Urban Joburg

Reflections on Joburg City

2011-12-10T12:32:00.001-08:00

A while ago I went on a walkabout of Joburg organised by the Rand Club. It was quite an interesting tour of art deco buildings in and around Joburg, and was also interesting because the great majority of the group were somewhat older and so it was interesting to hear their perspectives on the city. Certainly many experienced a very different Joburg to what I experience today, and I found myself thinking that it would be quite nice, for instance, to see grand productions at the equally grand Majesty's Theatre. But time's change, Joburg certainly changes, and this city today is simply a different beast to what it was previously. Not necessarily better or worse than before. Or at least that's what I tell myself.

This post however is another photo post (because I'm a lazy blogger, bah) that show reflections of Joburg's buildings through different mediums - predominantly through the glass of a window, but also the glass of an awning. There aren't many (mainly because I didn't have this 'reflections' theme in mind when taking the photos), but upon perusal of them later on I thought they might make a nice sequence of shots.

Bis Bald!

Joburg International Airport - 2030? 2040? 2050?

2011-11-25T10:38:00.001-08:00

Check out this video made by Microsoft of what the future may hold in terms of technology. I'm posting it because the first scene is supposedly of Johannesburg International Airport. It's not, actually, but I suppose it could be part of the new midfield terminal in the future, perhaps. It's also somewhat unlikely that the PA would be blaring out in Afrikaans, given that English is the country's lingua franca, although I guess this was necessary in order for the lady to switch the translation feature of her glasses on.

Watch it - it's a cool video, at least from a technological perspective.

Oh. And Melktert is featured. hehe

Rea Vaya - an uphill battle for legitimacy

2011-11-20T02:08:00.001-08:00

It's a great pity that the Rea Vaya extension down Oxford Road through to Sandton has effectively been postponed in favour of the route going down Louis Botha. This page on the Rev Vaya website gives the planned phases for the Rea Vaya, one of which is shown below. It's quite depressing to be honest with you, mainly because by next year Joburg should have had a fantastically extensive system of Rea Vaya routes. har har har.

Phase 1 routes

Anyway, I don't think that the Rea Vaya should NOT go down Louis Botha, but the Oxford Road spine is and will continue to grow as the city's main economic spine, and the Rea Vaya route along Oxford would provide effective, frequent and affordable public transport between Joburg's economic centers of the CBD, Rosebank and Sandton.

The Oxford Road spine would result in many car-driving citizens leaving their cars for public transit, and would result in the future densification of Joburg. The stations would also go a long way towards improving public space along this spine which, although improving, is nevertheless still characterised by narrow pavements and high walls. It also would have other benefits, such as for instance cycles lanes along a relatively flat spine of the city.

There does however appear to be a bias against the Rea Vaya fron city residents, particularly those wealthy enough to afford their own vehicles. Certainly from my own experiences, it is seen as public transit for the lower end of the Joburg market. The Gautrain, on the other hand, is seen as public transit for the elite, and although this has come about as a result of prices associated with both systems, this is unfortunate because it does not result in an integrated city, but one where public transit - and consequently public space - remains divided along class and racial lines.

It also means that the Rea Vaya faces a tougher time when attempting to access upper-middle class areas, as NIMBYs filibuster attempts to launch a system that they are loath to use because of the prejudices associated with the system. This is so disappointing because it is equally as capable as serving the needs of Joburg's wealthier citizens as it is of serving the needs of Joburg's poorer citizens.

I have perhaps made a number of generalisations in this post, but i think my point is made that the MASS rollout of Rea Vaya is integral to fulfilling the 'right' to the city for all Joburgers, as well as the sustainability of a city simply far too in love with private motor vehicles. I believe that the attitude of the City is sufficiently geared towards transforming this - the REAL change in attitude needs to come from me and you, the everyday car-driving public.

Rea Vaya paving its way through old Joburg

Rea Vaya complementary route

Rea Vaya station

Rea Vaya artwork

This station serves T1, C1 & C4

Artwork up close

Library Gardens East

Doodle at the Antsteys

2011-10-23T13:38:00.000-07:00

So have just returned from Doodle event at Antsteys. Well, not 'just' - stopped by Ants in Melville to indulge in delicious food. Had wanted to indulge in delicious food at Mike's Kitchen in Parktown, however said delicious food joint was shut (boo!). Then wanted to indulge in delicious food at Lucky Bean in Melville, however said delicious food joint was fully booked. As such, settled on the Ant. But this is a story for another day (or is it?), and this entire paragraph aside from the first sentence was really a complete waste of your time - time that you will never, ever get back.

The doodle however (organised by Night of 1000 Drawings) was superbly fun, and I could only soak up the succulent summer sun that arrived in Joburg today with vim, vigour and zest. I ended up drawing a mock subway map for Joburg, which whilst neither geographically accurate in the least, nor particularly realistic in reality given this city's hilly and mine-dumpery terrain (?) was quite nifty in the end, and I was quite proud of it. I meant to take a photo of it, and I also meant to post a link to this blog, however I had to leave suddenly when offered a tour of some apartments in the Antstey's Building by Brian Kent McKechnie, an architect who has been quite instrumental in marketing the Antsteys to those with money.

The doodlers

Of course I took a load of photos from the top, which don't differ too much from my previous post ('Meet me at the Antsteys'). So I'm going to post below some of the shots taken walking down the staircase and out of the windows. I found the contrasts to be quite interesting.

Joburg is Para, Para, Paradise

2011-10-21T13:47:00.000-07:00

So about two weeks back I went to the Coldplay concert at Soccer City. Being somewhat a fan of Coldplay, it was nice to go see Chris Martin sing his often quite beautiful tunes. I took some shots, but without my BIG Canon it was a bit difficult to let in the required amount of light. Nevertheless, my iPod Touch and my Fujifilm F60 put in a valiant effort, and you can see below really the only two shots that sort of can be put up here. For the iPod shots, keep a look out at http://jozipod.tumblr.com.

The real reason however why I'm posting this blurb about Coldplay is because of their latest music video for their song, Paradise. It's shot in various locations around South Africa, including Joburg, and one can see some shots of the Nelson Mandela bridge as well as shots of the concert at Soccer City. Chris Martin asked us after the song to sing 'para, para, paradise, para, para, paradise' for 30 seconds whilst he and the rest of the band jumped about in elephant suits. Trippy, yes, but trippy could be paradise I suppose.

See the video here...

Splendor in the Grass

2011-10-21T13:31:00.000-07:00

I'm presently ridiculously infatuated with Pink Martini, a band from Portland, USA. They're a 13-member orchestral band that draws its influences from around the world. Thus one engages a musical journey from Egypt to Israel to Japan.

Possibly my favourite track at the moment is that of Splendor in the Grass, and I'm posting the official music video here not only because I just love it, but (just incase you're wondering its linkage with the urban) because I love the urban scenery from the video.

Anyone know where it's filmed?

Hillbrow Health Precinct

2011-10-21T13:22:00.000-07:00

So a few weeks ago I suffered a slight setback when my entire hard drive went kaboom and I lost ALL my photos. This was a great pity particularly since I lost pretty much all my photos from my 6-month trip around Europe in 2009 - and the low-res snaps that facebook saves are just naf. As a result I did a great deal of scrounging around to find photos stored elsewhere, and came across a whole bunch of photos stored on a memory card that I haven't used in a while. It was a bit like finding a R10.00 note buried deep in the pocket of some coat one wears on the one cold day we have in Joburg every year.

Anyway, some of the photos I found included photos from a trip around the Hillbrow Health Precinct. Located in Hillbrow, the precinct is really a conglomeration of buildings which more or less made up the Joburg General Hospital, now known as the Charlotte Maxete Joburg Academic Hospital. The Joburg General set up base on Parktown Ridge in 1983, leaving the site that had served as Joburg's main hospital since 1889.

The majority of buildings are pretty abandoned at the moment, which lends itself for a very eerie experience - walking through darkened hospital corridors with signage very reminiscent of a time gone-by. It's also given rise to a lot of medical waste build-up, and in the old fridges (where dead bodies go...) one finds oneself stepping over syringes, pill boxes and other unsavoury paraphernalia.

The area however is also the site of a regeneration project, one that aims to provide affordable access to health care in the inner-city, whilst also creating a precinct of research innovation and training, particularly in the area of HIV / AIDS. I really was quite inspired by the project, as well as by the person leading our little tour, Professor Helen Rees of Wits University's Reproductive Health & Research Unit (RHRU), who displayed a real passion for helping those living with HIV as well as providing an exciting and innovative centre of health in inner-city Joburg. One got a sense of real economic empowerment from the project.

See some of the photos below. There was a lot that had been improved by the time of my visit (one year ago!), and there has been even more improvement now, however these shots are mainly of the abandoned parts.

Africa Shafted - Ponte City

2011-10-04T13:08:00.000-07:00

About two weekends ago I happened to stumble upon an excellent documentary by Ingrid Martens called 'Africa Shafted'. See a clip below.

As you can see, the documentary looks at life in Ponte City from the perspective of those people that live in this 55-floor residential building, home to 4000 people. It does this very simply by filming people coming and going in the lifts. Many of the residents are foreign Africans, and I found it really fantastic to see how Ponte really is a beautiful microcosm of this African continent.

The building is also a monument to the beauty of diversity and difference in all its forms - a whole range of people share the same lift, from a camp South African man to a rather xenophobic South African women, and from some mischievous 12-year old kid to a big Nigerian dude keen on dispelling the prejudice held by many South Africans that all Nigerians are drug dealers. It fascinates me how a community can do this, and how maybe this community of difference is perhaps a healthier and more transparent one than many others in Joburg?

But importantly, the documentary also puts a human face to this imposing building, which to many Joburgers - who do not live in Ponte - is a forbidden city, one that cannot and should not be accessed because it's seemingly too impenetrable in its grey monolithic exterior. What the documentary also does is confirms what an impact this building has on our psyche as Joburgers, and how our relationship with this building represents in our many insecurities, fears, and also aspirations.

Go see it. Now.

(ps. I should also mention how FRIKKIN AMAZING the soundtrack was)

Aerotropolis East - 'Urban' Ekurhuleni?

2011-09-30T23:56:00.000-07:00

I was invited a few weeks ago to the launch of the Aerocities 2013 conference to be held in Ekurhuleni. Ekurhuleni is a municipality to the east of Joburg that is to all intents and purposes part of greater Joburg. It is, I would argue, one of Gauteng's three most important municipalities - after Joburg and Tshwane - as it contributes a significant portion to the province's GDP through primarily its manufacturing base. In 2006, the Economist even listed the city as the 11th fastest growing city, averaging growth of 4.8% over a five period from 2000 to 2005.

It is, however, a fringe municipality, and its existence is dependent on the growth of Johannesburg. It retains its own identity to a certain degree - far more so than other 'fringe' municipalities - and it lays claim to Africa's biggest international airport, but one does get the sense that it could be so much more than what it is presently.

For this reason, Ekurhuleni has embarked on a programme to launch 'Aerotropolis', centering essentially the 'city' around the airport, and in so doing, turning the 'city' into a city. The plan is quite ambitious, and I think is certainly to be welcomed in terms of economic growth and investment in the municipality. It will I think also give the city a stronger identity, and already I had a sense of a stronger identity via some of its visionary officials, as well as the branding employed at the event.

My concern, however, over the idea of the Aerotropolis is that it reminds me a bit of this postcard below, taken from the excellent Urban Photo blog, glorifying the highway.

Now I'm not one to suggest that big, globally-connected airports are a bad thing, and anyone who knows me will know that I'm as much a airport / airplane / airline freak as I am an urban / city freak, but I'm not sure if such a plan really does much for Ekurhuleni as a city with a unique urban identity.

For one, the municipality will continue to be a fringe municipality that not only feeds off the success of neighbouring Johannesburg, but also the success of the world. For another, with the advent of the Gautrain, there isn't really a need for global corporations to base themselves at an airport since it is a mere 12-minute Gautrain ride away to the country's economic hub of Sandton. But most importantly, the new centre will be the nail in the grave of the already dilapidating mini-CBDs of Benoni, Boksburg, Alberton, Edenvale, Germiston Springs, Nigel, Brakpan and Bedfordview.

Maybe this is necessary given how Ekurhuleni is a conglomeration of all these apartheid-era mini-CBDs that are now perhaps unsustainable given the utter domination of Sandton as the economic hub in Gauteng, but one can't help thinking that the municipality could have utilised these existing mixed-use precincts in a resuscitative manner. Specifically, in light of the fact that these mini-CBDs are connected by an existing albeit quite forlorn light rail network, Ekurhuleni should have capitalised on this by developing these 'towns' and creating a truly public-transit-oriented municipality.

Instead, Ekurhuleni will remain principally an airport / industrial / fringe town, and I just don't know how good that realllllly is for a sustainable city identity in the long term.

Antstey's At Night

2011-05-02T12:35:00.000-07:00

Last year I wrote about the Antstey's building in the city. The building offers some amazing art deco apartments with fantastic features and is a very cool place to live. The building also offers some fantastic views, and so when I was invited to a friend's shindig in his flat, I made sure I totted along with my spider tripod (which incidentally does not hold up a big Canon 350D...) and my Canon 350D and zoom. Setting up a wide aperture, I got some quite nice shots of the rainy / misty and empty city at night. Here they are:

The old Stuttafords Department Store

Empty city streets at night

Be Free with E

Looking towards Park Station and the Gautrain Station too

And again - Braamfontein and the JHB Metro Centre

A Midsummer Night's Dream on a Mid-Autumn Night in Joburg

2011-04-16T02:13:00.000-07:00

As you may guessed from my previous post, Autumn is very much in full force in Joburg. The leaves are starting to turn a slight red, and there is a very definite chill in the air.

Such were the weather conditions last week Tuesday when I went to see a production of a Midsummer Night's Dream at the Wits Theatre in Braamfontein. Now since this is a Joburgy blog, and not a theatre blog, you may be wondering why this is relevant. Well, the play, directed by a friend of mine, Greg Homann, was set in the concrete jungle of Joburg, replete with Ponte, the Hillbrow tower, garbage-recycle men and fairies coming out of manholes. I found the play tremendously fun, funny and engaging, and I urge you all to go see it.

See the facebook event's discription of the play...

A Midsummer Night's Dream, one of the most produced plays in English literature, is a mishevious and cynical study of the pursuit of true love. This production, directed by Greg Homann, gives it an urban treatment with the action placed in a recognisable contemporary setting. If Joburg is 'the city in the forest,' as many people have named it then this production is a kind of mythic urban take on that setting. The set and costumes have been created by using recycled materials which creates a theatrical world not unllike our own, one that is conscious of 'being green' and that is plagued by climate change.

It's on until the 21st of April 2011, and tickets are ridiculously cheap. Tickets available at www.strictlytickets.co.za.

Oberon, with his foot on Puck, with Titania

Oberon, Puck and another fairy appearing from Joburg's manholes

Titania in love with Bottom

The cast of Pyramus & Thisbe

Naughty Puck

Autumnal Arch

2011-04-08T05:39:00.001-07:00

Photo below taken from my office window in Melrose Arch. You can see the leaves changing colour, before they lose their leaves in Winter. You can also feel a distinct chill in the air!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Joburg's Next Mayor - Maimane or Tau?

