INDONESIA'S URBAN STUDIES

A city without social justice: Jakarta needs more green space, but not the expense of the poor

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:28:00 +0000

This post was published in Inside Indonesia, an Australian magazine, in the October-December 2009 edition. Following is the link to the article:
http://insideindonesia.org/content/view/1246/47/

DSC01412, originally uploaded by Luis XII.

In case of the link is not available, I copied the article as you can find below. Thank you.

A city without social justice: Jakarta needs more green space, but not the expense of the poor

Jakarta is not only Indonesia’s capital and most dynamic city, it is also beset with a plethora of 21st century urban problems. As its population grows, its green spaces shrink. In the first half of the twentieth century Batavia, colonial capital of the Netherlands East Indies, was a small urban area with approximately 150,000 residents. Batavia has become Jakarta, Indonesia’s megacity of 14 million.

Green spaces in the city have shrunk along with this leap in population. As recently as 1965, green areas made up more than 35 per cent of Jakarta’s land area. Currently, they account for only 9.3 per cent, far below the target of 30 per cent set by Law No 26 of 2007 on Spatial Planning.

Shrinking green areas
As Jakarta is certain to continue to grow, the city’s master plan to protect remaining green spaces and add some more, especially along riversides, offer some hope. The city’s current 2000-2010 master plan aims to achieve green areas (legally defined as areas where plants can grow) of 13.94 per cent of the total city area. This is an excellent goal, but it is modest when we compare it to similar plans in the past. The 1965-1985 master plan, for example, planned for green areas covering 27.6 per cent of Jakarta’s land area. In part, these plans are simply catching up with reality. New luxury homes, condominiums, shopping malls, hotels, commercial buildings and offices have proliferated in Jakarta over the last three decades. Many have been built at the expense of green areas and have paved over water catchment areas, making the city more prone to floods.

Annual floods in Jakarta point to an urgent need to protect existing green
areas in the capital – and to create new ones.

Not surprisingly, annual floods are becoming more severe, and more deadly. The worst flood in memory occurred in February 2007, inundating about 70 per cent of the city. It killed at least 57 people and sent some 450,000 fleeing their homes. In the aftermath of the flood, Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar put the blame on excessive construction of residential and commercial buildings, which now cover many of the city’s former green areas.

Annual floods in Jakarta point to an urgent need to protect existing green areas in the capital – and to create new ones. Green areas absorb rainwater and thus help prevent flooding. Green areas also help make cities more sustainable and livable.

Canal - Jakarta, originally uploaded by pyjama.

Clearing out the poor
As part of its master plan, Jakarta’s administration has planned to expand the city’s green areas to nearly 14 percent of the city’s area by next year. However, even this modest expansion will come at the expense of some of Jakarta’s most powerless residents. Often, when the city government creates new green spaces it does so by evicting the city’s poor residents and operators of informal sector businesses.

For example, the restoration of Ayodia Park (on Jalan Barito in South Jakarta) led to evictions of fish and flower traders in January 2008. Many of the traders had run their businesses in that area for more than 20 years, yet Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo argued that the vendors were there illegally and had no right to the land. In February 2008, the city administration evicted ceramics sellers from beneath a highway overpass in Rawasari, Central Jakarta, in order to expand green spaces. It did the same to about 1400 families who had lived for years in Kampung Bayam (North Jakarta) in August 2008. In this case the aim was to restore the 66 hectare BMW Park (BMW in this case stands for Bersih, Manusiawi, dan Wibawa – Clean, Humane, and Esteemed). The Kampung Bayam eviction turned into a melee as many squatters, mostly women and children, resisted officers’ efforts to remove them.

While Jakarta authorities often use force to ‘free’ land used by the city’s poor, they lack the courage to prevent construction of the condominiums, malls, hotels and commercial or offices that developers and the rich build in designated green areas in blatant violation of the city’s spatial plans. The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI) counted numerous Jakarta developments that converted green areas into malls and other commercial buildings, in violation of Jakarta’s spatial plan. WALHI’s May 2009 report identified these illegal developments in Kelapa Gading, Pantai Kapuk, Sunter, Senayan, and Tomang. Governor Fauzi Bowo told the media in February 2008 that it would not be realistic to demolish such buildings to restore green spaces.

The authorities often use force to ‘free’ land used by the city’s poor, but they
lack the courage to prevent construction of condominiums, malls, hotels,
commercial buildings and offices

Jakarta now has about 60 mid-size and large shopping malls. According to the Urban Poor Consortium (http://www.urbanpoor.or.id/ ), a Jakarta advocacy organisation, only about 500,000 Jakarta residents can afford to shop in those malls. The malls do not serve Jakarta’s poor, who outnumber Jakarta’s mall-shopping rich by seven-to-one.

Social injustice
Not only has the Jakarta government failed to prevent the loss of existing green spaces to malls and commercial buildings, influential commercial interests have also scuttled plans to re-establish green spaces. For example, in March 2008, Jakarta’s City Council rejected the Jakarta Parks Agency’s plan to create green spaces in place of 29 gas stations, caving in to the demands of the politically powerful gas station owners.

The city administration deserves support for planning to create additional green spaces.But it should not do so by mistreating poor people and the informal sector. It seems that Jakarta politicians find it easier to expand green areas by demolishing poor residents’ homes and forcing informal sector workers off public space, than by preventing, stopping, or demolishing developments that benefit only the wealthy.

Deden Rukmana (rukmanad@savannahstate.edu) is assistant professor and coordinator of the graduate program in Urban Studies and Planning at Savannah State University, USA. He publishes Indonesia’s Urban Studies (http://indonesiaurbanstudies.blogspot.com/ )

This blog in the GPEIG Newsletter

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:20:00 +0000

amazing, originally uploaded by BESTPHOTO.

In the early September 2009, I received an email from Dr. Vinit Mukhija, an associate professor of urban planning at UCLA who is also a co-chair of GPEIG, that invited me to submit a story about this blog for the GPEIG newsletter. I was certainly delighted to accept the invitation and submitted a description about the blog and my reflection on blogosphere two weeks later to him.

GPEIG stands for Global Planning Educators Interest Group and is an interest group under the ACSP (Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning). The mission of GPEIG is to foster global perspective in planning education and research. This link provides more information about GPEIG.

Following is the story about this blog in the GPEIG newsletter that can also be found in this link.

I am honored to share my blog of Indonesia’s Urban Studies with the readers of
the GPEIG newsletter. The blog, located at http://indonesiaurbanstudies.blogspot.com/ was created in January 2007. As mentioned in the first post of my blog, the purpose of this blog is to contribute to the advancement of urban studies and planning in Indonesia, and was inspired by the success of Randall Crane’s blog of Urban Planning Research.

My blog includes a wide-ranging collection of reflections and essays about urban issues in Indonesia, including poverty, informal sector, transportation, land uses, spatial planning, urban primacy and global warming. My reflections are primarily focused on the current urban issues in Jakarta and are based on my regular reading of two Indonesian newspapers, Kompas and The Jakarta Post. Most news stories in both newspapers are about Jakarta, and a few stories are about other cities in Indonesia. That’s why my blog posts are mainly about Jakarta.

Several urban issues in Jakarta are discussed in my blog, including the banning of
motorcyclists from Jakarta’s main roads, extortion by thugs of street vendors, an upscale neighborhood’s resistance against a new busway corridor plan, the Jakarta City Council’s rejection of a plan of converting gas stations into green areas and the change of the school start time. The blog also includes the reflections of the last three years of annual floods that inundated Jakarta. Interestingly, the floods always occurred in the first week of February. The blog documents the impacts of the flood each year and government efforts at preventing the floods. These posts were also submitted to and run by The Jakarta Post in its Op-Ed sections.
The blog also presents a number of essays including the history of urbanization and
suburbanization in Jakarta, the dominance of Jakarta in Indonesia’s economy,
urban planning and the informal sectors in developing countries, challenges of the planning profession in Indonesia, and a book review of Christopher Silver’s Planning the Megacity: Jakarta in the Twentieth Century.

Nearly 50,000 visitors have come to my blog and most of them are via Google. Many visitors also came from other websites and blogs that have a link to my blog, including the ACSP’s website. A number of students from many parts of the world contact me after visiting my blog for a variety of reasons, including asking further questions or for detailed data, asking for data sources in Indonesia, asking for definitions of urban terms, asking me to review their work on Indonesia, or simply for appreciating my work. In addition to students, a journalist of Singapore’s The Straits Times and a Norwegian journalist contacted me for their stories of Jakarta. I was also invited by the editors of an Australian magazine and several Indonesian newsletters to submit stories about urban issues in Indonesia. All these invitations and interviews came to me through visits to my blog.

Furthermore, I can trace from where and how long the visitors visit my blog. They come from countries all over the world, including countries in Africa and South America. I am amazed by their interest in Indonesia’s urban issues, and hope that my blog contributes to their interests.

When I started nearly three years ago, I never expected to get what I have accomplished with my blog today. We can witness the power of the Web in building and shaping our society. The world is now directed by the citizens of the new digital democracy. Blogging is a good way for scholars to be a part of this new world of digital democracy. I have learned from my blog that the voice of scholars in the blogosphere is well-respected and appreciated. The blog audiences have a lot of choices to read and they find the voice of scholars worth reading.

Envisioning City without Cars

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Sat, 16 May 2009 02:43:00 +0000

Traffic congestion is one of the chronic problems in most Indonesian cities and this problem is getting worse year by year. The growth of road developments in Indonesian cities is much slower than the growth rate of vehicle ownership. In Jakarta, for example, the growth rate of vehicle ownership is 9 to 11 percent per year but the growth of road developments is only less than 1 percent per year.

Setiabudi Macet 1, originally uploaded by susiloadhy.

When a new highway was built or a road was widened, it will only solve the traffic congestion for a short period of time. After a few years, the new highway will fill with traffic that would not have existed if the highway had not been built. Similarly, the widened road fills with more traffic in a few months. Such phenomenon is called induced demand. Because of the induced demand, neither building new roads nor widening roads are the long-lasting solution to traffic congestion.

There are several possible solutions to eradicate traffic congestion problems and one of them is the reduction of private vehicle uses. I read an article in the New York Times (May 12, 2009) on a suburb town without cars in Germany with great interest. Streets in this upscale town are completely car-free except the main thoroughfare and a few streets on on edge of the town. The residents of this town are still allowed to own cars, but parking is relegated to two large garages at the edge of the development.

The Vauban town, is located on the outskirt of Freiburg, near the French and Swiss borders and home to 5,500 residents. The residents are heavily dependent on the tram to downtown Freiburg and many of them take to car-sharing when longer excursions are needed. Seventy percent of Vauban's families have no cars. They do a lot of walking and biking to shops, banks, restaurants, schools and other destinations that are interspersed among homes. The town is long and relatively narrow and provides an easy walking access to the tram for every home.

Creating places with more compact design, more accessible to public transportation and less driving is the envision of urban planners in the 21st century. The Vauban town is an exemplar of the 21st century urban design in response to the threats of greenhouse gas emission and global warming and the dwindling oil supply.

I could argue that the Vauban's urban design is the extention of the New Urbanism. The New Urbanism is a school of urban design arose in the U.S. in the early 1980s. This school of urban design promotes several key principles including walkability and connectivity, mixed land uses, and high density. There have been many the New Urbanist towns in several countries, but cars still fill the streets of these towns.

The Vauban town provides an example of the possibility of creating city without cars. The walkable and mixed-land-uses urban design, easy access to public transportation and excellent public transportation system as demonstrated in the Vauban town are the components for creating city without cars.

Cars are still a luxury item for many Indonesian families. Many urban residents, particularly those live in kampung kota, do not own cars and are used to living without cars. Streets (gang) in Indonesia's kampung kota are too narrow for cars and the residents are used to walking and biking to their destinations. Kampung kotas are located in the center of urban areas and relatively accessible to public transportations. In reference to the New Urbanism concept, the Indonesia's kampung kota has implemented the principles of walkability and high density.

