Cape Town’s successes and challenges in creating a dynamic downtown district earned international exposure last month with the participation of the Cape Town Central City Improvement District (CCID) in the prestigious 2019 World Towns Leadership Summit in Tokyo.
Reimagining and reinventing public spaces to create dynamic cities was a key theme of the summit, held from 13 to 16 May in the Japanese capital.
CCID CEO Tasso Evangelinos joined delegates from metropolitan centres around the world in sharing insights and ideas on developing inclusive public spaces, community empowerment, innovation, and social change as a driver of regional growth. Delegates visited key projects in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto.
The Tokyo summit was organised by the International Downtown Association (IDA), the premier association of urban place managers who are shaping and activating dynamic downtown districts through business improvement districts (BIDs), as they are known overseas, or city improvement districts (CIDs) in South Africa. Japan is the latest country to join the IDA.
ROBUST PLATFORM
Tasso noted that, like all World Towns Leadership Summits, this year’s gathering was robust and provided a platform to showcase the Cape Town Central City and the work of the CCID.
“The summit was very insightful,” Tasso explained. “It was interesting to discover that when it comes to managing their CBDs, Japan’s challenges aren’t operational like ours. Their focus is on ensuring their cultural heritage and authenticity isn’t lost as they continue to develop their cities. We shared knowledge and looked at their plans, with four focus areas being placemaking, inclusive development, looking at what other countries are doing, and what Japan is doing when it comes placemaking.”
REIMAGINING PUBLIC SPACES
The concept of “placemaking” in creating vibrant, effective and inclusive central city districts is defined as the process of inspiring people to collectively reimagine and reinvent public spaces as the heart of every community, emphasising the connection between people and the places they share.
Tasso said of his first experience of Japan that “everything takes your breath away”. “I can’t compare it to any other country I have ever visited. Everything is service orientated; they take pride in what they do, are very organised and will do everything they can to help you.”
Tasso experienced first-hand a telling instance of the service ethos and honesty of Japanese society, when, having been dropped off at his hotel, he was surprised to see the cab driver rushing over to him. “He’d found a 20c piece I’d unwittingly dropped in the taxi when paying my standard fare, and he was anxious to return it to me.”
IMAGES: Tasso Evangelinos (CEO Cape Town CCID)