2011-04-08T00:05:00.000-07:00

So I've never been a big supporter of political parties in South Africa. I've generally been attracted to the values of the more left-leaning African Nationalist Congress (ANC), currently in power, but am like many South Africans dismayed by the nepotism, corruption and ineptitude which has characterised the party. I've never been a big fan either of the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), who I have found somewhat out of touch with the realities of the majority of South Africans and more representative of wealthy suburbia. Not that this is a bad thing of course, but I think it explains their 7% showing in the province of Limpopo in the 2004 elections - which does not bode well for a balanced provincial legislative and therefore government accountability. And so because of my indecisiveness in this regard, I've always considered myself a constitutionalist. I will cast for my vote for the party that will the best guarantor of democracy and the constitutional state.

It is for this reason that I am a great supporter of the DA in the upcoming local elections on 18 May 2011. The local elections are, as its name would suggest, a vote for your local municipality. The experience of Cape Town has been quite interesting for South African politics because it has for the past few years been controlled by the DA. The result, I believe, has been an effective city that is conducive towards investment and the creation of jobs. Things work, and ultimately, a city needs to work. This doesn't mean that there have been hiccups, but by-and-large I think the city can hold its head high.

I would very much like Joburg to follow suit. I believe it has been controlled by the ruling ANC for far too long now (17 years), and the result is that the current administration has been lackadaisical in its governance. Not only is the Joburg municipality backrupt, but there is a terrible billing crises where residents are billed incorrect (and astronomical) amounts, frequent power outages (yesterday, for instance, my entire office lost a whole day's work simply because there was no power - and as I type this there is STILL no power), far too many potholes, traffic lights that frequently go out, and garbage strikes. Whilst the city (as a city, inclusive of its citizens) is I believe committed towards making Joburg a 'world class African city', the municipality has done a shocking job.

Perhaps I sound like a whining old foggie here, but I for one am pissed off. Why should I tolerate power outages? Potholes? A billing crises. These are not problems that only affect me as a upper middle-class white male, but they combined permeate the entire city, ensuring a difficult life for all. It is for this reason that I believe Joburg is ready for a change; for an administration that is able to invigorate in its civil servants a new energy and a new pride for the city.

I am particularly excited about the DAs mayoral candidate - although South Africa does not have a system where we, the voters, directly elect the mayor, I feel that the DA places far more emphasis on the mayor as an individual, which in turn ensures greater accountability and transparency. It's as if the mayor is accountable to the voters - not as if the mayor is accountable to the party only.

I also like the fact that the DA candidate - Mmusi Maimane - is young, energetic and black. Many people disagree with my assertion that his race is important, but in South Africa with a recent history of racial oppression, and indeed where racism is alive and is ingrained in many of us, perception is all important. South Africans are not colour-blind, and race forms an important backdrop of our national psyche. The fact that the DA has (finally) put on a (truly) multi-racial face is I think crucially important, and I think it will go a long way in this local election because of it.

The ANCs mayoral candidate is apparently Parks Tau, but according to the DA, this was the guy who was responsible for the billing crises in the first place. In any case, as far as I can see the ANC actually hasn't even announced who its mayoral candidate is going to be. Perhaps this is because indeed it is the party who will decide, but I don't want a party deployment running my city - I want an individual that can put a face to the city ala Rudy Gulliani and New York City.

HOWEVER, aside from the perception issues, I like the fact that the DA has an identifiable plan for Joburg, which is far more than the ANC has. It even has its own DA JHB website - http://www.dajhb.co.za. Again, this eludes to the fact that the ANC simply takes it large support base in Joburg for granted. This plan has been complemented by an impressive and genuine election campaign.

See below some of the principles guiding the DAs plans for Joburg. Taken from http://www.da.org.za/newsroom.htm?action=view-news-item&id=9315

What do you think? And do you think it is time for the ANC to go and the DA to take over?

A clean and effective Johannesburg

Implementing open and transparent supply chain management procedures and establishing audit committees to scrutinise the Council’s accounts.
Employing the right people in the right positions, implementing expenditure controls and sound revenue collection systems and setting up strict internal management processes.
Making government more accessible by creating strong Sub-Council structures, which will locate decision-making powers closer to Johannesburg’s people.
Promoting the sustainable use of resources by including requirements for energy efficiency in all development, environmental and land use authorisations, and ensuring that future affordable housing developments will be equipped to use renewable energy.

A growing and prosperous Johannesburg

Fostering interactions between business and the City Council to improve the competitiveness of the municipal government and the attractiveness of the City as an investment destination.
Building and maintaining infrastructure by auditing the state of the City’s current infrastructure, introducing varied tariff structures to encourage efficient use of services and rolling out a dedicated road maintenance plan.
Building strategic partnerships by developing a comprehensive Local Economic Development (LED) strategy, and working with the private sector to develop a regulatory environment that is business-friendly.

A Johannesburg that delivers for all, especially the poor

Delivering services for all by rigorously prioritizing expenditure, so that resources are first dedicated to the infrastructure, goods and services essential for the health and development of Johannesburg’s people. These include maintaining a reliable electricity supply, providing clean, potable water, and ensuring the effective reticulation of sewerage and the removal of waste.
Maximise the resources available to construct human settlements by prioritising partnerships between recipients and government through the use of the People’s Housing Process (PHP). This is a national initiative which allows residents qualifying for housing subsidies to maximise this opportunity by pooling their resources and contributing their own labour.
Fighting crime by promoting the establishment of Special Rating Areas (SRAs) and City Improvement Districts (CIDs) to create safer environments and fight specific crime problems.
Setting up specialised units within the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) to manage priority problems such as substance abuse or child abuse.

Gautrain announces fares

2011-04-07T13:20:00.001-07:00

The full Implementation if the Gautrain system took a step closer yesterday when fares for the Joburg - Pretoria line were announced.

At the monthly rate, Hatfield Station in Pretoria to Park Station in Joburg will take 42 minutes and cost R39.00 for a single ticket. A pay-as-you-go ticket will set you back only about R49.00.

These fares may be compared to a single trip by a light motor vehicle, which would cost you about R61.00 - and this amount doesn't even take in to account maintenance, parking, car depreciation, and possibly even toll fees.

Bottom line: ditch the car, and go alternative!

To see a break down of Gautrain fares between Joburg and Pretoria, go to http://images.businessday.co.za/Gautrain.Pdf

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Small Street Mall

2011-04-05T06:22:00.001-07:00

This shots masks the energetic chaos in this arcade below, which forms an important north-south retail link through the city.

There are some great deals to be found here, deals which you probably won't find in an average Joburg shopping mall...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

a rocket crashes into Hillbrow

2011-04-05T00:05:00.000-07:00

I cannot take much credit for this post.

a) I did not take the photo below. Someone else did. I am trying to find out who, and if YOU took it, then do let me know, otherwise I will forever appreciate you as Anon-Who-Took-This-Photo.

b) I did not think up the title of this post - a friend on my facebook did. It really does look like a rocket crashing in to Hillbrow, ye?

c) The reason Ponte is having this song and dance is because Vodacom has rebranded itself as Vodacom-in-Vodafone-colours. Vodafone has owned a majority share in Vodacom for quite a while now, and has only now decided to put its red stamp on this South African brand. Not that I'm a big supporter of Vodacom, but I am rather proud they kept it Vodacom and didn't succumb that wimpishly to the global giant ;)

Joburg the Aerotropolis

2011-04-04T12:36:00.000-07:00

So I've been hearing about these plans for a while now, but it seems as though they've come a step closer towards fruition. The plans involve transforming OR Tambo International Airport (ORTIA) into an aerotropolis - the creation of a mixed-use node around ORTIA which is fueled essentially by the business of ORTIA. Companies will for instance have their local headquarters within the aerotropolis, connecting the building essentially within a global mass-transit system. Workers fly in. Workers have tea. Workers fly out. whooosh.

Aerotropolis East (what the Airports Company SA is calling it presently) will contain a commercial, hotel, MICE (Meetings, conventions etc) and residential component. It will be located along the Atlas Road corridor, and will tie in quite well I think with other large-scale property development in Ekhuruleni (including Boksburg and Benoni) to form a significant node in Gauteng. The idea I think is key towards making Joburg an alpha global city, simply because it provides a direct connection to the global economic marketplace.

See the two pics below, sourced from here (which obviously you must click on to see them in full): What is also significant about ORTIAs aerotropolis is that plans include an extension of the Gautrain line around the airport to the aerotropolis, in so doing connecting what will really become a fourth major economic centre in Joburg to its other three major centres - the inner city, Rosebank and Sandton. You will also notice an extension of the airport itself, at the bottom of the airfield in between the two runways. It sort of makes the existing terminal look a little bit like it belongs in the days of Louis Botha, DF Malan and JBM Hertzog, if you know what I mean.

Is ORTIA thinking big? Of course. But we've never been a city to think conservatively about things, and more often than not, it's made the city what it is today. Whether aerotropolises are a good way to go... I don't know. I do plan to become informed about the concept from this book - Aerotropolis, by Dr John Kasarda - but I do tend to think on a superficial level that this is fantastic idea which will stimulate investment in the city and indeed the country as a whole.

Up, up and away...

Japan in Brixton

2011-03-09T11:46:00.000-08:00

It's the same story as usual - superbly busy with work = no time to blog. But being superbly busy at work makes my anxious self stress like there is no tomorrow (...quite literally, really), and so have reasoned with myself that I need to take proactive steps in doing things that I enjoy because this puts the stress into perspective and allows me to breathe. So let's see if we can do some concerted blogging - there certainly is enough material given how long it has been!

On the 5th of February 2011 I joined the Parktown and Westcliff Heritage Trust for a tour of the Joburg suburb of Brixton, as conducted by the very knowledgeable and affable Alex Parker. Brixton, like many of Joburg's suburbs, is absolutely fascinating, with a tumultuous history and some beautiful old houses. It currently is a little rough around the edges (i.e. not Sandown), but there is a great community spirit evident in the suburb, who really take pride in the inclusivity of their suburb.

This is particularly evident in the church of St. Nicholas of Japan. St. Nicholas of Japan (feast day: February 3rd) was an orthodox missionary who trotted off to Japan at the end of the 19th century to extol the virtues of orthodox Christianity to the Japanese. Poor old St. Nicholas however found the Japanese rather hostile to foreigners at first, and many considered Christianity "to be a vicious church, to which only notorious evildoers and magicians could belong." That piece of information from orthodoxwiki.org. But St. Nicholas persevered, and decided to make the religion accessible to the Japanese by translating the Greek / Russian / Latin writings into Japanese.

When the Orthodox community in Johannesburg therefore decided to form a church, they decided they would make it accessible to all. Services would be held in English, instead of Greek, and there was a conscientious effort to extend the virtues of orthodox Christianity to all South Africans, regardless of race etc. For this reason, an old Baptist church was bought in Brixton, turned into a Santorini-looking Greek church, and christened St. Nicolas of Japan. I don't consider myself particularly religious, but I think this is a lovely story. See some of the photos below:

St. Nicholas of Japan

Close-Up

With Car. With side-mirror flag.

There are also great views from Brixton, particularly looking towards the north, as well as the east, as the photos below demonstrate.

Gautrain | Pyongyang-on-Rails?

2011-01-11T06:35:00.000-08:00

I giggled a little bit when reading about the Annual No-Pants Subway Ride which took place in 48 cities around the world this past Sunday and spearheaded by Improv Everywhere. I thought to myself what a fun and silly event it must be – random people pitching up in random places without their pants on, all in the name of good fun. For me, these kind of ridiculous events make a city a more affable place in which to inhibit – a friendly, fun place full of joie de vivre.

I then thought to myself that I should try organise a similar event for next year, on the Gautrain. After all, we have this fantastic new public transport system that has the potential of ushering in a new era of public space and public engagement in Joburg – something that is sorely lacking in this city of gated compounds and shopping malls. The Gautrain gets people on the streets… It opens up public squares to the street…

It also arrests people for embracing public space.

Yes, dear readers, normally I laud the Gautrain from head to toe, but today I must express my disappointment with this Joburg icon. You see, a bunch of people DID actually organise a no-pants ride on Sunday. So they jumped on the train at Rhodesfield, and about a minute after the doors closed, proceeded to pull their pants down. Of course the idea of the no-pants ride is that you board the train without your pants, and when accosted by a Mr Stern Looking-Official, you go, “oh bother, I forgot to wear my pants today!” You – and hopefully Mr Stern Looking-Official – then giggle about it. In time, the transport authority recongises the good public relations such an event can bring, and Mr Stern Looking-Official takes a chill pill.

But maybe these riders, being first-time no-pants riders, were worried they would be rugby-tackled by Gautrain’s omnipresent security guards. They weren’t, but upon their return to Rhodesfield Station, a whole bunch of cops were waiting for them, arresting the lot for public indecency. They were then individually fined for breaking a Gautrain rule.

When asked for comment, Gautrain’s Barbara Jensen remarked (apparently icily - skandaaal), according to this Times article, that “there were other people on the train and it is actually not a bachelor’s party.”

Well, Barbara, indeed the Gautrain isn’t a bachelor’s party, nor should it be used as such. But the annual no-pants train ride isn’t a bachelor’s party either, but rather a fantastic way of citizens claiming public space. One can only imagine the no-pantsers to be incredibly proud that they finally have a metro system where they can express their ‘city-ness,’ through an event which celebrates a Joburg identity and places Joburg on that list of 48 cities around the world celebrating public space, public transport, and Joburg itself.

To quash this is not only overreactionary and pointless, but it turns Gautrain from a wonderful, exciting experience into one that is authoritarian and big-brother. It goes against the grain of making Gautrain a safe and reliable service open to all, to one that is staid, boring and grey – Pyongyong-On-Rails? Is this what Gautrain should be aspiring to?

I also get very worried when authorities start adopting this rather Calvinist uppity attitude towards citizens. One wonders what Gautrain would do should a bunch of garish drag queens board the train at Centurion bound for Rosebank to attend the annual Pride Parade. Are they going to arrest them for public indecency? I'm tempted to try and see for myself.

Personally, I hope Gautrain learns from this experience and realises that it can continue to provide a safe and reliable service whilst still being merry and gay about it all. After all, public transport provides a pathway upon which society interacts with one another. If we cannot be silly with one another on these pathways, what does that say about our society?

I call on Gautrain to apologise to the no-pants riders, and to the public in general, and organise another day on which a whole bunch of riders can pitch, and just for the sheer giggles of it, ride pantless. Granted, this might not be as spontaneous as these types of events should be, but I suppose in paranoid-Joburg spontaneity is shunned, and those who value spontaneity should only gradually introduce others to this wonderful concept.

In any case, next year I’ll do my best to ensure the annual no-pants ride takes place again. Not because I want to antagonise the Gautrain authorities, but because I am a citizen of Joburg and I want to claim our public transport and our public space for the good of our community.