Indonesian planners need to appreciate the existence of kampung kota in terms of lacking driving needs. Kampung kota residents will be less likely to have a demand for cars when their neighborhoods are accessible to public transportations and the streets in their neighborhoods remain narrow. Kampung kota residents need to remain lack of driving needs for reducing the car ownership rate in urban areas.

For new developments in suburb areas, Indonesian planners can emulate the success of the Vauban town. Driving needs are profoundly affected by the urban design and the high access to public transportation. It makes sense to envision and is not all impossible to create a city without cars.

(This article also appeared at The Jakarta Post on June 2, 2009)

The Collapse of Situ Gintung Dam and Poor Enforcement of Spatial Plans

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:19:00 +0000

The Situ Gintung dam in Cireundeu, Tangerang broke on March 27, 2009 and killed at least 99 people (Kompas April 1, 2009) and still counting since there are about 100 people reportedly missing. The dam was built during Dutch colonial rule to contain water from the Pesanggrahan River. Several investigations have been conducted to identify the culprit of the of the Situ Gintung collapse. The Indonesia Technology Application and Research Agency (BPPT) revealed piping in the body of the dam (Kompas April 1, 2009). The piping allowed water infiltration into the capillary breaks that caused the dam collapse. The piping was identified in the month of December 2008.

Situ Gintung Tragedy -another-, originally uploaded by aris-ressy.

The heavy rain in the area of Situ Gintung was often blamed by many people as the culprit of the disaster. The heavy rain is only a trigger but is not a cause of the dam collapse. Heavy rains were often recorded in the Situ Gintung area, as happened in 2007 that caused big floods in Jakarta, but they did not break the Situ Gintung dam.

I would argue that the collapse of the Situ Gintung dam was caused by the low enforcement of the spatial planning laws in Indonesia. Indonesia has had spatial planning laws since 1992 through the enactment of the spatial planning law 24/1992. This spatial planning law differentiated spatial plans by two main functions including conservation areas (kawasan lindung) and cultivation areas (kawasan budidaya). Conservation areas include areas surrounding springs and lakes such as the Situ Gintung area. The spatial planning law 24/1992 clearly stipulated that the conservation areas have the main function for protecting the environmentally sensitive areas such as areas surrounding springs or lakes. Activities that are allowed in the conservation areas are very limited including conservational and rehabilitation activities, research and environmental tourism.

Referring to the spatial planning law 24/1992 or the current spatial planning law 26/2007, the Situ Gintung area was supposed to be a conservation area. Assigning the Situ Gintung area as a conservation area means only activities protecting the environmentally sensitive area of Situ Gintung will be allowed in the area. Residential areas will not certainly be allowed in the conservation areas including in the Situ Gintung area.

The disaster of Situ Gintung is the impact or negative externalities of the activities in the area that cannot protect and conserve the environmentally sensitive area of Situ Gintung. More than 40 percent of the 112.5 hectare water catchment area of the Situ Gintung was identified as residential areas (Kompas April 1, 2009). Such a large proportion of residential areas in an environmentally sensitive area are clearly an indication of the low enforcement of spatial planning laws. It is very likely that the residential areas would expand in the Situ Gintung area in response to the population growth if the disaster did not happen.

The current spatial planning law 26/2007, adding several clauses from the spatial planning law 24/1992 such as imposing administration and criminal sanctions for those who violate the laws, is poorly enforced. The new stipulations in the spatial planning law 26/2007 including disincentive and incentive in the spatial plan implementation have not been fully enforced. The violation of spatial plan law in the Situ Gintung area is only one of many violation cases in Indonesia. The Indonesian Planning Association also acknowledged the spatial plan law violations in other Indonesian cities in their press release in the aftermath of the disaster of Situ Gintung. The enforcement of the spatial planning law will be a difficult task without the understanding of residents about the importance and essence of spatial plans.

Situ Gintung Tragedy, originally uploaded by aris-ressy.

Indonesian people need some more time and efforts to “learn” the importance of spatial plan for the sustainable development in Indonesia. The disaster of Situ Gintung should be interpreted as a learning process for Indonesian people about the consequences of the spatial planning law violation. Indonesia needs to learn from the mistakes in the Situ Gintung case for preventing similar cases in the future. Indonesian people need to understand the importance of spatial plans for their public health, safety and welfare. Such an understanding is quite important for the Indonesian governments to enforce the spatial planning law 26/2007 in order to create safe, convenience, productive and sustainable places in Indonesia.

Jakarta Annual Flooding in February 2009

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 21:39:00 +0000

February is the month when rainfall in Jakarta and other areas in Indonesia are highest and floods become a threat for residents. This year’s February also witnessed floods in many parts of Jakarta including sub-districts Bidara Cina, Kampung Melayu, Cawang, Bukit Duri, Angke, Petamburan, Tanjung Priok, Kelapa Gading, Koja, Cilincing, Rawa Badak, Kamal Muara, and Kapuk Muara. These areas were inundated by between 10 and 50 centimeters of water. Floodwaters also caused lengthy traffic jams in many main streets in Jakarta.

neighborhood., originally uploaded by omae.

Fortunately, the extent of this year’s flooding was not as great as in the last two years. In February 2007, the worst flooding in Jakarta's history inundated about 70 percent of the city, killed at least 57 people and sent about 450,000 fleeing their homes. In February 2008, 37 of 267 subdistricts in Jakarta were inundated by more than 40 centimeters of water. Floodwaters caused public transportation, including the busway lines across Jakarta, to stop operations, leaving thousands of passengers stranded. Last year’s flood also inundated the Sedyatmo toll road to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, which resulted in the cutting off the highway for a few days. Nearly 1,000 flights were delayed or diverted and 259 flights were canceled.

Interestingly, this year’s rainfall in Jakarta is higher than that in 2008 and is about the same with the 2007 rainfall. This year’s highest rainfall per day happened on February 2, 2009 reaching 339 millimeters. This year’s highest daily rainfall is slightly higher than that in 2007 (317 millimeters) and much higher than that in 2008 (117 millimeters). It is important to note that the high rainfall in the Jakarta’s neighboring areas was also blamed for the major flood in 2007.

In response to the last year's flood, Governor Fauzi Bowo set several strategic measures including ensuring the early warning systems are effective, dredging the river to enable the water flow properly, revitalizing the Pluit, Sunter and Riario dams, and placing mobile water pumps on the Sedyatmo toll roads to anticipate the blackouts. I would argue that the low enormity of this year’s flood is also subject to the effectiveness of such measures. Such measures may be able to mitigate the impact of this year’s flooding, but still cannot prevent the flooding.

Canal - Jakarta, originally uploaded by pyjama.

Jakarta has 18 main canals and 500 smaller canals of 2 to 15 meters in width. The Jakarta’s network of canals performed only 50 to 70 percent of its capacity because these canals have been silted up with 9 million cubic meters of sediment and garbage (The Jakarta Post, February 2, 2009). Furthermore, Budi Widiantoro of the Jakarta Public Works Agency blamed the garbage as the main cause of the low capacity of Jakarta’s canals (The Jakarta Post, January 14, 2009). This is certainly a big challenge for the Jakarta administration to educate its residents to not throw away garbage into canals. Dredging canals will not be an effective way of reducing flood if people still throw away garbage into canals.

In the aftermath of the 2002 major flood, the central government and Jakarta administration plan to build the East Flood Canal project. The project is aimed at reducing floods in a 270-square-kilometer flood-prone area of East and North Jakarta, but it has progressed very slowly. As of February 2009, the Jakarta administration has procured only 62 percent of the needed land. The East Flood Canal is sought to be most feasible solution for preventing future flooding in Jakarta, but apparently the East Flood Canal is not easy to be materialized.

Neither dredging the canals and rivers nor building new canals is a sustainable solution for preventing future flooding in Jakarta. As the economic, commercial, cultural and transportation hub of the nation, Jakarta is poised to grow faster than other parts of Indonesia. The annual floods are strong evidence that Jakarta cannot sustainably accommodate its rapid growth. Indonesia needs to redistribute the central functions from Jakarta to other parts of the nation and create more urban agglomerations to pull urban growth away from Jakarta. Relocating central functions out of Jakarta will reduce the rapid growth in Jakarta and eventually become a sustainable solution for preventing future flooding in Jakarta.

(This article also appeared at The Jakarta Post on February 28, 2009)

Economic Crisis and Public Works Projects

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 03:33:00 +0000

city (11)1, originally uploaded by budibudz.

This year is an important year for policy makers for overcoming the global economic crisis that started from the financial crisis in the United States in the early 2008. The policy made in the beginning of 2009 will influence the future of the world's economy. In the United States, people have a high expectation on public works projects proposed by the Obama administration to overcome the economic crisis.

Barack Obama promised to build public works projects, the largest investment since the creation of the interstate highways fifty years ago. Public works projects are believed to revive the economy by creating new employments. In a meeting with Barack Obama in early December 2008, the US governors submitted the public works proposals that are ready to go in total amount of USD 136 billion including roads, bridges, etc. Those projects will create about 40,000 jobs for each USD 1 billion.

Lessons from the Great Depression
The current economic crisis is still less severe than the Great Depression in the 1930s, at least from the unemployment rate. In the 1930s, the unemployment rate reached nearly a third of the American workers. The current unemployment rate in the US at the end of December 2008 was 7.2% which was the highest record in the last 16 years, and this number is still very likely to increase. The current crisis has made economists and politicians think hard to avoid the second edition of the Great Depression.

In resolving the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the New Deal including the creation of jobs through public works projects in most parts of the US. One of the projects is Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) that built dam in the Tennessee rivers and several hydroelectric projects in the Tennessee region, one of the poorest region in the US. The history shows that the New Deal was able to address the Great Depression. In addition, TVA was able to create an energy source and 30,000 new jobs and also improve the quality of live of people in the Tennessee region.

An important principle of the programs developed by the FDR administration in addressing the Great Depression is the government intervention to the free market. This principle is an implementation of the advice of John Maynard Keynes, an interventionist government policy. The Keynesian economics will also be implemented by the Obama administration to resolve the current economic crisis.

Lessons for Indonesia
What can Indonesia learn from the global economic crisis? Learning from the success of the New Deal and the implementation of the Keynesian economics, it is clear that the government intervention is very vital to address the current economic crisis.

The budget of development that has been appropriated in the national budget (Anggaran Pendapatan dan Belanja Nasional) should be used for the real sectors, particularly in the regions of high unemployment rates. The public works projects, like TVA, such as dam and irrigation for extensifying agricultural lands outside the island of Java is quite relevant for the current situation in Indonesia. The extensification agricultural lands projects can also be directed to reduce the burden of Java island as the primary provider of the national food and alleviate poverty outside Java island.

If Indonesia wants to copy the green development initiatives as proposed by the Obama administration, Indonesia can develop a mass transportation system and alternative energy innovation projects. In the meantime, the conventional public works projects such as roads and bridges need to be focused on repairing the broken and bad infrastructures rather than developing new infrastructures.

(This post is an English version of the original article that appeared in the daily newspaper of Media Indonesia on January 15, 2009).

Traffic and Change of School Start Time

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:16:00 +0000

A policy proposed by the Jakarta city administration to advance the start of school hours from 7:00 a.m. to 06:30 a.m. sparked controversy from the public. The policy that was aimed at overcoming the traffic congestion in the capital will be at the expense of students. The City Council rejected the idea and argued it will not address the problem of traffic congestion. Meanwhile, the city administration predicted the policy will reduce congestion by between 6 and 14 percent (The Jakarta Post 27 November 2008).

Setiabudi Macet 1, originally uploaded by susiloadhy.

Opponents of this policy argued this policy was only another strong evidence of the inability of the government of Jakarta to overcome traffic congestion. Students will be required to wake up early in the morning and they will be sleepy in class. The proposed policy will cause the tardiness of many students and many classrooms will be empty in the morning.

