6 Comments on “Urbanization and Slums”

1. Ross says:
   April 7th, 2010 at 9:46 pm

   Interesting topic, Patung, and must agree with the guy who say they won’t leave the Shining City on the Ciliwung! More will come, because, like London, it’s the capital, where work can be found, and more fun is thought to be had.

   Fuzzy Bow-Wow could always try to build Welwyn Garden City equivalents, and we can see from Tangerang’s Karawaci that there is scope for this, but here…hard to say.

   It might be that the rising middle-class will seek to bale out and leave the core to the poor. A shame, and again we have all these outrageously priced high flats in the city centre, but are they not heavily under-occupied, precisely due to the inflated rents demanded?
   We took a look at one tiny cupboard of an apartment, over 2 million a month, when a decent little house in a safe enough West jakarta area is under that.
   Just a few random thoughts, before old ‘Dry-as-Dust’ Brand gets in on it, as he appears to think he knows everything about everything!

2. deta says:
   April 8th, 2010 at 10:37 am

   It’s a kind of weird – but sensible – approach to solve environmental problems. Welcoming people to move to the city because it’s cheaper and more efficient than managing people who live in scattered areas? Taking the pessimistic side, I have a doubt if it can be a solution for the problem of urban-rural living in Indonesia. At least not in this short period of time.

   Welcoming people in big cities without first facilitating the infrastructures, creating job opportunities, excellent city planning, and good environmental management to maintain the environment both in the urban areas as the destination and the rural areas left by the people, are just like welcoming disaster to the country. How can the human resources be ready for this big challenge while they can barely manage the simpler rubbish and flood problems?

   Fuzzy bow-wow….. ya, he needs to use more fuzzy logic in doing his job.

3. David says:
   April 9th, 2010 at 9:04 am

   Welcoming people in big cities without first facilitating the infrastructures, creating job opportunities, excellent city planning, and good environmental management to maintain the environment both in the urban areas as the destination and the rural areas left by the people, are just like welcoming disaster to the country. How can the human resources be ready for this big challenge while they can barely manage the simpler rubbish and flood problems?

   Yes good points. The article I linked to suggests this to meet some of your reservations, it’s actually talking about ‘squatter cities’ like in Bombay, India:

   The magic of squatter cities is that they are improved steadily and gradually by their residents. To a planner’s eye, these cities look chaotic. I trained as a biologist and to my eye, they look organic. Squatter cities are also unexpectedly green. They have maximum density—1m people per square mile in some areas of Mumbai—and have minimum energy and material use. People get around by foot, bicycle, rickshaw, or the universal shared taxi.

4. ET says:
   April 9th, 2010 at 11:46 am

   The magic of squatter cities is that they are improved steadily and gradually by their residents. To a planner’s eye, these cities look chaotic. I trained as a biologist and to my eye, they look organic. Squatter cities are also unexpectedly green. They have maximum density—1m people per square mile in some areas of Mumbai—and have minimum energy and material use. People get around by foot, bicycle, rickshaw, or the universal shared taxi.

   It very much depends on individuals and natural born leaders like in the slums of Mumbay, which got a lot of attention after the film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. But it could also turn out the other way when criminal gangs take over and turn parts of the cities into ghettos where nobody goes in or out without their permission, like the favelas of Brazil.

5. deta says:
   April 9th, 2010 at 12:03 pm

   The article I linked to suggests this to meet some of your reservations, it’s actually talking about ’squatter cities’ like in Bombay, India

   I see…. Instead of doing slum clearance, they do slum up-grading.

   But it could also turn out the other way when criminal gangs take over and turn parts of the cities into ghettos where nobody goes in or out without their permission, like the favelas of Brazil.

   Even with the possibility of that worst case scenario people will still likely to take the risk of living in slum area as there is a trade off between poor living quality and close proximity to jobs and other supply of urban service. So it’s inevitable even in Indonesia, or Jakarta, to be precise.

6. Winmar says:
   April 25th, 2010 at 10:47 am

   Welcoming people in big cities without first facilitating the infrastructures, creating job opportunities, excellent city planning, and good environmental management to maintain the environment both in the urban areas as the destination and the rural areas left by the people, are just like welcoming disaster to the country.

   Jakarta appears to have none of the things you mentioned, deta, so disaster awaits! People have been moving from villages to Jakarta to find work for a long time, and it’s increasingly happening in Bandung as well (and probably elsewhere).

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