But, importantly, I’ll ensure the annual no-pants ride takes place again because I recognise the value of humour in a democratic society. I would like to point the Gautrain authorities to one of my favourite quotes of all time, by Justice Sachs in the Constitutional Court decision of Laugh it Off Promotions CC v South African Breweries International 2006 (1) SA 144 (CC), in which a small little company beat SAB in court, who sued them for the genocidal crime of publishing a shirt mocking an SAB brand and selling the shirt in, erm, flea markets:

“A society that takes itself too seriously risks bottling up its tensions and treating every example of irreverence as a threat to its existence. Humour is one of the great solvents of democracy. It permits the ambiguities and contradictions of public life to be articulated in non-violent forms. It promotes diversity. It enables a multitude of discontents to be expressed in a myriad of spontaneous ways. It is an elixir of constitutional health.”

See below some images from the no-pants day in New York and Zurich. sourced from this wonderful collection of photos on the Sowetan newspaper's website. You don't see their public transport systems falling to pieces, dontcha?!

Gautrain The Puzzle

2010-12-10T21:45:00.000-08:00

I think one of the most genius things about the Gautrain is how it is being built and rolled-out in stages. From an engineering point-of-view, this ensures that a fairly solid product is built. From an operational point-of-view, this ensures that glitches are pinpointed at an early stage, and can accordingly be fixed. From a public relations point-of-view, it means that the excitement of Gautrain is built over time, to the point where when the Gautrain is fully implemented, there is no question in many people's minds that the Gautrain, and public transport in general, is the way to go.

One piece of the puzzle was put in place on Tuesday afternoon, the 7th of December 2010, with the arrival of the last train car at the Midrand Depot. I was lucky enough to be invited to the event, and experienced the deep sense of accomplishment Gautengers should feel about this project. It very much is a symbol of the development of the province within the global arena, and Gautengers should be proud of it - there aren't many people who ARE proud of Gauteng and its achievements.

What was quite encouraging in particular was the speech made by the MEC for Roads and Transport, Ismail Vadi, who is clearly a proponent of public transport for all in Gauteng. This is good because as was pointed out by Gautrain CEO Jack van der Merwe, public transport projects require fundamentally the support of government in pushing its agenda forward. The car-driving Gauteng public are not the quickest to embrace concepts like the Gautrain and the Rea Vaya, and so the political will for implementing these projects is not necessarily always there. But it was, and is there for the very-expensive Gautrain project, and in that sense government's push for the full roll-out of the system is commendable.

See my photos of the pics from the event. They took us on a Gautrain trip to the Midrand Station and back again, and it was fascinating to see a side of Joburg you do not normally see because you're essentially traveling on a new 'superhighway.' I was particularly interested to see the construction of a HUGE mosque in Midrand, located right next to the railway track.

Yeoville

2010-12-03T12:04:00.000-08:00

So now that December has finally arrived (although this did admittedly happen very quickly and it seemed I did my last post only a week ago), things are slowly starting to slow down in Joburg. This means that I too am starting to slow down, which means that I should hopefully be blogging more.

Nevertheless, last week I found time to go on a photo walk with the Joburg Photowalkers through Yeoville. One does feel like a complete foreigner doing this, but then again Joburg is a city of foreigners. No one really belongs, yet ironically this disconnection from the city is what forms your connection to the city, and consequently, what makes you feel that you belong.

Make sense? Of course not. Another characteristic of Joburg. waha. :p

Anyway, Yeoville has always been an inner city suburb of outcasts - first of lefty liberal bohemian middle-class Joburg during nationalist fascist uptight apartheid, and now of foreigners from all over Africa.

Yeoville is a bit special to me because it was a suburb that I knew as a child. I remember doughnuts from Shula's bakery, soup from the kosher take-away joint, milkshakes at the milky lane, and Italian seafood at the Quo Vadis restaurant. I do not access or appreciate Yeoville anymore, I guess because it's out of my comfort zone being culturally and economically different to what I am used to. The metamorphosis does make me slightly sad, I must admit, a bit like how 'Hillbrow-nostalgists' must feel, but it's my fault for not wanting to get out of my comfort zone and, well, cities change. 4th Avenue, Parkview will be Rockey Street, Yeoville in 20 years time, and Rockey Street will be 4th Avenue, Parkview.

So it was interesting - and a bit nostalgic (eeek) - to see what Yeoville is now like. The realisation I came to was simply that the more things change, the more they stay the same. And although this is quite cliched, it really is I think the best way to describe my experience of Yeoville 2010.

See below my photos from the walk...

Flats through the old OK Bazaars wall

Honk honk

Wherefore art tho municipality?

St. Francis Catholic Church

The old Kim Sacks Gallery, now in Rosebank I believe.

Inside the St. Francis Catholic Church

Flats

A very active wall

Where I went to school in nursery and pre-primary school

Freedom of Expression in action

Piccadilly - a bit decrepit now...

oh em gee! Patricia!

Pedestrian-Rights Day - Walking and the City

2010-10-20T14:08:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this on my blackberry in my Practical Legal Education class, listening to a lecturer droning on about attorney's bookkeeping. And when I say droning, I really do mean it in the most monotonous of manners. As a lecturer myself, I think I can say this dude is as inspiring as... Oh, I don't know... Washing powder?

But anyway, a post. This morning the talk radio stations were talking about Car-Free Day. Today also happens to be World Down Syndrome Day, World Statistics Day as well as Spirit Day - International Day against Homophobic Abuse and Bullying. For the latter reason, this blog will be purple today to symbolise the purple strip of the Rainbow Flag.

The focus of this blogpost is however naturally on car-free day. Most people seemed to scoff at this day simply because the city is a long way away from being car-free, or indeed from being conducive towards a car-free society. But also, our attitudes as Joburgers are firmly entrenched in the idea that we can never, ever have a car-free city. We are simply far too attuned to the gentle hums of our motor cars, and far too accustomed to interacting with one another through our car windscreens.

Of course when I say 'us', I am very much talking about the empowered us in society - those who can afford to have motor cars. These kinds of campaigns are not aimed at pedestrians, ostensibly because they've already been converted. But I think this approach is a little short-sighted: campaigns like this are a bit piecemeal because they attempt to draw blood from a very stubborn rock, and also because the approach doesn't really deal with the core issues at hand - specifically, the experiences of pedestrians. This is necessary because if pedestrians are not happy in their city, then how on earth are car-users going to be happy abandoning their cars and embracing the pavement? Pedestrians are indeed ignored completely in popular discourse. We motorists (read: the empowered) neither care for nor know the experiences of pedestrians, instead sidelining them - often quite literally - to the curbside.

This leads me to a book I have been reading, a collection of short stories about people's experiences as pedestrians or walkers. Compiled and written by Andie Miller, Slow Motion: stories about walking is exactly what its subtitle implies. But it also offers a pertinent insight into our society, particularly I think Joburg society - one that is sharply divided essentially through a car's windscreen.

Her collection of stories highlight our absolute paranoia in relation to the street. It is a realm that we - again, motorists - simply cannot interact with. We instead buzz by on mobile boats, speeding down rivers of tar from island to island. Some islands we simply do not touch - Hillbrow, or Diepsloot for instance. Other islands we love and embrace because they provide a teleportal to a far, exotic land, where permanent daylight and the non-stop sound of coins crashing down allow us to completely divorce ourselves from our reality - think Montecasino. Or we float along to islands that offer us a half-and-half experience, where we accept reality on a superficial level, but then also adopt an element of exotic intrigue - think of Arts on Main, an island of exclusivity in a sea of depression.

It is no wonder then actually that we create these islands and access them through the boats of our motor vehicles. I myself am guilty of tapping into these islands, as much as though I hate the brashest island of them all - Montecasino. But I do try to feel that I have a right to the streets of Joburg - a Right to Joburg, if you will. But I think many Joburgers, and in particular motorists, do not feel entitled to this Right, or at least struggle to access it. Part of this reason is that accessing the right to the city involves compromise, but also correspondingly that compromise is simply too much of a compromise - or at least we think it is too much of a compromise.

Admittedly I haven't been able to get through all the stories just yet (sorry Andie!), but what I have found reading each story I have read is that each is peppered with a story of crime, sort-of to the point where I hope that the next story will be a happy, crime-free tale. The overarching theme however which comes through the stories is that crime is very much a part of a Joburger's experience, and that the fact that some of us continue to love our city is really an act of martyrdom - loving the city in the face of general doom and gloom. Having myself been in an attempted car-jacking as well as a smash-and-grab, I too almost feel that I have to tell myself that I WILL be brave and march the streets of Joburg taking photos because this is the right thing to do - a kind of 'Up Yours' to Joburg's doom and gloom.

So too it seems about the people that are featured in Andie's narratives. In particular, her stories cover how people - who would normally be empowered enough to have a car - walk in the environments in which they live. These people in some cases continue to walk these urban environments despite the adverse difficulties faced in this regard, whilst others abandon the walking experience because the compromises are simply too much to bear.

What emerges however is how pavements and sidewalks are the most peripheral aspects of our city. They define the borders and banks of our islands of habitation and rivers of tar. They ensure that the facilitation of experiences across rich and poor, black and white - those polar extremes in our country which blight its development and sense of harmony - remain entrenched. They provide an avenue for Joburg's doom and gloom to fester, abusing both the empowered on the road and the marginalised forced to use the pavement. The lack of care attributed to pavements contribute towards a culture of disempowerment of and disrespect towards pedestrians - creating a potent dichotomy of us and them, an apartheid of the public space.

It's hardly surprising then that one of the happiest times this city has ever experienced was the Bafana Bafana parade through the city - why? We embraced the street, and street braced all of us. And so I think that before we can start talking seriously about a car-free day, we need to talk more about a pedestrian-rights day. This will surely go a lot further towards addressing the root causes of our insecurities as motorists in Joburg, and more broadly will address the vast inequalities between the empowered and marginalised in South Africa.

As I said, I haven't gone through all the stories. I will and in the course of my blogging will refer to some of the quotes I find most interesting. If you're interested in the concept of public space, and indeed the 'concept' of Joburg as a city (CT & Durban too of course - I have focused on Joburg), I advise you to get hold of the book and go through some of the stories. For now, I'm going to end off this post with this quote by Graham Weir, a Capetonian:

"... One has a choice to live life fearfully or to live life joyfully, and someone can come and mess up your life by stabbing you in the spine, but maybe no one will, and you've gone through your whole life worrying that you might be stabbed or you might be attacked. Or you can walk, and you see things and enjoy life, and until such time as something goes wrong... It's a choice, and the more people choose fear, the more fearful society becomes, and the more people choose freedom, the more free the society becomes. And I think walking is one of those things that most symbolises that feeling - if you choose not to be part of the fearful mindset."

Melrose Arch | Crispy Arch

2010-10-17T12:13:00.000-07:00

It seems that the summer thunderstorms have begun in Joburg, and on Thursday in particularly Joburg was pelted incessantly by stormy rain. Not that I'm complaining - I firstly love Joburg thunderstorms and secondly find them so refreshing after a dry Winter. During Winter the city gets really quite dusty, and pollution makes the air quite hazy.

After the thunderstorm, however, Joburg emerges into this dazzling array of colours because the air is magically cleared up. The air not only looks crisp, but also smells crisp. The city begins its annual metamorphosis into something renewed, and signals for me the beginning of the end of the year and the rush towards the city finally slowing down.

Melrose Arch, where I work, is thanks to its polished exterior always quite crisp. But somehow even this perfect little enclave of exclusivity managed to notch itself up an itch, and on Friday looked even more crisp than it usually does. These are some shots I took with my new Canon 350D - a camera which I am still very much trying to get my head around!

Sexy Alice

2010-10-13T13:54:00.000-07:00

The other day I had to go into Sandton City for work purposes, and so sneaked off quickly to take some shots of the now complete 15 Alice Lane, which I like to call Sexy Alice because, although it is ridiculously commercial and, as I understand it, does not contribute much in terms of South African architecture, I still find it sexy and aesthetically pleasing.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look very aesthetically pleasing in the harsh glare of the Western afternoon sun (+ smog), and so even though I took these shots in black & white, they still look a little naffy. But whatevs, see them here. I think the lines on this building are just plain old fun.

Joburg Pride 2010

2010-10-07T04:57:00.000-07:00

As per usual, this past Saturday I took part in Joburg's annual GLBTIQ Pride Parade, celebrating all that the city has to offer in terms of sexual diversity. Unfortunately this great day was marred by the arrest of 12 lesbians in Vosloorus on Joburg's eastern fringes for simply having a post-Pride party, as well as the vandalisation and torturing a few days later of an open-closet, symbolising the struggle for gay and lesbian emancipation and set up by the GLBTIQ society at the University of Cape Town, on the university's plaza. The two events demonstrate that although South Africa may have possibly the most open legal regimes in terms of GLBTIQ rights, there is still a long way to go towards realising the full enjoyment of those rights held by sexual minorities in society.

Nevertheless, Joburg sure managed to come out for a party on Saturday!

You know when Joburg is cool when...

2010-10-05T12:43:00.000-07:00

... Wallpaper* magazine says it is.

(or at least that's what Wallpaper* would have us Plebs thinking)

See this link - Joburg gets it's own Wallpaper* City Guide. Thanks WC 2010 and its outstanding opening and closing ceremonies - Joburg is just WAY too cool for school.

Meet me at the Antstey's

2010-10-05T12:38:00.000-07:00

A view from a Sunday evening at the top of the Antstey's Building in the city. There is nothing more beautiful than that!

Joburg | Global Competitiveness Score @ 52

2010-09-17T13:46:00.000-07:00

The other day I came across this fascinating study conducted by Foreign Policy, consultancy firm A.T Kearney, as well as the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Foreign Policy is a magazine I subscribe to on my google reader, and of course their articles relate mainly to foreign policy and global politics, but in this issue they came out with a special edition on urbanity.

Two features were very interesting: One was a study of the world's most globally connected cities, and the other was a photo essay of this list, which featured some truly fantastic urban photography. Unfortunately because I am not a full subscriber I haven't been able to access the full methodology of how they arrived at their conclusions, but it was interesting to see that Joburg came in at 52. This I don't think is very good, particularly since our 'competing' cities, those in fast-developing anchor countries such as China (Beijing, Shanghai), India (Mumbai, New Delhi) and Brazil (Sao Paulo, Rio) fared far better. I suppose South Africa is a small fish in this increasingly large bowl, but if South Africa wants to remain globally competitive, it and Joburg has to keep ahead of the competition by being innovative and creative in the way it positions itself globally. And maybe I sound a little silly and school-boy-like saying that Joburg should be competitive, but I think if we want to progress and lift South Africans out of poverty then we need to play big on a global level - something that I don't think many South Africans find terribly important to do. Just my opinion.

See the quote below for an indication of their methodology:

So what makes a Global City? Not size alone, that's for sure; many of the world's largest megalopolises, such as Karachi (60), Lagos (59), and Kolkata (63), barely make the list. Instead, the index aims to measure how much sway a city has over what happens beyond its own borders -- its influence on and integration with global markets, culture, and innovation. To create this year's rankings, we analyzed 65 cities with more than 1 million people across every region of the globe, using definitive sources to tally everything from a city's business activity, human capital, and information exchange to its cultural experience and political engagement. Data ranged from how many Fortune Global 500 company headquarters were in a city to the size of its capital markets and the flow of goods through its airports and ports, as well as factors such as the number of embassies, think tanks, political organizations, and museums. Taken together, a city's performance on this slate of indicators tells us how worldly -- or provincial -- it really is.