Given the limitation of the Jakarta city administration in overcoming traffic congestion, the policy to change school start time should be considered as a creative and innovative policy. The reaction to this controversial policy from the public should be anticipated by the city administration. The city administration Jakarta government must implement this policy consistently while still working to reduce traffic congestion through other policies.

The traffic congestion in the capital, especially in the morning, will be slightly
reduced through this policy. The intensity of traffic jams in the capital in the peak hours will decrease because of the thirty minutes early trips of the studetns. The argument of the policy will reduce traffic congestion by 14 percent is reasonable. Data Pokok Kependidikan (Primary Data of Education) from the Jakarta's Office of Secondary Education shows that 1.75 million or 21 percent of the 8.3 million inhabitants living in Jakarta in 2006 are school aged people of 7-18 years old.

The traffic congestion in the capital can't be separated from the high rate of vehicle ownership by 9-11 percent per year that is not supported by the growth of road developent which is only less than 1 percent per year. The development of mass transportation system in the capital is still far from the expectation. The busway can reduce the intensity of traffic congestion in the main roads in the city center, but it has still yet to much untangle traffic congestions in other parts of the capital. In addition, the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), which has long been planned, is stil unclear when to be realized.

Why you should use the Jakarta busway, originally uploaded by fishkid.

The high rate of vehicle ownership and the high urbanization in the greater Jakarta area is also the results of the role of Jakarta as the capital of Jakarta and the country's economy and business center. Resolving the transportation problems in Jakarta must also consider developments occurring in the Jakarta's neighboring areas.

Given the various limitations in overcoming traffic congestion through the development of mass transportation system and the high rate of vehicle ownership motor vehicles that is difficult to be controlled, the plan to change school start time is an innovative and creative solution. It is better to implement this policy rather than waiting for the completion of the mass transportation system or the more road built in Jakarta.

In the early implementation of this policy, the city administration needs to tolerate the tardy arrivals of students to schools since the students and parents need some time for the adjustment to the early school hours. Similarly, the availability of public transportation in the early morning needs to be secured to provide services for the students.

In the next stage, the city administration needs to develop school buses that provide shuttle services for students. The provision of school buses will significantly reduce congestion because it will be reduce the number of private vehicles that were previously used to transport the students.

Other alternative that can be considered to reduce congestion school is to implement school attendance zone (rayonisasi). This policy will limit students in their choice of schools. The priority will be given to students who reside near the school. The implementation of this system will shorten the trip distance from the student residence to school, and will ultimately reduce traffic congestion.

In addition, the coordination of the school provision among the municipalities in the Greater Jakarta area needs to be strengthened. The availability of good schools in the Jakarta suburbs is very essential and it will prevent the residents in the suburbs of Jakarta from sending their children to better schools in the central city of Jakarta. The availability of good schools in the buffer areas of Jakarta will ultimately reduce the transportation problem in the capital.

(This article also appeared at The Jakarta Post on December 20, 2008)

Assessment of Trans-Java Toll Road

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 04:13:00 +0000

The development of Trans-Java toll road from Cikampek, West Java to Surabaya, East Java is regarded as the key for economic development, particularly the industrial sector, in the Java island. The planners and decision makers argue the current condition of transportation infrastructure, especially roads, can't support the development of the industrial sector for competing globally. The condition of the current roads is considered as the barrier for increasing the competitiveness of the Island of Java's industrial sector. Is the development of toll road Trans-Java the best solution for the economic development in the island of Java?

Tol Layang Pelabuhan, originally uploaded by rilham2new.

This post briefly attempts to assess the toll road of Trans-Java in the context of sustainable development for the island of Java. The daily newspaper of Kompas on 17 November 2008 reported that the toll road Trans-Java will convert 655,400 hectares of agricultural land. This agricultural land conversion will certainly threaten the national food security, given the role of Java island that supplies 53 percent of the national food needs. The conversion of agricultural land to urban areas will continue along the toll road, especially at the exit of toll road. The land use conversion will be also likely to change the employment structure in the Java island. We will see more labors in agricultural sector in the island of Java switch to urban sector. Sooner or later the agricultural sector in the island of Java will to become a marginalized sectors and it will be a serious threat to the national food security.

In the United States, the development of Interstate Highways started in 1956 and this is not the key factor of urban development in the United States. Before the development of Interstate Highway, the railroad system has played an important role in the urban development since the mid-18th century. The railroad system in the United States connects most areas of the United States, from cities on the East Coast to cities in the West Coast. Larger cities such as Chicago, Detroit and Atlanta are examples of cities that grow rapidly due to the infrastructure of the railroad. The development of road transportation becomes an alternative for distributing raw materials and industrial products but does not replace the role of the railroad.

The discussion about global warming and energy crisis put the interstate highways as the cause of the high use of fuel and emission of carbon dioxide. The development of interstate highways also causes suburbanization and urban sprawl. The urban sprawl causes public transport services inefficient and increases residents' dependence on the use of private vehicles.

Indonesia should learn from the negative externalities of the development of interstate highways in the United States. Not only will the development of Trans-Java toll road threaten the national food security due to agricultural land and labor conversion to urban sector, but also increase the fuel consumption as a result of the increased road length. The negative impacts of the development of Trans-Java toll road will be greater if we calculate the environmental impact of the diminishing green areas, including forests and plantations in the island of Java. The development of toll road will also cause the urban sprawl along the toll road.

En route vers Bandung (3), originally uploaded by Popples91.

Another alternative for stimulating the economic growth in Java is developing railroad system. The development of double-tract railway in Java can become an alternative solution for distributing raw materials and products from the industrial sector in the island of Java. Alternatively, we could also reactivate the unused railroads that was built in the Dutch colonial era. The development of the double-tract railroad will not convert as much agricultural land as the development of toll roads does. The development of railroad system will also consume less energy than the development of toll roads does.

In sum, we could argue that the development of Trans-Java toll road is not a sustainable solution for stimulating the economic growth in the island of Java. This solution is only a threat to the national food and energy security. The development of Trans-Java toll will not a cost-effective solution for the national interest. Alternatively, we could consider the development of railroad system that is more energy efficient and does not convert as much agricultural land as the development of toll road does.

(This post is an English version of the original article that appeared in the daily newspaper of Kompas on November 20, 2008. The article was also posted in the official websites of Badan Koordinasi Penataan Ruang Nasional and of Direktorat Tata Ruang dan Pertanahan Bappenas)

Do street vendors deserve urban space?

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:34:00 +0000

We often find problems associated with street vendors (pedagang kakilima) in many Indonesian cities. Street vendors do their activities in the sidewalks, city parks, cross walking bridges, and even in the streets. They are often seen as eye-sores and undesirable activities. In many cases, authorities forcibly evict street vendors in the name of urban order and cleanliness. Street vendors often resist the eviction and demand spaces for their activities. Do street vendors deserve urban space for their activities? To answer this question, I would like introduce the concept of urban informality as a framework for understanding street vendors that occur in urban areas.

Malioboro, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, originally uploaded by Mini Anna {Munandar}.

The concept of urban informality started from the dichotomy between the formal sector and the informal sector discussed in the early 1970s. The informal sector is a very common phenomenon that occurs in developing countries. The percentage of the informal sector in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa and South Asia ranges between 30-70 percent of the total workforce. In Indonesia, according to data from the Statistics Central Bureau (BPS) in February 2008, 73.53 million out of 102.05 million (72%) workers worked in the informal sectors.

Although the discussions have been conducted for more than thirty years, there is no consensus on the exact definition of the informal sector (Maloney, 2004). Understanding of the informal sector is more often associated with the dichotomy between the formal and the informal sectors. The informal sector is often understood from the document issued by the International Labor Organization (1972). The ILO identified at least seven characters that distinguish these two sectors: (1) easy of entry, (2) easy to obtain raw materials, (3) the nature of ownership, (4) the scale of activities, (5) use of manpower and technology, (6) expertise requirements, and (7) deregulation and market competition.

The dichotomy of the formal and informal sectors often ignores the importance of the informal sectors with respect to urban spaces. The informal sectors are often marginalized in the urban spaces, even though the informal sectors account for 70% of the urban employment.

Ananya Roy and Nezar Alsayyad (2004) introduced the concept of informal urban areas as the logic that explains the process of urban transformation. They did not emphasize on the dichotomy of the formal and the informal sectors but on the understanding that the informal sector is parts of the economic structure of society. The urban informality is an urbanization mode that connects various economic activities and space in urban areas. The informality The inis not only a domain for the poor but also important for middle-class population.

Two urban theories, the Chicago School of Urban Sociology and the Los Angeles School of Urban Geography have dominated the discourse of urban development in developing countries, including in Indonesia. Both urban theories are based on phenomenon that occurred in urban cities in the United States. The Chicago School of Urban Sociology, which was developed in the early 1920s explain the development of the urban migration that is controlled by generating ecological patterns, such as invasion, survival, assimilated, adaptation and cooperation. The Los Angeles School of Urban Geography initiated in the late 1990s to explain the development of metropolitan Los Angeles in the postmodern era that emphasizes the importance of the capitalist economic and political globalization of the economy.

The dominance of both urban theories in the discourse of urban development influences the urban spatial planning in developing countries. Planning practices that replicate both urban theories through the dichotomy of developed and developing countries become ubiquitous. This becomes a problem when such a replication is no longer relevant with the unique urban phenomenon in developing countries, such as the informal sector.

Pedagang di Jl. Dr. Soetomo, originally uploaded by Abdul Manan.

The problems that arise in connection with street vendors is mostly caused by the lack of urban spaces for street vendors. The urban spatial planning that is not based on the understanding of urban informality concept will tend to ignore the demand for spaces to accommodate the informal sector, including street vendors. In addition, the dominance of the Chicago and Los Angeles Schools in the practice of urban planning in Indonesia has contributed to the lack of spaces for the informal sectors in urban areas. The spaces in urban areas are dominated by the urban sectors that have high economic value and the spaces for the informal sectors are marginalized.

The application of the concept of urban informality in understanding the phenomenon of street vendors will change our perspective on the existence of street vendors in urban areas. The street vendors are not the groups failed to enter the economic system in urban areas. They are one of the modes in the urban transformation that cannot be separated from the urban economy. They are one component of the urban economy that will benefit urban development.

The phenomenon of street vendors in Indonesian cities should be interpreted in the context of urban transformation. The application of the concept of urban informality in the practice of urban planning will allocate more urban spaces for the street vendors and integrate it with the formal sectors. The practice of urban planning in Indonesia also should not replicate the Chicago and Los Angeles schools, but modify them and take into account the unique urban phenomenon including the informal sector. The informal sectors, including street vendors, deserve more urban spaces to accommodate their activities that are parts of the urban economic system.

The new spatial planning law 26/2007 has stipulated the importance of the informal sector in urban areas, but the implementation of this new law is not fully enforced yet. The full enforcement of the new spatial planning law and the understanding of the urban informality concept are needed to ensure the availability of urban spaces for the street vendors.

Reference:

International Labor Organization. (1972). Employment, Incomes and Equality: A Strategy for Increasing Productive Employment in Kenya. Geneva: ILO.

Maloney, William. (2004). Informality Revisited. World Development 32(7): 1159-1178

Roy, Ananya and Nezar Alsayyad. (2004). Urban Informality: Transnational Perspectives from the Middle East, Latin America and South Asia. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

(This article also appeared at The Jakarta Post on November 8, 2008)

A Historical Overview of the Spatial Planning in Indonesia

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 01:07:00 +0000

Spatial planning in Indonesia began in 1926 when the Nuisance Ordinance was introduced. The ordinance regulated certain industrial installation in certain areas through zoning and permit systems. Twenty-two years later, the first planning regulatory framework known as City Planning Ordinance or Staadvorming Ordonatie (SVO) was introduced and then followed by the implementation ordinance known as Stadsvorming Verordening (SVV) in 1949 (Hudalah et. al. 2007; Winarso and Firman 2002).

city (11)1, originally uploaded by budibudz.

