PUBLIC SPACE

UCLG Think piece

Written by :
Pietro Garau
UCLG Committee on Urban
Strategic Planning
Photo : Mysore, India

FOREWORD

The UCLG Committee on Urban Strategic Planning herewith wants to share Public
Space: a Strategy for Achieving the Equitable City written by Pietro Garau. Pietro is the
international curator of the Biennial of Public Space, INU project leader for the INU/
UN-Habitat partnership on public space and co-lead of the Habitat III policy unit on
Urban Spatial Strategies, land markets and segregation.

The global Urban Sustainable Development Goal no 11 has a target 11.7 on public
space: by 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible green and
public space, in particular for women and children, older persons and persons with
disabilities”.

Vis-à-vis the implementation of this SDG, we must stop looking at public space as
merely a land use application and instead advocate for its recognition as a cross-
cutting issue of a global relevance. We aim at making public space seen as a public
service by local governments and as a place where we can all exercise our shared right
to the city. The sustainable management of public space can only be entrusted by the
entity that responds directly to its citizens and delivers goods and services for all: local
government.

We will encourage our leaders to tell their stories, articulate polices and participate
in learning and networking activities on public space, in order to both reshape cities
and improve the citizens’ quality of life. For the past two years, UCLG has also been
associated to the United Nations Habitat work programme on public space. We will
continue future cooperation on public space with UN-Habitat, the initiative of the
European Prize for Urban Public Space, the Biennial of Public Space and initiatives of
all regions reminding the relevance of public space in local and international agendas.

The following note was delivered as a keynote address, during a Peer Learning
Exchange on Public Space in Durban, South Africa, in 2014 and we would like to make
it available to a global and greater audience, as it expresses common values with the
UCLG. Pietro Garau argues that public space is important if we want to achieve the
equitable city and thus, urban strategies should be public space centred. As public
space, in its various forms and functions, covers sometimes over fifty per cent of the
total area of our cities, it is crucial to focus on public space in order to achieve the
“equitable city”.

We wish you a good and inspiring reading!

The UCLG Committee on Urban Strategic Planning

 PUBLIC SPACE: A STRATEGY FOR
ACHIEVING THE EQUITABLE CITY
By Pietro Garau

Summary

The concept of inequality, introduced by the social sciences, has been gaining
increased attention since leading economists (e.g. Lansley, 2012; Stiglitz, 2013)
demonstrated the positive relationship between equity and economic growth.
In addition, environmental awareness increases once employment levels rise,
basic needs are satisfied and educational levels improved. We also know that in an
increasingly urbanised world, our planet’s livability would be determined by what
happens in cities. Therefore, equity in our cities can be considered a fundamental
driver of sustainable development.

This note argues that equity, besides being a powerful driver of sustainability, is also
a fundamental goal in itself; and that a good way of achieving the “equitable city” is
to adopt a public space centered urban strategy. One of the many reasons for this
is that public space is where all citizens, regardless of their income and personal
circumstances, can feel equal and cared for. Unfortunately, the quality and supply of
public spaces vary dramatically among cities and within most cities.

This can inspire positive opportunities for a new style of urban governance based on
public space as an organizing principle for urban form and wellbeing. This new urban
governance can be nurtured and supported by a host of useful tools. Among them
are city-wide surveys of public space supply, quality and distribution to determine
priority areas and sectors of intervention; city-wide urban plans with a clear focus on
public space; advance public purchase of land for future urban development reserving
fair shares of public space for various uses; mechanisms for land an building-rights
tradeoffs; maintenance-oriented design; encouragement of temporary public-space
uses of idle land; participation of citizens in all aspects of public space development such
as planning, design, resourcing, maintenance and enjoyment (the ”citifier” concept);
mobilization of resources through fair and efficient taxation of private property and
capture of unearned land-value increment due to public investment; incentives for
private sector involvement in public space development and management.
1
PUBLIC SPACE &
THE EQUITABLE CITY

Blantyre, Malawi
 The Concept of Equity

“Equity” has become a very popular notion. Much has also been said and written
about its correct interpretation and its relationship to similar concepts, such as
“social justice” and “equality. It is only a sign of the times we live in that “equity”
can be “the value of an ownership interest in property, including shareholders’
equity in a business”, as well as something expressing the concept of “fairness”.
The latter was, of course, the meaning that inspired the 2014 World Urban Forum
held in Medellin, Colombia, to adopt equity as its main theme. At the Forum public
space was also accorded a notable level of attention. It will be useful, therefore, to
explore the issue of the relationship between equity and public space.