The seats of traditional political power aren't necessarily the most global. Only four of the top 10 cities are national capitals. Washington comes in at No. 13. Beijing (15) edges out Berlin (16), which trounces Moscow (25). Two of the top 10 global cities are laws unto themselves, operating outside the jurisdiction of a separate national government (Hong Kong and Singapore). The sun set a half-century ago on the British Empire, and yet London continues to shine at No. 2. For now.

I'm not going to provide a full list here, but it can be found by clicking on this address.I also would advise that you click on this address to view the wonderful photo essay put together by Brian Fung and Jared Mondschein. The image below is the one chosen for Johannesburg, taken by one Gianluigi Guercia from the Ellis Park Stadium towards the Hillbrow skyline. Had quite a nice mystical feel to it - I like!

Spring Into Action Jozi

2010-09-17T12:43:00.000-07:00

Sooo... Let's see if I can get in a host of posts this evening. When Spring arrives in Joburg, the city seems to emerge from its workaholic hibernating winter season and embrace the outdoors with vim, vigour and zest! Everything seems to happen in Joburg during the months of September and October, and it's really quite annoying because one simply cannot fit everything in. We ARE an odd city.

One thing I particularly love about the city when Spring comes into being is that we embrace outdoor again, and the early-evening air is filled with the smell of Jasmine, the sky is lit in a beautiful pink hue, and the atmosphere buzzing with what I can only describe as a sense of Joburgness.

I took these photos two weeks back before going to dinner at the Full Stop Cafe on 4th Avenue in Parkhurst. 4th Avenue is a buzzing strip of restaurants, some bars, clothes boutiques and some antique furniture stores, the latter unfortunately closing in the evenings, which I think is a great pity because I think they could do a roaring business at night. But we Joburgers have a thing about the night, and although we are quite happy to eat at night in a street-setting, we seem to have this absolute mental block about SHOPPING in a street-setting. Shops can be open at night in a mall, but heaven forbid they are open at night on a STREET.

This paranoia seems to reign supreme amongst the 'residents' of Parkhurst, whose 'residents association' apparently is objecting to the development of six new restaurants on a block because this would see Parkhurst going the way of Melville - as though Melville is an absolute dump. But this is another issue which I will deal with another time - suffice to say that I think 'residents association' are fundamentally undemocratic, do NOT represent the interests of the community at large but rather a bunch of yappy poodles, contribute to community paranoia, result in community desegregation, and stop necessary initiatives like the Rea Vaya BRT going through their suburbs.

How is that for a can of worms?

See photos below of 4th Avenue at dusk. Also the war memorial at sunset - Joburg's own little 'Ark de Triomf.'

The Attic

War Memorial ala 'Ark de Triomf'

Botega

George's on 4th

Espresso

Bye Bye Hayibo!

2010-09-03T00:24:00.000-07:00

I've always been such a big fan of hayibo.com, South Africa's premier political satire site. It's articles always hit the nail on the head, and induced much introspection for those reading it. It is thus quite sad that they find themselves having to close down as they are no longer able to support themselves. It seems corporate South Africa was not pro-satire enough to associate their brands with it.

So as a tribute to Hayibo, I post this article they wrote, which I think has much relevance to Joburg and Urban Joburg as a blog because of its scathing critique of the 'Tuscan' blight which has hit Joburg architecture and contributed not only to mass urban sprawl in the city, but also I think in a city that values fake materialism a bit too much...

From http://www.hayibo.com/traumatized-midrand-homeowners-to-sue-tuscany-over-non-tuscan-houses/

Traumatised Midrand homeowners to sue Tuscany over non-Tuscan houses

DAINFERN. Thousands of nouveau riche homeowners in Midrand are set to launch a massive class action lawsuit against the Italian region of Tuscany after discovering that Tuscan houses do not feature marble pillars, porcelain whippets in the dining room, rottweilers sleeping next to poo-coils on dead yellow lawns, or double garages for his-n-hers SUVs.

The discovery was made when newlyweds Trishi-Kerri-Tracci-Lee and Chad Tzatzka accidentally found themselves in Tuscany after being confused by a travel agent’s brochure.

“We wanted to go to Florence,” said Trishi-Kerri-Tracci-Lee. “You know, that long thin state in the southeast corner of the United States. Next thing we landed in Italy.”

However, said Chad, they were hugely relieved when they discovered they were in Tuscany.

“We thought it would be just like home: triple-storey villas surrounded by recently burnt veld, tasteful water features like wild horses rising out of a clam shell with cherubs standing peeing on the snouts of dolphins pulling sea-chariots, a sports bar with a framed Springbok rugby jersey and a genuine painting on actual canvas of Joel Stransky’s drop goal in ’95.”

But, he said, the Tuscan homes they saw in Tuscany were “totally kak”

“The people don’t even have dining-rooms,” he said. “They put a clapped-out old table out on the patio, which isn’t even tiled with granite, and they eat outside.”

News of the startling discovery spread like wildfire through Midrand, and this morning hundreds of young couples vented their anger by sending their maids to throw free-range eggs at the windows of the Italian embassy in Pretoria.

“How can they claim to be Tuscan when they clearly are just, like, not?” screamed enraged Dainfern resident Affluenza Ferreira, who has invested her life savings in her Tuscan home, named Le Dulcy Vita.

Asked for his comment, Italian ambassador Ennui Ferrari shrugged and said, “Eh.”

Rissik Street Post Office | Restoration?

2010-08-24T00:20:00.000-07:00

Will be interesting to see how this restoration pans out...

See the article below, from this link here.

Rissik Street Post Office - before it was gutted by fire

Restoration of Joburg's Rissik Street post office takes off

MONDAY AUG 23, 2010

Restoration of Joburg's Rissik Street post office takes off

At long last, there is hope for the historic Rissik Street post office which was gutted by fire twice in three months this year.

Work has finally started on its restoration.

The building has a long history of broken promises with many failed attempts by both the private and public sector to restore it.

After the fires, the City of Joburg's property management agency, the Joburg Property Company (JPC), was accused of failing to secure it properly.

The building has been empty since 1996. In 2002, the clock hands and bells were stolen from the tower. Its brass light fittings and switches and wooden balustrades had already been stripped.

The post office was built in 1897. It was designed by Dutch architect Sytze Wierda, who also designed the Palace of Justice in Pretoria in 1897. It was declared a national monument in 1978.

At one time, it was the tallest building in town and is a mix of styles, including Renaissance, French, Dutch and other European influences.

Now, it is being restored as a heritage site in two phases.

JPC spokesman Brian Mahlangu said the restoration would be in line with heritage approvals.

"The city has assembled a team that consists of a heritage consultant, engineer, quantity surveyor, contractor and health and safety officer."

The first phase of the project was under way, with teams involved in clearing, salvaging and developing a restoration strategy."

The Gauteng Provincial Heritage and Resources Agency confirmed it had served a restoration order on the City of Joburg and appointed Motsepe Architects to review the site and recommend conservation measures.

The fall of a famous Joburg landmark:

The responsibility for its maintenance belonged to the post office, in terms of the long-term lease agreement, which was entered into between the post office and the city at a rental of R49 a year.

The post office, despite requests, instructions and threats of court action, never fulfilled its obligations in regard to maintenance and the building deteriorated from year to year.

In 1994, when the provincial government relocated from Pretoria to Joburg, the post office was to be refurbished for the offices of the premier.

Although the city later made the building available, it was not in a position to finance restoration. A private sector consortium was put together by the Central Joburg Partnership, finance was raised and a lease deal offered to the provincial government was accepted, but later rejected.

The city negotiated with the post office to cancel its lease and vacate the building. The deal included R3.5 million in compensation for lack of maintenance, but that money was never spent on the post office.

In 1988, the then Southern Metropolitan Local Council called for proposals for the future use of the building. It accepted a Malaysian property developer's plan to turn the building into a five-star boutique hotel at a cost of R35m. The deal delayed all other possibilities for a number of years and was finally cancelled in the early 2000s.

The city then put out another proposal call for the re-development of the building and received some good commercial proposals including retail, hotel and commercial uses.

However, the building has stood empty since 1995 and was occupied by squatters.

The Star

Design is a good idea | For the love of Jozi.

2010-08-11T01:39:00.000-07:00

These coat and key rings are great piece of Jozi to have in your home... Designed by Love Jozi. See link and images below.

Design is a good idea � For the love of Jozi.

Where’s the World’s Most Painful Commute? | TheCityFix.com

2010-08-10T04:46:00.000-07:00

See link below. Joburg the third most painful city in the world to commute to work in.

Who woulda thought?!

Where’s the World’s Most Painful Commute? | TheCityFix.com

Troyeville | Black & White

2010-08-06T13:21:00.000-07:00

Many moons ago in February this year I took myself on a tour around Troyeville, organised I believe by the Weekend Culture Club, and led by the very knowledgeable Troyeville resident Ishvara Dhyan. I have since then been meaning to post some of my photos, and on this night where I am seemingly on blogger-steroids, I am finally getting around to it. tra la la.

It was once again another fantastic eye-opening experience for me and I think for many who accompanied us on the tour. Troyeville is an absolutely fascinating suburb. One of Joburg's oldest suburbs, it is now quite dilapidated in parts and many of the beautiful old houses which make the area so beautiful are now in quite a bad state of disrepair. B

But there are also many houses that have been kept up and stand quite proud looking out of the Joburg skyline, which lies really on Troyeville's doorstep. The suburb has also had a fascinating history - apart from being one of Joburg's oldest, it has also housed a number of famous residents, including Gandhi and apartheid activist David Webster. It was also once the centre of Johannesburg's Portuguese community, and is today filled with an interesting assortment of people, including - at the risk of sounding patronising - an enclave of hippiedom, where art, psychedelic colours and a whiff of incense add to the exotic allure of the suburb.

See below a collection of black and white photos I took walking through the suburb. Again, no real story behind many of them - they are just what they are, and then some are Gandhi's old house.

Beautiful double-storey duplex house

When walls were lame...

Entrance to park

David Webster Park

Domino bench in park

Magnificently restored house with a
KICK ASS view of the city

Newer flats on circle

Dilapidated house behind barbed wire

Burnt out corner cafe

I think that's Nic Dawes, newspaper editor and
Jacob Zuma?

Gandhi's pad

Piglet anyone? Portuguese Butchery

A snowy Joburg

2010-08-06T12:36:00.000-07:00

So one day when I was alive in Joburg - specifically the 27th of June 2007 - the weather gods decided it should blanket the city in snow. This made news in Joburg because... well... the last time it snowed 'properly' (i.e. no nansy-pansy sleet) was in 1982, two years before I emerged into this world. Everyone of course rushed out into the snow and relished in it before it disappeared about four hours later. :)

Anyway, these were the shots I took. The day it snowed in Joburg.

My parent's home

Dunno who wrote that

View over the neighbourhood
of Observatory

And then later - bye snow...

Joburg By Night

2010-08-06T12:23:00.000-07:00

So I took these photos a few weeks ago from the roof of the Lister Medical Building in the inner city. This space is often used as a venue space for events (and weddings too I believe), and has become quite a popular space for Joburgers to interact with each other with the city as a backdrop.

These photos are fairly useless as alas my little point-and-shoot is not terribly good at letting light in at night time. Need to get myself a bigger camera one of these days...

Anyway, here they are. No message, just plonking them below. Bye.

Joburg's Chinatown

2010-08-06T11:49:00.000-07:00

So on a particularly mild and almost warm Saturday last week, my friends and I found ourselves heading off to China City in Bruma, followed by lunch in Chinatown, a strip of Chineseness in Joburg located on Derreck Avenue in Cyrildene. The early portion of my childhood was spent living quite literally around the corner from what is today Derreck Avenue, and I remember walking with my sister to the corner cafe there(note - not café, as in French and larnie, but cafe is in Sefrican kaffee), which was really a general convenience store that seemed to be on EVERY corner in South Africa and was essentially a general convenience. Nowadays they have been replaced by more swanky petrol garage convenience stores. There were also a host of mom-and-pop stores, including 'Bevans', a takeaway joint, Fruity People, a fruit shop, Video Vampires, a video rental store, a liquor store, a few hairdressers, doctor's rooms and a few others... Anyone remember any else?

Anyway, over the past 10 years or so, Chinese immigrants from mainland China have moved in in droves and set up many other mom-and-pop shops which are completely foreign to my innocent suburban senses. Not a helluva lot of alphanumerical characters remain on this street, and the sights, smells and sounds are of a very different variety.

It's also not like other Chinatowns in that it's not particularly tourist-friendly at all, and a tourist from the next suburb might find herself feeling rather adventurous and worldly at having gone around the corner. In this sense, I must admit that I would like the street to be presented on a slightly more silvery platter, meaning that I do object to the fact that it is not kept clean and, erm, smells of garbage.

Nevertheless, the street provides for a great experience, and adds to the multicultural and multidimesnional mix which characterises Joburg.

Looking down the strip

Vegetables, anyone?

Snails?

Flats where suburban houses once stood

Not just Chinese food on offer...

Goods in Chinese supermarket

Some Thai thrown in too


mmmm...

'Traditional' Chinese architecture..

Paul the Octopus on sale..

Chinese Civil Dissension Intercede Committee.. (??)

Hillbrow Lite

2010-07-29T13:08:00.000-07:00

shucks folks - it has been a while! I have however been dreadfully busy with work over the past two weeks, and have also begun my Practical Legal Training courses in the evenings, which aside from being dreadfully baneful and time-consuming, are also dreadfully compulsory. Miss one or two, and the judge is going to shake his head when you ask for admission as an attorney. Can't have that now, can we?

I would ideally like to do three more posts before the end of July so that I maintain my 7 posts a month average. Let's see if we can do it!

In this post, I'm going to continue on my theme relating to Hillbrow. To catch others up, I was fortunate enough to attend a live and participatory theatre production called X Homes Johannesburg, which involved a group of us walking around Hillbrow on a guided tour from home to home, with each home putting on a production that was at times very dramatic, at times quite eccentric, at times quite funny and at times quite heart-warming.

Half the experience though was walking through Hillbrow itself. Hillbrow is a funny suburb. It stirs up all sorts of emotions in people, and people love to reminisce (including myself at times - unwittingly, though) about the 'good old days', when experiences like the account below were common...

User Kulani posted this on skyscrapercity where I have found myself getting all jumpy jumpy about Hillbrow of late. He in turn got in from a Yahoo question that asked, "Who remembers Hillbrow the way it used to be?"

I remember the good old days of ‘Brow. When Joburg slept, Hillbrow used to wake up. It had the best nightlife in South Africa. And yes, it broke the backbone of group areas Act. Black and White people mingled and respected each other so well. I stayed at 1212 Highpoint – that was my first independent home from my parents’.

I would go the pharmacy at Highpoint at 09:00 and its doors would still be wide opened. I would go to Fontana to buy chicken and rolls at 02:00. I used to dine at Porterhouse (my favourite was at the corner of Twist and Kotze Streets), alternatively at Three Sisters restaurant. I used to take my girlfriend to the movies at Nu-Metro in Pretoria Street or Ster Kinekor in Kotze Street. My Sunday afternoons were spent at Look & Listen (the very first one) at the corner of Pretoria and Claim or further up at Hillbrow records (they moved to Rosebank and named CD Wherehouse – now bought by Musica).

I remember taking my girlfriend from Randfontein to Mi-Vami. I liked their wine opener and asked the manager to sell it to me. Instead he gave it to me. I still have it today.

I was used to go to Milky Lane to treat my sweetie to some ice cream. We used to enjoy cocktails at Karos hotel at the corner of Twist and Wolmarans Streets. I remember double decker buses going to Yeoville came through Edith Carvell and I would get off at Highpoint.

The Summit Club or Moulin Rouge or Why Not were options for a night outing. Browsing books at Exclusive Books (their very first store) was so good. I can still smell the bread from Fournos confectionery (their first store) in Pretoria Street.

Herman Mashaba of Black Like Me hair products fame opened one of his first operations at Highpoint.

You see - everyone reminsces about those times. Hillbrow however has changed. That's it - just changed. I don't think you can really say it's changed for the better, or for the worse, because that's too one-dimensional. There is a lot to Hillbrow's supposed halcyon history that could leave much to be desired, and there is a lot to Hillbrow today which could leave much to be desired. But to look at it in one manner or the other, and then reminense about times-gone-by, is just counter-intuitive I think to understanding Joburg.

The photos I present to you below are what I term 'Hillbrow Lite.' What struck me whilst walking through the suburb is that I was simply just walking through a normal everyday Johannesburg suburb. For sure, there were parts where I felt a little threatened, there were parts were I was utterly depressed by the decay, there were parts where I wished there could be liveried doormen waiting to escort me up to my apartment. But there were also parts that surprised and delighted me.

If I looked beyond the grime and harshness of the reality, I saw that it was peppered with humanity, an aspect that I think we think bypasses Hillbrow. There is the chairwomen of a body corporate which attempts to run a building in very trying circumstances. There is the hilarity of people selling chickens on the side of the street. There is the beauty of a vendor selling a multitude of sweets. There is the order a vendor selling plates of fruit.There is the simplicity of a childhood kindergarten. There is the naughtiness of kids holding a poor pigeon by its wings. There is the craziness of a man walking through a PACKED park ministering at the top of his voice about 'JESSSSSSUUUSSSSSS!!!!' There is the nonchalance of everyone just walking past the dude. And then there is the surreality of half the park cheering and clapping the group of whitey 'foreigners' walking through the park.

I'm not trying to romanticise Hillbrow here. And it's weird that I'm saying this 'from the outside' - although I AM on the outside. But what I am trying to point out is that there is a lot more to this suburb than meets the eye. It DOES make you feel uncomfortable. It DOES disturb you in parts. And it DOES make you feel like a tourist in your own city. But at the same time, paradoxically it grounds you in this sense of arbitrary being which characterises living in Joburg. It simply shows you - again - that Joburg doesn't make sense. And it doesn't want you to make sense of it either. Or, at least, not fully. ;)

So here are my pics of Hillbrow Lite. Hope you like them...

Nthabiseng's Day Care Centre

Sweets...

Nik Naks

Need this for my car...

The Hillbrow Boxing Club

Not that I'm very into boxing, but...

Kids were cute, but the bird? Really now...

Poor bird being stalked...

Basketball in the park

People enjoying the afternoon out

Lobby of the Crest Hotel, World Cup fever abounds!

Rather dated 'garden' of the Crest Hotel

Sandton City Upgrade

2010-07-15T12:20:00.000-07:00

The development below has been in the pipeline for a bit longer than the International Finance Centre (IFC) which I posted below. Located exactly across the road from the IFC, it is clear that the corner of Rivonia and 5th Streets in Sandton, should this all go through, are going to be dwarfed by some very very tall buildings.

Now as I said previously, tall buildings are not necessary the answer in creating friendlier urban environments, but I think this Sandton City development is a positive step towards that aim. I had heard plans when this was first announced that 5th Street would be pedestrianised in part, which I liked because of its implications of improving 'walkability' in the Sandton CBD. Unfortunately it seems like those plans have been scarpered.

But there is certainly a better understanding of integrating future developments with the street, and with an increased amount of people living in Sandton, combined with the Gautrain, I have a feeling that Sandton will continue to grow as a sustainable node.

As for the design, of course I'm not expert on this, but from the looks of the architects faces below, you can see it's not very popular amongst this group of architects. The idea is to clad the tall buildings in glass that curve down over the existing parking lot. It could be attractive, but I'm not sure how it could all be done.

Oh well - we'll just have to see how it turns out! ;)

Hillbrow Flatland

2010-07-11T06:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I booked myself on a X Homes Johannesburg production, organised by the Goethe Institut Johannesburg and hosted in part by Bruce LaBruce, the rather interesting film producer and, erm, 'underground' porn actor. His films include LA Zombie and The Raspberry Reich, the latter a particularly interesting-looking take on gay empowerment. It follows a group of gang members who push forward what is termed the 'gay intifada.'

Anyway, what made X Homes Johannesburg so fascinating and certainly one of the best experiences I have ever had was not so much Bruce La Bruce's piece, but the other pieces carried out essentially by residents of Hillbrow in their own homes. What was so enriching was that their life experiences were so very different and far-removed from my own that I frankly felt like a tourist in my own city. In fact, Hillbrowans looked at us (a bunch of happy-go-clappy whities) as though we were foreigners from outside. And really as we walked through the Hillbrow Centre, which used to be the epicentre of this white boho-chic enclave, I felt as if I was in a different country. It really felt quite unfamiliar to me.

Many have bemoaned how Hillbrow is now a depleted area. And certainly the area has its fair share of problems which stem I think from poverty and social exclusion. But there was a beauty in the madness which it is now, from the R70 chickens being sold on the pavement to the sounds of kids running down apartment block corridors. I'm not trying to romanticise Hillbrow here - that's not my intention. But my intention is to show that, despite it being removed from Sandton and from what it used to be, it is still a neighbourhood where people live and find an identity. Identities that are surprises to those from the 'outside.' At first this disturbed me, but then I realised that it is the surprises, difficulties and non-sensical aspects of Joburg that make it worth living in. It is outwardly a harsh existence, but beneath the harshness are people and their everday existences - which, weirdly enough, turn out to be as odd, complex and nonsensical as our existences can be.

I think X Homes Johannesburg managed to showcase this nonsensical aspect of our city brilliantly! Over the next few posts, I'll try show how this was achieved. In the meantime, I have compiled a group of images which I loosely term as Hillbrow Flatland. I think they are illustrative of how unfriendly the suburb looks from the outside. The tall structures scare you, but they mask what the intricacies of what lies beneath and inside.

My Soccer City Extravaganza

2010-07-09T12:53:00.000-07:00

So the final has been decided - Spain v Netherlands. Can't say either side excites me terribly, but am going to support the Dutchies because they did a good job of getting ready those bladdy cheating agents called the Uruguay team. Shame to them for kicking out Ghana. May they have bad luck for 34 matches to come.

This post is about my experience in the World Cup stadiums. I was lucky enough to go to both Ghana v Germany at Soccer City in Joburg (supporting Germany) and then USA v Ghana at Royal Bafokeng in Rustenburg (support Ghana). The latter stadium alas didn't impress me nearly as much as Soccer City did, which is as everyone says it is - absolutely utterly overwhelming.

I was first mightily impressed with the Metrorail service which took me and friend to Soccer City. Park Station was super organised, and the train was sufficiently sexy to warrant daily passenger usage. Must admit that I was slightly ignorant in the past when I lambasted Metrorail - turns out Metrorail isn't too bad. Space for improvement, of course - we soccer fans had the new coaches, the other plebs had the more shabbier older coaches - but on the whole was good! Also caught a glimpse of the Business Express train ready to depart for Pretoria - the interior, my dear readers, looks niftier than the Gautrain!

Then we arrive at the practically new Soccer City train station, a station that will be perfectly poised to serve all future sporting events in the city. It's curved tin roof looks quite futuristic really, and there is great integration with both Soccer City as well as the Rea Vaya station at the stadium.

But then what impressed me the most about the whole evening was my first sight of Soccer City close-up and at night. WOW. Contrasted with the Joburg skyline seen in the distance (see header image), one can only feel so much pride for the city. In my opinion, Soccer City is the most amazing out of all the country's football stadiums. It stands tall and proud, represents the beauty of both SA and Joburg, and was a FIT venue for both the opening and closing ceremonies.

Here are my photos from the night.

ps - having just uploaded the photos, I just want to say how happy I am that blogger has FINALLY got it right in ease of uploading photos, joining the google bandwagon.

Business Express Train ready for departure to Tshwane.

The 'dirty' Metrorail coach for the 'plebs' and not the soccer fans

Interior of the Business Express. Woman skeefing me out too.

Soccer fans on the packed train to Soccer City.

The new coach.

Soccer City - awesome!

Ghana fans - singing and beating drums! Am sad for Ghana :(

German fans.

National anthem time.

The match during play...

The crowd during play...

A mixed German/Ghana flag. Sort of like I was, really. :)

Bangkok | A Banging BRT

2010-06-30T06:13:00.000-07:00

I follow this very interesting blog called The City Fix, which is really a global look at how cities can become better. In truth, a lot of the inspiration for this blog came from The City Fix, but I think my blog has deviated somewhat from its original goal, and is sort of a free-for-all now. Just a blog about Joburg. And even then I digress. Like I'm about to do. hehe.

Nevertheless, I still enjoy the posts which come through on The City Fix, including a number on Joburg's Rea Vaya, which has received quite a positive rap from the site. I particularly enjoyed this post on Bangkok's BRT system. I would love to visit Bangkok one day because it seems to be a city that thrives on urbanity. Everything from the brightly coloured traffic to the elevated skytrain to the dense buildings to the millions of people - it all just gets me ticking.

The photos below are from the City Fix blog post, who sourced it from numerous sources, including Richard Barrow. There is also a YouTube video which he took. What is interesting to note is that the Bangkok BRT suffers from the same problem of motor vehicles driving in BRT lanes. Although it seems as if Bangkok has it far worse off than we do. There have been other criticisms on that system which you can read on the City Fix post. You also might want to look at ChinaBRT, where they have done a table on various BRT systems, including this Bangkok system. One day would like to do one for Joburg...

The GauBus Review

2010-06-28T12:02:00.000-07:00

As I write this, Brazil is still at a draw with Chile. Will the Chileans manage to hold out and beat the Brazillians? We await and see...

I have had a busy week, and one in which I've been able to participate directly in the soccer fever gripping the country. I managed to get tickets to Germany v Ghana at the magnificent Soccer City on Wednesday night, and also managed to get tickets to Ghana v USA at the not-so-magnificent Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace in Phokeng, next to Rustenburg. The latter wasn't as organised as Soccer City, but Soccer City was certainly a very slick operation and I was home barely an hour after the final whistle blew - thanks in most part to Metrorail/PRASA. Will have to do a post on that another time - suffice to say now that I need to eat some of my harsh words written previously about Metrorail because they really did a fantastic job of transporting fans to and from the match.

This post is about the GauBus, another fantastic public transport option in Joburg. I have written quite a bit about how public transport in the city is quite unintegrated, and I remember one comment saying that in time this lack of integration will start to fix itself. I believe that with the advent of the World Cup, we are starting to see a) public transport offering a better service to consumers and b) the seeds of some kind of integration. For instance, one could take the Gautrain from Sandton to Rhodesfield station, and then catch a Metrorail to Loftus Stadium to watch a game - both offering a decent service, and both connecting ever so slightly.

The BEST public transport presently being offered in Joburg, however, is I think the GauBus, and it is this that will be focused on today. It beats Gautrain simply because it can get you to more places. Some positive points:

1. FINALLLLLYYYY we have a bus service which tells you where you are going. The GauBus stops contain which routes service the stop, where that route goes, what stop it is you need to request to get somewhere, and the time periods in which the bus would arrive.

2. I can't comment on the Rhodesfield bus service, but there are six routes emanating from the Sandton Station, going northwards towards Sunninghill and southwards towards Rosebank. There is also a Sandton CBD loop. The more people use these routes the more people will realise that cars can remain locked in a garage and not clogging up the streets of Sandton.

3. There are always helpful people manning (or womanning) the GauBus depot, conveniently located above the Sandton Station concourse. They are able to answer any question, and where to go.

4. The buses themselves are fantastic. I love the colour scheme and think that they make the buses look super sexy. Seats are plentiful and comfortable, and the card reader at the front of the bus should make boarding quick (should people have cards, that is).

My only suggestions would be...

1. Some bus stop cover. Not going to be too much fun waiting for the bus in the rain. Would like to see an innovative bus stop being designed. How, I don't know - but that's what genius architects are for.

2. Accept cash on the bus. People currently have to have a pre-loaded Gautrain card to use on the bus. All very well when you can load this at a Gautrain station, but when you're trying to catch a GauBus at 6:30 on the corner of Oxford and Hume in Rosebank on a freezing Monday morning and you discover that you don't have enough cash pre-loaded on the card... Not going to be very happy if you can't get on the bus, yah?

Some photos - taken by BlackBerry:

The inside of the bus. Lots of rules. :)

The card reader. Great if you have a card...

A clearly demarcated Gautrain bus sign. Thank the pope and his cardinals!

Route maps; Stops; Time periods. WOW. 10 Points GauBus!

PS: By the time this post was finished, Chile were 3 goals down to Brazil. Sorry Chile. :(

The International Finance Centre, Sandton | 60F + 40F | Dream Big Jozi?

2010-06-20T12:09:00.001-07:00

So as we have seen, are seeing and will continue to see, Gautrain will have a tremendous impact on the nature of property and the way we live in Johannesburg. One has already seen how Sandton has become more pedestrianised, Sandton, Fourways and Rosebank are now serviced by a decent bus service, and people are already abandoning their cars in exchange for riding the train to the airport. I myself am going to pick a colleague up from Sandton Station tomorrow, a mere 5-minute drive from my place of work. Picking her up from OR Tambo Airport would involve at least an hour there and back...

But I digress, as usual. The point of my post is to profile this development, located diagonally across the street from Gautrain and on the corner of Rivonia and 5th Roads. It is BEEEG. At a rudimentary count, 60 floors in the one tower, 40 floors in the other. Whether our economy can take such a big development is a question to consider, and whether investors would have enough confidence to see this development through is another. Whether the renderings below are even a fair reflection of how this building will look is even ANOTHER question - it might end up being a lot shorter than originally conceived.

But in the meantime, I present to you the International Finance Centre, Sandton as is, a bohemoth of a development that I don't think Joburg has ever seen before. I quite like it particularly because of the plaza infront of the building, that will link up nicely with 5th Avenue in Sandton, which I've heard inklings that in years to come will be pedestrianised. Further, with so many people using such a building (and others like it), it is likely to make use of the Gautrain even more significant, and in turn create a more integrated, open and vibrant city.

So here we go... What you think? Is Joburg thinking too big with such high buildings and big developments? I'm cautiously optimistic about this one, and quite frankly would not be surprised if this development is 'reduced' or even cancelled altogether in today's present economic climate. Just my 2c... But nevertheless I commend the developers and investors for their belief in Joburg as a global economic hub!

Do YOU wear your Joburg on your sleeve?