After the enactments of SVO and SVV, there had been no legal frameworks for spatial planning until 1976. Several legal frameworks for spatial planning were enacted between 1976 and 1992. These legal frameworks regulated particular areas including the Greater Jakarta Area (Keppres 13/1976), Batam Island (Keppres 41/1973) and Puncak Area (Keppres 48/1983) and certain development sectors including rice field areas (Keppres 54/1980), industrial estate (Keppres 53/1989), tourism (Keppres 15/1983) and housing (Keppres 8/1985). All of these legal frameworks are presidential acts.

In 1982, the Ministry of Home Affairs enacted a decree on the guidance of city plan-making process (Permendagri 2/1987). This ministerial decree stipulated the standards and regulation for city plan-making process. Four years later, the Ministry of Public Works enacted similar decree on city plan-making process (Permen PU 640/1986). Both ministerial decrees became references for urban planners when they prepared city plans.

In response to the growing need for coordinating the management of natural resources, the Indonesia parliament passed the first spatial planning law, The Spatial Planning Law 24/1992 in October 1992. Spatial planning was defined in this law as plan-making process (proses perencanaan tata ruang), plan implementation (pemanfaatan ruang), and development control (pengendalian pemanfaatan ruang). The provision of this law is the guidelines of plan-making process, plan implementation and development control for national, provincial and local levels.

The Spatial Planning Law 24/1992 stipulated the principles of the spatial planning in Indonesia included integrity, sustainability, effectiveness, efficiency, compatibility, harmony, openness, equality, justice, and legal protection. The rights, obligations and participation of the people in the spatial planning were also stipulated in the Spatial Planning Law 24/1992. The people have rights to know the spatial plan, participate in the plan-making process and receive just compensation when their property is acquired for public uses. The detail regulation on the rights, obligation and participation of the people in spatial planning was issued in December 1996 (Peraturan Pemerintah 69/1996). This regulation was the first detail regulation enacted by the Indonesia government from the Spatial Planning Law 24/1992.

The Spatial Planning Law 24/1992 also stipulated the hierarchical spatial planning in Indonesia consisting of the national spatial plan (RTRW Nasional), the provincial spatial plans (RTRW Propinsi) and the district spatial plans (RTRW Kabupaten and RTRW Kotamadya). All levels of the government were required to make spatial plans for directing the development in their respective regions.

This law also differentiated spatial plan by the main function and the main activity of the area. Areas by the main function include environmental conservation areas (kawasan lindung) and non environmental conservation areas (kawasan budidaya). Urban areas (kawasan perkotaan), rural areas (kawasan perdesaan) and specific areas (kawasan tertentu) are areas differentiated by the main activity. Kawasan tertentu is area that has national strategic value and its spatial plan needs to be prioritized.

jakarta sunset, originally uploaded by chillntravel.

The fundamental institutional changes in Indonesia following the fall of the New Order Regime also affected the Spatial Planning Law 24/1992. This law was considered to be no longer relevant with new institutional settings. The Indonesia parliament passed the bill of spatial planning in April 2007 to replace the Spatial Planning Law 24/1992. The new law, the Spatial Planning Law 26/2007, contains some provisions that are not included in the previous law.

In accordance with the new decentralization laws, the Spatial Planning Law 26/2007 stipulates explicitly the authority of provincial governments (pemerintah propinsi) and of district governments (pemerintah kabupaten and pemerintah kota) in spatial planning. Such provision is not stipulated in the previous spatial planning law. In the previous law, the central government is responsible for spatial plan that covers areas in two or more provinces and the provincial government is responsible for spatial plan consisting of areas in two or more districts (kabupaten/kota). In the new law, spatial planning consisting of two or more provinces becomes the authority of respective provinces and should be used as a coordination tool for both provinces. The central government is no longer authorized to coordinate the spatial plan in the areas consisting of two or more provinces. The similar rule also applies to spatial planning covering two or more districts.

The Spatial Planning Law 26/2007 has one new principle of the spatial planning that is not included in the previous law. The principle of accountability is included in the new law and it is presumably to correspond with the enthusiasm of Indonesian people for more transparent and accountable system of government. The new law also stipulates the minimal standard of services in spatial planning. Such provision is to ensure the good quality of basic services of spatial planning for the Indonesian people. This is a response to the dissatisfaction of the Indonesian people over the poor quality of services from the government during the New Order Regime.

The new spatial law also takes into account the rapid urbanization in metropolitans in Indonesia particularly in the Greater Jakarta Area. The concepts of metropolitan area and megapolitan area are introduced in the new law. Such concepts were not parts of the previous spatial planning law. Metropolitan area is defined as an urban area with the population of at least 1 million people. The Spatial Planning Law 26/2007 defines megapolitan area as two or more adjoining metropolitan areas that have functional relationship.

One of the important provisions of the Spatial Planning Law 26/2007 is the requirement of at least 30% of urban areas for open spaces. The open spaces can be public and private open spaces. More specifically, public open spaces account for at least 20% of urban areas. In addition, this law stipulates that forest areas must be account for at least 30% of river stream areas. Such provision was not included in the previous spatial planning law.

The new spatial law provides some new ways for enhancing the development control including zoning, planning permits, implementation of incentive and disincentive and imposing sanctions including administration and criminal sanction. The incentives could be tax cut, compensation, cross subsidy, planning permit deregulation, and awards. The disincentives include higher tax, the limitation of infrastructure, imposing compensation and penalty. The implementation of incentive and disincentive could be from the central government to local governments (province, kabupaten and kota), from local government to other local governments and from governments to community.

The Spatial Planning Law 26/2007 also validates the importance of public participation in spatial planning. The new law provides more detailed regulations than the previous spatial planning law including rights, obligations and the forms of public participation in spatial planning. Such provisions correspond with the more participatory system of government after the fall of the New Order Regime.

Reference:

Larsson, Gerhard. (2006). Spatial planning systems in Western Europe. Washington, DC: IOS Press
Hudalah, Delik and Johan Woltjer. (2007). Spatial planning system in transitional Indonesia. International Planning Studies 12(3): 291-303
Winarso, Haryo and Tommy Firman. (2002). Residential land development in Jabotabek, Indonesia: triggering economic crisis? Habitat International 26: 487-506

Book Review: Planning the Megacity by Christopher Silver

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Sat, 24 May 2008 01:50:00 +0000

This is the first post of a book review in this blog. The story started when I met with Christopher Silver at the 2007 ACSP Annual Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in October 2007. Professor Silver, Dean of the College of Design, Construction and Planning at the University of Florida, told me that his new book on Jakarta was getting published soon. I promised him that it would be my pleasure to publicize his book through my blog.

A few days after the conference, I contacted the publisher of Professor Silver's new book, Routledge, and was informed that the book would be available in mid November 2007. I received the book from Routledge in early December 2007 and in about a week I finished reading the book.

The book is a pleasure to read, engaging, well conceived and logically organized. There are seven chapters including (1) Understanding Urbanization and the Megacity in Southeast Asia, (2) Fashioning the Colonial Capital City, 1900-1940, (3) Plans for the Modern Metropolis, 1950-1970s, (4) Planning for Housing, Neighbourhoods and Urban Revitalization, (5) Expansion, Revitalization and the Restructuring of Metropolitan Jakarta: the 1970s to the early 1990s, (6) Urban Village to World City: Re-planning Jakarta in the 1990s, and (7) Planning in the New Democratic Megacity.

As we can see from the chapters, the time span examined from 1900 to the present makes this book valuable. More interestingly, the book discovers how the political intrigue of Suharto’s regime dictated the planning process, and how the political revolution triggered by the economic crisis of the late 1990 resulted in a more participatory and inclusionary planning process.

Professor Silver has been researching Indonesia since his first visit to Indonesia in October 1989 and has produced many peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on Indonesia. In addition, he has vast networks with Indonesian planners and scholars. As we can find on the acknowledgements of his book, Professor Silver had been in contact with numerous Indonesian people including Jakarta's most famous governor who just passed away a few days ago, Ali Sadikin, and the incumbent Jakarta's governor, Fauzi Bowo.

The book is carefully researched and provides historically detailed descriptions of the transformed Jakarta. Professor Silver collected and analyzed the information about planning in Jakarta from a wide range of references, including those from Amsterdam and Singapore, and interviews with most of Jakarta’s planning directors and administrators since the late 1960s to the present.

My review on this book has also been published in the Journal of the American Planning Association volume 74 issue 2 (March 2008) as you can find in this link.

Let me provide you with an excerpt of my review of Planning the Megacity: Jakarta in the Twentieth Century, as follows:

I have no doubt that this carefully researched study contributes to the
literature of international planning and planning history. Anyone with a
scholarly interest in the history of planning in Jakarta should read this book;
it can also serve as an excellent source of information in graduate and
undergraduate courses that focus on international planning, particularly in the
Southeast Asia region. It can also be a very useful reference for planners
conducting projects in Jakarta. In sum, I fully agree with Silver that
“[planning in Jakarta] is a history worth understanding and worth telling” (p.
6).

Poor Residents Go Green and Generate Income

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 02:55:00 +0000

Living next the garbage tip - selling plastic, originally uploaded by kentclark333".

On April 4, 2008 The Jakarta Post reported a group of young men from a poor neighborhood in Kampung Toplang, Tegal Alur subdistrict in West Jakarta who recycle piles of garbage and make at least Rp. 1 million a month from their green activity. They built a bamboo hut on the field and make compost out of the organic waste and sort the nonorganic waste to be resold. The following link provides the detailed story about that group young men' s green activity:

The Jakarta Post - Kampung Residents Go Green and Make Money

The green activity of the young men from Kampung Toplang provides evidence that poor people can contribute to sustainable urban development. There are at least two contributions of that green activity for sustainable urban development: recycling the organic waste and the reusable nonorganic waste and alleviating poverty.

Waste disposal and poverty are two among many other urban problems that challenge the sustainability of urban development in Indonesian cities, including Jakarta. Neither waste disposal nor poverty is an small problem to address. Waste disposal becomes a pressing and persistent problem in many cities in Indonesia. For instance, the problem associated with the garbage dumping site in Bantargebang is still ongoing issue for Jakarta and Bekasi administrations. The volume of waste in Jakarta is nearly 28,000 cubic meter per day and it is not easy to address.

Similarly, poverty is a persistent problem in Indonesian cities. The National Socioeconomic Survey reported that there were 14.49 million Indonesian poor in 2006 living in urban areas, meaning they live below the poverty line of Rp. 174,290 per capita per month. These poverty lines are still less than the poverty line determined by the World Bank which is $2.00 a day. In Jakarta, many poor city residents resort to living on canal and river banks and were blamed as the cause of the flood. The poor people were accused of dumping the waste into rivers and cause the flood.

Bantargebang, originally uploaded by Neng Dew.

This post is to applaud the green activity by the young men in Kampung Toplang. Recycling the organic waste to produce compost and reselling the reusable nonorganic waste will significantly reduce the waste volume and improve the environmental quality of poor neighborhoods. Such an activity will also generate income for the poor residents and eventually will alleviate poverty in the neighborhood.

Two other things that I need to emphasize in this case are the role of knowledgeable and committed facilitators in initiating the activity and the importance of the support from other residents that make the activity sustainable. Two of the young men in the neighborhood had been working together advocating on behalf of the city's poor and have the knowledge of running a waste recycling business. Both men were able to convince other men in the neighborhood to iniatiate the recycling business and gain support from other residents to recycle their household waste. Without the initiative of the knowledgeable and committed two young men as the facilitators, the neighborhood would stay environmentally and economically poor.

This is a good example of how a community-based green activity works and addresses environmental problems in the slum neighborhoods. This green activity is also a strong case how poor people can contribute to sustainable urban development. That's why such green activity by the young men from Kampung Toplang should be applauded and replicated in other poor neighborhoods in Indonesian cities.