The germane concept of “Equality” is a stronger, more definitive, unequivocal

term: we are “equal”, and not “equitable”, in front of the law (but laws should be
“equitable”, and not “equal”). “Gender equality” basically means that we should
all have the same rights and opportunities, irrespective of gender. “Equal” is
“equal” – there can be no confusion about it.

“Equitable” is a more difficult,

In public spaces we are nuance-ridden concept. We can say
all equal, in the sense an agreement should be “equitable”,
in the sense that it should be fair to
that we can all exercise
both parties. But who is to decide the
our shared right to the degree of this fairness, and what is
city without having to fair to each of the parties?
display our social status
nor our ability to spend Yet, if we speak of cities, the term
“equal city” becomes void of sense ,
money. But public spaces
while “Equitable City” resonates as
are also the embodiment a desirable goal. Literally, it makes
of equity. “a lot of sense”. “Equal” is the result
of something – an action, a ruling, a
social pact. “Equitable” is more of an attribute, something describing a course of
action, an ethical precept being followed and put into practice.

Yet, public space is where the two concepts of “equity” and “equality” come
together. In public spaces – a street, a sidewalk, a square, a kiosk, a playground,
a park, we are all equal, in the sense that in such places we can all exercise our
shared right to the city without having to display our social status nor our ability
to spend money. But public spaces are also the embodiment of equity, as the
physical expression of the principle that it is fair for all citizens to enjoy access to
basic, fundamental amenities, such as recreation, aesthetic enjoyment, walking,
cycling, play, sports, culture, information. All these spaces, with the exception
Blantyre, Malawi Shanghai, China Porto Alegre, Brazil

of streets and sidewalks that also have to exist for mobility and physical access
purposes, have to be created for the sheer enjoyment of citizens. Public space is
the result of purposeful action.

The Equitable City

So, what is an “equitable city”? It is a city that is fair to all, a city that treats all
in an equitable manner – particularly those who are in greatest need of fairness
and equality – the poor, the discriminated, the disadvantaged. This does not
mean that everybody will live in the same kind of housing or even enjoy the same
standards of services. It does mean, however, that regardless of economic and
political status, origin or nationality, at the bare minimum the equitable city will
offer, free of charge and on a not-for-profit basis, a substantive and accessible
stock of agreeable space, accessible amenities and useful services whose costs
are shared by all according to each individual’s means. This is a fundamental
definition of public space.

Public Space and the environmental aspects of the equitable city

Open green spaces are important components of a city’s public space endowment.
When designed and used as parks, gardens and playgrounds, they offer much-
needed services to city users and visitors alike. But of course, open and green
spaces also perform vital ecological
functions. Take trees, for example: Trees Open and green spaces
act as natural pollution filters by absorbing
pollutants; they lower temperature by also perform vital
transpiring water and shading surfaces; ecological functions
they help prevent heat sinks; they reduce [...] Trees act as
erosion; they provide food and wildlife natural pollution
habitats; they recharge ground water and filters [...] trees
sustain stream flow. At the same time, trees
provide aesthetic pleasure and shade; a row provide aesthetic
of trees can transform an indifferent street pleasure and shade.
into a pleasant urban space.
What is
good for
environmentally
meaningful
public spaces
is good for
equity, and
vice versa.

Sfax, Tunisia

Open spaces are particularly valuable when they are part of an urban
environmental system/network combining eco-compatible activities (walking,
running, cycling) with the natural landscape and habitats. Opportunities for
re-connecting episodically open and often-neglected spaces are particularly
frequent in peripheral urban areas, where the lack of good public spaces is most
severe. What is good for environmentally meaningful public spaces is good for
equity, and vice versa.

