consent of the owners. In other instances, the building owners encourage some non-residential uses within their buildings and may derive additional revenue from these uses. However, there continues to be significant investment and refurbishment of buildings. In some cases these are undertaken in pockets of regeneration

Park Station Precinct

(such as the Ekhaya Precinct) while in other areas individual buildings are being upgraded for rental accommodation. The area hosts a large number of overcrowded buildings in various conditions of health and safety. There is an increase in the subdivision of flats to rooms and spaces with shared facilities; some yield reasonable living conditions and others result in poor conditions and exploitative rentals. The area houses a large stable lower-middle income working population. It is also a place of entry to the city and a refuge and escape for marginalised groups. Families and small households live in the area. Several social housing developments cater for different income levels and household sizes. There is severe overcrowding in high-risk buildings, some of which are hijacked (CoJ 2016). The size of buildings is a significant factor in land management. In bigger buildings economies of scale work in favour of property owners or managers. The high costs of security, maintenance of the communal spaces, upkeep of services and salaries (of caretakers, cleaners etc.) can be spread among a large number of tenants. This is much more difficult in smaller buildings. The first renovations of apartment buildings in the early 1990s attracted large developers (Zack and Silverman 2007). Increasingly, however, high demand and the availability of development finance have enabled smaller developers to enter the market. The size of the units has also affected land management. The large amount of space in older apartments, combined with low affordability levels of the current tenants, effectively invites sub-tenancy and allows residents to occupy flats on a one-room-per-family basis. This inevitably increases density. However the buildings offer substantial capacity for density increases, as the apartments are extremely spacious. Many still conform to the building by-laws, which allocate a minimum of 6 m2 per person.

2.3.4. Inner City Core This precinct is close to Park Station and stretches from the Gauteng Legislature precinct northwards to Park Station, and from Newtown in the west to the Carlton Centre precinct and western boundary of the Fashion District to the east. This is the mediumto high-rise formal retail centre of the inner city. It includes the Retail Improvement District (RID), the High Court Precinct, the Carlton Centre and Small Street Mall, and developments around the BreePlein-Jeppe area. It offers the largest concentration of retail space in the city. The zoning map does Park Station Precinct

not reveal the intense activity, particularly in the area southeast of the station. There, retail space at ground floor level has been reconfigured and retail activities within buildings are not distinguished in zoning. An intense cross-border shopping district begins tentatively at the immediate surrounds of Park Station and intensifies in repurposed office buildings southeast of the station precinct, in the so-called Ethiopian Quarter. There, thousands of tiny shops have been carved out of larger retail space, office space and what were blank façades to buildings to create high-rise semi-formal shopping centres. The retail trade is constant, congested, vibrant and thriving. It is not recognised in zoning plans or indeed in any precinct plans for the area. The City’s 2016 Inner City Housing Implementation (ICHIP) summarises the housing conditions as follows: the area has witnessed an increasing number of private conversions from office to rental accommodation; there is some ‘slumlording’, and a small number of sectional title buildings are in stressed condition (CoJ 2016). According to the ICHIP, it is important to retain the business component of the inner city and to promote employment opportunities. In addition, there is a dire need for adequate social, health and educational facilities to support the growing residential population. There is insufficient quality public open space to accommodate the large number of people in the precinct (JDA 2008). These are the uses that need to be prioritised by any public intervention in this area. Improved walkability, the extension of CIDs and increased public space have all been called for previous plans for this area. All of these support TOD in the Park Station vicinity.

2.3.5. Inner City Eastern Core This precinct is mixed use with light manufacturing, automotive and commercial use, and is also the site of the Fashion District, Jewel City and the ABSA Campus. It has experienced significant urban decay and vacancies since the 1990, but is emerging as a mixed-use residential-industrialretail precinct. There are high occupancy rates in many buildings, with many degraded and illegally occupied. Conversion of commercial space into low-cost rental housing has continued in this area. Intense gentrification has taken place in the southeast Maboneng Precinct, with the conversion of warehousing into loft apartments, work studios and live-work spaces.

Park Station Precinct

Previous plans call for derelict buildings to be reclaimed; improved walkability and connectivity to transport; reinforcement of cross-border trade facilities; improved and increased social and recreational facilities and support for continued private investment in housing development. ICHIP highlights the need for the rehabilitation of sectional title and bad buildings as well as the roll out of accommodation for the Special Relocation of Evictees (SPRE) programme. It is important to focus public investment on conversion of buildings and spaces for recreational use, as well as vacant plots and the worst of the so-called ‘bad buildings’ – where these are not structurally sound and occupants have been accommodated elsewhere – for open space (CoJ 2016) Overall, the Park Station Precinct provides an intense land use mix with commercial, retail, residential and institutional uses. This mix supports the transit system as both origins and destinations are located around the station. This increases the use of the transit system for multiple types of journey. However, property market pressures could arguably favour non-residential uses or favour certain types of residential use over others. Yet consolidated investment in the space to make it a neighbourhood, or to make the sub-neighbourhoods viable multifaceted places with sufficient facilities, has not been achieved.

2.4. Permissive Property Regulations in Park Station Precinct Figure 8 shows the zoning of the Park Station Precinct. The inner city core offers highly permissive land use zoning parameters, designed to encourage an intense high-rise CBD. Park Station is located at the confluence of various zoning frameworks. Braamfontein to the northwest is predominantly Business 1, and Institutional zoning covers the municipal precinct to the north. The northeast of the neighbourhoods of Joubert Park and Hillbrow include a wide band of Business 1 zoning along a retail and commercial strip and are dominated by Residential 4 zoning bordered by Institutional. Joubert Park is the largest public open space in the core inner city. The core CBD to the south is zoned Business 1 and most of Newtown to the southwest is zoned General. Education zoning covers the university campus and Residential 2 and Residential 4 are found on the western edge of the study area. These are highly permissive zonings for land use

Figure 8. Map showing the zoning of Park Station (JDA 2008)

Park Station Precinct

and density, offering the platform for a complex and mixed environment with the population thresholds and business use to support a core business district centred on TOD. The zoning of the Park Station site as S.A.R. (railways and ancillary uses) permits wide development options on the site. The permissive zoning is not necessarily an incentive for development. Much of the development in the inner city is residential, and for this use the area is over-zoned. The City’s municipal rating system pertains to the zoning rather than the land use of a property, with a rebate applied to residential zoning. Sites that offer business zoning (which many of the sites that are being converted to residential use do) extract high property rates. Many property owners are rezoning their properties to enable lower rates (interview with Marietjie Reinecke, 30 August 2016). Development Planning in the CoJ receives applications for changes in zoning; this is not the bulk of change happening in the area. There are obvious changes occurring in the environment, with changes in actual land use, conversions of property to smaller spaces, etc. There is a lot of building activity.2 However, the legal conversions are revealed in building plan applications and not by development or strategic sections of the town planning department of the City. Further, there is no tracking of changes in land use and what this may mean for city planning, projections or strategy.

2.5. Land Ownership Land ownership in the precinct is varied and brings multiple interests and approaches into the precinct. There is substantial state (PRASA, CoJ, Transnet, Eskom) and institutional (medical, religious) property ownership in the vicinity of the station. Housing companies (Jozi Housing, South Point, AFHCO and Connaught) and individual large-scale residential landlords also own a significant number of buildings. Residential property developers are taking an interest in the area south of the station. The southeast quadrant hosts large-scale new and planned housing developments. For example, AFHCO is purchasing hotel accommodation and Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI) is redeveloping Shell House to accommodate 600 low middle-income rental apartments. This will introduce an income mix into a portion of the environment that is currently accommodating low‑income households in a range of circumstances.

Park Station Precinct

While some of the accommodation is within well‑managed buildings, a number of buildings in the area are overcrowded, stressed and subject to failed sectional title development. The use of state-owned land in the precinct is crucial to unlocking and facilitating urban development. Public buildings are amongst the most neglected in the Park Station Precinct. This includes heritage buildings that flank the station. The danger of selling off land in the face of critical urban needs should be noted. According to Parnell et al: “Selling off land or rights to develop and occupy public land are also other revenue generating options, but caution must inform such decisions. Simply regarding public land as an investment asset can have detrimental longterm implications and can run counter to operating in the ‘public interest’” (2007: 23). There has been a concern with municipal tendencies to release public land (Parnell et al 2007: 31): Well-located land needs to be acquired for accommodating the poor in easy access of economic and social opportunities. It has been suggested that state land should be unlocked particularly alongside proposed movement corridors and nodes. These kinds of approaches to acquiring land for housing could make significant inroads into changing City’s current urban form. While the provincial housing department has been able to assist, little effort appears to be made by the JPC to acquire state land for low income housing. By not making this its priority, the CoJ is in danger of losing an opportunity to make direct, deliberate interventions in the urban spatial structure. Furthermore, the Johannesburg Property Company (JPC) has been criticised for “not aligning its thinking to City’s vision and principles, and thereby undermining efforts towards more equitable and transformative land development” (Parnell et al 2007: 33): The JPC’s focus lies in land disposal as a source of municipal revenue. The concern has been raised that it continues to sell off Council assets to the highest bidder if they are deemed surplus to CoJ’s requirements. Other departments feel that their focus should lie in land acquisition to fulfil municipal policy imperatives. Its activities appear to run parallel to, and often contradict the intentions of other departments.

either the Development Planning nor Building Control department officials interviewed for this study N were able to provide details on the number of conversions in the area. This should be tracked.

Figure 9. Map showing land use around Park Station (JDA 2008)

Park Station Precinct

THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT 3.1. Who Lives in The Inner City and Park Station Precinct? Analyses have been conducted of income data contained in the Stats SA 2011 population census. The area used in this analysis includes those sub places that are situated within the boundaries of the City’s UDZ.3 This is a broader area than the threshold of the Park Station Precinct but provides some indication of the housing and affordability circumstances of the resident population in the inner city catchment of the station and its associated transport services. It indicates rapid population growth – 23% growth between 2001 and 20114 – but slower growth in the number of households (6%), suggesting substantially higher occupancy densities. There are some 92 000 households in the inner city. Across the UDZ geographic area the ICHIP study found that the number of households exceed the number of registered units by almost 100%. Most inner city residents (84%) are employed; nevertheless many households have extremely low incomes (CoJ 2016). “The 2011 Census shows that there are now 33 861 households – approximately 121 899 people – living in the inner city who earn below R3 200 per month. This means that over 49% of households in the inner city earn less than R3 200 per month” (SERI 2013). In the Park Station sub-precinct the average monthly household income is R7 700 and there is a population of 43 167 people comprising 12 234 households (CoJ 2016). The employment status of residents is reflected in responses to the survey in Figure 10.

Personal income varies significantly in Park Station. The modal category for personal income in Park Station is R2 501-R3 500 per month, containing 19% of respondents (see Figure 11).

Employment

52%

Employed

33%

Self-employed

52%

Employed

33%

Self-employed

Unemployed, seeking work

In education

Home duties

Unemployed, not seeking work

Retired / Pensioner

Figure 10. Employment in the Park Station Precinct

Park Station Precinct

3 The UDZ comprises the neighbourhoods of the CBD, Braamfontein, Berea, Hillbrow, Yeoville, Bertrams, Troyeville, Jeppestown, Fordsburg, Pageview and Vrededorp. 4 The national population growth figure for the same period is 16%.

Park Station Precinct

Monthly income None R1-R200

having been born in Johannesburg. More than 15% were born in Zimbabwe and almost 15% in Nigeria. The home languages spoken by respondents point to a very diverse population.

R201-R500

In the survey 55% of the ‘other users’ of the area identified as male and 46% as female.Just over a quarter (26%) of other users were born in Johannesburg, and 31% were born in other parts of Gauteng and South Africa. 19% were born in Zimbabwe.

R501-R1000 R1001-R1500 R1501-R2500 R2501-R3500 R3501-R4500 R4501-R6000 R6001-R8000

3.3. Increasing Demand for Short Stay, Smaller and Cheaper Accommodation

R8001-R11000 R11001-R16000 R16001-R30000 >R30000 Don’t know Refusal 0% 5 10 15 20%

Figure 11: Personal monthly income of Park Station residents

3.2. Diverse Local and Migrant Resident Community Commenting on the rapid influx and high turnover of tenants in the inner city – first in defiance of the Group Areas Act and then in response to more liberated urban space – Gotz and Simone (2003: 128) find that “this accelerated turnover of population provided a cover for the sizeable immigration of foreign Africans to Johannesburg in the mid-1990s, a process that has profoundly reshaped inner city life and commerce and further contributed to its progressive internationalisation. It provided the impetus for new informal economies to flourish to the inner city’s increasingly crowded streets.” The data analysed for the City’s Alternative Formalities, Transnationalism and Xenophobia in the City of Johannesburg (AFTraX) report shows a concentration of very high levels of transnational migrancy (over 30%) in and around the inner city of Johannesburg (CoJ 2014a). In absolute numbers approximately 100 000 people resident in the inner city are not South African born. The percentages in the neighbourhoods indicating highest proportions of transnational migrants are: Bellevue (56%), Yeoville (50%), Johannesburg sub place (49%), Doornfontein (48%), Hillbrow/Berea (42%). As illustrated in Figures 12 and 13, this study’s survey offers further details on diversity and on migrancy in the precinct. Just over half of the respondents (51%) are South African, with 18% of respondents

Park Station Precinct

The diversity of income in the Park Station Precinct is an important element in the goal of building inclusive and socially cohesive neighbourhoods. This is particularly important in the inner city. The literature provides several key reasons for lowincome households’ location within the inner city of Johannesburg. Amongst these are the search for better income-generating opportunities and improved access to facilities and amenities, including healthcare, education and infrastructural services. Social motivations are also important, particularly for new migrants to the inner city who rely on the networks and capital of friends and relatives. For cross-border migrants an additional motivation for locating in the inner city is to escape from real and perceived threats of xenophobic attack in townships (Malavolti 2016: 77-78). This study’s survey found that 67% of respondents amongst residents of the precinct live there due to its proximity to either work or school, with the second and third most common main reasons (both 9%) being affordability and it being a quiet area. The current accommodation in the precinct includes: • loft apartments in southern Braamfontein; • older rental accommodation in a range of conditions (including well-managed and overcrowded buildings) in Hillbrow, south eastern Braamfontein and the Joubert Park area; • social housing developments in southern Braamfontein; • affordable rental stock in discrete buildings in the northern CBD; • overnight accommodation in hotels; • student accommodation in Braamfontein; and • apartments within the whole precinct.