Decreasing Green Areas in Jakarta

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 23:00:00 +0000

New Style Gas Station, originally uploaded by cyberlucky.

The Jakarta City Council rejected the city parks agency's plan to create green spaces at 29 different gas station sites during final deliberations on the 2008 city budget (The Jakarta Post, March 6, 2008). The proposed budget of Rp. 2.6 billion was slashed by the Jakarta City Council and it is likely to make the city will be unable to meet the target for green areas as many as 13.94 percent of Jakarta's 63,744 hectares by 2010.

In 1965, the green areas made up more than 35 percent of the Jakarta's area and have been shrinking since then. Currently, the green areas in Jakarta account for only 9.3 percent of the area and it is far below the target of 30 percent set by the central government.

Decreasing green areas in Jakarta must be turned around. Green areas are an important urban element that make urban spaces more sustainable and livable. The annual floodings in Jakarta strongly indicate the urgency of green areas in Jakarta. More green areas are needed in Jakarta to absorb rainwater and eventually avert floodings.

Jakarta as the Indonesia's primary growth machine is poised to grow and expand its urban areas. The proportions of green areas in the Jakarta spatial plans decrease from 27.6 percent in the Jakarta spatial plan 1965-1985 to 13.94 percent in the current Jakarta spatial plan 2000-2010. New homes, condominiums, malls, hotels, commercials and office buildings have proliferated in Jakarta in the last three decades. Those new developments converted green areas, decreased water catchment areas and made urban areas more prone to floods.

The conversion of green areas in Jakarta is also the direct impact of poverty and unemployment. Despite a robust economic growth, Jakarta is still a place of poverty and unemployment. Many urban poor resort to living on the banks of rivers. The presence of squatters along the river banks decreases green areas and makes areas more vulnerable to floods.

Due to limited employment opportunities in the formal sector, most people with few skills and little education will end up in the informal sector as they attempt to make a living. Urban spaces for the informal sectors in Jakarta are very limited and it leads the informal sectors to occupy many green areas including city parks.

The gardens, originally uploaded by miganu.

The expansion of green areas in Jakarta is quite a challenge for the city administration because of the growing demand for urban areas to accomodate the economic growth and the presence of squatters and the informal sectors. Nonetheless, the decision of the city council to reject the plan of relocating 29 gas stations should be regretted. The city should not set aside the need of green areas over the importance of gas stations for meeting the needs of the growing number of motorized vehicles.

Not only will the decision halt the expansion of green areas but also promote the use of more motorized vehicles that will increase the carbon dioxide emissions resulted from the burning of vehicle fuels. The decision averts more green areas which are supposed to reabsorb the emission of carbon dioxide from the vehicles. The conversion of gas stations to green areas would also discourage more people to use private vehicles because the location of gas stations are no longer convenient for them. Eventually, more people would shift to public transportation.

The decision by the city council also reflects the unfairness towards poor people and the informal sector. There have been many cases of evictions of urban poor and the informal sectors for the sake of green areas in Jakarta, for example the eviction of the fish and flower traders in Jl. Barito in January 2008 to expand the Ayodia Park. It clearly indicates that the expansion of green areas is more easily implemented through the evictions of poor people and the informal sector than the relocation of gas stations or other formal sector activities.

The expansion of green areas must be implemented to any land uses that are not in compliance with the Jakarta spatial plan. The expansion should not only aim the informal sectors and squatters on the river banks but also any formal sectors that occupy areas designated as green areas in the Jakarta spatial plan including the gas stations. Therefore, the decision made by the Jakarta city council not to relocate gas stations should be revisited.

don't step on me, i want to live, originally uploaded by miunds.

(This article also appeared at The Jakarta Post on March 17, 2008)

In the Aftermath of Annual Floodings

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 19:12:00 +0000

the canals in kota Batavia, originally uploaded by Tom van Breda.

In the aftermath of recent flood, Jakarta Governor met with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and they agreed that the most feasible solution for preventing floods in Jakarta is to expedite the completion of the East Flood Canal project. President Yodhoyono expected the land acquisition for the East Flood Canal project to be completed by 2009 and the project to be finished by 2010.

Such a response is an old way in preventing floods from paralyzing Jakarta in the future. Similar responses were also presented in the wake of the deadly floods that hit Jakarta in 2002 and 2007. The East Flood Canal project was initiated since 1973 but it had been on and off since then. The project stretches for 23.5 kilometers and 100 meters wide and will cut through several of the 13 rivers including Cipinang, Sunter, Buaran, Jatikramat, Cakung, and Blencong rivers towards the sea and pass through 11 neighborhoods in East Jakarta and 2 neighborhoods in North Jakarta.

The East Flood Canal project has progressed very slowly and failed to prevent annual floods in Jakarta. In response to the flood in 2002, the administration of President Megawati Sukarnoputri promised to build the East Flood Canal. Nothing has been done because of the high cost of land. The project requires at least 230 hectares to be purchased.

In the aftermath of last year flood, the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono set up a national flood control task force to expedite the East Flood Canal project and the project was expected to be completed by 2009. The Department of Public Work allocated Rp 2.1 trillion (US$233 million) for the project in 2007 and Rp 6.5 trillion would be disbursed over a three-year period.

As of January 2008, the Indonesian Environmental Forum (WALHI) claimed that the administration has only acquired 30% of the land for the project (The Jakarta Post, January 26, 2008). The East Jakarta Mayor, Koesnan Abdul Halim acknowledged the ongoing disputes with the residents who live in the land for the project that thwarted the attempts to expedite the East Flood Canal project.

Residents in Marunda subdistricts and Cilincing district claim ownership over land the Jakarta administation had purchased and they tried to stop dozens of the project workers. They asserted that they never received any payment from the government for the land they lived in (The Jakarta Post, January 15, 2007). Such disputes will certainly slow down the progress of the East Flood Canal project.

Slum, originally uploaded by Shaolin Tiger.

The exorbitant cost of land is the major reason why the progress of the East Flood Canal project for preventing future flooding in Jakarta is very slow. The East Flood Canal is sought to be most feasible solution for preventing future flooding in Jakarta, but apparently the East Flood Canal is not easy to be materialized. Alternatively, the gradual relocation of the central functions of Jakarta should be pursued to mitigate the impacts of future flooding or even to prevent future flooding.

Jakarta Annual Flooding in February 2008

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:52:00 +0000

DSC01417, originally uploaded by Luis XII.

In February 2007, I wrote a post on flood that hit Jakarta severely, inundated about 70 percent of the city, killed at least 57 people and sent about 450,000 fleeing their homes. The 2007 flood is the worst flood in Jakarta's history. This year, on the same week of the year, flood hit Jakarta again. It clearly indicates that flooding is an annual event in Jakarta!

Fortunately, the extent of this year's flood is less than that of 2007. At least, there are no people killed by the flood. Hours of heavy rains that started Thursday night (January 31, 2008) continued Friday afternoon caused most of main roads in the capital submerged in knee-deep water, bringing traffic to a near standstill. The Traffic Management Center told the Jakarta Post on Friday night that more than 40 locations inundated by water more than one meter high. Thirty seven of 267 subdistricts in Jakarta inundated more than 40 centimeters high. Floodwaters caused public transportation including the busway lines across Jakarta to stop operations, leaving thousands passengers stranded.

One of the major impacts of this year's flood is the inundation of the Sedyatmo toll road leading to the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport which resulted in the cutting off the highway for a few days. Detik.com reported on February 5, 2007 that nearly 1000 flights were delayed or diverted and 259 flights were cancelled. The loss of such delays and cancellations could reach billions rupiah. Seputar-Indonesia.com reported that Tengku Burhanuddin of the INACA (Indonesia National Air Carriers Association) claimed that the loss is about 40 million rupiah for each airplane by being stranded for an hour. The loss would be greater when the flights were diverted to other airports due to the additional costs for the fuel, ground handling, naviation charge, and aiport charge.

In a brief visit to the flooded Sedyatmo toll road, Vice President Yusuf Kalla instructed Jakarta's Governor Fauzi Bowo to install more pumps for drying out the flooded toll road. An upscale neighborhood, not far from the flooded toll road, was not flooded and Vice President Kalla also requested that this issue should be investigated. Minister of Public Works Djoko Kirmanto reported that the project of elevated toll road will be prioritized and it will start as soon as March 2008. He argued that the elevated toll road is the solution to the annually flooded Sedyatmo toll road. Governor Fauzi Bowo also added that his administration will continue to acquire the lands for the Banjir Kanal Timur project. The land acquisition for the project has reached about 72 percent and the Jakarta administration plans to apply the Perpres 36/2005 to acquire the remaining lands. The Banjir Kanal Timur project aims to avert flooding by channeling rivers in Eastern parts of Jakarta including the rivers of Cipinang, Sunter, Buaran, Jatikramat, Cakung, and Blencong to the sea.

In response to this year's flood, Governor Fauzi Bowo set 8 strategic measures including (1) ensure the early warning systems are effective, (2) dredge the river to enable the water flow properly, (3) revitalize the Pluit, Sunter and Riario dams, (4) place mobile water pumps on the Sedyatmo toll roads to anticipate the blackouts, (5) repair the damaged traffic lights, (6) prepare emergency routes for emergency areas, (7) provide shuttle buses to airport, and (8) tell people to remain on alert and follow the existing procedures when they take refuge at crisis center posts.

DSC01412, originally uploaded by Luis XII.

In this year's flood, the poor drainage system was blamed as the primary cause as claimed by Basah Hernowo, the director of forestry and water resource conservation at the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas). As reported by the Jakarta Post, he argued that "parts of the city's micro drainage system is blocked and some canals are not functioning properly." His claim was also supported by Pitoyo Subandrio, the head of the Ciliwung - Cisadane Flood Bureau.

This year's flood is due to the local heavy rainfall and is not combined with the rain in the outskirts of Jakarta. Last year former Governor Sutiyoso blamed the deforestation and overbuilding in neighbouring areas which were supposed to be water catchment areas as the culprit in the flood. This year such blame are not present. However, the threat from neighboring areas to cause severe floods in Jakarta are still present.

The annual floods in Jakarta are strong evidence that Jakarta has not been able to sustainably accommodate its growth. Two centuries ago, the Dutch colonial government, with its long experience of controlling water and drainage systems, built the canal system to protect the city's population which was then 500,000. Jakarta, which lies in the lowland with 43 lakes and 13 rivers, relies on the canal system to prevent flooding. Today Jakarta is a megacity with nearly ten million population within the city's boundary and more than four million population in its neighboring areas, but still relies on the same system to avert flooding. Not only is Jakarta the capital of Indonesia, it is also the economic, commercial, cultural and transportation hub of the nation. Jakarta is the prime city of Indonesia and it dominates the urban system. The population of Jakarta is poised to grow faster than other parts of Indonesia.

The annual floods also demonstrates how the growth in Jakarta confronts private consumption and public investment in infrastructure. The Indonesian economy has growing at a robust pace of 6 per cent a year and Jakarta has been Indonesia's primary growth machine. New homes, commercial and office buildings have proliferated in Jakarta and its neighbouring areas, but hardly any new infrastructures, including the expansion of Jakarta's canal system, have been built in the past 10 years since the economic crisis hit Indonesia in 1997.

Neither improving the drainage system nor dredging the canal and rivers is a sustainable solution for the annual floods in Jakarta. The annual floods are strong evidence that rapid urbanization in Jakarta must be reduced. One way to reduce the rapid urbanisation in Jakarta is to eliminate the pull factor of urbanisation. One major pull factor of urbanisation in Jakarta is its function as economic, commercial, cultural and transportation hub of the nation as well as the capital of the country. Indonesia needs to redistribute the central functions from Jakarta to other parts of the nation and create more urban agglomerations to pull urbanization away from Jakarta. Relocating central functions out of Jakarta will not only make Jakarta more sustainable but also create regional equality in Indonesia.