Public Space and the ethical aspects of the Equitable City

One of the most interesting aspects of the debate that preceded the Charter of
Public Space adopted at the 2013 Public Space Biennial was on who should have
access to the free services cities have to
What helps greatly offer: “taxpayers”, and residents, or also
those who happen to live and work in a
this wider acceptation
city without the full, formal attributes of
of the concept of the citizenship. The consensus was that the
citizenry [...] is the term “citizen”, when applied to urban
non-excludable nature of contexts should indeed conform to the
public space.[...]public second, wider meaning.
space is a powerful
What helps greatly this wider
instrument of inclusion. acceptation of the concept of citizenry
(after all, virtually every inhabitant of the
earth is a “citizen” of some country) is the non-excludable nature of public space.
It is impossible to discriminate on access to streets, sidewalks, public gardens,
playgrounds, and parks. Consequently, public space is a powerful instrument of
inclusion. This is of great importance to cities. It means that all those who are in
a city and behave responsibly are treated as equals, at least in the considerable
portions of a city that are public. The Equitable City is where all have access to the
public facilities of cities: public libraries, gardens, parks, playgrounds, and public
sports grounds.

Of course, there is more to the equitable city than public space. For example, an
equitable city is a city that offers decent and affordable housing opportunities,
and that manages to provide efficient public transport at a reasonable cost. But
public space, as we shall see further on, is also a fundamental pre-requisite for the
satisfaction of these fundamental urban needs.

Public Space and the Economic Aspects of the Equitable City

As mentioned in the foreword, the concept of inequality, introduced by the social

sciences, has been gaining increased attention since leading economists (e.g.
Lansley, 2012; Stiglitz, 2013) demonstrated the positive relationship between
equity and economic growth. Economists famously lack an appreciation for space.
In spite of that, Joseph Stiglitz, in accepting the challenge of talking about cities at
the recently held World Urban Forum in Medellin, wasted no time in mentioning
public space and public transport as two areas that can promote equality and
consequently urban development.

Urban transport, by definition, occurs over public space, and its planning is
paramount to sustainable urban development. A study from a Nairobi-based
urbanist and scholar demonstrated that the costs of a comprehensive new urban
plan for the city, regularly turned down because
it was considered too expensive, would have «Public space and
been covered by the opportunity costs of just public transport as
three days of chronic traffic congestion.
two areas that can
Urban space is, of course, urban land. In all promote equality and
consequently urban
development.»
Joseph Stiglitz

Sganghai, China
 cities, the commercial and/or speculative use of land is a major economic activity.
How can this activity be governed in such a way that it can become as equitable
as possible? We shall try and deal with this challenge in the final part of this note.

Public Space and the Social Aspects of the Equitable City

An equitable city is a city where the most pressing needs of citizens – those
“present needs” mentioned in the Brundtland report’s definition of sustainable
development - are taken care for. They are, generally, individual or household
needs: housing, education, and health. These needs are usually satisfied in
different ways. In those cases
Public spaces are where
people can meet, socialize,
[...] affirm their shared
rights to the city [...]
they also constitute an ideal
ground for developing and
extending the practice of
participatory planning [...]

Shanghai, China

when people are taken care for, by way of special programs or subsidies, the problem
of social stigma is almost always inevitable.

By contrast, public space is where all citizens, regardless of their income and personal
circumstances, can feel both equal and cared for. Public space embodies the special
dimension of commonly satisfied needs; needs that are classified as social ones like
the others, but have in addition a socializing quality. Public spaces are where people
can meet, socialize, discover common likes and passions, affirm their shared rights to
the city, organize, and where they can demonstrate to defend or champion commonly
held rights or demands.

An equally important dimension of public spaces, in their capacity as commonly

enjoyed resources, is that they also constitute an ideal ground for developing and
extending the practice of participatory planning, particularly at the neighbourhood
 level. Nothing can beat a new public space – a playground, a park, or a new
public facility – as an opportunity for calling citizens together around a common
purpose. Therefore, public spaces offer both the place and the content for social
involvement, and as a result for more equitable conditions in cities.

Public Space and the Spatial Aspects of the Equitable City

Equity in a city cannot be measured in aggregate terms. This is what advocates of

the priority of rural poverty do when they point out that schools and health care
are much more available in cities than in rural areas. They are: but only to those
who can afford them.

