LA LUCIA RIDGE AND UMHLANGA RIDGE
CHAPTER 5 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF QUESTIONNAIRES
5.6. QUESTION 6: OFFICE LOCATION FACTORS
Page | 150 When asked whether their perception of the Central Business District would change if it was referred to as the “Central Activity District”, 71% of the respondents said that it would not change their perception. Their main comments were “It is just a name – labels make no real difference” and “Activity implies leisure pursuits – something the respondents would not associate with the CBD.”
25% of the respondents said that it would change their perspective of the Central Business District. Their main comments were “I would assume that it would be busy all the time with not only business activity happening, but also social activity” and “It sounds like an exciting social space.”
When asked whether they thought spreading economic opportunities throughout the city, including the creation of new economic nodes in previously disadvantaged areas, would benefit both businesses and local residents, 79% of the respondents said that it would. Their comments were “People would then live where they work”, “It is a sustainable and more economically viable plan for setting out a city to ensure a happier and more profitable population” and “Businesses would be happier because their employees would no longer be late for work resulting in increased productivity.”
The 17% who did not think it would be beneficial to both businesses and local residents had the following comments: It is all about perception. Townships would still be considered ‘unsafe’ areas; Safety reasons and distances into some of the rural areas; and they (previously disadvantaged) would not use them and will probably vandalise them.
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• Reasonably central for staff
• Face-to-face contact with clients / related companies / accountants / banks The following are the reasons given by directors for why they chose to move their offices from the Central Business District to a decentralised location:
• Traffic in the CBD
• Safety of staff, especially after hours
• Crime and grime
• Pursuing a more relaxed workplace
• There was no longer the need for close proximity to other companies – telephones / internet / email
The directors were asked if they would consider moving their offices to a new
economic node in a previously disadvantaged area. 100% of directors said they would not consider moving their offices to new economic nodes in previously disadvantaged areas. The following were their reasons:
• My location needs to be central to, and have easy and timely access to the harbour and customs.
• Concerned about crime in previously disadvantaged areas
• It would be a hostile environment for a company which has been around since before Apartheid fell.
5.6.2. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
From the analysis it can be seen that company directors chose to have their offices in the Central Business District for differing reasons. For some their proximity to the harbour was important whilst for others face to face contact with clients, allied companies, accountants and banks were most important.
The reasons for moving their offices from the Central Business District to a decentralised location were to escape the traffic, crime and grime and to pursue a more relaxed work place.
When asked whether they would consider moving their offices to a new economic node in a previously disadvantaged area, the directors said that the location would not suit the needs of their company, crime would be of concern, and it would be a hostile environment for a company which has been around since before the fall of Apartheid.
Page | 152 CHAPTER 6 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Realising that office decentralisation had, in fact, occurred in South African cities, the author set out to show whether the new decentralised nodes were in locations which were beneficial to all city dwellers.
In terms of city planning, the South African context is unique due to its history of Apartheid whereby cities were designed to impede movement between residential areas, and to disadvantage the majority of the population by placing them in townships far from economic opportunities. This issue is the primary reason the author chose to research this topic.
According to Systems Theory, George Chadwick said that a system is a set of objects, together with relationships between the objects and between their attributes. Objects are the components of the system, attributes are the properties of objects, and the relationships between the objects make the system useful. Although the relation of this theory to office decentralisation is discussed in the summary of section 2.1.3, it is easy to see how this relates to office decentralisation and the
functioning of a city with multiple centres: all decentralised centres need to be linked with each other in order for the city to function as a single system.
Kevin Lynch says that there is a public image of any city, and this image is the juxtaposition of many images which are experienced by the observer. These images take on many different forms, each with their own symbolic meaning. Lynch identifies the elements as: paths; edges; districts; nodes; and landmarks. The significant elements to this research are paths (these are routes through the city, connecting its various parts), edges (relating to Apartheid planning, people were disadvantaged by physical and natural barriers), districts (areas with a common, recognisable activity, such as a Central Business District), and nodes (strategically placed points in a city, which can be districts, a train station, a building, a park, etc.)