(This article also appeared at The Jakarta Post on February 9, 2008 and then was linked at Cempaka Development, Construction and Utitilies, the Brunei Times, Development from Disasters Networks and 2Bangkok)

Contribution of Urban Planning for the Bali Action Plan

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 01:29:00 +0000

President of COP12 David Mwiraria steps down, originally uploaded by oxfam international.

Two-weeks of the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali ended in December 16, 2007 and resulted in an agreement to adopt a blueprint for fighting global warming which is called the Bali Action Plan. The agreement contains no binding commitments; it concludes that "the deep cuts in global emissions will be required" and provides a timetable of talks to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

The global warming is primarily caused by the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide which currently has reached 380 parts per million from 280 in the industrial revolution era. The growing carbon dioxide emission resulted from both the burning of fossil fuels and people cooking on firewood will increase the concentration of carbon dioxide to 450 parts per million if rich and poor countries do not together divert from their usual business.

Many studies have been conducted to suggest ways of reducing the concentration of carbon dioxide or the greenhouse gases. One of them is a study released on November 29, 2007 by McKinsey & Company, reported by the New York Times as follows:

[U.S] was brimming with “negative cost opportunities” — potential changes in the
lighting, heating and cooling of buildings, for example, that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels even as they save money... [E]quipment is often paid for by a landlord or a builder and chosen for its low initial cost. The cost of electricity or other fuels to operate the equipment is borne by a tenant or home buyer. That means the landlord or builder has no incentive to spend more upfront for efficient equipment, even though doing so would save a lot of money in the long run.
...[C]onsumers often pay no attention to energy use in choosing gear. Computers, for instance, can be manufactured to use less power, but with most users oblivious to energy efficiency when they are shopping for a computer, manufacturers perceive no
competitive edge in spending the extra money on efficiency.
...[T]he potential is so substantial for energy efficiency,” said Ken Ostrowski, a leader of the report team. “Not that we will do it, but the potential is just staggering here in the U.S. There is a lot of inertia, and a lot of barriers.” The country can do the job with “tested approaches and high-potential emerging technologies,” the study found, but doing the work “will require strong, coordinated, economywide action that begins in the near future.” Measures like capturing carbon dioxide from coal power plants and storing it would be relatively costly, and they account for less than 10 percent of the potential to cut emissions... The potential contributions from new nuclear plants and renewable energy supplies from wind or solar sources are also relatively modest.

GLOBAL WARMING?, originally uploaded by mark_rutley.

What about urban planning? How could urban planners contribute to reduce the greenhouse gases?

Urban areas are a key contributor to the global warming. The carbon dioxide emission are primarily produced from urban activities when fossil fuels are used by transport, industry and households to produce energy. UN Habitat predicted that approximately 80% of the greenhouse gases are resulted from urban activities.

Not only is the increasing greenhouse gases caused by the emission of carbon dioxide, but the decreasing green areas in urban areas, which is supposed to reabsorb carbon dioxide. The existence of green areas in urban areas is needed to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide. This is one way for urban planners to contribute for fighting global warming by advocating more green areas in urban areas.

For a coastal city, the existence of mangroves also needs to be conserved. An Op-Ed in the Jakarta Post by a professor of mangrove ecology at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences provides the rationales of conserving mangroves in Indonesia in connection to reducing global warming, as follows:

Indonesian mangroves grow in areas of high solar radiation and have the ability
to take up fresh water from salt, so they are in an excellent position to achieve high primary productivity... The republic's mangroves are one of the most important parts of the country's estuaries (as a major component of river-basin or river catchment) and a source of conflicts in terms of tropical ecosystems for the direct and indirect benefits it produces.
... The mangrove forest plays many roles including a coastal stabilizer, dispersant of the energy of storms, tidal bores and winds. It is also a convenient nursery area for
fish, shrimp, crabs, mollusks. The role of mangroves in the cycle of nutrients and energy, which makes estuaries among our most important sources of seafood
has been recognized only in recent years... Mangroves along the coasts of Indonesia are vital for global climate changes... The destruction of Indonesian mangroves by mankind, however, is progressing extensively and intensively in a massive manner.
... Conservation of the mangrove ecosystem is a way for "real lasting development. Because the mangrove forest grows at the interface between land and sea, the destruction of this ecosystem causes severe damage to both terrestrial and aquatic neighboring ecosystems... The majority of the world's mangroves lie in Indonesia and Indonesian mangroves contribute 27 percent of the world's mangrove area.

Urban planners also can formulate an accessible, affordable and integrated public transports to reduce the uses of private vehicles. Diverting people from private vehicles to public transport will significantly reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. The use of fuel per passenger per km will significantly less in public transport than that in private vehicles.

Last but not least, urban planners need to discourage suburbanization or urban sprawling. Such phenomenon will only increase the fuel usage. People will drive longer and consume more fuel. Planners need to advocate for a denser or compact city. Such urban type will reduce the trip length and consume less fuel. Planners need to advocate for a self-sustained suburban that needs much less residents' trips to the inner city.

One-hundred work day program of new Jakarta Governor reflects Jakarta's urban problems

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 01:08:00 +0000

amazing, originally uploaded by BESTPHOTO.

It is customary for new elected official in Indonesia to launch 100-days priorities when a newly elected official starts the job as the new Jakarta Governor Fauze Bowo did. His 100 work day program started on October 8, 2007 and will end on January 15, 2008. Mr. Bowo who is also publicly known as Foke asserted that his program represents the society’s need, implement transparently, developing society’s participation, based on law, oriented on the vision, supervised, effective and efficient, and doing professionally.

Governor Bowo's priority programs include:

Mitigating traffic jams caused by the ongoing construction of busway corridors VIII, IX and X
Managing and re-routing traffic
Preparing Mass Rapid Transit project
Improving existing city institutions and issuing related regulations
Mitigating floods
Giving aid to the poor in the form of scholarship, staple foods and health insurance
Providing more regulations, public facilities and easier access for handicapped
Revitalizing Jakarta's slums
Fighting drug abuse
Intensifying communication between the governor and Jakartans

He asserted that his priority programs "will help create a more comfortable Jakarta for everyone". He promised to finalize his priority program within 100 days and added that the programs have also been taken into account in the 2007 revised city budget.

He has able to identified the current and recurring problem of Jakarta which is transportation problem. Firstly, he addressed the traffic problem caused by the ongoing construction of busway lanes and he promised to "expand the streets alongside the busway lane construction and build ramps on busway lanes for motorists temporarily to use them, as well as assigning officers from the public order and city transportation agencies to monitor areas prone to traffic jams."

The governor also promised the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) project stretching 14.3 kilometers from South Jakarta's Lebak Bulus to Central Jakarta's Dukuh Atas would begin by the end of 2007. He asserted that the loan for the project which is expected to cost US$ 910 million has been secured from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. He expected to recruit a company to handle the project by this year, complete the construction in 2012 and operate the MRT in 2014.

Governor Bowo also identified another big problem of Jakarta which is flood. He will focus to finish acquiring land for the East Flood Canal. He asserted that the administration needs to complete the acquisition of 13 hectares of land from residents of North Jakarta's Rorotan and Marunda subdistricts. Micro and macro drainage, flood control pump, and preparing the society on flood area will also be implemented.

city (11)1, originally uploaded by budibudz.

Other major problems of Jakarta such as poverty and slums in Jakarta are also included in the Governor Bowo's priority programs. I frankly commend Governor Bowo for his ability to identify the Jakarta's problems and his commitment to address such problems. However, the lauching of priority programs is just the beginning of the long way to solve Jakarta's problems. Let me cite a commentary piece by Wilmar Salim published by the Jakarta Post on November 3, 2007.

...the root causes of [Jakarta's problems] are centered around population
pressures and environmental deterioration.

... around 111,000 people move from Jakarta to its neighboring cities
annually, as many as 123,000 migrants come to Jakarta every year from other
places in the country... Unfortunately, many people who move from Jakarta to
Bekasi, Tangerang and Depok still need to commute to Jakarta everyday for work.
Traffic jams at notorious bottleneck areas of the inner-city toll road, such as
at Cawang and Tomang, are an everyday phenomenon.

... migrants from other regions are trying their luck in the big smoke.
Many are jobless, homeless, unskilled or uneducated and often end up on the
streets, begging, scavenging, or working casually, and living in slums. Many
probably didn't think of the consequences of moving to a big city before coming
to Jakarta, but the image of the capital city as a place of opportunity may have
persuaded them to come and just try their luck.

Challenges for new officers of the Indonesian Planners Association

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 18:42:00 +0000

The Indonesian Planners Association or Ikatan Ahli Perencanaan (IAP) was founded in 13 April 1971 in Jakarta. The initial name of the organization was Ikatan Ahli Perancang and it was initiated by the first alumni of the Urban and Regional Planning Department of the Bandung Institute of Technology including Djoko Sujarto and Tubagus M. Rais.

The first elected chairman of IAP was Kus Hadinoto and the elected secretary was W.J. Waworontoe. They served from 1971 to 1976. The leaderships of IAP has changed 7 times since then. Following is the leaderships of IAP with their respective period of services:

1976-1982: Tubagus M. Rais (chair) and Syarif Puradimadja (secretary)
1982-1989: Aca Sugandhy (chair) and Hoedyono (secretary)
1989-1994: Sugijanto Soegijoko (chair) and Tatag Wiranto (general secretary)
1994-2000: Bambang Bintoro Soedjito (chair) and Ruchyat Deni DJ (general secretary)
2000-2004: Kemal Taruc (chair) and Nuryasin (general secretary)
2004-2007: Tatag Wiranto (chair) and Agung Mulyana (general secretary)
2007-2010: Iman Soedrajat (chair) and Bernardus Djonoputro (general secretary)

The current leadership was elected on 31 October 2007 in Four Seasons Hotel in Jakarta. The elected chair appointed Jimmy S. Michael as the chair of the Ethic Assembly and Abdul Alim Salam as the chair of the Planning Certification Board.

Prior to the election, IAP held a seminar themed "Enhancing the competence of planning in Indonesia" and the Minister of Public Works -Djoko Kirmanto- gave the keynote speech.

The presence of the Minister of Public Works in the seminar was a sign of visibility of planners in Indonesia. The establishment of the spatial planning law in early 2007 (UU 26/2007 tentang Penataan Ruang) also solidifies the visibility of planners in Indonesia. This law is a good cause for planners to be visible in contributing for making better places in Indonesia.

Unlike previous IAP leaderships, the current IAP leadership has no longer such challenge as the visibility of planner. The visibility of planner has been granted to the current leadership from previous IAP leaderships and particularly from the establishment of the spatial planning law. The challenge of the current IAP leadership is to enhance the competence of planners in making better places and alleviating urban and regional problems in Indonesia.

riverside view, originally uploaded by Dana Riza.

To take a lead in enhancing the competence of planners, IAP should develop itself toward a well-respected organization. IAP should be the voice of planners, dedicated to serving and enhancing the professionalism of its members. The new officers of IAP should address the following questions when they devise their working agenda:

To what extent has IAP voiced the needs, opinions, and aspirations of planners in Indonesia?
To what extent has IAP served and enhanced the professionalism of its members?

The new IAP officers also need to pay attention to the membership. Membership is very important key in developing an organization. Lack of interest from Indonesian planners to join IAP is the big issue that needs to be seriously addressed. IAP should demonstrate that they can voice the needs, opinions, and aspirations of planners in Indonesia and enhance their professionalism. The database of IAP members which is available at IAP website (accessed on November 1, 2007) shows the total number of IAP members was 1,384 and most of them have not renewed their membership yet. As a comparison, the total number of active member of the American Planning Association is 43,000. The new IAP officers need to create a breakthrough to get survived and entice planners in Indonesia to join IAP.

In addition, the current IAP officers should expand the collaboration with all members of planning community including planning academia and planning consulting firms. IAP should continuosly expand their communication and collaboration with the Association of Indonesian Planning Schools (ASPI) and the National Association of Indonesian Consultants (INKINDO) in order to enhance the competence of planners in Indonesia.