2010-06-15T12:33:00.000-07:00

As you may have gathered, I am a bit passionate about Joburg. Very passionate, really. If I had enough oomph for tattoos to tattoo a Joburg skyline across my lower back, I probably would. But probably just as well that I don't have enough oomph for tattoos as my lower back is perhaps too curvaceous for the Joburg skyline.

I DO however loving wearing Joburg-inspired shirts, and for that I am lucky that the Love Jozi fashion label brand loves Joburg as much as I do. A fairly small label that I suppose has grown quite considerably over the past few years, the label maintains an interesting blog here, can be found here on facebook, has a website here, and can be followed on twitter here. I always buy my tshirts from the Black Coffee store at Arts on Main in the Maboneng Precinct, and I recommend you do so too.

Below are some of the current designs on sale which I quite like. The designs change often - which is nice as it keeps the brand fresh and I think makes each piece quite unique. I have yet to see someone, for instance, wearing my favourite Love Jozi tshirt (pictured immediately below), which as you can see I displayed proudly and prominently in front of the Atomium in Brussels last year.

My own t-shirt that has lasted for yonks...

A double entendre: Africa is such a hot ('cool!') place to live, but is burning up from climate change.

The updated Joburg skyline. Note the telescope on the Main Street Life building on the far left, as well as the extra bulge on the Hillbrow tower (the one on the left), which is Telkom's giant soccer ball (See 'Joburg Soccer Ball')

JoBusy - self explanatory I think.

Seems to be their latest design - Hillbrow Tower next to the Statue of Christ in Rio.

The Gautrain Review - * Updated

2010-06-13T09:25:00.000-07:00

What a week it has been. I think I am all a bit bombed from the excitement - in a good way of course. My voice has also gone completely hoarse from shouting and screaming for Bafana Bafana playing against Mexico in Friday's game. I thought our boys did magnificently well managing to hold the Mexicans to a 1-1 draw. Hopefully we can maintain the unbeaten record we have created for ourselves of late...

It was also of course an exciting week because of the Gautrain, which began service on Tuesday morning. Joburgers were apparently out in force acting like tourists in their own city, taking photos and ooing and ahhing about everything from the 10-floor deep Sandton station to the sound of the door opening.

I have a couple of points to make, and I make them in the spirit of helping the Gautrain service its users better:

The Pros:

1. The PA System: Oh em geeee it makes me so happy to hear the automated lady saying that the train stops at Marlboro, Rhodesfield and OR Tambo. Nerdy of me, perhaps, but whatevs. oh. em. geeee.

2. The display information inside the train: I love that information is displayed in four South African languages - English, Afrikaans, Zulu and Sotho. Me thinks this is great South African empowerment, and encourages us to be proud of our diversity and embrace it.

3. The security: Every two seconds a security guard walks past. I personally don't see the need for all these security guards, but I suppose this is needed in paranoid-central Joburg.

4. The gold travel cards: Slick and sexy!

5. The help: People to help you were EVERYWHERE.

6. The signboards in the stations: Great information available, good signage inside the station. Great maps too. And just wait until I start going on about the GauBus signage in another post.

7. The train drivers announcing when we reach 160km/h. Adds a lovely touch to the service, and I think it personalises it too. It conveys in its own way that positive and warm Joburg welcome which pops up every now and again and makes you go, 'wow?'

The Constructive Criticisms:

1. The ticket machines: Although they never seemed to break down, there was always a long line of people waiting to use them. Perhaps this was because of a large volume of people buying cards for the first time etc, but I think there might be a need to install more machines in the bigger stations. Also, although the machines seem to have credit card facilities, these facilities are not working. To their credit, however, Gautrain seemed to have set up a temporary credit facility by Saturday. But I think this needs to be made more permanent quite soon...

2. The need for stools: Really, Gautrain - how can you expect those poor attendants to stand the whole day helping people at the ticket machines? They must surely be exhausted, yah? They certainly look exhausted, even though they give great service.

3. Signage to Sandton City/Square: I realise that (I think) a connecting plaza is still being constructed to integrate Sandton City/Square with the station, but I think it would help putting up temporary signage to help those tourists found wondering about Sandton looking for Mecca.

UPDATED: 4. Baggage storage: A user on skyscrapercity asked where he could store his bags if he came in from Durban to Sandton for the day. Answer is that there does not seem to be anywhere where people may store bags. Travelling through Europe last year, I found baggage storage facilities to be immensely helpful facilities because of course it gave you a place to store your bags before you had to catch a train, a flight or a ferry. I think it would also be a good initiative in Sandton because it will allow many connecting passengers through OR Tambo a chance to visit the city for a day before they catch their connecting flight to Cape Town or Durban, for instance. Many tourists I think simply wait at OR Tambo Airport for their connecting flight, and as such only see smoggy Joburg from the air.

UPDATED: 5. Night services: Although Gautrain may at the point in time be waiting for its services to become more utilised before it offers late night services, I think it may be helpful on Friday and Saturdays nights to have one or two late night services, and for morning services to begin at 4:00 instead of 5:30, in order to take advantage of early morning flight connections.

6. The teething problems: It is clear that Sandton Station is not 100% finished, and there are a number of finishes that need to be... uh, finished. I don't think the majority of people mind these teething problems for now, but I think the Gautrain still needs to be on the double with finishing up what will undoubtedly be the system's most important station. Already one irate user on Gautrain's facebook group has dubbed the train 'craptrain' and '1st class rubbish'- which I think is completely short-sighted, unfair and rather typical of Joburg consumers expecting the world in two seconds - but it does indicate how quickly a fabulous brand can come tumbling down very quickly...

But all round a GREAT JOB Gautrain! You are the best public/private investment to ever hit South Africa, and in my opinion have contributed more than a few ounces towards nation building in this country of ours. 10 points peeps!

See below some photos from my trip...

The Gautrain on the Sandton platform

On Platform C waiting for the train to arrive. The black hole seen in this pic goes to Rosebank. Not yet in operation.

People saying goodbye here instead of the airport. Must admit I never expected airport users to begin using the service so quickly. Just thought the trains would be full of Joburg tourists. hah hah.

Entrance to the station.

Map of the whole system. Only the blue & yellow lines are operational.

waka waka eh eh

2010-06-10T12:50:00.000-07:00

Am currently watching the FIFA 2010 World Cup Opening Concert. Alicia Keys is belting out a tune right now. Never been a particular fan of her music, but she is indeed quite talented, and an excellent performer. Favourites of the night so far for me were the Black Eyed Peas with I've Got a Feeling (*although Fergie's alien-transvestite-from-the-year-3000 costume was a bit odd?) as well as Angelique Kidjo, who I thought shook her bootie with effortless panache. Anyway, I quite love the whole concert, and am quite impressed with how it has been pulled off. Sepp's and Jacob's speeches were a bit out-of-place maybe, but Desmond added a fun element to the whole shebang. What you think?

Trying to also decide on a fan park for tomorrow to watch the opening ceremony and the opening match. Was going to go to Melrose Arch, but apparently the price for that fan park is quite hefty. Will perhaps go to Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown instead.

ANYWAY - the whole reason for this post was to show how Joburg has seemingly been overrun with Mexicans. Very odd for me because one normally never gets Mexicans in Joburg. Germans, yes. Britons, yes. French too. But Mexicans? Certainly not as much as we have had this week. So much so in fact that the City of Mexico City decided to unveil a replica of the Angel of Independence, perhaps the symbol of the city, on the square. Was perhaps no wonder that I caught these Mexicans milling about in their green shirts and wearing giant sombreros.

Blow your vuvuzela brvvvvr brvvvvr

2010-06-09T22:31:00.000-07:00

With less than 24 hours to go before the official opening of the 2010 FIFA World Cup at midnight on the 10th of June, soccer fever is still peaking here in Joburg. In fact I actually cannot begin to convey the feeling of euphoria resplendent in Joburgers. Streets and squares are buzzing with people; vuvuzelas blast out their horns at random times during the night and day; people are decked out in South African regalia (I myself am wearing a rather corny South African tie today); and there is an overwhelming sense of excitement and happiness emanating from everyone. It's quite simply unbelievable, and I believe it is doing wonders for building up Joburg's social capital as a city.

This fever culminated yesterday in a parade held in Sandton for Bafana Bafana, South Africa's national soccer team. Coming out in an open-topped bus, fans streamed out of offices to wish them a warm welcome. The streets of Sandton turned yellow, and vuvuzelas could be heard all over the city - and all over the country as I'm led to believe. I unfortunately was on my way to a meeting to Pretoria at the time, but even then I metaphorically blew my vuvuzela on facebook along with the many other status updates doing the same. I also saw office parks off the motorway filled with office workers blowing their horns. It truly was an amazing occasion, and one that I think all South Africans should be very proud of.

Below are some photos of the parade taken by my lovely friend, Mieke Krynauw in Sandton. The first photo is my what my parent's company did for their company.

Jozi in the World

2010-06-06T11:19:00.001-07:00

So I returned today from Cape Town. Must admit I was a bit dreary about returning home, especially after last night's walk on the Seapoint Promenade, where the sunset was making a particularly spectacular departure. Casting a warm glow on Cape Town's mountains, and mixed with the many Capetonians out jogging/walking/playing on the promenade, one couldn't help but be totally intoxicated by the beauty of this city.

But immediately upon exiting Joburg's gleaming airport, I was excited again. And at the risk of sounding a wee-bit gospel-like, ALIVE again. This is perhaps because Joburg has seen it fit to line (or perhaps 'bombard' is the correct term) the R21 motorway with flags from around the world. The result is a previously incredibly dull motorway that now provides a worldly and proud welcome to a city that is evidently proud of itself.

But I think what heartened me the most is that this for me was a true reflection of how because Joburg does not have the obvious beauty of Cape Town, it finds itself constructing its own beauty. Often this comes in the form of creating islands of fairylands for itself (the big Tuscan estates etc), but there are times when Joburg gets it 100% right. And on the R21 leading from the airport into the city, Joburg has got it super right.

Joburg also gets it right in terms of its spirit - the combined joie-de-vie that seems to particularly come around when a big sporting event comes along. Having been away for a week, I was so pleasantly surprised to see how many people have taken to displaying flags and national colours in every manner possible. From the very-popular car side-view mirror gloves, to painting walls in South African flags, to displaying flags across car bonnets, to companies holding world cup days, to employees donning yellow South African jerseys every Friday, Joburgers I might want to say give the rest of a South Africa a run for their money in terms of team spirit. And I say this primarily because in Cape Town (the best comparator I have presently) there is a DEARTH of world cup regalia and insignia. A few people have flags and socks on cars, yes... But really - this seems to be the exception rather than the rule, which disappoints me. Joburg is the opposite. So much so that I would place a wager that big dusty concretey Joburg is going to be the place to experience the world cup.

I didn't manage to get any shots of the flags leaving the airport, but I have snagged some from the Algoa FM flickr, and have also managed to snap a few others going around the city. Kindly take note that it is not terribly easy taking photos of flags at 120km/h on a busy motorway, and it is even more difficult trying to take photos of motorists who might wonder about the motives behind someone taking a photo of their car in traffic. These photos do not actually convey however how Joburgers have embraced this world cup. I'm incredibly proud of it, and I give my fellow Joburgers a thumbs-up for the effort.

The above two photos are on the R21 leading from the airport into the city.

A rudimentary example of Joburg's cursed high walls adorned with flags.

A random 4x4 driver :-)

My own car

Flags on the M1 motorway leading through Sandton into Joburg's core.

A bit of this. A bit of that. 7 sleeps to WC 2010. 4 sleeps to Gautrain.

2010-06-04T14:07:00.000-07:00

My apologies (again - meh!) for a slight delay in response. I seem to have a rather erratic blogging personality that involves super intensive posting over a couple of days, and then a bit of a break for a few days. But in fairness (to myself...), I have been away in Cape Town since last Saturday, and have spent a glorious few days exploring this great city and surrounds.

My partner and I chose to stay in an apartment in the Old Mutual Heights in the city. The building is an old renovated art deco building that was the headquarters of a rather large insurance company. As a result it had some fantastic lines and fixtures. It was also in a really vibrant and alive part of Cape Town, around the corner from the train station. Cape Town's CBD is really quite small in comparison to Joburg's, which is why perhaps the CBD provides for a really pleasurable experience. Joburg certainly has it's own magic to it, but Cape Town too has it's own unique magic that is exciting, cosmopolitan and an all-round very pleasurable experience.

The lobby in the Old Mutual Heights building in Cape Town

I can't upload too many photos just yet thanks to Vodacom's super ridiculously high bandwidth prices, but I do invite you to check out photos at my sister blog, joziberry. I also invite you to join Urban Joburg's facebook page, which I've been rather surprised to discover has attracted a few members!

I also think it's pertinent here to mention that South Africa is currently BUZZZZZING with excitement and anticipation at the fact that in a week's time the 2010 World Cup in South Africa (notice I do not mention FIFA-Modern-Day-Colonialists here - on purpose of course) will begin. Already the world is turning its attention to South Africa, and South Africans are I think each doing their own thing to welcome the world with open arms. Moments like these make me so proud to be a South African!

The other little bit of excitement comes from the opening of the Gautrain next Tuesday. Unfortunately I seemed to have missed the excitement this week having been in rather sleepy Grotto Bay and (not sleepy) Cape Town, but I have been following the excitement on twitter and facebook, which Gautain has utilised to fantastic effect. Further, this morning it seems many journalists rode the Gautrain and billed it as the inaugural passenger ride of the Gautrain. For the record people - pssssht! The Gautrain has had 'passengers' (including their excitiable twitter followers) on a number of occasions before ye journos jumped on board!

This post was a bit of a smorgasbord (love this word) of everything. Sorry. But when I return on Sunday I will post some more focused stuff.

tra la la.

Gautrain - GauBus! **updated!

2010-05-23T12:29:00.000-07:00

Please excuse me while I a) orgasm metaphorically and b) write another post on the Gautrain, but I do feel this deserves a mention. After all, there are only 16 days until the Gautrain starts operating and changes the face of Joburg **forever**.

One of the things that excites me most about the Gautrain is going to be its feeder system - the 'GauBus' - my term, but I suggest to Gautrain that they use it and credit Urban Joburg for it ;). Admittedly I don't know too much about it now, but all indications are that it is going to complement the Rea Vaya system and provide a slick new public transport system to fit into the Gautrain.

I have of course written about the perplexities, cost implications and impracticalities of having multiple public transport systems (Rea Vaya, Metro Bus, Metro Rail, putco, GauBus, Gautrain, taxis) - see 'Joburg and a (dis)integrated public transport system', but for now I'm just going to express how super happy I was to see a photo of these GauBuses below, sourced via Kulani of skyscrapercity from Narco on his/her flickr page.

Alas, I haven't been able to find more pics, but I think the picture below (even if it is just a bus!) provides a somewhat tantalising introduction of what Gautrain will do for Joburg, and also echoes the excitement and feeling of euphoria beginning to grip this city in the lead up to the 2010 World Cup.

A Gautrain Bus. And a random kid.

