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urban challenges
Vanessa Watson of the School of Architecture, Planning
and Geomatics, the Healthy Cities CityLab’s preliminary
findings confirm that there is a strong, but complex
relationship between neighbourhood environments and
the health and well-being of residents.
For instance, the use of space in Khayelitsha is strongly
determined by fear of crime. A typical comment made by
one of the participants in the study was, “I prefer to stay
in my house at all times, with the doors and burglar gate
locked. I trust no one”.
Other participants, who did not live in proper houses
or have adequate access to services, highlighted the
importance of providing these, through participatory
upgrading processes that minimise the need for relocation.
“Good houses make good people,” says one, indicating
that a change in the physical environment could help to
effect a change in the social environment.
“The main implication of this complexity is that social issues
need to be central in processes to guide the physical
creation and management of the urban environment”, says
Professor Watson. “Participatory processes are essential,
so that people’s real needs can be adequately met.”
It is crucial to ensure that policy makers are aware of key
health issues such as health inequity levels and how the
physical urban environment contributes to this, and how
interventions that would not necessarily involve more
expenditure – just a different distribution of expenditure –
can contribute to improving health and well-being for all.
So, explains Professor Watson, the comments of
respondents suggest that attempts to make streets
and public spaces safer for walking, playing and other
outdoor activity in the physical urban environment
will be beneficial. Possible interventions identified by
the study include upgrading pavements and public
spaces, improving street lighting (and ensuring that
criminals cannot disconnect street lighting, as currently
seems to be the case), and ensuring that there is a
range of appropriate and accessible public spaces for
recreation.
Reducing the risk of violent crime through street patterns
and urban designs would facilitate the creation of
defensible spaces, and address high levels of fear of
violent crime. Reducing traffic injuries through appropriate
traffic calming measures and the provision of more
appropriate pedestrian routes is also needed.
Keeping things moving
Much of this overlaps with the concerns of another
multi-disciplinary research and postgraduate teaching
body based in the Faculty of Engineering & the Built
Urban Policy
Professor Edgar Pieterse holds
a PhD from the London School
of Economics, a master’s degree
in Development Studies from the
Institute of Social Studies (The
Hague) and BA (Hons) from the
University of the Western Cape. He
is the holder of the SARChI Chair
in Urban Policy and directs the
African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape
Town. His research is wide-ranging, covering themes
such as African urbanism, cultural planning, regional
development, governance, and macro development
issues. He is a founder member of the Isandla
Institute, serves on the boards of Magnet Theatre, the
Sustainability Institute, and the Cape Town Partnership.
He regularly provides advisory services to international
development agencies such as: UN-Habitat, the
African Development Bank, the Development Bank
of SA, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation,
the Development Territorial Division, and the UN
Environment Programme, among others. Recently,
Professor Pieterse was asked to serve on an
international advisory committee for Cooper-Hewitt,
the National Design Museum curating an international
exhibition, Critical Mass: Design and Urbanisation.
DST/NRF SARChI
Chairs associated with this theme
“Participatory processes are essential,
so that people’s real needs can be
adequately met.”
“Reducing the risk of violent crime
through street patterns and urban
designs would facilitate the creation
of defensible spaces, and address
high levels of fear of violent crime.”