Upscale neighborhood residents stand against busway corridor plan

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 01:10:00 +0000

The following link provides a piece of news regarding the resistance of residents of Pondok Indah -an upscale neighborhood in South Jakarta to Jakarta administration's plan to build the Lebak Bulus-Harmony busway corridor through the main thoroughfare in their neighborhood.

The Jakarta Post - The Journal of Indonesia Today

Jl. Metro Pondok Indah, originally uploaded by amen.

The case reveals that the plan of Lebak Bulus-Harmony busway corridor is still premature. It also demonstrates that planning process in Jakarta needs to more involve residents who are directly affected by the plan. Planning as a systematic attempt and actions in the public domain to shape the future is best implemented when all stakeholders including residents are involved.

The planning practice in the 21st century is facing greater challenges than that in the 20th century. Some of the challenges are the complexity of the problems and the elusiveness of solutions to those problems. A better way of shaping the future of the community is no longer primarily based on the sense of order, comprehensibility, predictability and rationality that prevailed in the modernist era. The postmodernist era in the 21st century requires more communicative aspects of planning practice.Recent planning practice requires planners to more actively communicate information and ideas to the many people and stakeholders with whom they interact and receive information and ideas in return.

Let me cite a complaint of a Pondok Indah resident as follows:

"The construction of the busway lane through Jl. Metro Pondok Indah will destroy
the green lanes and the trees ... The construction of the busway passing through
the main street will harm our environment, causing air pollution and traffic
jams."

And here is the response from the head of the traffic management division of Jakarta's transportation agency:

"The median strip was designed to be demolished in the event of work to widen
the road. It was supposed to be temporary in nature ... We will not destroy the
trees. We can replant the trees anyway if we cut them down."

Another Pondok Indah resident responded, "That's impossible. Where do they want to plant them? Up on a mountain? There'll be no space left after the construction." Moreover, several Pondok Indah residents sent an official letter asking for support from the City Council on Monday. The residents suggested two alternatives to the current plan: moving the two-line corridor to Jl. Ciputat Raya, or making the planned corridor terminate at the Blue Mosque at the Pondok Indah Mall cross road. They argued that passengers can use feeder buses to transport them to and from the Lebak Bulus bus terminal.

In response to Pondok Indah residents' alternative plan, the head of the traffic management division of Jakarta's transportation agency argued that feeder buses would not have a large enough capacity to transport passengers from Lebak Bulus. Both lanes of busway corridor VIII will pass through Jl. Metro Pondok Indah and the city administration will start the construction of corridor VIII this month and is aiming to finish by early 2008. Moreover, Governor Sutiyoso asserted that those opposing the busway idea must be the rich and he prioritize the interests of the majority over the minority in Pondok Indah."

Pondok Indah, originally uploaded by amen.

The above story clearly demonstrates the lack of communication between residents who directly affected by the plan and the city authority. Planning practices in the 21st century require more communication between planners and residents. Planners who represent the city authority needs to inject residents' aspiration into the plan. A plan is no longer a product of contemplation, projection or rationality of planner. In the 21st century, a plan must be a collaborative decision-making product of planners and other stakeholders including residents who affected by the plan. A planner needs to reach community, communicate and collaborate with them to produce a credible plan.

Collaborative decision-making process is not an expensive process. In American cities, it is very common to have public meeting in the planning process. There are a variety of ways to invite public to attend public meeting including notices in local newspapers, invitation letter to various stakeholders, fliers and notices in city's website. In most cases, public meeting is held more than once. This is to accomodate heterogeneity of stakeholders' interests and complexity of the planning issue. This is -indeed- a challege for planning practice in Indonesia including in the case of busway corridor plan in Pondok Indah Jakarta. There must be a public hearing as a way for the city authority or planner to communicate the plan to the residents and a way for residents to communicate their input to the city authority or planner. The public hearing will mark the beginning of the process of collaborative decision-making.

A plan should not an imposition from city authority to fellow residents. Instead, a plan should be a way to shape the future that will greatly benefit current and future residents. A plan produced merely from the rationality of planners without collaboration with other stakeholders is a premature product. A credible plan should be the product of a collaborative decision-making process that respects interests of various stakeholders including residents affected by the plan. The plan of Lebak Bulus-Harmony busway corridor that disrespects the interest of residents of Pondok Indah is premature and should be revisited. The city authority and planners should collaborate with residents and other stakeholders to produce more credible plan of busway corridor.

(This article also appeared at The Jakarta Post on September 19, 2007)

Who is Planner? A Challenge for Planning Profession in Indonesia

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 00:22:00 +0000

Hours before sunrise in early January 2005 in Jakarta, originally uploaded by Sebastian Leonard.

A member of the list-serve of Referensi raised a straightforward question: who is planner? He asked such a question in response to his observation that the documents of spatial planning in Indonesia seem to be produced by those with skills of not more than simple math for elementary school students. He found at least ten spatial planning documents showing how the planners project the needs of various urban facilities by only using simple math for elementary school students. He posed subsequent questions: Why do we need planning education if spatial planning can be done by an elementary school student? Can someone with a two-day planning class receive a certificate as planner?

My prompt response to such questions is that planner is not simply to project the future facility needs or land use. There are still tons of works that planner needs to do for shaping the future. Below are the lists of what planners do:

Planners formulate policies to meet the needs of communities including social, economic, and physical needs and they develop the strategies to make these plans work
Planners develop plans for land use patterns, housing needs, parks and recreation facilities, transportation systems, economic development, environmental protection and other aspects of the future
Planners work with the public to develop a vision of the future and to build on that vision
Planners often function as mediator among conflicting community interests; they may also become facilititors using their professional judgment to help identify the best resolutions to the conflict
Planners advise public officials and citizens in shaping the future
Planners design and manage the planning process and attract public to involve in the process.

Can someone with the only skill of simple math for elementary school student do planner's job as mentioned above? Of course not! We need planning education to prepare a to-be-planner with skills that can not be delivered in only a two-day planning class.

Sunrise in early January 2005 in Jakarta, originally uploaded by Sebastian Leonard.

In 1997, ACSP assigned the strategic marketing committee to identify the core of planning identity that clearly distinguishes planning from other disciplines. The committee reveals six themes that anchor planning's identity (Myers, 1997: 223-224):

A focus on improvement of human settlements with:
• emphasis on understanding cities, suburbs, small places, and regions, including processes of physical development and their changing social and economic characteristics; and
• emphasis on making places better serve the needs of people, including solving perceived urban problems.
A focus on interconnections among distinct community facets, incorporating:
• linkages among physical, economic, natural, and social dimensions;
• linkages among sectors, e.g. transportation and land use, housing and economic development, etc.; and
• linkages between public and private enterprises.
A focus on the future and pathways of change over time, encompassing:
• affirmation of community goals and aspirations;
• forecasting probable or feasible paths;
• developing plans to achieve desired futures; and
• understanding historical momentum shaping the present and future.
A focus on identification of the diversity of needs and distributional consequences in human settlements, guided by:
• concern for public well-being;
• monitoring changing population;
• targeting needs of all segments in the population; and
• developing rationales for equitable distribution of community benefits.
A focus on open participation in decision making, including:
• citizen participation;
• stakeholder representation;
• negotiation and mutual compromise among competing interests;
• dispute resolution;
• communication of technical facts in lay terms; and
• recognizing value-centrism embedded in analysis and prescription.
A focus on linking knowledge and collective action, recognizing that:
• planning bridges academic knowledge and professional practice;
• information flows across the bridge both ways, linking the university to the “real world”;
• planning practice is enhanced by infusion of humanities, social science, and technical knowledge; and
• academic knowledge is enhanced by confrontation with experience in practice.

The above planning's identities also reveal how planners differ from other professions. Planner with these identities clearly plays seminal role in shaping the future of human settlements. The skill of projecting the future facility needs or land use is only one of many other skills that a planner is supposed to have. Not only is planners a projector -those who project the future needs- but also is an analyst, a spokesperson, a public advisor, a consensus builder or a collaborator.

We should not bother with the fact that many planners project the future needs by using simple math. A more sophisticated projection with complicated formulas can not guarantee that the projection will result in better plan. Planning as a systematic attempt and actions in the public domain to shape the future is best implemented when all stakeholders are involved. The planning practice in the 21st century is facing greater challenges than that in the 20th century. Some of the challenges are the complexity of the problems and the elusiveness of solutions to those problems. A better way of shaping the future of the community is no longer primarily based on the sense of order, comprehensibility, predictability and rationality that prevailed in the modernist era. Projection of future needs as a technical tool of predictability and rationality only prevailed in the 20th century.

The postmodernist era in the 21st century requires more communicative aspects of planning practice. Innes (1997) identifies the post modern era that is characterized by distrust of government and experts. Recent planning practice requires planners to more actively communicate information and ideas to the many people and stakeholders with whom they interact and receive information and ideas in return. A sophisticated projection method does not really matter in the postmodernist era. What matters is making connections among interests, public agencies, and profession and disciplines, between public and private sector and between government and the public. These are the skills that a planner needs to have to face greater challenges in the 21st century.

References:

Innes, J. (1997). The planners’ century. Journal of Planning Education and Research 16(3): 227-228
Myers, D. (1997). Anchor points for planning’s identification. Journal of Planning Education and Research 16(3): 223-224.

Slum Neighborhood of Penjaringan, North Jakarta

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 01:47:00 +0000

In this post, you will find several photos from the photo exhibition by the residents of slum neighborhood of Penjaringan in early June 2007. The photo exhibition is part of Healthy Places, Prosperous People (HP3) or Lingkungan Sehat Masyarakat Mandiri as I mentioned in the previous post. All photos in this post are available by courtesy of Mercy Corps Indonesia. I would like to thank particularly Bunga Sirait -Urban Communications Coordinator of Mercy Corps Indonesia for providing these photos.

originally uploaded by bungasirait.

Following photo shows a snapshot when the photos were displayed in the slum neighborhood of Penjaringan.

Improving Neighborhood Quality of Slums

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 20:41:00 +0000

Jakarta 2070, originally uploaded by Bram & Vera .

This post is to applaud a program initiated by Mercy Corps Indonesia that aims at improving the neighborhood quality of slums in North Jakarta. The program is called Healthy Places, Prosperous People (HP3) or Lingkungan Sehat Masyarakat Mandiri.

The program is funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and supported by the Urban and Regional Development Institute or (URDI), the USAID-funded Environmental Services Program (ESP), and SwissContact. The program encourages the poor in slums to work closely with the local government in addressing water supply, sanitation and solid waste issues.

On June 14, 2007, the Jakarta Post reported that the residents of North Jakarta's Penjaringan slum exhibited photos of garbage in their community and the children's drawings about the slum environment.

In the exhibit, one of Penjaringan slum residents said, "I took this picture because I want to show other people who usually ignore the garbage collectors. People in my neighborhood don't bother about dumping the garbage in the right place, which is quite far away,"

Such comments show how the program is able to increase his awareness about the environmental problem in his neighborhood. The comments also indicate that he is eager to encourage his neighbors to improve the quality of their neighborhood.

This is a good example of how a community-based program works and addresses environmental problems in the slum neighborhoods. The Mercy Corps Indonesia initiates the program but then let the poor work closely each other to address their problems. The slum residents' willingness to improve their neighborhood is the most important factor of the success of a community-based program in addressing environmental problems in the slum neighborhoods.

The funding from the program without high participation of the slum residents will not effectively address the problem. The funding should be just a trigger to engage the residents in addressing their problem. The program should be designed to encourage the slum residents to actively engage in addressing their problem and then to facilitate their engagement with resources from outside of their neighborhoods. Such program will empower the slum residents and will sustain with empowered slum residents.

Many researchers indicate the importance of residents’ participation in upgrading slum neighborhoods. In many cases of slum upgrading program,officials did not engage with residents and the program was not assuccessful as it might have been. In those cases, the residents did not fully participate in the program and they had little interest in maintaining the new facilities that were built through the program for the residents. Instead, the residents felt that the new facilities had been imposed on them. The residents abandoned the facilities and theneighborhood quality stayed poor. Such program had no impact on the environmental quality and poverty in slum neighborhoods.

Kampung in North Jakarta, originally uploaded by kristineinindonesia.

The HP3 program also initiates a recycling program for organic and non-organic in the slum neighborhoods. The recycling program encourages residents to compost garbage into fertilizer and make bags, pencil cases and other useful objects from used paper and plastic. As reported by the Jakarta Post, another slum resident commented, "I'm very enthusiastic about the recycling program because I can make something useful from the garbage. I hope the garbage will gradually disappear from the area, and our community will no longer be called a slum."

Not only the HP3 program does address the environmental problems in the slum neighborhoods but also generates economic activity in the neighborhoods. Such economic activity will contribute in alleviating poverty in the slum neighborhoods. The improved quality and reduced poverty in the slum neighborhoods will gradually be materialized as the results of the HP3 program. That's why the HP3 program should be applauded and the Mercy Corps Indonesia should be rewarded.

(This post was also linked at The International Development Research Center)

Urban Planning and the Informal Sector in Developing Countries

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Mon, 07 May 2007 18:15:00 +0000

kakilima, originally uploaded by yuna lee.

The following link provides my article appeared at Planetizen in May 2007.

Urban Planning and the Informal Sector in Developing Countries Planetizen

In case of the link is unavailable, below is the article:

Urban planning in developing countries -- particularly in cities with rapid urbanization -- is facing a problem with the informal sector. The businesses that comprise the informal sector, typically operating on streets and in other public places, are often seen as eye-sores and undesirable activities. Thus, conflicts arise between urban authorities trying to keep their cities clean and the urban informal sector operators who need space for their activities.

In many cases, authorities forcibly evict informal sector activities in the name of urban order and cleanliness. Yet, such eviction does not address the problem with the informal sector. It only relocates the problem and even exaggerates the conflicts between urban authorities and the informal sectors. Often many operators return to their places a few days after being evicted by the urban authorities.

Should urban planning accommodate the informal sector? Prior to the 1970s, there was no attention paid to economic activities carried out outside the formal economy. However, a few studies of developing countries began to explore the role of the informal sector, and the concept gained attention after a report by the International Labor Organization in the early 1970s.

Almost 40 years later, it’s difficult to ignore the importance of the informal sector in many cities, particularly in developing countries.

In many developing countries in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and Asia, the informal sector accounts for most of the total employment. For example, the informal sector in Indonesia in 2004 accounted for 64 per cent of the total employment. The proportion of informal sector employment in urban areas was even higher during the economic crisis in the late 1990s when the closure of many manufacturing and service corporations pushed the newly unemployed into informal sector.

The growth of the urban informal sector is also nourished by the influx of migrants from rural regions surrounding urban agglomerations in search of work. With the formal sector unable to accommodate such large numbers of workers, the informal sector becomes the primary source of employment. Without the economic opportunities generated by such activities, the poor would certainly become a larger burden for the urban authorities.

Two peddlers, originally uploaded by Ikhlasul Amal.

It’s also important to note that the informal sector is not only the domain of the urban poor. Many middle-class people in urban areas in developing countries greatly benefit from economic activities carried out outside the formal sectors.

The continuing study of urban informality has also revealed the important role of the informal sector in the process of urbanization. By linking various economic activities and urban spaces, the informal sector serves as a mode for urban transformation for many places. These findings seem to point to a need for new urban theories that can fully explain the phenomenon of urban informality in cities -- something mostly absent from urban theories such the urban ecology of the Chicago School and post-modern urbanism of the Los Angeles School, which are both rooted from cities in developed countries.

Yet, understanding the positive impact of the informal sector, many planners and officials still worry about the resulting urban blight. However, from urban environmental perspective, many of the problems associated with the informal sector are not attributes inherent to the informal sector but manifestations of unresponsive urban planning itself. The provision of spaces to informal sectors is an effective measure to reduce the environmental problems associated with such activities.

Accommodating – maybe even welcoming - the informal sectors in urban spaces will not only reduce the conflict between urban authorities and the informal sector, but also reduce the environmental problems associated, and eventually accelerate urban transformation and increase the quality of life in many developing urban areas.

Deden Rukmana, PhD is an assistant professor of Urban Studies at Savannah State University.

(This post was also linked at Placemaking in Space and was cited at The Orange Commune)

Thugs and Street Vendors in Jakarta

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Sat, 05 May 2007 03:13:00 +0000

street vendor, originally uploaded by tama-chan.

The street vendors are commonly found in Jakarta and other cities in developing countries. They are informal sector and an important part of the economy of the city. The informal sector in Indonesia in 2004 accounted for 64 per cent of the total employment. The proportion of informal sector in urban areas was even higher during the economic crisis in the late 1990s when the closure of many manufacturing and service corporations pushed the newly unemployed into informal sector.

Increasing informal labor force is a distinctive characteristic of Jakarta and other cities in Indonesia since sector formal can not accommodate the large number of labor force. The informal sector is not only associated with the poor people but also with the middle-class people. Many middle-class people in urban areas in Jakarta greatly benefit from economic activities carried out outside the formal sectors.

Despite the contribution of the street vendors to the economy of the city, the existence of the street vendors are often seen as eye-sores and undesirable activities. There were a lot of conflicts between urban authorities who were trying to keep their cities clean and the street vendors who need space for their activities. In many cases, the urban authorities forcibly evicted the street vendors in the name of urban order and cleanliness.

The street vendors need to play hide and seek with the authorities. In many cases, they can hide from the authorities by paying illegal levies to the thugs who regularly trawl the street vendors. The authorities should have known such illegal levies but they never touch the thugs.

Following is an excerpt from the Jakarta Post that reported the practice of illegal levies between thugs and street vendors in Jakarta:

Nurbani (not her real name), who has been a footwear vendor since 2004, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday (May 2, 2007) that she was forced to pay Rp 3,000 (US 30 cents) a day and an additional Rp 20,000 (US$ 2.20) a month to a group that calls itself the Kebayoran Lama Market Association. "They use scare tactics like sending drunkards over to non-compliant traders. As a woman fearing for her safety, I have no choice but to meet their demands whatever the amount is," she said, adding that the market authority did nothing to help.

Fruit-seller couple Junaedi and Sriyani, who started their roadside kiosk in 1982, said they have been paying illegal levies -- which are claimed to be security and cleaning fees -- to the thugs who regularly trawl the market since they first set up their stall. They pay between Rp 500 and Rp 1,000 per day.

Daleman, an official from the PD Pasar Jaya city market authority, said the authority's jurisdiction did not cover the area where the alleged extortion took place. Azas Tigor Nainggolan, chairman of the Jakarta Residents' Forum (Fakta), told the Post the extortion was a well-organized affair. He also alleged the market authority may be involved.

"The police need to intervene and be firm in arresting thugs, but so far they've been quiet on the matter," he said. A police officer assigned to the Kebayoran Lama market police post said he was unaware of any extortion schemes or gangs operating in the area. "As far as I know, the market is safe and there's nothing to be afraid of," he said

This is only one of many other point of views of the complexity of managing informal sector in Jakarta. The informal sector plays an important role in the economy of the city but their existence is often seen as enemy of the city. Rather than receiving assistance and protection from the authorities, the informal sectors were exploited and evicted.

Kaki Lima... after Jum'atan, originally uploaded by Ichang.

(A modified version of this post appeared at The Jakarta Post on May 14, 2007 and then was linked at Transparency International Indonesia)

Jakarta's Vulnerability to Global Warming

rukmanad@savannahstate.edu (Deden Rukmana) — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 00:06:00 +0000

Floods in Jakarta, originally uploaded by cintafoto.

On April 6, 2007, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change presented a new report on global warming. The 1,572 page report was prepared by more than 200 scientists, and a 21-page summary was endorsed by officials from more than 120 countries. The world is irrefutably warming and the panel predicted a rise of 1 to 3 degrees Celsius over the next century that could lead to the inundation of coasts and islands inhabited by millions of people all over the world including Jakarta.

Sea-level rise is not the only threat to the vulnerability of Jakarta due to the climate change. February's floods in Jakarta which inundated more than 70 percent of Jakarta and sent about 450,000 fleeing their homes is strong evidence that torrential rain could be a serious threat for Jakarta. Bigger storms make Jakarta which lies in the lowlands, near the sea, and is crossed by 13 rivers flowing down from the south even more vulnerable.

The vulnerability of Jakarta would be even worse if the exploitation of groundwater in Jakarta and the conversion of water catchment areas into urban ones in Jakarta's peripheral areas could not be reduced. Both factors contribute to the land subsidence in Jakarta that has happened in many years. The land subsidence in Jakarta was first identified by researchers when the Sarinah bridge at Jalan M.H. Thamrin was found cracked in 1978 (Djaja, et. al., 2004). Since then, the measurement of land subsidence in Jakarta has been conducted and the rate of land subsidence in Jakarta has been increasing over years particularly in the northern part of the city.

Floods in Ciledug, Jakarta, originally uploaded by sri nanang setiyono.

The Jakarta Mining Agency reported the land subsidence in Jakarta varied by the region over twelve years period from 1993 to 2005. The largest rate of land subsidence occurred in Central Jakarta. It was reported that the height of Central Jakarta above sea level was 3.42 meter in 1993 and it dropped by 102 cm in 2005. The height of North Jakarta was only 1.46 meter above sea level in 2005 and it dropped from 2.03 meter in 1993. During the same period, West Jakarta, East Jakarta and South Jakarta have also sink by 2.11, 11.45, and 28.46 cm respectively. A detailed table of land subsidence in Jakarta can be found in this link.

According to the Jakarta Mining Agency, the main causes of the land subsidence in Jakarta include the construction of new building particularly high-rise building and water usage. Due to limited piped water supply, the majority of Jakarta population rely on groundwater for their water needs. The Jakarta Mining Agency estimated that about 66,000 gallons of water were extracted from the Jakarta's aquifer every year. Such intensive groundwater withdrawal accelerates the land subsidence in Jakarta.

The land subsidence in Jakarta was exacerbated by the decreasing water catchment areas both in Jakarta and the outskirts of Jakarta. The decreasing water catchment areas will reduce the volume of water that sink into the ground for recharging the groundwater. The mismatch between the intensive groundwater withdrawal and recharge of groundwater is the major cause of land subsidence.

Jakarta is one of many other coastal cities in the world that needs to adapt to survive from the global warming. Some major coastal cities have taken action to mitigate the impact of sea-level rise. Most commonly used action is building hard structure such as dikes and sea walls such as in the Netherland, London and Beijing. The Netherlands is preparing to raise the North Sea defenses from 1-in-10,000 to 1-in-100,000 years level of protection. London has also preparing to add 12 inches of protection on top of the existing floodgates to keep ocean-storm surges from flooding the city.

Jakarta needs not only to protect the city from sea-level rise but also from the land subsidence. In addition to building dikes and sea walls, Jakarta needs to reduce significantly the use of groundwater as water main source for the residents. As many water reservoirs as possible need to be built to conserve the groundwater. The conversion of land use in water catchment areas also need to be prevented. The water catchment areas should be protected. Such protection will allow more water to sink into the ground and recharge the groundwater. Reducing the use of groundwater and protecting water catchment areas will decelerate the land subsidence and decrease the vulnerability of Jakarta.

Reference:
Djaja, R., Rais, J., Abidin, H.Z., and Wedyanto, K. (2004). Land Subsidence of Jakarta Metropolitan Area. A paper presented at the Third FIG Regional Conference in Jakarta, October 3-7, 2004

(This article also appeared at The Jakarta Post on April 28, 2007 and then was linked at Planetmole and Environment-Indonesia)