UPDATE. Maritha Pritchard of Gautrain was kind enough to forward me on two more photos of the GauBus, showing both the bus and the seats. Thanks Maritha! Incidentally, Maritha says she likes my blog. :)

: joziberry update two :

2010-05-22T02:23:00.000-07:00

A joziberry update. http://joziberry.tumblr.com is my other Joburg blog, and for those of you who do not know, involves me using the super-easy tumblr software on my blackberry to post random photos of Joburg that I take during my travels around the city. If you follow this feed, I urge you to please also follow that blog.

See below some photos. I can't say that it's the best quality, but blackberry unfortunately is not the best when it comes to camera quality.

A furniture shop called 'the lamppost' on Grant Avenue in Norwood.

Productions that have been staged the Theatre on the Square in Sandton.

The restaurant 'Twist' at the Mapungubwe Hotel in the Joburg CBD.

A footballer made of Nike-branded soccer balls in the Carlton Centre.

Buildings in the city.

A walk through the Joburg Botanical Gardens.

A bunch of cupcakes iced together to form the South African flag. Seen at the Pomander Home Industries store on quaint Queen Street in Kensington.

Vida e Caffe in Parktown North.

Lastly, actors preparing to shoot a coordinated advertising shoot in Joburg CBD.

Museum Africa - Yah Well No Fine?

2010-05-20T22:38:00.000-07:00

Continuing on the previous theme of somewhat dull and tired Joburg tourist relics, I profile here the Museum Africa in Newtown. This museum, reconstructed out of the old Johannesburg fresh produce product on Mary Fitzgerald Square, opened in 1994, and to me seemed to reflect much of the optimism of the new South Africa. It showcased our varied history, and was ultimately celebratory of where we had come as a people.

On returning to the museum last Saturday, I was disappointed to find that the Museum has not been kept up in a good state. It's not particularly run-down, and it's not a BAD experience in the least, but it's just a bit tired. And although I'm not one to expect lavish resources to be poured into cultural icons (it is perhaps more important to divert more resources to education and health, for instance), but I do think that instead of spending what resources the city does have on NEW cultural icons in the city, I think that the city should spend more on maintaining those icons already implemented.

In Museum Africa, for instance, there was a fairly new exhibition on geology in South Africa. It wasn't curated too badly, but I think that the whole exhibition was simply amateurish compared to global standards. It was, to use a South African term, 'yah well no fine.' Or the old exhibitions chronicling life in early/later Johannesburg. It just hadn't been updated since when it was put on (about 14 years ago), and so the mannequins for instance looked rather haggard. And, again, although I don't think we should spend millions on maintaining the museum (like Abu Dhabi would do in attracting a branch of the Louvre or the Guggenheim), I know that Joburg can achieve better in crafting a museum. And the Museum Africa doesn't achieve the standard originally set by Museum Africa itself.

Then there was the special exhibition which opened last week entitled 'SPACE: Currencies in Contemporary African Art', sponsored in part, it seems, by the City of Joburg. Again, it was very 'yah well no fine.' You know, the type of exhibition that would achieve a 51% aggregate in Matric. As in, yah, we can pass you, but really only just. And the student being delighted and over the moon simply because he/she has passed.

Not good enough.

I post below an extract from another Joburg blog called 'Nothing to do in Joburg besides...' by Laurice Taitz. I didn't attend the opening like she did, but I agree with her assessment of the exhibition.

But Monday night’s event severely underwhelmed me and I am still questioning why. Was it the lack of coherence of the exhibition (a post-modern touch?) spread over a few floors of the Museum, the absence of signage or a narrative that told me what I was doing there or where I should go. Was it the missing name tags on some of the artworks or the one tag that seemed to have fallen off the Gabrielle Goliath Bouquet III only to be placed on top of the frame on the middle piece. An afterthought? Or is that art? Was it the exposed cables or the girl with the hammer, the dirty floor and the musty smell in the exhibition hall? Was it that the Minister of Arts & Culture who was to open the exhibition and whose name was used on the invitation was a no-show because she “had to be up early” for Parliament. (She might have had word of the crowd who had gathered to welcome her wearing pink triangles with the words “Nation-Building Lesbian” pinned to their chests). Or that the event “started at 6pm” and really started at 7pm with space for standing only, and a surplus of prawns curled up sadly and drenched in sauce in teeny dishes (maybe there was a special on them, I heard someone mutter, as there was no sign of anything else to eat.) The ground floor of the Museum was also weirdly partitioned off – thoroughly ugly and awkward to view from above, and most of the Museum Africa experience involves a view from above. Or was it the grand Mary Sibande piece “The Reign”– a showstopper that plays with the notion of great men on horses that seemed to have been shoved behind the bandstand to make way for the podium where a succession of highly congratulatory speeches were taking place. Or could it have been the weirdly jarring eclectic mix of exhibitions that sadly could be said to litter the space. A hut here, a photograph of susji there. There is stuff all over the show — it’s a bit like visiting Miss Havisham’s but without the cobwebs. It reminded me of a line from a movie I watched last night (Mrs Ratcliffe’s Revolution) where the daughter in the family was asked to paint a family portrait by her mother and unveils it to the family calling it “The persistence of misery in a desert without fish”.

ANYWAY... Some photos from the exhibition and the Museum in general...

Top of Joburg - Bottom of the League

2010-05-20T07:37:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to go around the city a little bit. Part of the little tour included going up the Carlton Centre, always something that I enjoy as, being the highest building in the city (and Africa in fact), it gives you a splendid view of the city. In comparison to the rest of the globe it's a very short building at only 50 floors, but it's tall in Joburg. :-)

What really disappoints me though is the condition of the viewing deck on the top floor. It is not only hasn't been updated in yonks (literally - yonks. Think typewriter labels on photos), and not only is the restaurant and tourist shop closed, but the place is just rather dull. Perhaps this is hardly surprising, given that it costs only about US$1.00 to go to the top, and I think it's great that it's cheap because it facilitates greater access to the building, but I do think that Transnet (who owns the building) could divert some of their many millions into upgrading the site into one of Joburg's premier tourist icons. It always amazes me that despite its general naffiness and depression, it continues to attract a fairly steady stream of both locals and tourists alike. But there is certainly a need to give these people a better experience.

Perhaps it is time a group of Joburgers get together and form an action committee to approach Transnet and offer to spruce the site up for them? Anyone keen to join?

Below one may find some photos from the top of the tower. And what is needed to improve the facility...

a) a cafe.

b) new information boards

c) a non-closed touristy shop

d) a lick of paint. that green is simply quite hideous. And the statue thing above is completely random - don't think anyone knows what it symbolises, really...

Some of the views from the top of the Carlton Centre...

Hotels - Doorways to a City

2010-05-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

As I have made clear in many instances throughout my blog, the Gautrain will have a fantastic impact on making Joburg a better city - friendlier, livelier and more integrated. This is principally because it coerces people out of their cars, and into a community-oriented environment. Property developers in Joburg have begun to respond to this I think, mainly through building higher. But building higher is not always good, and indeed one can build lower and still create an enjoyable environment. However, as Joburg is a big, busy city, the need to go higher is evident.

What is also evident is the need for doors that front on to street sidewalks. Doors that front on to parking lots, shopping malls and walls (yes - walls) simply shouldn't be allowed. You might as well gate yourself into an enclosed community and create a mini-disneyworld for yourself, sealed off from reality and devoid of any true character. This doesn't of course mean that you shouldn't provide security for yourself, but I don't think people should do so to an extent which is detrimental to a city's social fabric.

Admittedly, how to define this is difficult to do. Indeed, what is to say that the trellidoors and walls around my house destroy the social fabric of my own suburb, Kensington?

BUT I do think that the new Da Vinci Hotel by Legacy Hotels in Sandton goes over the line between what enhances a city's social fabric, and what effs it up. See the photo below, taken by Pule of Johannesburg Daily:

As you can see, the hotel has virtually no street frontage at all, and certainly no street interaction whatsoever. The hotel instead fronts on to a shopping mall, and any pedestrian access seems to be through there. The result then is that, at least in this part of the city, Joburg will continue to be a city defined by a car. There will be no need to take the Gautrain to get to this hotel, because it seems the preferred method of access is via a car and a parking spot. The other result is that the street remains BLAND, and quite frankly, the quintessential urban jungle. Not what we should want as Joburgers...

On the other hand, however, there is the new Park Inn Hotel by Radisson SAS. This hotel (also known to me as the short squat petrol tank) is located diagonally across the road from the Gautrain Sandton Station, and perhaps because of this has decided to have a street entrance directly on to the road. GASP. Have a look what it does (almost immediately) to the streetscape: it brings it alive, even though much of it is still under construction. It invites life in, brings in the sunlight, and makes the street an altogether more pleasant experience. See the photo below, also by Pule.

So alas I do not not have much time for this new Da Vinci Hotel. A hotel is a doorway to a city for many tourists. For Joburg, it's so important that hotel 'doorways' invite Joburg in, and correspondingly draw people out. This is particularly pertinent in Joburg because the city is not known for its character. It's known as being brash, unfriendly, and indeed a jungle that is intimidating and scary. Hotels like the Da Vinci Hotel enhance that perception; it further fuels a false sense of paranoia in the city, and tells people that the only thing one can enjoy in Joburg is staying behind high walls in a pseudo Italian environment, all the while shopping and shopping and shopping and occasionally taking a photo of the Nelson Mandela statue on Nelson Mandela Square. Not good Legacy - BAD developers.

Incidentally, I thought it was quite funny when my partner, observing architecture, pointed out that Sandton needs to be renamed the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. This is because Africa's richest square mile now has the Michelangelo Towers & Mall, the Raphael Penthouse Suites and now the [Leonardo] Da Vinci Hotel all within a 100m walk of each other. All we need now is the Donatelo... Theme Park?

Time to Toll

2010-05-11T10:59:00.000-07:00

I thought it time to do a post on Joburg's new toll road system. I received an email today containing an interesting report on the new system compiled by Bradford McCormack and Associates. The new toll system is all part of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, and I personally think it's a great way to get Joburgers away from their car-centric lifestyles, to utilise their cars more efficiently, and for Joburg as a community to become more open towards each other.

Key to this, of course, is a good public transport system- and that's really something where the city and its public transport agencies will have to come on board. To test a form of public transport, I plan to use a Metrobus service to get from where I live to where I work. This will have to be done on a Saturday, however, because quite frankly I do not know or trust the reliability of Metrobus as a public transport service provider.

In the meantime, some details of the toll road system. As part of the project, an Open Road Transport (ORT) toll system will be implemented, as pictured above - although let's hope not with this naffy triangular design - which will allow cars with transponders in their numberplates to be tolled without having to stop. These will be placed 10km apart in a number of location along major trunk routes in Gauteng, and will surely aide in getting people into public transport and reducing the enormous amount of traffic on our roads. They will be operational by April 2011. A map showing tolls can be seen below. Sorry - not very good map. Pinched it from the report I received.

The estimated costs of the rolls will be R0,50 a km, and there will be a discounted fee applicable to frequent users. The route from the Johannesburg CBD to the Pretoria CBD will be the most expensive, at R1020 a month. This is about R200 per month more expensive than it will cost to use the Gautrain between Joburg and Pretoria. A cost breakdown can be seen below. Again, many thanks to the Bradford McCormack report...

Undoubtedly riding a car is going to become more expensive. And with South Africa's carbon tax being introduced, it's going to be even more expensive to run a gas guzzler. Undoubtedly Joburgers will struggle at first with going car-free, but I do think in the long term it will propel Joburg towards its elusive World-Class-City status.

Jozi Berry ♥ Urban Joburg

2010-05-06T08:01:00.000-07:00

oh hush!

I can't even bring myself to look at how my stats (by google analytics) have possibly gone off the chart and into serious negative territory. The truth is, dear readers, that I have taken on a second spouse, so to speak. Done a little bit of a Zuma, if you know what I mean. Not cheating, mind you, because although Urban Joburg might be somewhat wilted through its lack of pruning of late, I still do hold it closeto my heart.

But you see, the Blackberry came along. And with the Blackberry (BB Pin me for a good time: 220518FD) has come tumblr, the quick, super efficient and easy platform I have used to launch JoziBerry. The idea is quite simple, really. In my travels in and around Joburg, should I see something interesting, I take a photo and upload it on to my joziberry blog with a little blurb about where it was, what it was, why it was, how it was, and when it was. OK, maybe not that detailed, but whatevs.

It's a very 'whatevs' blog in fact. The photos I can't say are anything spectacular, but this is not easy with the Blackberry which, unfortunately, does not have such a brilliant camera. My friend Sarah does something similar for Sapporo on her iPhone on voyagebound, and combined with her fantastic eye for photography, her iPhone photos are really magnificent. The photo below, for instance, of the subway in Sapporo...

Photo by Sarah Richmond

But I digress. Joziberry (i.e. tumblr) is unfortunately not very accessible to most people, but I do believe you can subscribe via an RSS feeder link at the bottom of the page. However it is, as I say, quick and easy, and provides for much pleasant distraction whilst standing in court queues. And so I will continue to maintain it, and will try my best to maintain Urban Joburg.

I shant do a post right now (but WILL later on... I will, I will, I will), but I will post some shots I have taken on JoziBerry.

The very colourful Diarisso Fashions in the city, getting into the World Cup fever.

Seattle Coffee in Killarney, creators of easily the most creative cappuccinos worldwide (no joke, photo will come soon...)

Autumn in Melrose Arch. Trees are going a beautiful shade of red, and the wind is certainly making things somewhat nippy here in Joburg.

The Joburg Theatre BRT Station, just before finishing date and I believe now opened.

Gleneagles Drive in Greenside. Name of the suburb should I think be evident from this photo.

Happy | Sad Joburg

2010-04-18T02:11:00.000-07:00

It has been too long since I have given an update. But I wonder sometimes if commercial law has the ability of sucking the Joburg soul out of you. *sluurrrp*

I've been enormously happy this week. It has been a week of laughter and goodies. On Monday some friends and I took part in a quiz evening at Primi in Melrose Arch under the banner of 'Equus Royale'. Despite Equus Royale coming stone last in the first round (not a good sign for future rounds - but who knows which are the only two South American countries that are NOT bordered by Brazil?), we nevertheless had a ball of fun, and to compensate for our losses we somehow managed to win six tickets to Death of a Colonialist at the Market Theatre. Other fits of laughter occurred during the playing of 'Balderdash' as well as the watching of the Tina Fey movie 'Date Night.' Silly silly silly, but tremendeously funny.

The goodies part relates to the fact that I now have a sparkly new Blackberry Bold 9700. I'm still trying to figure out how to post on my blog from my blackberry, in which case I will hope to initiate a new feature called JoziBerry' (clever, huh??), that will not include a tremendous amount of text but simply everyday pictures. This will also link in with my 'Joburg a day' feature which, oddly enough, has turned more into a 'Joburg a quarter-yearly' feature. meh - whatevs.

This week also featured a certain degree of annoyance with Joburg on my part. Municipal workers, that included refuse-collection staff from the city, decided to go on strike. Now ever since I can remember, whenever refuse-collection staff go on strike, they decide to demonstrate to the city what it could look like were it not for their services. This they do by running through the inner city and turfing over rubbish bins and spewing garbage all over the city streets. The result is the following: a) You realise that Joburg is a comparatively clean place at normal times and b) that Joburg would turn into a city of complete bedlam were it not for their services. The realisation is quite remarkable and you sort of say to yourself that, for f*&* sakes, increase their darn salaries. In that sense, then, garbage workers are fantastically effective at getting their points across.