Kevin Lynch speaks of urban form typologies. The Linear Form, the Linkage System, the Radial System and the Grid System. These are discussed in detail in section 2.2.2, but their significance in this research is that they form clues of how to analyse existing cities, and predict where decentralised office nodes may occur. They also give options for future design considerations in urban schemes, for example the Radial System may illustrate a means of linking the decentralised nodes in South African cities. This would also illustrate how Systems Theory can work in city planning, whereby it is the relationship between the centres which make the whole system useful.
Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City concept was discussed because it was the first act of decentralised planning, albeit residential. It was also discussed in order to introduce the Modernist view of city planning because the latter was informed by the former because it suggested zoning laws within cities.
Page | 153 Apartheid cities were developed around Modernist planning, but this view of planning was distorted to suit political agendas. This planning involved an overriding concern with separation of activities and income groups. It is clear how this was distorted by Apartheid planners when they placed black people on the edges of cities with barriers preventing them from accessing the white areas which were closer to economic opportunities. Because of this, Apartheid cities can be seen as “doughnuts,” with the greatest population density located on the edges of the city. These township areas were, and still are, greatly underserviced. Living standards in these areas are still much lower than the white areas within the city. There are limited economic opportunities in townships whereas there are many new economic developments still appearing in wealthy suburbs.
Apartheid cities were spatially fragmented which resulted in exaggerated distances over which people needed to move to get from place to place. In order to achieve this, planners used limited access freeways and railways as “urban umbilical cords” to ensure fast movement within the city. Due to this vast distance, Apartheid cities are pedestrian unfriendly.
The decentralisation in cities in general was governed by the invention of different modes of transport. Trains and streetcars (Light Rail) induced a star-shaped city form whereby development occurred along the railway lines. Upon the introduction of the private vehicle, cities became much more random and less organised, which brought with it congestion.
In order to understand office decentralisation, we need to understand suburbanisation. Residential suburbs were marketed by developers as a good investment to own one’s home, and the clean air and quiet away from the city centre is what all members of society should strive for. Also, it gave the opportunity for individualism.
In terms of office decentralisation, it was inevitable that companies would move closer to residential areas as low density development began to cover great geographical areas. People began wanting to live closer to their places of work. Also, technology and transportation has evolved so that it enables companies to be physically further apart.
The following are reasons companies choose to leave the former Central Business District:
congestion, crime, cost of land, the need to expand, changing social and political circumstances, building a corporate identity and pursuing a more relaxed working environment.
Some cities have policies for employment decentralisation. As seen in section 2.5.5, the following are strategies for employment decentralisation: relocation of existing business, incremental job creation, encouraging growth of businesses not located in a centralised node, encouraging new businesses, attracting international investments, and deconcentration of land use for political reasons.
Page | 154 There are some dangers in decentralising cities. The main one is that political and managerial
attention may be diverted from pressing issues in the former Central Business District. Also, new nodes have appeared in wealthy residential areas which disadvantage the majority of the public in South Africa’s case because movement between residential areas was impeded by Apartheid design.
Johannesburg, Lagos and Melbourne were looked at as precedent studies. They were looked at in terms of their background, challenges they face and solutions they have come up with in order to resolve their urban problems. The following are their solutions:
• Fast Rail Link
• Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)
• Light Rail Transit (LRT)
• Densification along existing major routes to improve public transport efficiency
• Referring to the Central Business District as the “Central Activities District”
Chapter 4 looks at Durban as a case study, and also discussed the city in terms of background and the urban problems it faces. A major problem Durban faces with its decentralised office nodes is that they are only accessible by road transport. The train system that currently exists only links the townships to the Central Business District (CBD), and no other office district. This train service is the only mass public transport system in the eThekwini Municipality and is in direct competition with the mini-bus taxi industry and bus companies, which add many vehicles to the roads.
It was found that train schedules are very easy to come by on the internet, although there is very little information available at stations, but the only bus schedule that is easy to find is the People Mover Bus which only operates within the CBD. The other city bus schedules are difficult to come by. Mini- bus taxis form a large portion of public transport used in the city, but this service does not have any time schedule.
It can be seen by this that the city is strangled by the lack of an easy-to-use public transport system, whilst the only easy-to-use modes are the train and People Mover Bus systems, but these do not move between decentralised office nodes – which the author considers to be a very pressing issue.
Page | 155 CHAPTER 7 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS