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Greening Jakarta

The Jakarta city government says it plans to tear down 32 gas stations in so-called green-belt areas and buy up land in around a third of the city’s 2,500 neighborhoods so it can set aside small pockets for parks.

 

According to the Jakarta Globe, city planners are now drafting local regulations aimed at modernizing Jakarta's landscape over the next two decades. “Under the city’s 2010-2030 master plan, the city aims to increase open, green spaces from 9.3 percent of the city’s area to 30 percent to balance new urban development,” the Globe reported June 23.

 

But experts say the 30 percent target is unrealistic due to the current extent of overcrowding and the lack of any real government commitment.

 

Jakarta has not always been such a concrete jungle. In the 1960s more than 35 percent of the city was devoted to parks, public monuments or community gardens. But rapid urbanization and subsequent development paved over many of those areas to meet the city’s vociferous hunger for new housing and office space.

 

Many big, developing cities face problems with overcrowded that leads to a lack of green space. And because there is no additional room for expansion, urban planners say Jakarta must learn to redevelop the spaces it has.

 

To increase green areas by a mere one percent, Jakarta will need to add 5.6 or 5.7 square kilometers of open space, Governor Fauzi Bowo told the Jakarta Globe. With his background in architecture and city planning, Bowo said lack of space has contributed to a mall culture that sees Jakartans spending their weekends in air-conditioned commercial spaces that increasingly define the city’s public domain.

 

Monas, Gelora Bung Karno, Ragunan Zoo and a few neighborhood parks in Menteng and Tebet comprise most of Jakarta’s notable green spaces. While Bowo says finding new space will be “mission impossible,” it remains high on his administration’s agenda.

 

Source: www.thejakartaglobe.com