Nationalities Namibia Mozambique Congo Brazzaville Pakistan Kenya

Users

Tanzania

Residents

Bangladesh Lesotho Malawi DRC Nigeria Zimbabwe South Africa

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Figure 12: Nationalities of residents and users in Park Station

Low rentals in the northeast and eastern parts of the precinct allow for low-income earners to locate near the heart of the inner city. A large majority (93%) of residents surveyed for this study live in flats or apartments. Most residents (94%) rent the dwellings in which they reside. There are a variety of occupancy patterns in Park Station: 68% of households occupied just one room, 20% of households occupied the entire dwelling, and 13% occupied two rooms or more. This is at odds with the average for all areas surveyed, where on average 42% of households occupy the entire dwelling (a number that would be higher if Park Station were excluded). The monthly rental paid in Park Station is R2 415 per month, which is significantly higher than the average of R1 009 per month from the other surveyed areas. It is notable that households surveyed in the central city (the southern portion of the precinct) were more likely to occupy one room, as indicated in the map in Figure 14. Tenancy within the residential buildings is not necessarily long term. Consistent with a migrant population, this is a mobile population where most respondents report having lived in Johannesburg for less than six years. The flatland areas of Hillbrow and Joubert Park approximate the conditions that Silverman and Zack analysed in 2007. Their report on Hillbrow and Berea notes the highly fluid nature of tenancy in these areas. At that time a major property management company noted that 38% of their tenants had moved in during the previous two

years: “Our tenants are young, black and transient. They’re moving on and up” (Schaefer quoted in Silverman and Zack 2007: 27). But residents’ aspirations have longer-term horizons. The survey indicates that the planned duration of stay in Park Station is varied, but tends towards longer periods of stay. The highest proportion of residents (54%) expect to stay there for more than 10 years, while 33% expect to stay for more than five years, and 12% for more than one year. In the broader inner city there is increasing demand for low-cost rental accommodation and there is a call in the City’s 2016 ICHIP initiative for social housing and municipal housing to focus on the lowest end of the market for the foreseeable future. The surrounds of Park Station are witnessing an increase in housing provision in the low middle‑income ‘affordable rental’ market, social housing and in student accommodation. There is a high demand for lower-income housing and this is currently provided for in apartment blocks that are in many cases poorly managed and overcrowded. In the Park Station Precinct, 67% of residents surveyed live in households comprised of only one family, while 23% are comprised of two or more families, and 9% of one or more individuals. The occupancy density in the precinct is high at 8 007 persons per km2 in Park Station central and 2 961 persons per km2 in Newtown. There is considerable demand for short stay accommodation, as long distance traders come to the inner city to shop on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis. There are several hotels that are used by long distance shoppers ,which offer storage, clean and safe rooms, and restaurant spaces. The Park Station Hotel receives guests from other provinces and from SADC countries. The charge ranges from R155 per night for a single room to R365 for a double room with en suite bathroom and breakfast included. According to hotel manager Sindi Dlamini, “Most shoppers stay for 2-3 nights”, adding that they “are favoured amongst the hotels in this area because ours is clean and safe” (interview, 5 August 2016). She notes however that the environment around the hotel is not safe; she was recently mugged on her way to work. At least one hotel in the precinct has been purchased for conversion into apartments and at least one other is under negotiation for the same purpose. These possible conversions may reduce the availability of safe, managed accommodation Park Station Precinct

for cross-border traders. The GCRO study into crossborder shopping indicates that many shoppers (43% of those interviewed) stay with friends or family when they are in Johannesburg (Peberdy 2016). This is a significant finding that links the socio-economic roles of the inner city; the high number of migrants resident in the inner city is an important factor in stabilising the experience of cross-border shoppers to the environment.

Languages Afrikaans IsisZulu Setswana Sesotho Sepedi IsiNdebele English isiXhosa Tshivenda Xitsonga Igbo Shona French Kiswahili Portuguese Bengali Chichewa

Users

Residents

Urdu

who want “no fuss and no frills” (interview with Paul Jackson, 1 September 2016). The redevelopment of Shell House from commercial to residential use in the heart of Park Station Precinct bears this out. There the planned units are 28 m2, 35 m2 and 40 m2 and are all studio or one bedroom units (interview with Lael Bethlehem, 1 July 2016). Jackson also says that the bigger developers are snapping up the last of the big block developments that are available. The sale of Jeppe Street Post Office and other Telkom sites are indicative of this (interview with Paul Jackson, 1 September 2016).

Hillbrow Hillbrow

Braamfontein Braamfontein

Park Station

Portion Portio occupi occup

Empire Perth Development Corridor

Hillbrow

Open Spaces

Highway

Arterial Roads

Johannesburg Johannesburg CBD CBD

Arterial Roads Main Roads

Newtown Newtown

Local Roads Railway Rea Vaya BRT

City of Tshwane

0 00.075 0.075 0.15 0.15

Coordinate Coordinate System: System: GCS GCS Hartebeesthoek Hartebeesthoek 1994 1994 Datum: Datum: Hartebeesthoek Hartebeesthoek 1994 1994 Date: Date: 2017/06/12 2017/06/12 Units: Degree Units: Degree

3.4. Informal Subletting Even when focused on the developing world, TOD remains highly formal in nature. There is very limited literature dealing with how TOD might begin to apply to informal environments (Bickford 2016: 8). Gotz and Simone (2003) maintain that Johannesburg’s inner city has changed more rapidly than any other inner city in modern history. However Hillbrow this social and economic reconfiguration has been largely invisible, because it has taken place within a dense and arcane physical environment.

The Inner City Roadmap notes that the demand for accommodation in the inner city continues to outstrip supply, and that there is an urgent need for welllocated, inner city housing for lower income groups and the indigent (CoJ 2014). The trend towards micro living space and communal living is taking hold in the formal residential sector in the precinct. The Trust for Urban Housing Finance (TUHF) is financing some buildings east of Noord Street and In the Park Station area informal and formal in western Joubert Park. These are mostly the result regimes exist side by side. This pertains to property of liquidations and the conversions are focused arrangements as much as to economic activity. It is on breaking the apartments into smaller units for precisely this incoherence that also opened up new rentals. These smaller units are a major trend in the spaces of opportunity. These have been avidly seized Newtown Braamfontein inner city, says TUHF CEO Paul Jackson. Whereas by the urban poor and this process has, in some in the past the major offering was 50 m2 with a ways, made South African cities more equitable balcony, now the trend is for the 18 m2 bachelor flat. places, allowing the poor to access very desirable The demand is from blue-collar commuter workers places (Silverman and Zack 2007: 9). Informality in the residential space gives rise to varying living

City of Tshwane Park Station Precinct

Chinyanja

Figure 13. Languages spoken by residents and users in the Park Station precinct

However the notion of temporariness amongst residents in the inner city is not straightforward or universal. Although some have argued that residents’ connections to the area are often tenuous and opportunistic – that these residents rarely see the place as ‘home’ and are therefore reluctant to commit to the area – there is also evidence of longer connections to these areas. This relates in part to the lack of alternatives, particularly for foreign nationals who may have temporary political asylum seeker status that prevents them from moving ‘up and out’ of the inner city. Thus a paradox exists between their political status and their tenure in these neighbourhoods. People may get ‘stuck’ in Braamfontein these neighbourhoods, especially where they are able to access cheap or free accommodation in subletting arrangements.

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

E C

Park Station Precinct Park Station

0.30.3

0.45 0.45

±±

0.60.6 KmKm

Portion of dwelling occupied by household

Empire Perth Development Corridor

Whole dwelling Two or more rooms

Open Spaces

One room

Highway

Part of a room

Arterial Roads Johannesburg CBD Arterial Roads Main Roads Local Roads Railway Rea Vaya BRT Figure 14. Portion of dwelling occupied by each household

Park Station Precinct Coordinate System: GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994

0 0.0750.15

Portion of dwelling occupied by household 0.3 0.45 0.6

Park Station Precinct

conditions. While inadequate living conditions and unstable relationships might not immediately disadvantage the urban poor, these “could result, over time, in the deterioration of the urban stage on which they themselves are reliant for their livelihoods…” (SACN 2006 quoted in Silverman and Zack 2007: 13). In addition it should also be noted that “many participants in the informal sector are often super-exploited because they fall outside of the ambit of... legislation and cannot access the legal system” (SACN 2006 quoted in Silverman and Zack 2007: 13; see also Mayson 2014).

Jakoob Rajah (interview, 30 August 2016) has owned the hardware store on Plein Street for seventeen years. He has seen many changes, with one of the biggest for his shop being the shift in customers. These used to be mostly people doing maintenance work in offices but now he is supplying caretakers and residents of apartment buildings. His shop occupies about 60 m2 on the ground floor of The Manhattan, which was one of the original ‘Seven Buildings’ targeted for recovery and cooperative development in the early 1990s. The building is now ‘hijacked’, but Rajah believes it has been sold and that the new owner will “clean it up”. Within stressed buildings multiple households often occupy a single apartment. In these instances apartments are subdivided into accommodation spaces that include balconies, door spaces, or bed spaces. Most of the space in the flats is reserved for sleeping areas and all household activities might take place on a bed. Living rooms and even bathrooms and kitchens may be used as sleeping areas. A hotel manager noted that many buildings east of the station have apartments where up to 10 people share a flat, with spaces divided by curtains (interview with Sindi Dlamini, 5 August 2016). A doorway space or simple bed space is the most limited accommodation available in the inner city and rents at minimum of R500 per month (CoJ 2016). In the Park Station Precinct a one bedroom flat was renting at R2 500 in 2016, with four couples sharing the space. In another apartment a balcony space shared by a family was renting for R2 000 (informal discussion in Constantia Court, 5 August 2016). There are “sophisticated networks of housing supply and management in the inner city that

Park Station Precinct

enable management of units while providing an income for people who act as caretakers, brokers and rent collectors of spaces […] Information on building owners and on systems of municipal service charges is not transparent in this market and tenants may have difficulty finding out who legitimate owners are” (CoJ 2016: 36-37). Several recent studies of housing conditions in the inner city have found that the rentals paid to slumlords in badly managed buildings approximate those paid in well-managed buildings. Tenants are, however, often excluded from moving across to better accommodation. The barriers to entry exclude those without formal employment (although several developers are willing to waive this requirement in favour of proof of steady income); those without formal banking facilities; and those with only temporary political asylum seeker status (SERI 2013; Malavolti 2016). Several high visibility walls near transportation interchanges or dense retail areas in the inner city are used for accommodation advertisements. Mastandes (‘caretakers’) post advertisements and many wait near the wall to interview prospective tenants. The systems is efficient and, according to Malavolti, “If an agreement is reached, a few trucks parked on the side of the road are ready to drive the tenants to their new accommodation” (2016: 79). The pressure on space inside buildings, as well as the lack of adequate services, means that overcrowded spaces impact on public space. People access basic services and use outdoor public space for lingering or resting. In addition homeless people use both public space and semi-public space as sleeping areas (Malavolti 2016).

3.5. Social Environment Lacking in Amenities and Services Park Station does not fit the label of previously marginalised area, but in surrounding buildings and street trading activity it hosts a significant proportion of living and working conditions that are survivalist. The social needs of poor people in the area are not catered to and there are few welfare facilities. Environmental opportunities are not being exploited in the area and there is little on-site recycling or urban gardening. However, a tentative trend towards food gardening on rooftops is emerging in the inner city and could be incorporated into this precinct.

Park Station Precinct

The inner city also lacks public schools. There are a large number of private schools and colleges north and south of Park Station, and the University of Witwatersrand campus is also within the threshold of the station. The schools in the precinct are leveraging the high accessibility of the precinct, but they are often located in high-rise buildings and are oversubscribed. Few have access to recreation space; large number of students and schoolchildren use the surrounding area to access schools. They spend break time and wait for transport in the public environment, where they are mostly confined to sidewalks. This points to a need for high quality public space, park space, recreation opportunities, entertainment and social facilities in the inner city. There are few appropriate opportunities for afterschool activities, learning space and recreation for youth in the inner city. This is also necessary for the many young people who live in the area (Zack in ARUP 2016: 38) It is well known that the inner city lacks the social amenities necessary to support its residential population. The need for recreational and leisure activities featured amongst the top five concerns highlighted by resident respondents in the survey, with 14% mentioning dissatisfaction with these facilities. As residential development intensifies, the need for developed open space and recreational opportunities becomes more critical. In this precinct the Joubert Park, End Street Park, Newtown Park (adjacent to Nelson Mandela Bridge) and Attwell Gardens are important open spaces. The Newtown Park has received a R16 million upgrade via the JDA, as a first phase of the implementation of a metro park project (JDA 2016).

Plans for this precinct have emphasised the central importance of high quality public open space (JDA 2008: 49). Furthermore the plan makes sound proposals for the treatment of residential buildings that front onto the park in order to reinforce the connection to the park. These proposals seek to contain the park with buildings rather than interrupt this connection with parking entrances and courtyards (JDA 2008). Buskers and mime artists only animate public space intermittently. Many of the apartment buildings in the precinct are virtually wallpapered with satellite dishes, which speaks to an insular and privatised approach to entertainment and relaxation. It may be another signal of the weak offerings in the public sphere and the generally limited entertainment land uses in the area. â&#x20AC;&#x153;What will Park Station Precinct do to enhance and to activate public streets and space in its vicinity? And what will it offer to commuters who want to access the inner city for night-time entertainment?â&#x20AC;? (Zack in ARUP 2016: 38).

The Joubert Park site incorporates the JAG and its forecourt. However, these are insulated from the park and the inner city. The park is fenced and while it is well used it is extremely poorly linked to Park Station, separated across a very short distance of one city block by two heavily trafficked roads and side roads that are used as informal taxi ranks. The pedestrian environment is poor and no visual connection is achieved from Park Station to the park, even though an obvious link between the eastern entrances to the station and the park exist along Bok Street. The ground level Jack Mincer/Noord taxi rank interrupts pedestrian access to the park and makes the space impenetrable to pedestrians, rather than providing the necessary permeability to reinforce connection.

Park Station Precinct

THE ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT 4.1. Formal and Informal Business The survey conducted 100 interviews with business owners in the area, who comprise the respondents in the following analysis. It is interesting to note that just over half (53%) of the responding businesses in Park Station are retail orientated, while a quarter are in the service industry (see Figure 17). The business community is diverse with just under a fifth (19%) of business owners born in Johannesburg. The survey revealed considerable differences in the experience and performance of businesses in Braamfontein compared with those in the rest of the precinct. There is a high degree of subdivision of shops in the rest of the precinct. In addition, at R9 243 per month the monthly rentals for business space in the rest of the area (predominantly southeast and south of Park Station) are considerably higher than those in Braamfontein (R3 943 per month) – probably reflecting the high demand for retail space in this area. And while only 29% of respondents indicated that business in Braamfontein was improving, 45% of respondents in the rest of the area said business was improving. However many indicated that business had worsened, as indicated in the map in Figure 18. The contraction of the economies of South Africa and southern African countries are said to have

influenced business in the area, as consumers have less spending power. Retailers also indicate that high rentals, competition from Chinese malls and a fear of crime in the inner city has reduced turnover (interview with Anonymous Retailer, 24 May 2016). There is a perception that the mix of business in the CBD has been diluted. “There’s no diversity left in town. You can only buy clothes, liquor, cell phones and groceries. There are no more department stores or branded clothes - except the knock off stuff. And there’s lots of stolen stuff. Go look at the cake flour being sold down the road. It’s all stolen” (interview with Jakoob Rajah, 30 August 2016). However, while the increase in small shops and additional new modes of retail and products is a key feature of the inner city economy, closer examination reveals that far from being less diverse, the retail economy consists of a complex lattice of formal and informal

Nationality 44% South Africa

17%

Zimbabwe

44%

South Africa

17% Zimbabwe 15% Nigeria 6% Ethiopia 4% Pakistan 3% Bangladesh 2% Mozambique 2% Malawi 1% DRC 1% Kenya 1% Cameroon 1% Congo Brazzaville 1% Somalia

Figure 15. Nationality of business owners

Park Station Precinct

1% Botswana

Park Station Precinct

Home language 21% English 11% isiNdebele

11%

isiNdebele

10% Other 8% IsisZulu 7% Afrikaans

21%

7% Setswana 7% Sepedi

English

6% Igbo 4% Xitsonga 4% Bengali 4% Amharic 3% Shona

Figure 16. Home language of business owners

businesses selling a wide variety of goods and services. The department stores of the inner city are clustered in the RID while the intense shopping space southeast of Park Station is dominated by small- and micro-scale retail. Motivation for doing business varies between Braamfontein (where half of businesses indicate that they are motivated by the size of space and personal convenience) and the rest of the area (where about three quarters of businesses operating do so because it is a busy area). The upgrades that the City has undertaken in the area have not gone unnoticed. Jakoob Rajah has seen public and private improvement in the area: “There are companies like JHC who are buying

Park Station Precinct

buildings here and redeveloping. They have great tenants and great management and they keep the area safe and clean. And there have been road improvements and paving upgrades” (interview, 30 August 2016). Urban designer Thiresh Govender, who has overseen some of the public environmental upgrades in the area, is concerned that the impacts are only cosmetic and do not address the basic functioning of the area (interview, 10 August 2016). He has seen aggressive vandalism of infrastructure soon after it is constructed. According to him, “The Noord street area is a particularly harsh area” and responses need to be multipronged rather than cosmetic (interview, 10 August 2016).

Park Station Precinct

Park Sta P

Business

EmpireEP Corridor C Open Sp O

Hillbrow Hillbrow

55% Retail

Highway H

21% Service

21%

ArterialAR

23% Catering

Service

ArterialAR

1% Motor Industry

Main Ro M

55%

Local Ro L

Braamfontein Braamfontein

Retail

RailwayR

Rea Vay R

Satisfa Business sa busine with safety a over th

Very sat G

City of Tshwane

Satisfied Im

Figure 17. Park Station Precinct businesses categorised by type

4.2. Informal Trade Survivalist entrepreneurs have set up food kiosks, clothing stalls, mechanic services, and hairdressing and barber stools in the streets of inner city Johannesburg. The highest concentration of these is in the vicinity of transportation nodes and in particular on streets proximate to Park Station Precinct and the associated Park City and Jack Mincer/Noord taxi ranks. Informally provided services such as taxi washing are also associated with the off-street and on-street ranks. Oversight for informal trade is split: PRASA oversees trading that occurs within its boundaries and the associated Wanderers taxi rank, while the City oversees trading within linear markets and on sidewalks. While informal trade is prolific much of it is not yet well managed. In many cases, the sidewalk space is unmanaged, even if there are demarcated stall spaces. Much of the sidewalk space is narrow, unlit and poorly maintained. There is uneven and missing paving; open manholes; a great deal of solid waste accumulates on the sidewalks on a daily basis. These spaces may be threatened or criminalised, but they are often the only remaining places of opportunity for new entrants into the saturated informal economy of the inner city. Braamfontein

higher proportion of South Africans paid rent to the City of Johannesburg (Peberdy 2015: 34). There are several street trader associations in the precinct. In the redevelopment of Shell House, located on the corner of De Villiers and King George Streets, developers have negotiated with four different trader associations (interview with Lael Bethlehem, 1 July 2016).

In 2014 the University of the Witwatersrand Braamfontein undertook a research exercise on behalf of the City of Johannesburg in response to Operation Clean Sweep – the City’s mass clearance and removal of street traders from the inner city – that began in October 2013. This effort included the removal of traders and trading stalls that the municipality had erected. “The operation involved the South African Police Services, the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD), the Johannesburg Roads Agency, City Power (electricity), Pikitup (rubbish collection and street cleaning), Johannesburg Water, the Metro Trading Company, the Department of Home Affairs and the South African Revenue Services (customs and excise)” (Peberdy 2015: 9). Following strong criticism of the City’s actions by the University, the City requested that the latter furnish it with material Newtownto inform an improved policy on informal trade. The result was a report entitled While both South African and migrant entrepreneurs Alternative Formalities, Transnationalism and rents stalls, Peberdy (2015) provides evidence Xenophobia in the City of Johannesburg (AFTraX) that across Johannesburg cross border migrants (CoJ 2014a). The study found that Johannesburg has were more likely to pay rent to private owners. proportionately fewer individuals in the informal Suggesting better access to municipal stands, a sector than South Africa as a whole (8.5% versus Coordinate System: GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994 Datum: Hartebeesthoek 1994 Units: Degree

Park Station Precinct

Date: 2017/06/12

Park Station Precinct

NeutralS

Park Station

Dissatis W

Empire Perth Development Corridor

Hillbrow

Johannesburg CBD CBD Johannesburg

Very dis G

Open Spaces Highway Newtown Newtown Arterial Roads Arterial Roads Main Roads Local Roads Railway

Coordinate System: GCSSystem: Hartebeesthoek 1994 Coordinate GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994 Datum: Hartebeesthoek 1994 Datum: Hartebeesthoek 1994 Date: 2017/06/12 Units: DegreeUnits: Degree Date: 2017/06/12

City of Tshwane

Park Station Precinct Park Station

Hillbrow

Rea Vaya BRT

0 0.07500.15 0.3 0.0750.15

0.45 0.3

0.6 0.45 Km

0.6 Km

± ±

Satisfaction with business performance over the past year

Empire Perth Development Corridor

Greatly improved

Open Spaces

Improved

Highway

Stayed the same

Arterial Roads

Worsened

Johannesburg CBD Arterial Roads

GreatlyWorsened

Main Roads Local Roads Railway Rea Vaya BRT

Satisfaction with business performance over the past year 0 0.0750.15

0.3 Greatly 0.45 improved 0.6 Kmwith business performance over the past year Figure 18. Satisfaction Improved

Stayed the same Worsened

Park Station Precinct

12.4%), and that the contribution of the informal sector to the national economy is considerably lower than in other countries (CoJ 2014a: 32). A proposed second phase of this study – to undertake a detailed survey of informal trade conditions – was not pursued by the City. There is a particularly high concentration of onstreet trading in the street blocks immediately south and southeast of Park Station and adjacent to dense taxi routes and taxi ranks. As illegal and informal taxi ranks emerge across the inner city, informal trade follows. The City’s unlawful removal of these traders in 2013 was one of the attempts in a history of efforts to curtail street trading. An ambiguous municipal policy towards traders, coupled with negative perceptions of trading being dirty and contributing to crime, has left this economy in a limbo. The City has removed the on-street metal ‘cages’ that it supplied for traders and is increasingly moving towards the provision of formalised roofing and demarcated stalls. Linear markets have been developed and are being constructed on Noord Street. Much of the street trading in the Park Station Precinct takes place without any roofing or structures, which provides flexibility for traders in terms of placement and amount of stock. However, it also contributes to perceptions of trading being chaotic and ‘messy’. Roofing cuts sunlight from sidewalks that are already shaded by tall buildings along narrow streets, although it does offer protection from rain. While traders can provide their own collapsible structures for trading, the lack of formalisation also opens traders to police and JMPD abuse, as bribes are extracted in lieu of prosecution over by-law infringements.

Figure 19. Informal traders who sell goods from their person (Mark Lewis 2016)

Park Station Precinct

The most vulnerable traders are mobile hawkers who sell goods from their arms or from small stalls, buckets and carrier bags (see Figure 19). There are no demarcated stalls for these traders; nor would many qualify for a demarcated stall because they may come to Johannesburg for a few weeks at a time to sell goods and then return home to rural areas or to other SADC countries. Shortterm, seasonal and periodic traders are therefore excluded from regulation and are under constant threat of prosecution. A distinction must also be made between traders and touts. Many of the people on street are touts who are advertising for hairstyling or other services, and are not actually

selling goods or services on the street.

4.3. Formal and Informal Food Sellers According to a 2016 report on Park Station Precinct prepared for PRASA: GCRO research indicated that Gauteng is food insecure. It is imperative that local food ecologies be supported, that the nutritional status of the population be secured and that sustainable food options be promoted. Park Station can facilitate this through improved access. Organic concentrations of food offerings have been established around Park Station and beyond, in linear markets, in off street markets and in formal nodes. Some of these are ethnic food clusters (Chinatown, Yeoville) and many are traditional South African street foods. Food is associated with respite, with culture and with nurturing. People’s restaurants around the inner city and close to the station are restaurants and social spaces. The food offerings in the inner city are poorly differentiated and marketed (ARUP 2016: 37). Beyond the kitchens and restaurants, there is a high concentration of food in this vicinity.This is consistent with a GCRO survey of migrant entrepreneurs, which found that “(t)he largest cohort of traders whether South African or cross border migrants, sold food related products” (Peberdy 2015: 20). Many informal stalls sell fresh or cooked food, despite the lack of special facilities. These are not concentrated in particular areas, except for the Hoek Street mall where cooking facilities have been created for outdoor kitchens. Hoek Street is a particularly successful market, owing to its permeable design and the high density of commuters moving through Hoek Street, between Park Station and the MTN (Noord) taxi rank (interview with Holger Deppe, 20 July 2016). Elsewhere, food stalls coexist with other stalls (including hair stalls) creating hygiene risks. Food stalls also generate vast quantities of solid waste, which is inadequately managed.

4.4. Cross-Border Migrant Entrepreneurs and Shopping Informal sector economic activity cannot be separated from migrant entrepreneurship. “There

Park Station Precinct

other’s needs. Rather, in the case of Chinese and Ethiopian business clusters in the inner city (China City and so-called ‘Jeppe’), the business is oriented towards sourcing goods from China and selling these to South Africans and to cross-border traders. A similar trend is emerging amongst Pakistani traders in the inner city and there is a great deal of cross over and mimicking of business practice across these enclaves.

Informal shoppers China Mall Wholesaler Oriental Plaza Manufacturer/factory Small shops not in mall Another Chinese run mall Informal sector producer/retailer Supermarkets City Deep/Jhb Fresh Produce Small shops in a mall Other fresh produce markets Direct from farmers Other 0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Figure 21. Where cross-border informal shoppers buy their goods in Johannesburg (Peberdy 2016)

are only a handful of local shopkeepers left in this area”, says Jakoob Rajah, adding that “foreigners have rented all the stores. And the rentals are very high. They have made the shops into many small shops” (interview, 30 August 2016). Many of the entrepreneurs operating from informal and small formal retail in the inner city outlets are migrant entrepreneurs. This trade is poorly understood or examined; yet it is a core success factor in Johannesburg’s position as an Afropolitan city and indeed as a world city. Cross-border trade in this sector is truly globalised in terms of traders, retailers, customers and goods, all of which flow across national and continental borders.

Figure 20. Where cross-border traders buying in Johannesburg sell their goods (GCRO 2015)

Park Station Precinct

The Park Station Precinct displays an intensity of trade that is made possible through low-end globalisation. The informal sector in Johannesburg is not only providing opportunity for a very localised economy but is also an outlet for Johannesburg’s link to sub-Saharan Africa, China and elsewhere. Food and other commodities are traded and retailed informally across South Africa’s borders by people using the same principles as multinational corporations, but with no formal credit or banking facilities (Zack 2013). They may be moving small or large quantities of goods to many cities using cell phones and informal networks of suppliers, bankers, transporters and traders. Many first arrivals find entry and support within ethnic entrepreneurial clusters. In Johannesburg these are not traditional ethnic enclaves in which ethnic migrant traders and suppliers of services are primarily serving each

In 2015 the GCRO conducted a survey of informal sector and small-scale cross-border traders in Gauteng, including 665 in Johannesburg (Peberdy 2015b). Of significance to the Park Station Precinct, the survey shows that the top destinations for cross‑border shoppers are small shops, which are likely to be located in the inner city. At 21% of destinations of choice, these are significant retail destinations (see Figure 21). Additionally, the category ‘wholesalers’ may include some inner city destinations.

A trader from Zimbabwe, who stays at the Rand Inn on his weekly visits to Johannesburg, sources sliced mushrooms and pineapples from factories on the East Rand to supply to pizza outlets in Zimbabwe. Although he does not source from the inner city, he stays in the inner city to be close to transport providers (he relies on small private trucks) and for the safe, inexpensive accommodation he finds there. He says he spends R100 000 to R150 000 in Gauteng on each visit (interview with Trader 1, 22 May 2016). The inner city offers both retail and wholesale trade. Many shoppers are purchasing in bulk, to sell on in shops, hawker stalls, door-to-door elsewhere in South Africa or in SADC countries. The shopping precinct around Park Station is a dense wholesale trade area. Cross-border trade in this area contributes a substantial amount to the local economy. However, this amount is not known and estimates vary widely. A 2005 survey by Strategic Business Partnerships for Growth in Africa (SBP) “estimated the value of total spend by visitors to South Africa during that year from other African countries at R12 billion. The type of goods most often bought by these visitors were clothing and clothing accessories, with CDs, DVDs and computer games coming second. Most of this shopping takes place within the Johannesburg

Park Station Precinct

Goods purchased New clothing and footware Accessories Bedding Toiletries and cosmetics Pre-owned clothing and footware Household products Groceries Cellphones and phone accessories Electronics Fabric Spare parts Music/Films/DVDs/CDs Hardware tools Beds and other furniture Eggs, milk, bread Meat (fresh or livestock) Other 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Figure 22. Types of goods purchased by cross-border shoppers (Peberdy 2016)

CBD” (JDA 2008: 10). While no formal recent figures are available, estimates indicate that annual turnover from this trade in the southeast quadrant of the CBD is enormous. The inner city street trading economy is complex, sophisticated and involves a wide range of products – not just bananas and shoes. This is a significant component of the retail sector in Johannesburg: there is an estimate of R9 billion in trade occurring in a space of 10 blocks in the inner city each year. But this is an example of ‘the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid’: Trade happens through thousands of trading entities and millions of small transactions every month (CoJ 2014a: 55). A lesser but significant figure emerges from SA Tourism, which states that in 2014 the estimated “direct spend on goods, transport and accommodation of Africa land entries shopping for business in Johannesburg using the SA Tourism average spend of people shopping for business (R17 000 per visit) was at least R3.5 billion” (Peberdy 2016: 17). Yet the support services in the area for traders are weak or non-existent; law enforcement officers pose a threat to them; and the public environment they traverse is unsafe.

Park Station Precinct

The Park Station Precinct also competes with other areas, including a large number of wholesale Chinese malls west of the inner city, as well with wholesale stores in other cities, particularly Musina in Limpopo. The advantages of proximity to Park Station are strained by the disadvantages of a poor public environment and the prevalence of crime (interview with Trader 2, 22 May 2016). Jackson of TUHF says the case for investing in downtown is self-evident but investment is curtailed by the state of the public environment. He maintains that urban management, including well-managed and controlled street trading, is necessary for the functioning of economic activity in the inner city. He also believes the real issues need to be tackled if the City is serious about corridor development. He asks: what do the Corridors mean in the Park Station environment? What will the City do about taxi congestion, as well as JMPD and South African Police Service (SAPS) corruption that hamper local inner city economics? According to him, these inhibit the competitive edge of the inner city and the City needs to formulate an adequate response (interview with Paul Jackson, 1 September 2016). Jackson further states that Ethiopian traders in the inner city are noting a downturn in their business and find that the inner city is not necessarily the location of choice, especially because there is less chance of bribery outside of the CBD (interview with Paul Jackson, 1 September 2016). New wholesale and retail outlets have opened further afield. Some businesses and customers are relocating to other parts of the city and further afield, including Musina. If Johannesburg is to retain customers who travel to the CBD to shop, to stay over and to invest, the CoJ needs to enhance the shopping experience.

Monthly turnover < R5,000 R5,000 – R10,000 R10,000 – R20,000 R20,000 – R50,000 R50,000 – R75,000 R75,000 – R100,000 R100,000 – R200,000 > R200,000 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Figure 23. Estimated monthly turnover of businesses

Park Station Precinct

Monthly Profit R0 – R5,000 R5,001 – R10,000 R10,001 – R15,000 R15,001 – R20,000 R20,001 – R25,000 R25,001 – R30,000 R30,001 – R35,000 R35,001 – R40,000 R40,001 – R45,000 R45,001 – R50,000 > R50,001 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Figure 24: Estimated monthly profit of businesses in the Park Station Precinct

Inner city trading spaces are also providing goods to migrants from surrounding areas, including tailoring services, medicines and foods that are familiar to a diaspora community. In addition, migrant entrepreneurs bring skills and variety to the inner city. These include unique skills in clothing design, tailoring and craft making. They have also introduced authentic ethnic music, entertainment and foods to the inner city. Shopkeeper Rajah says that the arrival of Muslim traders from Pakistan, Bangladesh and elsewhere has brought an increase in the number of prayer facilities and halaal food offerings in the area.He says the local mosques which were underutilised before are now full to capacity with people of several nationalities (interview, 30 August 2016). Peberdy finds that participants in the GCRO survey of informal entrepreneurs “are in constant interaction with the state. This is because, depending on the sector of informal business they are engaged in, informal sector entrepreneurs may need to ensure they have the necessary permits to conduct their business from the location they have selected. They therefore have to engage with the state on a number of levels” (Peberdy 2015: 45). A variety of different goods are bought in Johannesburg by cross-border shoppers (see Figure 22). Many formal and informal outlets in the Park Station Precinct cater to the high demand for new and used clothing and accessories. The high demand for fashion is evident on the streets surrounding Park Station. In terms of numbers of people involved in each trade, informal traders selling clothing and footwear, as well as toiletries and cosmetics, are followed by those

Park Station Precinct

selling food (Peberdy 2015). Fashion dominates the list of goods sought by cross-border traders (Peberdy 2016). The Fashion District southeast of the inner city has crept northwards – reaching Plein Street – and is dominated by micro shops in the so-called Ethiopian Quarter. Ethiopian traders sell disposable Chinese fashion to cross-border traders and to traders from surrounding townships and rural South Africa (Zack 2013; 2014). Competition is tight with many small stores selling identical products. The traders in the inner city source goods from formal Chinese wholesalers, demonstrating a strong link between the formal and informal sector. There is also a substantial market for used clothing and both informal traders and small shops cater to this demand. There are clusters of this trade along De Villiers Street and in Newtown.

4.5. Micro Retail Economy as a Space of Innovation Much has been made of the need to mainstream informal trade as a normal component of the retail economy in Johannesburg (CoJ 2014b). As important as the absorption of the modes of practice and livelihood strategies of this economy into the regulated city is, “their value in pioneering new modes of practice – often out of necessity and at times out of a serendipitous accident of history. These fringes are the things to watch and learn from to understand how the remaking of cities happen in spite of the systems that resist change” (Zack 2016). The key case of such mainstreaming in the inner city is not the strictly informal trade but the pattern of hybrid retail that has been pioneered by migrant entrepreneurs. A new retail footprint has been introduced to the inner city since the early 2000s: the cubicle shop (see Figure 7). These tiny shops change the configuration of storage, display and operation of retail. These tiny shops have been created en masse in the so-called Ethiopian Quarter that is located southeast of, and in close proximity to, Park Station. But it is a footprint that is increasingly being stamped into retail across the inner city. In the streets closer to Park Station tiny stores operated by Pakistani traders sell mobile phones, clothing, jewellery, electrical goods and appliances. The smallest of these shops exist in building façades and along arcades. These small shop fronts are display areas and storage of goods takes place in nearby buildings.

Shops of minimal size are being rented out at a cost that rivals the highest amounts charged for retail space anywhere in the world. During the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup period – when a frenzy of shopping activity peaked the demand for retail space – there were anecdotal tales of amounts of R2 000 per m2 being charged (in the informal subletting market) on select tiny shops in the Ethiopian Quarter (Zack 2013). These rental prices have dropped as the economy has slowed and the supply of shops has increased. More and more conversions of larger shops into micro retail outlets have occurred. Now the highest rentals being charged in the heart of the Ethiopian Quarter for shop fronts are R400 per m2 (interview with Trader 2, 22 May 2016). By comparison with the general retail rentals in this part of the inner city, these are high prices. Jackson says that in 2009 retail was fetching between R75 and R100 per m2, and the average in that area is now R400 (interview with Paul Jackson, 1 September 2016). These high rentals do not indicate large profit takings. Often retailers are locating in this area to benefit from the safety of being in an ethnic enclave rather than because they can readily afford the high rentals. Their profits and monthly takings are often low. The economic model is to extract small profits on multiple items. The lifestyle of newly arrived single migrants permits them to take very small incomes. They are often living in communal arrangements, and are living extremely cheaply in order to save and send even modest remittances to their home countries. In this way the opportunity of the inner city for the bulk of traders is as a place to improve livelihoods in a staged and modest way. There are entrepreneurs who arrive as pioneers and whose timing in business practice has been such that they have profited enormously from their inner city shops and have moved on to buying buildings and to other business. However these are not the majority of traders (Zack in ARUP 2016).

Park Station Precinct

THE TRANSPORT ENVIRONMENT 5.1. Park Station as a Thoroughfare Park Station is not a destination point; rather it is an intermodal interchange. The precinct serves as a local, metropolitan, regional, national and international catchment area. No other facility in the city creates the traffic patterns that Park Station does (interview with Esther Schmidt, 8 August 2016). The station generates transportation services and demands for additional services. Rail authorities, by the City and by private operators, supply these. The extent of undersupply of services, the quality of connection between services and the efficiency of the operation of each transportation mode impacts on the street level experience. It is important that the Park Station Precinct be a thoroughfare for various transportation modes and not a bottleneck of services. At present, the environment is clogged. Modal conflict adds to the intense stress of the environment. Conflict occurs between commuter movement, other pedestrian movement (shoppers), informal trading space, and vehicles. The congestion of moving and stationary minibus taxis is extreme. “There is no comprehensive strategy for the management of public transport in the CBD, and this hinders effective operations related to boarding, alighting and transfers, as well as vehicle holding and maintenance” (ARUP 2016). An understanding of the volume and nature of movement in the area is important for examining what contributes to the ground-level congestion and intermodal conflict. Figure 25 indicates that more than a third of the respondents who were passing through the area (34%) were on the way to work, and just over a fifth (20%) said they were en route home. Exactly 50% of the other users report being in Park Station daily. Around an eighth (13%) report being in the area a few times a week, and just over a seventh (15%) report being in the area a few times a month (Figure 26). The travel demand is varied and includes “regular daily commuters; weekly travellers; occasional long-distance visitors from other countries (usually low-income); low- to middle-income travellers to other provinces (bus, taxi and rail); and tourists. These each present their own requirements and potential design responses” (ARUP 2016). As shown in Figure 27, most residents surveyed for this study (65%) walk to and from work and school, while 21% use minibus taxis, with the mean travelling time relatively short at 14 minutes. This points to the convenience of inner city living, as well as the need to make the pedestrian experience comfortable (Outsourced Insight 2016). The primary forms of transportation utilised by ‘other users’ who were interviewed for the survey are minibus taxi, used by almost half of users (47%), walking (24%), train (15%) and the Rea Vaya BRT (9%). The mean one-

Park Station Precinct

way travel time to Park Station was 49 minutes, and 26% of respondents took 15 minutes or less.

5.2. Transport Modes 5.2.1. Rail Transport services in the precinct comprise suburban rail (Metrorail; regional rail (Business Express, Pretoria services); long-distance rail (Shosholoza Meyl, Premier Class); high-speed rail (Gautrain); long-distance bus services; long-distance taxi services; BRT system; local buses; local minibus taxis; and metered taxi services. In addition some corporates provide private shuttle services for staff exiting the Gautrain. The total passenger demand each day is almost 300 000 trips. Metrorail accounts for approximately 188 000 passengers per day. Gautrain generates approximately 17 000 passenger trips per day, with 45% of the people connecting to other trains (ARUP 2016).

Park Station Precinct

Reasons for being in the area

Frequency of visits

20%

34% En route to work

50% Daily

20% En route to home

15% A few times a month 14% A few times a week

11% Looking for work

En route to home

8% Shopping 8% Business owner

34%

6% Resident 5% Visiting

En route to work

5% Waiting

15%

A few times a month

8% once a week 5% Monthly

50%

4% Every few months

Daily

4% Yearly or less

3% Travelling

Figure 25: Reasons for users being in the Park Station Precinct

Figure 26: Frequency of users’ visits to the Park Station Precinct

Other than the Gautrain, whose market is affluent, rail services run east-west and south, connecting the CBD to Soweto and to the East Rand. Park Station is a destination for both local and mainline trains: to the east of Johannesburg Park Station are Doornfontein, Ellis Park and Jeppe stations; to the west are Braamfontein, Mayfair, Grosvenor and Langlaagte stations; whilst the south has Faraday, Westgate, Booysens, Crown and Village Main stations. The long-distance train demand peaks in April, June and December, when over 200 000 passengers use the train per month. In low-demand months it fluctuates between about 80 000 and 110 000 passengers.

5.2.3. Minibus taxi interchanges and routes

Taxi ranks are generally used as passenger gathering points, but not as destinations; the streets are used for drop-offs (JDA 2006). The Jack Mincer/Noord taxi rank is located in the eastern portion of the CBD and serves mainly the north of Johannesburg, including Alexandra, Sandton, Rivonia, Randburg, Fourways and Midrand. In the morning, 50% of users walk from another part of the CBD where they have alighted from a taxi, whereas 26% of users arrive on foot from their homes in Hillbrow (JDA 2006). There is very little pedestrian traffic from Metro Mall to Jack Mincer/Noord, as the taxis from the south and west generally drop passengers off close to the rank. A very small number of passengers using Jack Mincer/Noord come from Park Station (JDA 2006). The rank is inadequate for the number of routes it serves (ARUP 2016).

There are too few minibus taxi interchanges and inefficient routes congest the inner city. There are also insufficient facilities for off-street ranking in the inner city. At present, the inner city has ranking facilities for 4 000 taxis, leaving the other 1 800 taxis to rank and hold in the streets (JDA 2015). The Park Station status quo report documents six formal and 17 informal minibus taxi ranks in the Park Station surrounds, with the six informal ranks located within four blocks southeast of Park Station (ARUP 2016). “Taxis have taken over all the parking spaces, so customers cannot arrive by car, and we can’t load and offload. The JMPD turn a blind eye to taxis,” says a shopkeeper on Plein Street (interview with Jakoob Rajah, 30 August 2016).

Metro Mall is located southwest of Park Station on Bree and Sauer Streets. An estimated 150 000 daily taxi and bus commuters go through Metro Mall. This rank accommodates 2 250 taxis and 100 buses. It is also hosts 450 informal traders; 3 000 m² of formal retail space; and 600 units of mixed-income housing.. Metro Mall B serves the northern suburbs, while Metro Mall C is a significant transfer point for trips to Soweto and is therefore used by passengers who cannot or choose not to use rail services between the CBD and Soweto. While transfers occur between Metro Mall and Jack Mincer/Noord (ARUP 2016), there is not significant transfer between Metro Mall and the station (JDA 2006).

5.2.2. Buses Park Station is a destination point on the routes of Putco and Metrobus as well as the Rea Vaya BRT.Three formal long-distance bus facilities are attached to Park Station, while three informal facilities are located in south Braamfontein. Approximately 2 000 Metrobus trips, 2 900 Gautrain bus trips and 3 500 BRT passenger trips are associated with Park Station each day. Metrobus routes are generally north-south, while the BRT is more integrated and offers both east-west and north-south routes. Cross-border routes are more dispersed with many cross-border traders transferring from cross-border buses to local buses or taxis. It is estimated that the long-distance buses that use the Park Station site generate approximately

Park Station Precinct

15 850 passengers per day. Several more facilities use sites outside of the station perimeter. It is significant that a GCRO study found that most cross-border shoppers use buses (85%) and taxis (14%); relatively few arrive in Johannesburg by train (Peberdy 2016). This means that facilities for buses and taxis are essential to facilitating trade and the gateway role of the Park Station Precinct. Minibus taxis distribute approximately 28 900 passengers per day to and from Park Station. The metered taxi demand is approximately 210 passengers. The Wanderers (Park City) long distance taxi ranks accounts for about 700 services per day, with a passenger demand of approximately 11 400 passengers boarding per day.

The long-distance taxi rank of Wanderers (Park City) – located immediately east of Park Station and under the auspices of PRASA – is deemed to be inefficient in terms of circulation and offers extremely low development use on valuable land. Recently, the City commenced two taxi rank developments (Kazerne and Jack Mincer). However, as there were insufficient facilities for the temporary holding space required during the construction programme, the City was forced to delay the upgrade. According to Lisa Seftel, Executive Director of Transportation at the City, “we need to pace our projects better” (interview, 6 August 2016). The new Kazerne rank is intended to provide for cross-border taxi services, however as Seftel states, “Even that may soon be too small” (interview, 6 August 2016). The construction of new ranks is necessary, while at the same time there is a view that taxi management is not purely a problem of infrastructure. According to Esther Schmidt of the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA), “We can’t build our way out of the problem. We need to have congestion management strategies” (interview, 8 August 2016). The large number of taxis in the area means that commuters do not have to wait long for transport. In this sense, taxis provide a highly convenient service (interview with Lisa Seftel, 6 August 2016). But short waiting time is not necessarily a measure of efficiency of the system. The way taxis operate, their payment strategy, and how they are managed impacts heavily on congestion. There is an oversupply of taxis in the system; hence they are not incentivised to be more

Park Station Precinct

Modes of transport Minibus taxi

Walking

Car

Train

Residents

Rea Vaya

Employees Users

Other bus

day, further compounding congestion around the station (ARUP 2016). In the wider precinct, high levels of congestion and conflict between transport modes and vehicular and pedestrian traffic severely impede the flow for private vehicles, leading to an avoidance of certain roads by private vehicles as well as to confusion and further congestion at intersections. Parking bays for private vehicles are restricted. There is insufficient on street parking and taxis ranking, dropping off or picking up passengers use many bays informally. Parking also occurs in buildings and in the Park Station parking deck accessed off Rissik Street. However, the cost of parking there is an inhibitor. The creation of a pedestrian platform that surrounds Park Station is important for providing safe and comfortable routes from parking garages to destinations in and around the station. A previous plan proposed that delivery times be rationalised so as not to conflict with pedestrian flows (JDA 2008).

Truck

5.3. Illegible Road Network Uber/metered taxi

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Figure 27: Modes of transport utilised to get to Park Station

efficient (interview with Esther Schmidt, 8 August 2016). The efficiency of taxi movement and connectivity within the inner city cannot be divorced from the regional flow of taxis. Many taxi routes converge on the Park Station Precinct and much of the congestion is caused by unnecessary duplication of taxi services. This is counter to the efficiency intended in transport plans for the COF. There is a need to rationalise these routes so that, where necessary, the routes bypass the inner city. A 2006 JDA report recommends that taxi facilities all be concentrated in the west of the inner city. Such a move would benefit interchange moves between ranks. This would require a rank for Hillbrow passengers who currently use Jack Mincer/Noord; the new rank could be located closer to the Louis Botha Corridor.

5.2.4. Private vehicles and delivery vehicles Approximately 2 370 private cars arrive at, and 2 050 private cars leave from, the station each day. In addition 90 heavy vehicles arrive or leave the station (presumably for deliveries) each

Park Station Precinct

While the entire road network in Park Station Precinct is congested, each road has its own set of challenges. The intersections surrounding the station on all sides are congested, as are those on the east-west roads that feed the station. The findings of student fieldwork indicate that all intersections around the station are hazardous (Wits University 2016). Furthermore Park Station and several adjacent developments interrupt the city grid. The reinforcement of this grid through vehicular or pedestrian connections and visual connections would improve legibility and eliminate several underutilised and high-risk spaces in the vicinity of the station. According to the JDA: â&#x20AC;&#x153;The reconnection and reinforcement of the city grid is proposed with a view to unifying the inner city and facilitating equitable access across its entirety. The connection and reinforcement of both physical and visual thoroughfares is proposed, strengthening linkagesâ&#x20AC;? (2008: 55). The plan proposes several new east-west and north-south linkages to reinforce the city grid.

Figure 28: Road and rail networks in the Park Station Precinct (JDA 2008)

The station is surrounded by Rissik Street, Wolmarans Street, De Villiers Street and Wanderers Street. Noord Street is currently interrupted at the station, and continues eastward towards the Noord Street taxi rank. Vehicle accesses are Rissik Street and Leyds Street. There is an access off Wanderers Street near the Park Inn (Formula One) Hotel, however it is currently not in use.

Park Station Precinct

come to the city by rail to travel somewhere else. The links to Park Station are important. But it is difficult and unpleasant to walk between the station and taxi ranks. Surfaces and edges are hard. There is no relief for pedestrians. The city pathways must allow people to move with luggage” (interview with Angelika Pershina, 1 August 2016). On the Braamfontein side, “pedestrians exit the (Braamfontein) station directly onto a high mobility road. Pedestrian crossings at the station access across Smit Street has high probability of accidents due to the short sight distance to the east of the station and the speed of vehicles travelling on Smit Street. The pedestrian entrances east of the station towards Wanderers Street include an entrance on to the concourse and an entrance to long distance bus services. These are neither well lit nor signposted or demarcated by the urban environment” (ARUP 2016: 45).

Figure 29. De Villiers Street densely populated by traders (Mark Lewis 2016)

The movement patterns around the station are characterised by high volume of taxi movements on Plein Street, Bree Street and Jeppe Street. The north-south taxi movements are predominantly along Twist Street, Klein Street, and Wanderers Street. There is also active taxi demand on Rissik, Wolmarans Street and Harrison Street. The main pedestrian movements are on Noord Street, De Villiers Street, Plein Street and Bree Street. The main pedestrian destinations from Park Station are Noord Street Taxi Rank, Bree Street Taxi Rank (ARUP 2016: 71). Rissik Street to the west is a major link road that connects Braamfontein and the municipal precinct to the CBD. The BRT station on this road does not line up with nor visually connect to the Park Station entrance and so misses an opportunity to strengthen the identity of the station. A large vehicular parking lot dominates the station entrance from Rissik Street. Although Noord Street is a two‑way two‑lane street, one of the lanes is dedicated to parking and loading, thus reducing the street to a heavily congested single lane. Noord Street is congested by traders, interfering with the flow of commuters catching taxis (JDA 2006). The station buildings intercept the street and this discontinuity adds to the disjuncture between the west and east of the station precinct.

Park Station Precinct

A key pedestrian access road to the station is De Villiers Street. It facilitates heavy pedestrian movement to the station and between Noord Street (Jack Mincer) taxi rank in the east, and Bree Street (Metro Mall) taxi rank in the west. Dense informal trade, including the sale of secondhand clothing, occurs on the sidewalks and medians (see Figure 29). The trading space is not formally managed and spills across much of the road surface, making pedestrian passage through the area very difficult. These low value items trading in high value public footpaths (where a few traders occupy a vast amount of space) fail to optimise city assets. King George Street east of Wanderers is a through route from Hillbrow to the inner city. It is densely used by taxis and is a hostile link for pedestrians who also rely on crossing this road to access the station from the east and to access Joubert Park from the west. There is intense pedestrian and vehicular conflict along the road between Wolmarans Street and Noord Street. Wolmarans Street is a heavily used vehicular route with swift moving one-way traffic. The loading of passengers onto Gautrain buses, mini taxis, shuttle services and private vehicles also crowds it.

5.4. Hostile Pedestrian Environment The pedestrian demand generated at Park Station is approximately 51 900 person trips per day. “People

New arrivals are confronted by “a bewilderingly confusing environment with a lack of legibility and wayfinding signage” (JDA 2008: 42). The exit and entrance from long-distance services is particularly dark and hazardous because of the many concealed spaces and corners created by walls and unused and undeveloped pathways. Legibility from the east is poor and accessing the station requires pedestrians to navigate their way through or alongside the Wanderers taxi rank (see Figure 30). The rank physically and visually blocks the connectivity of the station to its eastern edge, including to Joubert Park. The pedestrian environment east and south of the station is inadequately supported for the high number of pedestrians using this space. According to Davidson, “The way people walk is driven by the shortest distance between points and the interest in the journey” (interview with Ndumiso Davidson, 4 August 2016). Overall, most roads in the precinct are hostile to pedestrians, either because of their high-speed car dominance (with little attention to safe and comfortable crossings bordering the station precinct), or because they are poorly maintained while being thoroughly congested with vehicles, unmanaged trader space and foot traffic. The congestion points to high pedestrian and shopper volumes, which is positive for retail activity. However the illegibility and poor urban management make movement inefficient and create an unpleasant environment for pedestrians. Almost every intersection around the boundaries of Park Station presents extreme pedestrian and vehicular conflict. Pedestrians cross the roads surrounding

Park Station and throughout the inner city at any point along the roads. According to Schmidt, “There are accidents and there have been fatalities. In some areas there are not safe enough points for crossing”, adding that the problem is that drivers do not change their style to accommodate pedestrians in this congested environment. “You need to give pedestrians exclusive rights by creating pedestrian streets”, she notes (interview with Esther Schmidt, 8 August 2016). The mere proximity of transport modes to one another does not create an integrated transport system. The distance of walking between transport points, as well as the quality of the walking environment, influence the strength of integration of modes. Currently, road and sidewalk surfaces are uneven, poorly maintained and offer little legibility to the various movements that they channel. Current pedestrian paths have been formed organically and are not planned. While the city grid is conducive to pedestrian movement it has not been formally planned to permit ease of movement, and barriers such as the railway line inhibit the flow. The ARUP study identifies problems of a lack of legibility, confusion and conflict between pedestrians and vehicles. There is no coherent strategy for accommodating street traders and pedestrians in the area. What results is a congested environment where the pedestrian-related activities of trading, shopping and passing by compete with one another for sidewalk spaces or space within pedestrianised roads (ARUP 2016). According to the report: “Trolley pushers operate an informal baggage assistance service, where people arriving on buses and taxis are escorted to Park Station for the taxi ranks and drop off points. There are also marshals within the station that escort passengers carrying luggage to the taxi ranks, bus stops, parking areas, and other areas. The service is usually charged and can cost up to R50 to be escorted to Noord Taxi Rank” (ARUP 2016: 69). There are no cycling facilities at the station (ARUP 2016). Both the City’s managed lane study and traffic study identifies roads that are used by vehicles that should be pedestrian malls. This recognises the need to alleviate the vehicular congestion on road space and to increase the space for pedestrians.

5.5. Transport Environment Requires Support Services The integration of transport also requires consideration of the integration of the transport use and related uses. For long-distance bus and Park Station Precinct

train services this requires adequate links and availability of accommodation and storage. Delivery services in the precinct are hampered by on-street congestion, including street trading activity, as well insufficient loading areas for delivery. Street traders have to set up and remove goods each day, and there is no formalised provision of storage facilities and systems for this intense activity. Small and informal storage and delivery services have been set up to accommodate these needs (ARUP 2016). These are mostly private storage spaces that occur in basements and lower floors of buildings. Storage facilities for shoppers’ goods are both formal (in Park Station) and informal in the vicinity of the station.

conflict” (interview with Lisa Seftel, 6 August 2016). The taxi industry controls its own routes and the conflict in the industry is well-known. The threat of violence often prevents legitimate officials from taking action to intervene in taxi management. In addition the industry is licenced and regulated by provincial government, a fact that further reduces the City’s power to manage the numbers of taxis or their routes. There is an urgent need for the intergovernmental relations to be resolved so that joint action and planning can be taken for all aspects of taxi management in the inner city.

5.6. Conclusion Park Station needs to provide a more effective transportation hub for all services. There is a need for a local bus facility and for improved services for connection to all other services on the perimeter of the station. However more services – particularly bus services – could be accommodated on the site as well. At present it is strictly rail dominated and forces the Gautrain buses and others to the surrounding streets. “Those buses then cause chaos in areas where we could reasonably have a BRT system” (interview with Lisa Seftel, 6 August 2016). This is clear not only in the actual services on the site but also in the poor signage to non-rail services in the station (for example, long-distance buses) and the services outside (for example, where taxi ranks are and which areas they serve). Further, the station does not provide signage to key destination points inside the inner city. If it is to sustain and facilitate the long-distance trade in the area, then signposts to the key shopping areas should be installed. The information desk at Park Station offers little assistance either for accessing local taxi ranks or for providing knowledge and information on the area surrounding the station. It is more geared towards tourism in greater Johannesburg and beyond. Schmidt, on the density of taxis in the inner city, states that “it’s not possible to build your way out of the problem,” arguing that building more and more facilities is not the solution, rather it’s “a management problem and a law enforcement problem” (interview with Esther Schmidt, 8 August 2016). Seftel agrees that there are many illegal taxis and taxi ranks but that moving them from one area simply means they will start a rank on another street, and that “there are things we can’t do anything about. Like taxi Figure 30. Wanderers taxi rank (Mark Lewis 2016)

Park Station Precinct

THE SPATIAL ENVIRONMENT In effect the city blocks surrounding Park Station operate as an extension of the platform of a multi-modal transport interchange. But the functionality of this system is impeded. Park Station is located within a dense and complicated urban environment and the station itself creates some of this complexity. Before examining the sub-components of this environment it is useful to outline the big conflicts that contribute to an illegible, ‘chaotic’ precinct, particularly east, southeast and south of the station. The issues around Park Station are a combination of reducing demand for private parking, increasing efficiency of movement for public transport (notably minibus taxis) and enhancing the experience of existing transit users. In analysing the role of the station in relation to the transit network, the notion of node versus place is useful: According to Bertolini (1996) achieving a balance of the node and place functionality of stations is important for development of the broader surrounds. Belzer et al (2004) argue that there are very few defenders and promoters of the place-based argument. This void of support, they further argue, is where the role of the local government must lobby to ensure that high quality public spaces are created around throughout station environments for TOD to be successful (Bickford 2016: 29). Park Station is conceptualised and operated as both a transit node and a place. These functions are not well integrated and conflict with each other. A key conflict between these concepts of transit stations is the prioritisation given to vehicles versus the prioritisation given to pedestrians. The ‘node’ emphasises the role of the station in facilitating efficient movement and operating system. This does not necessarily support the station as a vibrant precinct or place where people meet, gather, relax or trade (Bickford 2016: 29).

6.1. Park Station as Blocking Rather than Linking the Inner City Park Station is not integrated with its context and “accessibility and ease of pedestrian movement are critical to the success of the Park Station subprecinct as a multi-modal transport hub” (ARUP 2016). However, there are severe problems with the accessibility and legibility of the station precinct and its surrounds. The strong north-south divide

Park Station Precinct

created by the railway line and associated land uses remains a key structuring device in the inner city. The railway seam has been crossed by a few pedestrian bridges but not by a sufficient number. According to Schmidt, “Biccard Street bridge has opened the link between Braamfontein and inner city, Nelson Mandela bridge is too far west for the inner city core and the Queen Elizabeth doesn’t have a pedestrian link” (interview with Esther Schmidt, 8 August 2016). So while the inner city is compact and easily walkable in terms of distances, the crossing over the railway remains limited. The railway seam that intersects the inner city south of Braamfontein, with its few north-south linkage, establishes a strong east-west orientation for vehicular traffic north of the station. The station site is orientated north-south and it blocks east-west vehicular movement and pedestrian connections in this direction are also poor. The poor connectivity between the station and Joubert Park means that the latter is also a block to east-west movements rather than a facilitator of such flows. The inner city’s grid pattern is interrupted by the station precinct and by several pockets of corporate and institutional developments and consolidated city blocks, and the scales of development vary in sub-neighbourhoods. The Park Station site is the centre of the ‘river’ of train lines that divide Braamfontein from the inner city. The site and its surrounds act as a bridge between these parts of the city, however its poor legibility and poor permeability impede this function. The bulkiness of the buildings on the site also creates a barrier between all sides of the station site. The station blocks rather than connects the city fabric, both as a bulk development and at various points where

Park Station Precinct

station development actually interrupts streets. The large detached buildings within the Park Station envelope are “too scattered, read as separate entities and fail to balance their surroundings” (ARUP 2016). Furthermore they fail to contain the vast space, with the ‘desolate’ parking area that abuts Rissik Street accentuating this. According to the ARUP report, “Due to its topographic location within the lower area of the city and due to the open vistas across the railway land, the station precinct is one of the most exposed locations within the city. Despite its strategic location, the station precinct does not appear to contribute to the urban morphology as it fails to become fully anchored within its context” (ARUP 2016).

6.2. Park Station as a ‘Platform’ to the Transit Hub The goal of Walkable Braamfontein is to promote the area as a destination; not purely a transit space. This is to be done through place making, and is an approach that is relevant to enhancing the Park Station Precinct as a platform to the transit hub. The proposals focus on the creation and activation of public space and the creation of safe pedestrian crossings. Developing public space into place has extensive socio-economic benefits that are relevant to the Park Station Precinct, including higher occupancy rates, increased tourism, higher property values, investments attraction, walkable neighbourhoods, crime reduction, improved public environments, improved public health and increased use of public transport (Local Studio 2016). A number of key factors that could enhance pedestrian experience in the neighbourhood include: more pedestrian entrances to groundfloor uses in buildings, smaller shops, more residential development, active ground-floor use and wide sidewalks.

provide logic to being inside the station place, where the commuter and pedestrian experience is paramount and is linked to efficient functional transport services.

6.3. Park Station as a Place of Arrival Park Station’s role as a destination has diminished as the buildings in the area have become underutilised. Its main function is as an interchange (JDA 2008) and, according to Schmidt, “People go to Park Station to access the BRT and buses etc. Not just the train. It’s also an interchange. Some use the station just for its interchange function” (interview with Esther Schmidt, 8 August 2016). There is no clear or coherent set of codes and signs to demarcate routes to (or even the actual facilities for) various taxi services, bus services or any of the key uses, nodes or points of interest in and around the station precinct. The lack of signage affects the safety of travellers moving through the area, who are vulnerable when they are uncertain of where to find their destination. Security too is compromised, and there are low and inadequate levels of lighting in various parts of the station and in the surrounding roads. This is a safety concern for use of the area after dusk. Finally, physical safety and comfort are compromised. Changes in levels, varying surface treatments, broken curbs, uneven and broken paving, exposed wires and pipes and stagnant pools of water create a hostile walking environment.

The planning objective is to cohere a macroneighbourhood, or broad neighbourhood, framework in which micro-neighbourhoods are reinforced, with their particular identities being enhanced through quality place making and public space. At a station precinct level the creation of a macroneighbourhood around the Park Station Precinct – which offers a coherent logic and language of place making to the station surrounds, focused on the transport interchange – is also relevant. This would be a conscious effort to introduce public environment interventions and upgrades that

Park Station Precinct

INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT: DIVERGENT APPROACHES The stakeholder field for TOD is complex as the transit routes traverse a variety of neighbourhoods and impact a wide range of agents (Bickford 2016: 40). According to Bickford, “Important to note is that no municipal entity is able to drive TOD in isolation of other actors” (2016: 70). At multi-modal interchanges such as Park Station various authorities may seek competing outcomes, for instance, optimising development rights versus the development of affordable housing. According to Bickford, “Providing a platform for stakeholders identified to engage collaboratively and develop a negotiated way forward seems an important component of advancing TOD. Many authors (Edghill, Kroen and Schuerer 2009, Renne and Wells 2002, Belzer et al 2004, Hook et al 2013) argue that the local government is best placed to drive such an effort” (2016: 41). In respect of the COF, few resident respondents in this precinct had heard of the initiative, which may indicate poor levels of consultation and engagement on the major TOD programme of the City (see Figure 31). The alignment of policy and goals for the precinct will optimise the TOD outcomes of development in the area. Development will need to be driven by local government in the inner city; particularly given the ambiguous property market of the area. Belzer and Autler (2002: 27, cited in Bickford 2016: 8-9) emphasise that: Even with transit, however, any given site must still compete with every other site in the region for development. Since transit is only one of many factors driving development, many other sites may prove more attractive to developers. To be sure, the public sector – most notably local government – can elevate market demand at a site by working to create more of the necessary conditions for development. But without strong existing demand or coordinated policies to help create it, transit alone will not drive appropriate development even if it leads to increases in land costs. The limited attention that has been paid to bringing together various stakeholders and to mediating their interest is the greatest stumbling block in the Johannesburg efforts to achieve TOD. The risk posed by this is that these stakeholders will continue to invest in uncoordinated ways. Institutional arrangements and complexities present some of the most pressing challenges to the creation of TOD environments. The divided mandates and decision-making powers of the City and PRASA in relation to Park Station and its surrounds impede the possibility of integrated planning and design. PRASA representative

Park Station Precinct

Angelika Pershina notes that in other cities the authority has had good working relationships with metropolitan government officials during the planning for redevelopment of station sites. However, in Johannesburg this has been difficult as they have not had consistent or high-level representation at meetings. “We want the City to have access to the plan”, she says (interview with Angelika Pershina, 1 August 2016). There is no evidence of a common set of land use and transportation outcomes for the Park Station area defined by the City and PRASA, or indeed across the City’s relevant departments and entities. Nor are the interests within a single stakeholder group necessarily aligned. As Bickford notes, “It is […] problematic to assume that local government or the transit operator have homogenous interests” (2016: 40). Both the City and the rail authorities, in particular PRASA, govern the Park Station Precinct. The land developments on the station site and those in the immediate surrounds are administrated separately, which creates a problem for coordinated planning. It is also subject to competing mandates: while the City’s mandate centres on the public good and on interrogating land uses and activities across the inner city, PRASA’s mandate as a state entity focuses on ‘sweating the assets’ of the station site. PRASA’s land then is in danger of being viewed as an asset to maximise income rather than an asset to optimise transport functions (interview with Lisa Seftel, 6 August 2016). The City’s social objectives compete with PRASA’s Park Station Precinct

Park Station Empire Perth Development Park Station Precinct Corridor Open Spaces

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GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994 GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994 Coordinate System: oek 1994 Datum: Hartebeesthoek 1994 Date: 2017/06/12 Date: 2017/06/12 Units: Degree

Park Station Precinct Park Station

Have residents heard of the Corridors of Freedom?