And so whilst I would like to say I do not have sympathy for their plight - this is certainly what I was saying when I saw these pictures below - I do suppose that garbage collection is a pretty shoddy job and so their demands for salary increases should be met quite expeditiously. BUT although I can see their slightly warped point of trashing the city, I also note that these Joburgers are BAD JOBURGERS because they do not have pride in their city. They do not care that their actions have the potential of making Joburg an absolute pig sty. I really think it would not be too difficult to find more creative and innovative solutions of getting their grievances across. I also see the deep irony that at the end of the strike, they're going to be the ones paid to clean up the mess. But maybe they don't see this irony? Madam & Eve did a cartoon depicting this irony, but unfortunately I cannot find it right now.

Anyway, see some of my pics below. Not a particularly good time to be a proud Joburger...

Joburg isn't all hunky dory all the time.....

Gautrain Stations

2010-04-01T11:42:00.001-07:00

You should be aware by now that I was fortunate enough to attend the Gautrain Tweetup on the 13th of March 2010 at the Gautrain depot in Midrand. Prior to the big surprise being unveiled (getting a ride on the train - see video in link above), we got to walk around some of the models of the Gautrain stations. I found these very interesting because it gave me an idea as to what the final product is going to look like. I present some of them below...

Rosebank Station

Rosebank Station is to be located opposite the Rosebank Mall and the Zone in an already high-density node in the city. Numerous projects are already on the go, both in Rosebank and neighbouring Illovo and Melrose, that will make the area a very attractive place to live in terms of access to the rest of Gauteng as well as fostering a strong community spirit. Working in Melrose Arch, I can attest to how convenient it is to be able to run down to the grocery store to buy groceries rather than having to get into my car to do so. I can also attest to how nice it is to live and work in a place full of people. Even if the node is a bit 'fake' and constructed, it makes a change from the previous dull office block I used to work in. But I digress - I think the Gautrain station in Rosebank is brilliantly well-placed, and will do very well in the future.

Oxford Road looking south towards the city. The curvy roof structures are entrances to the station. The green area on the opposite bank is I believe a school. Is this a waste of space? My first instinct is actually to say yes (GASP!!!), but on second thoughts I don't know if we should run around bulldozing schools in favour of denser building structures because it's not very nice to the school... (?)

I only have one concern about the station. This relates to the fact that there will initially not be a Rea Vaya BRT station at Rosebank Station. Perhaps this will come in a few years time, but I can't help thinking that the city should have prioritised a BRT link between the city and Sunninghill that would serve the Gautrain stations. What I do like however is that there is space made for buses and minibus taxis (good for Gautrain for integrating the latter form of public transport), and of course the Gautrain feeder service will serve the station. I suppose we will have to see how it pans out when the station is complete..

The 3-storey parkade. Rosebank Station will make provision for 1200 parking spaces.

Park Station

Park Station I think will be awesome! The parkade will consist of a number of floors and also offer parking for 1200 cars. Landscaping around the station will I think be particularly attractive, and I think it will have a great effect on Braamfontein. Park Station will be my closest station, but unfortunately I will not be able to access it using the Gautrain feeder bus. Hopefully when Rea Vaya builds a route down Broadway towards Eastgate, it should be more accessible to me.

Park Station with landscaping surrounding the station entrance. Parkade directly behind it.

Marlboro Station

Marlboro Station is clearly intended to be a 'park-and-ride' station given the large volume of parking spaces. Provision is also made for taxis/buses, as well as a drop-off point. I would like to see in the future the area around Marlboro being developed into a mixed-use high-density node so that it does not remain only a parking station, but one that serves a new community.

Marlboro Station showing the large volumes of parking, bus depot and drop-off points

I had previously thought that Marlboro Station would have been better placed around the Greenstone mall area, located not far from the present site. This area has grown quite considerably in the past few years, not in the most sustainable of manners (lots of little boxes, gated complexes, car-central etc), but has nevertheless developed into a relatively dense node of Joburg. I think that a station located there would have further consolidated the area, and coaxed residents out into developing a more integrated, interactive and ultimately friendlier community.

Rhodesfield Station

Rhodesfield Station always puzzled me given that it is quite literally about 300m from its next station at OR Tambo International Airport. So much so that one wonders why the Gautrain even bothered to extend itself to the airport because, quite frankly, one could have built some kind of skywalk and simply made people walk on travelators to the 'airport' station because of its close proximity. It is indeed intended to be another 'park-and-ride' station, but the airport could also serve as a 'park-and-ride' given how much parking exists in the airport.

The Rhodesfield Station - showing that there does not appear to be a link between the Metrorail line and the Gautrain station

I also thought that it was intended to link up with the Metrorail service running between Pretoria in the north and Boksburg/Benoni in the east, and that Metrorail was going to build a station at Rhodesfield to link up with Gautrain. However, on the model above one can see that there does not appear to be a link between the two services, and one gets the impression again of a disconnection between public transport services in Joburg (see my post here about the disconnection between Joburg public transport). UPDATE: I have been informed since writing this post that Metrorail/PRASA is indeed building a station to link up with the Rhodesfield station for completion in 2011. Great stuff! Now I would like to see how Metrorail is going to improve their service offering to ensure it is able to effectively link up with Gautrain. See the photo below to see the construction of the Metrorail station next to Rhodesfield.

Image sourced from Gautrain's flickr Photostream

It furthermore feels like a waste of resources because it isn't located in a high-density node. I would have thought it would make more sense to have built the station closer to the Kempton Park CBD, which isn't that far from the CBD. The net result of that I think would have been to rejuvinate the rather dilapidated apartheid-era Kempton Park CBD, and encouraged new projects in this node.

Conclusion

The above are simply my own layman observations. I am certainly not an expert in these fields (what the pope do lawyers know about urban design and planning anyway?), and I would suppose that Gautrain has thought through all these issues and there are probably many good reasons for why they didn't do what they could do. However I still have these concerns as a loyal Joburger, and I reserve my right to express them. Let me know what you think!.... if, of course... you managed to sit through and read all my blubber :)

Sexy Curvy Alice

2010-03-30T11:57:00.001-07:00

Another rather long break from posting. The days just whizz by, though. :)

Part of the reason why I love cities so much stems I think from this odd love for skyscrapers that I developed a few years ago. Why, you may ask, do I like tall structures that cast dark gloomy shadows blocking sunlight? I suppose I have a thing for large structures in general - structures that are on a grand scale, that suggest adventure and exoticism. Which might also explain my fascination with large aircraft, as well as the thrill I get from a ship's hull and the wonder I felt when touring Hamburg's automated shipping port. Cities are I suppose also big and energetic and full of processes, and a further dose of thrill is added to the potpourri when you add in tall buildings.

This doesn't of course mean that tall buildings MAKE a city. On the contrary, they can make a city quite depressing and forlorn, and induce fear and paranoia into its citizens about what lurks behind their 50-floor shadows - Joburg downtown during the 1990s (and even today) being perhaps a good example. Another example of the contrary being Berlin with its famous 7-floor height restriction on buildings (with a few exceptions) - despite this making the city quite spread-out, the city is surprisingly compact because its residents make the streets and parks their playground.

Sandton in northern Joburg has for the past two or three years undergone a flurry of construction projects, led on in large part by the main Gautrain station which will be based there. Joburgers have finally sensed that living in themed gated complexes in the northern wastelands of the city is not very clever in terms of facing traffic every morning, and so slowly but surely I think people are accepting that living in a mixed-use environment which does not require the over usage cars is a good idea! Sandton has accordingly grown considerably denser in the past few years, making I think for a very nice environment for pedestrians.

Perhaps my favourite building currently under construction is what I like to call 'Curvy Alice', simply because the building is located on Alice Lane and is 'curvy.' Designed by Paragon architects, the building is really a twin building with both towers curving in and out in quite a graceful, playful way. Its main tenant I believe is to be Deneys Reitz Attorneys, but I'm sure it will also have other tenants too. I'm not sure what a clever building it is in terms of design and sustainability, but I do know that I think the building is quite simply a very sexy building, and for me as a non-architect, that is good enough to get a thumbs up!

I give you some photos sourced from various people including user 'Percy07', Jaco Roets and of course Pule Mofokeng of Johannesburg Daily fame, posting on this skyscrapercity thread: (I'm a particular fan of the first one directly below...)

the joburg lighthouse

2010-03-18T11:36:00.001-07:00

About two weeks back I met up with my fellow Joburg bloggers at skyscrapercity for a 'Joburg Meet.' The idea of a whole bunch of internutters meeting up and doing something we enjoy collectively is perhaps a little nerdy (ala a star trek convention?), but I suppose that's the beauty of the internet and the information age. Besides, it builds up good social capital!

Anyway, what we normally do on these meets is walk around the city a bit, chat about how we can turn Joburg into Gotham City and generally check out what's new and what's cooking - which, in the Joburg CBD, is evidently a lot! It isn't all of course the building of new Louis Vuitton and Prada stores, like I think many of us would want it to be, but it is about the building and the renewal of the city. And even though such building/renewal might not necessarily even be sustainable, it does keep the city breathing at a steady, exciting pace.

On our walk, we came across one such exciting development. In the old Securities building, a developer is currently converting the top floor/roof into a bar called 'The Lighthouse' - so named because of the building's art deco fixture which, apparently (and indeed seemingly is) a lighthouse. It looks like once he is done (he predicted end of the month - we shall see...), I expect it to be one of the city's hottest new evening venues. It will not only be refreshingly new in a city that loves it's News Cafes far too much, but will also offer the most fantastic views of the city. I personally can't wait to do a Carrie Bradshaw and go for a cosmopolitan above the city. meh. :p

See the photos below. The last one is of course 'the lighthouse.'

Gautrain #tweetuponrails

2010-03-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was incredibly lucky enough to be one of the first people to travel on the Gautrain. As part of a tweet up organised by Gautrain, I and some friends secured ourselves an invite to see what the Gautrain was all about. The idea of the tweet up was that people would tweet/facebook their experiences at the event, which supposedly would spread out around the online world and Gautrain would get some great positive publicity. Well - positive publicity the Gautrain certainly got, and even more so, deserved.

We were at first tremendously impressed by the spread put on by Gautrain (thanks for the breakfast, Gautrain!). Models of the stations were also on display, and we were able to walk around the very impressive maintenance hanger of the Gautrain. Gautrain's CEO, Jack vd Merwe, then gave a talk about the Gautrain, and expertly fielded a number of questions. This guy really is on the ball! I tweeted that he should be our Minister of Transport.

We then all got the biggest surprise of all. I suppose it was of course all planned, but the fact that hardly anyone was expecting a ride on the train meant that the anticipation and the excitement after the announcement was electric. The train came gliding into the hanger with much fanfare and whoops of excitement - the loudest of course emanating from yours truly.

As we filed on to the train, I took in the fresh new smells and colours of this great train! The external colour scheme of the train, in gold and royal blue, is I think distinctly 'Gauteng'. It speaks to the achievements of this small province, and the ingenuity of its design and the speed with which it glides effortlessly along the tracks mirror what an exciting place this is in which to live.

I post below a video Eduardo of jhbdaily and the fake sartoralist fame took. He threw in Enya's Orinoco Flow to give it a 'just for shits and giggles' flavour :-)

Hope you enjoyed it! I really was one honkingly-big proud Joburger yesterday. :)

ARTS on Main

2010-03-09T12:03:00.000-08:00

Continuing the theme of the previous post related to Main Street LIFE, I thought I should post some photos I took a while ago of the Arts on Main precinct. The Precinct has done quite well in attracting a number of events and talks that revolve around art and culture. As a result, it has become a very dynamic and creative space in the city, and is establishing the area as Joburg's artistic node. A number of top South African artists have studios in the precinct, and a small amount of speciality design stores and a restaurant/bar/cafe called Canteen keep the place alive and buzzing.

See photos below...

Main Street LIFE

2010-03-08T11:55:00.000-08:00

The east side of Joburg is really a very up-and-coming area of the city, with Arts on Main spearheading an 'industrial-chic' (to use a somewhat overused Wallpaper*-ey term) renaissance. This area is quickly becoming the hub of Joburg's creative scene, and Main Street Life seems to be exemplifying that in every facet of its development. With an independent cinema, artist work spaces, as well as a boutique hotel showcasing Joburg's history, I do think that Main Street Life will seriously BUZZ.

The website can be found here - http://www.mainstreetlife.co.za. On offer are one bed, two bed and penthouses from only R299 000 (about EU30 000). Furnished apartments come with Doktor and Missus furniture. These are going to be hawt.

See this video here to give you an idea of the development. I loved this video, particularly at the end. Clouds + a city skyline make me giddy.

Wickedly cool, hey?

Urban Joburg

Reflections on Joburg City

Joburg International Airport - 2030? 2040? 2050?

Rea Vaya - an uphill battle for legitimacy

Doodle at the Antsteys

Joburg is Para, Para, Paradise

Splendor in the Grass

Hillbrow Health Precinct

Africa Shafted - Ponte City

Aerotropolis East - 'Urban' Ekurhuleni?

Antstey's At Night

A Midsummer Night's Dream on a Mid-Autumn Night in Joburg

Autumnal Arch

Joburg's Next Mayor - Maimane or Tau?

Gautrain announces fares

Small Street Mall

a rocket crashes into Hillbrow

Joburg the Aerotropolis

Japan in Brixton

Gautrain | Pyongyang-on-Rails?

Gautrain The Puzzle

Yeoville

Pedestrian-Rights Day - Walking and the City

Melrose Arch | Crispy Arch

Sexy Alice

Joburg Pride 2010

You know when Joburg is cool when...

Meet me at the Antstey's

Joburg | Global Competitiveness Score @ 52

Spring Into Action Jozi

Bye Bye Hayibo!

Traumatised Midrand homeowners to sue Tuscany over non-Tuscan houses

Rissik Street Post Office | Restoration?

Design is a good idea | For the love of Jozi.

Where’s the World’s Most Painful Commute? | TheCityFix.com

Troyeville | Black & White

A snowy Joburg

Joburg By Night

Joburg's Chinatown

Hillbrow Lite

Sandton City Upgrade

Hillbrow Flatland

My Soccer City Extravaganza

Bangkok | A Banging BRT

The GauBus Review

The International Finance Centre, Sandton | 60F + 40F | Dream Big Jozi?

Do YOU wear your Joburg on your sleeve?

The Gautrain Review - * Updated

waka waka eh eh

Blow your vuvuzela *brvvvvr* *brvvvvr*

Jozi in the World

A bit of this. A bit of that. 7 sleeps to WC 2010. 4 sleeps to Gautrain.

Gautrain - GauBus! **updated!

: joziberry update two :

Museum Africa - Yah Well No Fine?

Top of Joburg - Bottom of the League

Hotels - Doorways to a City

Time to Toll

Jozi Berry ♥ Urban Joburg

Happy | Sad Joburg

Gautrain Stations

Sexy Curvy Alice

the joburg lighthouse

Gautrain #tweetuponrails

ARTS on Main

Main Street LIFE

Blow your vuvuzela brvvvvr brvvvvr