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Yes

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commercial objectives, with none of the many plans developed for the site implemented. These plans Empire Perth Development Highway typically focus on the site only and, even where they Corridor address the boundaries of the site, they consider Open Spaces Arterial Roads the developments within the PRASA-administered Highway Arterial Roads envelope. There are functions within the PRASA Main Arterial Roads Roads site that are low-value uses on high-value land, Arterial Roads such as marshalling yards. Various national and Local Roads Main Roads metropolitan rail authorities have landholdings on Railway the Park Station site, with their governing policies Local Roads Rea Vaya BRT requiring that they pay each other for services Railway and for use of land. This impedes coordinated Rea Vaya BRT development and slows down processes because Have residents heard “we have to negotiate with one another” (interview of the Corridors of Have residents heard with Angelika Pershina, 1 August 2016). Freedom? of the Corridors of Yes Freedom? Three different national ministries oversee the agencies that have interests on Park Station site – No Yes PRASA operates under the auspices of the Ministry No of Transport, Transnet under Public Enterprises and the City under Cooperative Governance (COGTA) – making associated development processes cumbersome. For instance, for PRASA to dispose of assets requires ministerial approval, which undermines development options (interview with Angelika Pershina, 1 August 2016). PRASA recently released a tender for the lease of a property (rather than sale). According to a developer, the lease term proposed was too short to provide enough of a period for establishment and growth of a development and for returns that would make commercial sense (interview with Ndumiso Davidson, 4 August 2016). Responsibility for transportation operations is split amongst various institutions. The Gauteng provincial government “is responsible for the operation of the Gautrain and thus has a clear vested interest in the property and land development around stations”, while “various transit operators which exist in the province (including) PRASA, Gautrain Management Agency and Rea Vaya are operated at each of the three spheres and are all driving separate TOD agendas which best suit their individual interests” (Bickford 2016: 64). Park Station

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0.6 Km

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economic development, transportation, and inner city regeneration. There has not been a clear land use response to the transit station in the inner city; rather, over 20 plans have been developed for the Park Station site and the City’s planning response has focused on discreet precincts or transport interchanges in the vicinity of the station. At a strategic level, within the City there is a more concerted attempt to integrate efforts at least at a sectoral level, and to provide overarching coordination through the City’s inner city strategy. The mechanisms of the Inner City Roadmap and associated partnerships may offer instruments for coordinated responses to the transportation, economic, housing and public environment issues that impact heavily on the area. Planning for the precinct is further fragmented by the City’s separation of transport and land use planning, and by its precinct approach which has focused urban design planning on select city blocks but not on a ‘station and its surrounds’ precinct. Investment in transportation infrastructure has focused on particular taxi ranks or on the BRT. However, governance of the area is not confined to planning approaches, and includes management regimes. In the Park Station Precinct there are diverse and competing management entities and approaches. These include the management approaches that endeavour to oversee housing arrangements, traffic flows and economic development. Broadly, the formal institutional responses conflict with informal management approaches. According to Silverman and Zack (2007: 10): It is important to note that the State is only one actor within the complex urban space of the inner city. Residents, traders, property owners, slumlords, drug-dealers, shoppers, tenants and sub-tenants also engage in the process of urban management, in both the public and private realms and in the blurred and overlapping spaces between these realms. In some instances the interactions are harmonious, in others combative and conflicting.

In the wider inner city the CoJ depends on other state agencies for the provision of critical services including education and health (which are provincial functions). The City oversees a range of priorities in the precinct, each of them urgent. It is complicated to privilege one over the other, and municipallevel planning is also fragmented between various agencies responsible for spatial development,

Figure 31: Residents who have heard of the Corridors of Freedom

Have residents heard Park Station Precinct 61 of0.3 the Corridors 0.45 0.6of Km

Park Station Precinct

MUNICIPAL SERVICES AND URBAN MANAGEMENT Irene Mafune, Regional Director of Region F who oversees the tracking and reporting of urban management issues in the inner city, explains that there has been a regression in the state of the inner city’s public environment in the last few years (interview, 23 August 2016). The blurring of boundaries between the agencies responsible for delivering and maintaining each service, and those agencies that are responsible for overseeing the reporting of faults in these services, gives rise to a system that is duplicated, lacks adequate accountability and is inefficient. For example, the AFTRaX study notes that: While DED [Department of Economic Development] was the face of the City in traders negotiations over all matters, and while DED oversaw training programmes for traders, it was not involved in the detail of space allocation or management. Rather MTC [Metro Trading Company] undertook allocation. Formally MTC’s mandate was also to monitor street trade. It appears that this is not a function that was resourced or staffed and that it is not a function that MTC undertook. Rather the monitoring of the impact of street trade fell to Region F as part of the urban inspection duties and as one of the urban management ‘problems’ that inspectors might pick up on their rounds. Region F inspectors in turn had responsibility only for reporting on infrastructure in disrepair or other issues that affect City entities. In turn they would feed these enquiries and complaints to their counterparts in the entities. The primary role of Region F is an oversight role over the urban management needs of the space in which these activities and other activities operate. Region F oversees the public environment through its quadrant managers and inspectors who inspect the city streets and spaces on a daily basis. The Region cannot intervene in repair or maintenance of services and infrastructure but reports these to the relevant utilities. A frustratingly slow and inefficient process of reporting that relies on personal relationships between the Region F official and a relevant official in the entities exists. There is no predictable route from the lodging of a complaint to its resolution. The AFTRaX report further notes that “by-law enforcement remains the mandate of JMPD. These separated mandates means that an issue such as a trader putting oil into a storm water drain, which might fall into the responsibility of Region F, JMPD,

Park Station Precinct

Joburg Water and MTC could be dealt with by several officials or by none, since each expected another to be picking the problem up” (CoJ 2014a). The work of Region F depends on the cooperation of various entities that are responsible for repairing and maintaining services in the inner city. In the past the Region had a budget with which it could undertake some urgent repairs. But it currently has no budget and operates largely as an inspectorate (interview with Irene Mafune, 23 August 2016). For the purposes of urban management, the inner city has been divided into quadrants, each with inspectors who report to a quadrant manager. It is the daily task of inspectors to assess the public space and buildings in the city blocks allocated to them. Area inspectors scan the city blocks they are responsible for and look for service delivery breakdowns, bad buildings, illegal street trading, crime, condition of roads and streetlights and “all aspects of urban management” (CoJ 2014a). They record and log the faults they identify, which are then taken up by the relevant entity. In practice this does not guarantee that problems are dealt with, and in the past success has depended largely on the individual relationship between inspectors and the responsible officials at each depot. However, those relationships no longer exist, as inspectors are now confined to using the electronic system and there is no way of tracking who is responsible for implementing the repair or when it will be done. According to Earl Stoles, a deputy director in Region F responsible for data management, the computer programmes used by various entities are not uniform and the interface between some of the systems does not work (interview, 23 August 2016). While quadrant managers are tasked with

Park Station Precinct

following up problems that have been logged, the system is neither efficient nor synchronised. A problem may be logged several times and this duplication clogs the system. Officials who are associated with inner city service delivery noted that supervision and oversight at the level of inspection, reporting and carrying out repairs is considered inadequate. In addition the rapid turnover of staff (as people are moved to different positions and sections in CoJ) severely affects the carry-through on resolving problems. It is unclear who is in charge of each of the service breakdowns that occur in the inner city. When issues are not attended to there is no recourse and people are not held accountable (CoJ 2014a). Furthermore, partnerships with developers are not optimised. According to a private developer in Braamfontein, the public services around new developments are a big concern. He gives the example of how South Point spent R250 million on a building, however the sidewalks were in a bad state and the City did not repair the paving nor allow the developer to rehabilitate the sidewalk (interview with Ndumiso Davidson, 4 August 2016). In the aftermath of Operation Clean Sweep, and following court rulings against CoJ, the City entered into a lengthy process of plan development and consultation with stakeholders for a revised informal trade strategy in the inner city. The comprehensive plan was made progressively more permissive in terms of the amount of trading space that would be allocated, and systems for trader management are being developed. The current work is focussing on the systems and processes rather than physical plans, and is a response to feedback from consultation sessions and to a detailed risk analysis undertaken by the City. Key to the operation of the system is effective law enforcement once the processes are in place. The processes include the development of an audited, electronic and transparent database of traders as well as the development of processes for by-law enforcement, for cleaning and for the resolution of all infrastructure problems (interview with Xolani Nxumalo, 14 September 2016). Key to the new system is a coordinated project team under the auspices of the City’s Department of Economic Development (DED) that brings together various departments and entities for the specific concerns of informal trade in the inner city. The team includes representation from Region F, JPC, JMPD, Pikitup, Planning, JRA and Environmental Health.

Park Station Precinct

This team meets fortnightly to operationalise the strategy and to resolve any issues. In addition to this joint team arrangement, each entity is intended to provide a dedicated team that focuses on informal trading spaces in the inner city and cooperates with stakeholders in the area. Pikitup will, for instance, work with informal trader block leaders in each trading space to organise arrangements for bins, clearing times etc. (interview with Xolani Nxumalo, 14 September 2016). The detailed management of trading will happen within each focused trading space and involve the surrounding property owners and stakeholders. This will mean that the final arrangements will rely on consensus or on trade-offs. “The system will be decentralised and will generate reports” (interview with Xolani Nxumalo, 14 September 2016). The concluding of service-level agreements (SLAs) has been a component of inner city CID proposals since the inception of improvement districts. It is also intended that the City will enter into partnerships (with signed SLAs) with CIDs in the inner city for the management of trader space. Currently, much of the congestion of informal trade around the Park Station area relates to irregular traders who occupy space that has not been demarcated, or traders who occupy more space than has been allocated. Mafune notes that smartcards indicate what is being sold and where the trader is allowed to trade (interview with Irene Mafune, 23 August 2016). JMPD has no basis to enforce legal trading. The prevention of decline through post-construction maintenance is essential. The entities are separately responsible for repairs and maintenance to their infrastructure. While urban management and postconstruction maintenance are separate functions in the City, when infrastructure is vandalised or falls into disrepair soon after implementation the problem reads as an urban management problem (interview with Irene Mafune, 23 August 2016). The long-term maintenance of environments is also a problem. Although there are reporting tasks attached to these environments (the Region F tasks) to report on problems, there are no operational and maintenance plans after construction, so degradation is not prevented. Mafune says linear markets “like Hoek Street” (a formalised food and craft market developed by the City) are not taken care of, which raises many complaints from surrounding property owners. The expansive complaints lodged to the City include that toilets are not serviced or that the toilet structure and lean-tos (which are informally constructed against sidewalls) offer hiding space for criminals. An area-based management (ABM) Park Station Precinct

response plan to complaints in the vicinity of Park Station – and specifically the St Mary’s Cathedral – identifies urban management issues in the area (CoJ 2014b). However the actions are not prioritised. Under policing, for example, a list of JMPD actions includes broad statements such as “ensure the sustained enforcement of relevant by-laws with a focus on illegal dumping, informal traders, illegal parking, urinating in public, illegal recycling, illegal posters and encroachment” (CoJ 2014b). Indeed, informal trade contributes a large volume of waste. According to Mafune: The nature of this area is that it is a transport point and a thoroughfare. It moves a large number of commuters every day. And traders locate there to try to get customers. They are trading under very challenging circumstances. Some trade in designated areas, some in non-designated space. Informal traders, and particularly food sellers, generate a large amount of waste in a short period of time in the course of their business. These trading spaces require on-going day long cleaning operations (interview with Irene Mafune, 23 August 2016). However, businesses in the area “also generate a lot of waste” (interview with Irene Mafune, 23 August 2016) and the ABM plan notes the alarming statistic of 95% of businesses not having accounts with Pikitup and therefore not having bins (CoJ 2014b). A high turnover of shops; weak relationships between shopkeepers, building owners and the City; and the poor enforcement of by-laws means that many businesses in the area are not contributing to the cost of solid waste removal. Licences are not issued to individual retail premises but to the building, and there is poor or absent tracking of which businesses exist in buildings. It is therefore relatively easy to avoid payment for services (as many buildings do not have municipal account with the City for the waste generated by their tenants). Consequently, the number of bins and collection services to individual buildings is wholly inadequate. The ABM plan recommends that Pikitup provide bins for free rather than depend on private business to pay for them. The plan also calls for education campaigns and for strict by-law enforcement. Stoles suggests however that law enforcement is reactive and:

Park Station Precinct

There needs to be a set of established rules before traders move into a space every day. JMPD must take charge of an area ahead of the activity each morning. Traders set up from 4:30 in morning, but JMPD officers only arrive on site at 9am. That’s too late. By then the chaos has unfolded. The police enter a space, confiscate goods and leave. And people have studied the movements of the police so they simply avoid them” (interview with Earl Stoles, 23 August 2016). The system is designed to support this inefficiency and ineffectiveness. JMPD scorecards record the numbers of citations written. This incentive, at its most perverse, is not to change the systems on the ground, but to carry on policing it and keep it in its chaos in order to have reason to write citations. Overall, the plan highlights the need for systems and supervision around operations such as cleaning and for on-going monitoring and law enforcement. The plan also recommends quick spatial upgrades in Hoek Street, such as repairs of fencing and public toilets, stating that these require a facilities management plan. The ABM plan is detailed and illustrates important urban management issues as well as strategies for reversing them. However, it is focused on a confined area that should be seen only as a pilot. The reinstatement of pavements and repair of potholes, as well as the cleaning and repair of storm water drains, is highlighted and the JRA is identified to prepare an operational plan for these repairs. The lack of signage and road markings is also highlighted for the attention of JRA. There is a recommendation that SAPS and JMPD police the problem of people urinating in public. However this is an infrastructural problem before it is a behavioural one, and there is a need for more public toilets (and quality facilities management of these). CCTV cameras in the inner city are not functional because of damage caused by roadworks, which is another instance of the City creating its own urban management problems by not attending to a basic precaution or repair around maintenance works. The plan also makes recommendations around partnering with St Mary’s Cathedral for on-going management. This is a recommendation that can equally be made with other big institutions in the area.The City would do well to roll out ‘mini’ area management precincts like this with stakeholders, and similarly such agreements should be entered into with traders on each city block. Schools could partner for management of local public squares, parks and sidewalk space that are geared towards safety and amenity of schoolchildren.

Park Station Precinct

CRIME As indicated in Figure 32, concerns about crime were pronounced in the survey findings and discontent with security is not geographically clustered. A large portion (45%) of respondents believe crime to be the biggest challenge in the area, and when asked about areas of dissatisfaction 31% highlighted safety and security with over 20% indicating problems with police services. 33% of respondents found that there was either frequent or occasional conflict in the area. Relatedly, 47% of respondents answered that the combatting of crime would be the most important thing they would like to be improved in the area. 14% opted for the creation of better employment opportunities and 12% answered for no improvements. When looking at levels of dissatisfaction on a number of issues, the main areas of dissatisfaction were: safety and security in the area, job opportunities), cleanliness, police services and recreational and leisure activities (Figure 33). Just fewer than one in 10 respondents answered that their community was filled with conflict, while almost a quarter answered that there was occasional conflict. This demonstrates a significant level of conflict in the community.

Security grills cage in the counters and goods in Jakoob Rajah’s hardware store. These were installed in the late 1990s when there was a great deal of political and criminal violence in the inner city. He says the excessive security measures are not required now: “I would still secure the goods because of pilfering, but we are not personally under threat” (interview, 30 August 2016). He is ambivalent about the police presence in the area, stating that the visibility of police and JMPD officers is important in reducing the risk of crime and that their presence does reduce the level of violent crimes and shop robberies. But he adds that theft continues, and “the visibility of the police would be better if they were straight”, adding that police officers are part of the problem, “taking bribes and stealing people’s goods” (interview, 30 August 2016). A neighbouring Pakistani dealer in mobile phones, who declines to give his name, said that every shop has its own security guard, which makes the shops spaces safer than the streets. FIt is also important to note that almost 35% of resident respondents in the survey highlighted problems with cleanliness of the area. This points to urban management concerns. Those residents living to the east and south of Park Station were

Park Station Precinct

more likely to indicate dissatisfaction with levels of cleanliness in the area (see the map in Figure 34). Streets hawkers and traders also highlight another threat: criminal activities being directed by corrupt officials. In the Ethiopian Quarter, ethnographic research has highlighted stories of police corruption – for example JMPD officers taking traders’ stock only to return it in exchange for large sums of money, or to sell it to other traders (Zack 2013; 2014). Wanderers Street is avoided by pedestrians due to personal safety concerns (ARUP 2016). This is borne out by interviews, with a hotel manager and a hotel caretaker who reported that their customers face a high threat of mugging in the short distance between the station and the hotels located on Wanderers Street. Student fieldwork in the area also found that this is a high danger zone (Wits University 2016). It is a point of exit for cross-border arrivals to the inner city and the disorientation of new entrants to the city is exacerbated by the dark, poorly signposted and illegible station entrances, as well as underutilised and unmanaged land on the northeast portion of the station site. This creates vulnerable open spaces that have no surveillance. For some, the state of disrepair of many of the City’s CCTV cameras in the CBD is a backward step in crime prevention (interview with Paul Jackson, 1 September 2016). However, the threat is not only from muggers. According to a hotel maintenance manager, guests often get robbed in the area and police presence does not help. “The police are not

Park Station Precinct

Park Station Park Precinct Station Precinct Park Station Park Station

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Empire Perth Development Dissatisfaction with the area Empire Perth Development CorridorCorridor Open Spaces Open Spaces Safety & security HighwayHighway Arterial Roads Arterial Roads Arterial Roads Arterial Roads Main Roads Main Roads

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Very dissatisfied

Arterial Roads Main Roads Local Roads Railway Rea Vaya BRT Figure 32. Business respondents’ satisfaction with safety and security in the area

Business satisfaction Park Station Precinct 71 with security 0.3 safety 0.45 and 0.6 Km

Police services Recreational & leisure facilities

Residents Business Users

Regulation enforcement

Railway Rea Vaya BRT0

Cleanliness of area

Standard of accommodation / business

Local Roads

ate System: GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994 Coordinate System: GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994 Hartebeesthoek 1994 Datum: Hartebeesthoek 1994 Date: 2017/06/12 egree Units: Degree Date: 2017/06/12

Municipal services

Roads & public transport

Arterial Roads Newtown Newtown

Quality of schools / educational facilities

0.45 0.3

0.6 0.45 Km

0.6 Km

± ±

Size of the market Quality of public space Variety of businesses on offer 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Percentage dissatisfied Figure 33: Overall residential, business and user dissatisfaction in the Park Station Precinct

controlling crime. They are promoting crime”, he says, referring to police taking bribes in the area and illegally confiscating people’s goods (interview with Michael Ndlovu, 30 August 2016).

Davidson, 4 August 2016). Several companies have shuttle services for the short distance from the station to their offices in Braamfontein. This inhibits the footfall, vibrancy and economic potential of the space.

A developer of student accommodation highlights the safety concerns of students. The value of living in Braamfontein is proximity to the inner city; however students are at risk in public spaces and crossing into the inner city over the bridges is dangerous (due to the high risk of mugging on the bridges). According to Davidson, “even walking to Park station from Braamfontein is not safe” (interview with Ndumiso

The ineffective enforcement of regulations in the inner city contributes to criminality in the area. “The City must take charge of the inner city”, states Mafune; adding that “we need a harder hand than other regions. We need law enforcement and effort by all entities. Currently the message being given is that you can do as you please in the inner city” (interview with Irene Mafune, 23 August 2016). Park Station Precinct

Park Station Park Precinct Station Precinct Park Station Park Station

HillbrowHillbrow

Empire Perth Empire Development Perth Development CorridorCorridor Open Spaces Open Spaces HighwayHighway Arterial Roads Arterial Roads Arterial Roads Arterial Roads Main Roads Main Roads

Braamfontein Braamfontein

City of Tshwane

Local Roads Local Roads Railway Railway Rea Vaya Rea BRT Vaya BRT

Park Station Precinct Park Station

Residents’ Residents’ satisfaction satisfaction with cleanliness with cleanliness

Empire Perth Development Corridor

Hillbrow

Very Satisfied Very Satisfied SatisfiedSatisfied

Open Spaces

Neutral Neutral Dissatisfied Dissatisfied

Highway

Johannesburg Johannesburg CBD CBD

Arterial Roads

Very Dissatisfied Very Dissatisfied

Arterial Roads Newtown Newtown

Main Roads Local Roads Railway Rea Vaya BRT0

City of Tshwane

rdinate System: Coordinate GCS Hartebeesthoek System: GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994 1994 um: Hartebeesthoek Datum: Hartebeesthoek 1994 1994 Date: 2017/06/12 Date: 2017/06/12 s: Degree Units: Degree

Park Station Precinct Park Station

0.45 0.3

0.45 0.6 Km

0.6 Km

± ±

Residents’ satisfaction with cleanliness

Empire Perth Development Corridor

Very Satisfied Satisfied

Open Spaces

Neutral

Highway

Dissatisfied

Arterial Roads Johannesburg CBD

0.0750.15 0 0.0750.15 0.3

Very Dissatisfied

Arterial Roads Main Roads Local Roads Railway Rea Vaya BRT Figure 33: Residents’ satisfaction with cleanliness of the area

Residents’ satisfaction Park Station Precinct 73 with 0.3 cleanliness 0.45 0.6 Km

Park Station Precinct

RECOMMENDATIONS The Park Station environment is a historic and established node. It is both a key node in the wider TOD system and a crucial node within the neighbourhood of the inner city. Its connectivity into the rest of the city depends on its linkages and its identity as a destination and hub; while its relationship to its surrounds depends on the strength of the precinct as a TOD environment. The urban fabric of the Park Station Precinct exhibits many TOD elements. In this respect it offers enormous potential for a vibrant attractive and efficient urban environment. The key to optimising the precinct as a TOD interchange within the Corridors is the interface between the station and the city environment. As a major transport interchange this can be the heart of the city in a cultural, commercial, retail and social exchange sense, and it can be a major point of identification. However, this depends on how it is configured, and how it is relates to its surrounds through the pedestrian environment (interview with Holger Deppe, 20 July 2016). The public transit, housing and mixed land use conditions exist. While each has its limitations that need to be addressed, overall the lack is not to inject these elements, but to enhance the functionality and quality of the public realm. This requires positive open spaces, green spaces, social amenities, as well as space for informal and formal economic activity. The provocations that flow from the above description and analysis of the Park Station Precinct are spatial, management and programmatic in nature. These will be discussed in more detail below.

10.1. Spatial Provocations Connectivity

Transportation in the Park Station Precinct is integrally linked with transportation on the Corridors and elsewhere in the city. To achieve the efficiency that is required in the Park Station Precinct for TOD to succeed in Johannesburg, the high levels of congestion need to be addressed. This cannot be done exclusively through an increase in BRT services on the Corridors. If there is not concomitant reduction in the scale of minibus taxis in the inner city, there will be no efficiency gains from the public transport plans. This requires a concerted reduction (and enforcement thereof) on routes that serve the inner city. Routes need to be rationalised so that duplication (where routes converge unnecessarily on the inner city) is altered. Taxi routes need to bypass the inner city where possible. Indeed, routes that connect between the Corridors without going through the inner city are necessary for city-wide efficiency. Park Station must be spatially connected to its surrounds. People need to be able to stream in and out of the station rather than move through

Park Station Precinct

un-signposted narrow entrances. The connections into the city fabric are particularly poor in the sparse pedestrian paths north of the station. The walkability of this precinct is the key to improved pedestrian accessibility between Hillbrow and other parts of the inner city. At a local scale the physical and visual reconnection and reinforcement of the city grid should be undertaken as per the proposals of the Greater Park Station Urban Design and Heritage Management Framework (JDA 2008). Place making

A bold intervention is required in the public space. The grid pattern of the CBD and Braamfontein should offer a highly legible and navigable transportation network. In reality, conditions on the ground make the space illegible, confusing, congested and conflicted. The public space does not serve any transport function optimally and is an inadequate platform to the transportation hub that is Park Station. The Cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s planning and investment in the public environment is a sporadic, reactive and most often a cosmetic response. The upgrading of sidewalks or the building of trader stalls in some locations is too insufficient and does not address the basic causes of congestion and the poor public environment in this area. These need to be addressed by large-scale improved connectivity, increased permeability of the ground floor and rationalising of both taxi movements and informal trade. There is also a need for upgrading Park Station Precinct

of the environment in a way that enhances safety. All of these interventions need to be coupled with intense urban management and law enforcement. Walkability, permeability and connections

The city blocks that surround Park Station are an extension of the public platform to the transportation interchange. They are the commuter links between important interchanges. There is intense pressure on public space in the precinct, and the available space is mostly linear sidewalk space. The whole area should be treated in a bold public space redevelopment initiative that creates a high quality public environment with easy walkability; permeability; connections across the space; and direct connections to Joubert Park. The environment should ensure that all users ‘read’ that they are in the Park Station Precinct, which is the centre of the CBD. This requires, where possible, ‘lifting’ the city blocks off the ground level through the creation of open access spaces under and through buildings, as well as a concerted focus on ease of pedestrian movement. Semi-pedestrianisation and improvement of flow should occur within a framework of creating a coherent macro-neighbourhood (as suggested for Braamfontein by Local Studio), while permitting local identity to feature in the specific ways in which this overarching principle manifests in each part of the sub-neighbourhood. The overarching macro-neighbourhood should be focused on facilitating pedestrian experience. This requires formal planning of strong pedestrian linkages throughout the blocks on all sides immediately surrounding Park Station. The ground floor should be made permeable to ease pedestrian flow. To the east, Joubert Park and the JAG are blocked off from the station – by the Wanderers taxi rank – and the inner city (by the station itself). Narrow congested streets offer little visual or physical connection through the area. A green links of planted pathways between the station and the park would reinforce the connection between these facilities. The link between Park Station and the park/JAG also works in the opposite direction, where Park Station can readily be a host of art pieces from the gallery. The two major facilities can be linked through greenery, heritage and art. This can also be extended further – to art and images being placed on transport routes and in public transport vehicles that lead to the inner city (taxis, Gautrain and buses) to draw the offerings within the inner

Park Station Precinct

city into the Corridors (interview with Eben Keun, 20 July 2016). The large Wanderers taxi rank is also real problem for connectivity and it “would be better to have a square that functions as a forecourt to the station” (interview with Holger Deppe, 20 July 2016). It is recommended that a large offstreet market (possibly a food and/or second-hand clothing market) be established at the base of the Wanderers taxi rank and that all ranking be lifted to upper floors. This will create a large permeable seam that connects the station to its environment. It will also relieve pedestrian congestion on streets, as relocation of traders from congested points can be accommodated. In addition to ground floor markets, a way to improve permeability is to create arcades through buildings. It is essential to connect the transport interchanges and destination points in the area at street level. The impermeability of the area hampers its functionality. New developments, including the redevelopment of Wanderers and Jack Mincer (Noord) taxi ranks, should offer ground level markets that are entirely permeable to pedestrians. This will ease the pedestrian flow on streets and provide space for suitable informal trading to be accommodated off street. The development of arcades through buildings provides increased shop frontage and spreads pedestrian traffic across the area. This requires adequate management and support for informal trade. To the north, Braamfontein’s street life is removed from its corporate offices. The retail offering and entertainment at ground level should be geared towards breaking the insular mind-set of corporate space in the area (interview with Ndumiso Davidson, 4 August 2016). Informal trading

The public environment lacks much of the basic infrastructure required to support the density of informal business in the inner city, contributing to disorganisation and the solid waste generated around street trading. The following services are required: smooth road and sidewalk surfaces (for safety and comfort); water (for cooking or washing tasks); drainage (for disposal of wastewater); public toilets (for traders, shoppers and commuters); and electricity or alternative fuel (for cooking). Different commodities generate different amounts and types of waste. A food market requires particular services for cooking and disposing of solid and liquid waste;

Park Station Precinct

a second-hand clothing market may require specific display areas; an electronics market may require electrical connections, etc. All trader areas require public toilets and water. Concentrating types of goods together will make it possible to tailor-make market spaces for these commodities, and provide suitable infrastructure for goods to be sold in hygienic settings. The on-going management of waste generated by street trading needs to be resolved in an arrangement with individual traders and traders associations, in which traders can take more responsibility for the proper disposal of waste in the public space in which they operate. This requires both an adequate number of bins and a management arrangement of pick-up points and coordinated daily cleaning. Taxi holding and ranking

There is a need to rationalise the ranking and holding sites for minibus taxis – to consolidate holding facilities of taxis that serve the same area and create holding facilities further east of the core to relieve Jack Mincer/Noord. Currently, a great deal of street space is colonised by taxis. On-street holding or long-term ranking creates ‘dead space’, as the bays offer no churn of movement. In addition, many empty taxis cruise through the streets to transport single pedestrians across the short distance of the inner city: “Taxi don’t mind running empty with one person in so they do that service” (interview with Esther Schmidt, 8 August 2016). Further, taxi routes are not rationalised and this contributes to extreme congestion and unnecessary circulation on inner city streets. Jack Mincer/ Noord and Metro Mall B are serving similar routes (northern suburbs of Johannesburg). According to Mafune,“Jack Mincer is in the middle of the inner city. Hundreds of taxis are ‘worming’ their way through the traffic to get there. There is no way to get in or out quickly. The congestion blocks all surrounding roads” (interview with Irene Mafune, 23 August 2016). The ARUP report contends that a move of all taxi facilities to the west of the station would be more effective and would benefit pedestrian interchange movements between taxis. Such a move would require consideration of a rank to serve Hillbrow residents who currently commence their trip at Jack Mincer (ARUP 2016). A rationalised circulation system might include consolidating the ranks that serve particular routes, and linking the ranks to one another through another more

Park Station Precinct

regulated mode (such as the BRT). Stoles, referring to the operation of the taxi industry in the inner city, states that “Transport sectors that cannot be controlled can scupper the whole urban management plan” (interview, 23 August 2016). Taxi movement, ranking and holding, as well as driver behaviour, are major contributors to congestion in the inner city. The land uses around the station, whether formal or informal, respond to the presence of taxis in order to turn commuters into shoppers. Wherever illegal ranking occurs, it draws informal trade, often in unmanaged space. The management of taxis and the management of informal trade are related, albeit the actual management of each sector is a unique task. The feasibility of concentrating taxi movement to the west of the CBD needs to be investigated. This would reduce the number of empty taxis crossing the inner city and assist in the management of allied trading space. The BRT Phase 1 commenced with an inner city loop service. However, the waiting period between buses was approximately 20 minutes and people preferred to walk (interview with Esther Schmidt, 8 August 2016). If a loop between taxi ranks is to be created it must be done in conjunction with enforced restriction on regular taxis moving between the ranks, and with a sufficient number of shuttle buses or taxis operating the loop. Open space and recreation

The Park Station site is strategically located to offer substantial recreation opportunity in a city space that is extremely dense and underserved by open space. Zack questions “Will this opportunity be lost by overdeveloping the last possible site for a significant open space opportunity that could knit the inner city together and provide the muchneeded lung for residents and users of this space? What productive contribution will this public land make to the stressed living environment in this area?” (Zack cited in ARUP 2016: 38). There are unexplored opportunities to inject social facilities in buildings. Legibility

Legibility in and around the Park Station Precinct is problematic, with extremely poor signage, other codes or orientation signals. This hampers the usability and comfort of the area. The provisions of the Greater Park Station Urban Design and Heritage Management Framework should be implemented. Park Station Precinct

These posit: A single system of maps, signs and information bound together by a simple graphic language will render the city easily understandable across barriers of language and culture. With this very simple device and without large scale physical intervention, the city can become navigable and accessible, not only to visitors but to many Joburg residents who have hitherto been fearful of visiting the inner city or utilising the public transport system (JDA 2008: 76).

Residential development

The vision for residential development on the Park Station site is for the ’gap’ market targeted at employed persons who can afford to use the rail facilities. However the City’s burden to accommodate poor households in close proximity to transportation cannot be overlooked or shunned by Park Station developments. Sites that flank Burghersdorp, where low-income households and indigent persons currently reside, should be developed for communal and transitional housing development. Development on underdeveloped sites needs to be intensified. The Bridge Shopping Centre, for instance, is a low-value development on high-value site. The ARUP report’s suggestion for increased height, and the addition of residential use, should be encouraged. Similar proposals should be welcomed for other buildings in the vicinity. However, the opportunity to include social facilities in the buildings must be optimised. Infrastructure

Park Station should be a place of dignity. It is crucial that sufficient public toilets, water points, bath houses and places of pause be available in the precinct for users and traders. Furthermore, with the provision of limited infrastructure (water points, drainage etc.) services such as taxi cleaning could potentially be leveraged in the area. “The provision of water and ablution facilities is not only important for income generation. Bathhouses and public toilets are extremely scarce in the area. Yet these are basic necessities for multiple users of the inner city. Formal and informal workers, homeless persons and travellers require washing facilities. They and pedestrians require public toilets” (Zack cited in ARUP 2016).

Park Station Precinct

As a place of arrival and of connection, how will Park Station tap into the technologies of interpersonal connectivity? According to Zack, “Mobile phone and Internet kiosks are amongst the most prolific uses around Park Station. The importance of connectivity, of linkage home or elsewhere and of using technology to network, to find work, to extend opportunity, must not be underestimated” (cited in ARUP 2016: 37).

10.2. Management Provocations Intensely utilised areas require high levels of constant urban management. They also require constant law enforcement. At present this area suffers a lack of both. Day to day urban management must be area-based, with all entities focusing their efforts in the same area-based configuration and with the same categories of issues – for example, emergency matters, recurring matters, new matters, matters that require escalation, etc. Instil custodianship of the area

At present there is no custodianship of the area. There is a lot of illegal dumping, illegal trading, illegal parking and no consequences because there is not (and possibly cannot be) continuous law enforcement in the area. This requires a different approach, where responsibility can be more localised and custodianship can be instilled at the street and block level, and through users of the space (not only through law enforcement). Training of block leaders for such joint management is important (interview with Irene Mafune, 23 August 2016). Regulate liquor availability

Liquor is one of the high-priority and unambiguous law enforcement issues that should be tackled in an on-going and focused way. The high incidence of crime cannot be divorced from the availability of liquor in the area, and there are many illegal liquor establishments. While provincial government undertakes the licencing of the legal establishments, it is necessary for SAPS and JMPD to close illegal selling points and monitor the establishments and their surrounds for illegal activity. Rehabilitate sectional title and bad buildings

The rehabilitation of sectional title and so-called bad buildings remains a key need in the area. Processes for tackling these are contained in

Park Station Precinct

recent CoJ strategies, for example the ICHIP (CoJ 2016). The implementation of the ICHIP is vital for Johannesburg’s inner city.

• Enforcement of Urban Design Guidelines and Heritage Conservation Guidelines;

Create 24-hour services

• Liaison with various transport operators to ensure smooth running of facilities.

The ARUP report (2016) notes that the availability of services could be improved by extending opening hours. Park Station, for instance, is not available 24 hours a day, which means travellers wait overnight for services. Build institutional partnerships

PRASA owns buildings in Braamfontein and within the northern CBD. Development and the integration of development between the station envelope and surrounding areas therefore depend heavily on the approach PRASA takes to its developments, and to how anticipated development on the PRASA landholdings respond to the surrounds. In turn, the way that the City responds with development of its sites and of the public environment will determine the functionality and orientation of development in the area. However, private ownership is also significant and indeed this is an area where a real partnership between various state bodies and the private sector could be leveraged for development opportunity, and an integrated hub and transitoriented environment. There is a need to build localised partnerships for urban management, including local technical teams that are focused on quadrants/smaller precincts and include representatives of various entities. This would ensure that a principle of direct relationships between Region F urban inspectors and the service providers, as well as between service providers, is re-established. Localised partnerships for management of park space should also be established. An increase in the engagement with local residents and users in the planning design and maintenance of recreational space and of public environment upgrading may help in countering the high level of vandalism of infrastructure. Establish a Precinct Management Agency

Importantly, the Greater Park Station Urban Design and Heritage Management Framework proposes that a Precinct Management Agency be established for the area to coordinate developments within the precinct. The role of this agency might include the:

Park Station Precinct

• Coordination of Interchange Design on an ongoing basis; and

This authority might also potentially take responsibility for aspects of urban management, including security, by-law enforcement, refuse removal, street cleaning, and management of retail and markets (JDA 2008: 75).

10.3. Programmatic Provocations There is a substantial residential population in the inner city; however the lack of safety and amenities in public space keeps this population indoors. This calls for a combination of improvements to public space, an increase in the amount of well-designed amenable public space, and programmatic interventions (participation in design and in animation of public space) to improve a sense of belonging in the inner city. It is not sustainable only to provide housing in the redevelopment of inner city buildings, and attention must be paid to the development of balanced urban offerings in the inner city. A strategic plan for the development of non-residential uses, to match the ICHIP plan, is required. Some further programmatic provocations are outlined below.

Offer housing and economic information in the precinct

Transparent, easily accessible information on housing opportunities is needed for many economic migrants who do not have social ties in the inner city. There is also a need for information on job opportunities, skills development and youth development. A central hub for such information would be well placed in this precinct. Develop a programme (with budget) for emergency and short-term repair and rehabilitation

Which urban management problems are created by the City’s construction and maintenance? Which of these can be solved in the short term (for example, repair of storm water drains, potholes, reinstating paving, road markings and road names, signage etc.)? It would be valuable for every City entity to create maintenance plans and monthly reports on the state of every service. Although urban management can highlight big crisis points – and with effort these can be dealt with – it really should be dealing with the on-going normal stressors on the urban environment that require on-going maintenance. This is not the function of

Region F but should be happening as a regular function within each entity. It is necessary to deal with the slower degradation of the environment, which is not urgent but is a continual process. Rebuild direct relationships for urban management between entities and Region F

The rebuilding of direct relationships between entities and Region F for urban management should happen at two levels. At the precinct level dedicated officials should be accountable for certain local areas (officials can have oversight over more than one area so this should not add to staff needs). At a strategic and management level a dedicated task team that meets at least fortnightly should be established. The team should have a sole focus on urban management issues, and all key unresolved issues should be elevated and coordinated at a management level. Finally, JMPD officers operate with little supervision at present. They are not trained with an understanding of the space and have no reason to take an interest in it. This can be shifted with a serious inner city training programme for JMPD officers and all officials working in the inner city.

Celebrate Park Station Precinct as a gateway to Africa

Positioning Park Station Precinct as a gateway to Africa requires that services for cross-border traders and visitors be enhanced. In addition to the business and shopper services required, services to migrants to the city should also be enhanced. The Drill Hall offers an opportunity to create a migrant centre with associated state and NGO services. It also offers the opportunity for creative/exhibition/event space attached to celebrating and showcasing migrant relationships with, and experiences in, the City. This is consistent with the Park Station Precinct as a point of arrival. Can Park Station offer a site of welcome; of people being able to access services and support as they arrive? What registration and what directing of people to services can be offered here to promote legitimate and safe arrival? (ARUP 2016).

Park Station Precinct

REFERENCES ARUP (2016) “Park Station Sub Precinct Development Framework” Prepared for PRASA. Bickford G (2016) “Transit Oriented Development in the South African Context: An Analytical Review of Johannesburg’s Recent Urban Policy and Strategy” MPhil (specialising in Transport Studies) dissertation, University of Cape Town. Burocco L (2014) “People’s Place in the World Class City: The Case of Braamfontein’s Inner City Regeneration Project” Master’s thesis, University of Witwatersrand. CoJ (City of Johannesburg) (2014) Inner City Transformation Roadmap. CoJ (2014a) “Alternative Formalities, Transnationalism and Xenophobia in the City of Johannesburg (AFTraX)” Report prepared by the School of Architecture and Planning, University of Witwatersrand. CoJ (2014b) “St Marys Cathedral Precinct Draft Area Based Management Plan”. CoJ (2016) Johannesburg Inner City Housing Strategy and Implementation Plan 2014-2021. Submitted by RebelGroup to the CoJ and JDA (20 April 2016). GCRO (Gauteng City-Region Observatory) (2015) “Where Informal Sector Cross Border Traders Sell Their Goods” Map of the Month (30 September 2015). Available at http://gcro.ac.za/ outputs/map-of-the-month/detail/ where-informal-sector-cross-bordertraders-sell-their-goods-1/ Gotz G and Simone A (2003) “On Belonging and Becoming in African Cities” in R Tomlinson, R Beauregard, L Bremner and X Mangcu (eds.) Emerging Johannesburg: Perspectives on the Postapartheid City. New York: Routledge. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, Information Services Department (2015) “Hong Kong: The Facts”. Available at: http://www.gov.

hk/en/about/abouthk/factsheets/ docs/population.pdf

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Interviews JDA (Johannesburg Development Agency) (2006) “Johannesburg CBD Public Transport Interchange Pedestrian Transport Report”. JDA (2008) “Greater Park Station Precinct Urban Design and Heritage Management Framework” Prepared by Osmond Lange Architects & Planners. JDA (2015) JDA Integrated Annual Report 2015. JDA (2016) “Inner City Transformation & Investment Trends 2009-2014” PowerPoint presentation prepared by Rebel Group. Local Studio (2016) “Walkable Braamfontein” Report prepared for Braamfontein Improvement District. Malavolti C (2016) “Towards Resilience: Informality and Affordable Housing in the Inner City of Johannesburg” in Urban Solutions: Metropolitan Approaches, Innovation in Urban Water and Sanitation, and Inclusive Smart Cities. Wilson Center and USAID.

Peberdy S (2015b) “Informal Sector Cross Border Trade: Connecting Johannesburg to Markets in Southern Africa” Paper prepared for Gauteng City Region Observatory (GCRO). Peberdy S (2016) “Cross border shopping and the City of Johannesburg: Connecting the City to the region, continent & further afield” Presentation to AFHCO (25 October 2016). SERI (Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa) (2013) Minding the Gap: An Analysis of the Supply of and Demand for Low-Income Rental Accommodation in Inner City Johannesburg. Silverman M and Zack T (2007) “Land Management and Democratic Governance: Case Study in Hillbrow/ Berea, An Inner City Area of Johannesburg” Prepared for CUBES and Planact.

Anonymous Retailer. Interview with author (24 May 2016). Bethlehem, Lael. Investment Executive, Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI). Interview with author (1 July 2016). Bickford, Geoff. Researcher, SACN. Interview with author (3 June 2016). Ciko, Nobuntu. Deputy Director: Transport, CoJ. Interview with author (28 June 2016). Davidson, Ndumiso. CEO, South Point. Interview with author (4 August 2016). Deppe, Holger. Lecturer, School of Architecture and Planning, Wits University. Interview with author (20 July 2016). Dlamini, Sindi. Manager, Park Station Hotel. Interview with author (5 August 2016).

Wits University (2016) “Food for thought” Unpublished Architectural Honours student presentation.

Govender, Thiresh. Architect at UrbanWorks. Interview with author (10 August 2016).

Mayson S (2014) “Accommodation and Tenuous Livelihoods in Johannesburg’s Inner City: The ‘Rooms’ and ‘Spaces’ Typologies” Master’s thesis, University of the Witwatersrand.

Zack T (2013) “Seeking Logic in the Chaos Precinct: The Spatial and Property Dynamics of Trading Space in Jeppe” in E Pieterse and A Simone (eds.) Rogue Urbanism: Emergent African Cities. Cape Town: Jacana Media.

Horowitz, Yael. Programme Manager, ReImagining Wits Properties Programme. Interview with author (19 May 2016).

Outsourced Insight (2016) “Assessing Existing Social and Economic Conditions in the Corridors of Freedom” (15 July 2016).

Zack T (2014) Skop. Book 1 in the “Wake Up This is Joburg” series. Johannesburg: Fourthwall Books.

Keun, Eben. JAG. Interview with author (20 July 2016).

Parnell S, Kitchin F, Ovens W and Williamson A (2007) “Land Management and Democratic Governance in Five South African Metropolitan Areas: Overview Report” Commissioned by Urban LandMark, Planact and CUBES. Peberdy S (2015) “Cross Border Migrant Entrepreneurs and South African Entrepreneurs in the Informal Sector of the City of Johannesburg” Draft paper prepared for Gauteng CityRegion Observatory (GCRO).

Zack T (2015) “‘Jeppe’ - Where Low-End Globalisation, Ethnic Entrepreneurialism and the Arrival City Meet” Urban Forum 26(2), pp. 131-150. Zack T (2016) “Wake Up This is Joburg (8 Wake Up Calls)” Presentation at City Afrika seminar.

Pingo, Nicolette. Development Facilitation Manager, JDA. Interview with author (2 June 2016). Rajah, Jakoob. Hardware store owner. Interview with author (30 August 2016). Reinecke, Marietjie. Assistant Director: Land Use Management, Development Planning, CoJ. Interview with author (30 August 2016). Schmidt, Esther. Senior Engineer, JRA. Interview with author (8 August 2016). Seftel, Lisa. Executive Director: Transportation, CoJ. Interview with author (6 August 2016). Stoles, Earl. Region F, CoJ. Interview with author (23 August 2016). Trader 1. Interview with author (22 May 2016). Trader 2. Interview with author (22 May 2016). Venter, Nick. ARUP. Interview with author (22 July 2016).

Jackson, Paul. CEO, TUHF. Interview with author (1 September 2016).

Mafune, Irene. Regional Director: Region F, CoJ. Interview with author (23 August 2016). Ndlovu, Michael. Maintenance Manager, Park Station Hotel. Interview with author (30 August 2016). Nxumalo, Xolani. Deputy Director: Informal Trading, Development of Economic Department, CoJ. Interview with author (14 September 2016). Peberdy, Sally. Senior Researcher, GCRO. Interview with author (18 May 2016). Pershina, Angelika. Senior Manager: Real Estate Asset Information Management, PRASA. Interview with author (1 August 2016).

Park Station Precinct