This should not be the case of public spaces, which are accessible for free
by definition. Unfortunately, the quality and supply of public spaces varies
dramatically between cities and within
most cities – one more reason for The quality and supply
seeking equality through a fairer urban
of public spaces varies
distribution of good public spaces and
international cooperation at, and for, dramatically between
the local level. cities and within most
cities [...] public
parks are concentrated
in the city centre or
close to the most elegant
neighbourhoods.

This fairer distribution will hardly

happen by itself. In fact, the greatest
parks and gardens in the great capitals
of the old world, as well as those of
post-world war two independence, are
located in the older, more established,
Berlin, Germany
and wealthier sections of the city. The
same applies to elegant avenues, streets, boulevards, and squares. This is true in
Paris, Rome, London, New York, but also in cities like Nairobi, where public parks
are concentrated in the city centre or close to the most elegant neighbourhoods.
Sadly, these parameters were hardly applied as cities expanded from the centre
to the periphery. There, profit motives prevailed over wise planning criteria. As
much available space as possible was reserved for private estate development,
with the bare minimum left over for vehicular circulation and access, parking,
 and even less for gardens, playgrounds and parks. And of course, outcomes were
even more disastrous in informal settlements. Today, the only exceptions to this
situation, seen from the air at least, are gated communities, with their often-
generous endowment of private open space.

Again, equity and public space come hand in hand. Moreover, while affordable
housing and access to employment for all require a combination of good policy
and favourable economic cycles, public space is a natural and viable promoter of
equity. Through a combination of sound surveying, good planning and creative
resource mobilization much can be done in relatively short periods of time – both
for carving out public spaces in developed areas and for using public space, as we
shall see below, as the organizing principle of new urban development.

The Cultural Aspects of the Equitable City (the city as a public space)

The cultural dimension is frequently, and rightly, included as a fourth parameter/

indicator of sustainability. Here we shall refer to the concept of “Public Space as
Culture” as distinct from “The Culture of Public Space”. In the latter case, one
usually expresses a “system of values” around which a “community” of experts -
professionals, experts, practitioners, and zealots – rally to establish principles and
develop practices. On the other hand, the concept of “Public Space as Culture” is
“meta-urban” and “meta-place”: it takes public space as a founding principle, and
the very essence if you like, of urban civilization. It is also universal: it does not
belong to the East or the West, to the North or to the South. As we all know, great
cities surfaced and thrived when what we call the West today was covered with
forests and inhabited by rural tribes.

And here we come to a phenomenon we might want to call “the urban paradox”.

Cities are, by definition,

The concept of “Public settlements characterized by
high density over considerable
Space as Culture” is “meta- extensions in space. The living
urban” and “meta-place”: paradox they embody is that the
it takes public space as a denser and vast the settlement,
founding principle, and the
very essence if you like,
of urban civilization. It
is also universal [...]

Shanghai, China
the greater freedom we enjoy. In a small village,
everybody watches what we do. In a city we can The city itself is
seize rich opportunities for socializing, but we
can also choose the privilege of walking, moving, a Public Space.
doing business alongside perfect strangers that
we are not particularly inclined to make the acquaintance of. This freedom, of
course, is everybody else’s freedom as well. Anybody at all can walk on a city
sidewalk. Anybody at all can sit on the same bench at the museum or in a park, or
next to us in a public library. Those who resent this tacit contract are the ones who
build gated communities. By closing that gate, people reject the very concept of
freedom. This is the paradox of cities.

In this sense, the city itself is a Public Space. Freedom is a universal value: it is
“meta-public space”. But the freedom cities give us is realized through public
space.

Nairobi, Kenya
2 A PUBLIC-SPACE LED
NEW STYLE OF
URBAN GOVERNANCE
Sfax, Tunisia
So far, we have argued the central role
of public space in promoting equitable [...] planning and
cities, and in turn ensuring a sustainable coordination will
development based on equitable always have to rest
social, economic and environmental
with the local
premises. We shall now consider a
number of tools that can be used to government. Equally
pursue the objective of an adequate important will be
supply, quality and distribution of enablement at the
public space in our cities. national level.
It seems obvious that regardless Porto Alegre,
of the strategies to be pursued in involving actors and taking into Brazil
account the very welcome cases of grassroots initiatives, planning
and coordination will always have to rest with the local government.
Equally important will be enablement at the national level. Some of
the tools described below will require legislation supporting such tools
as a robust local planning authority, a dependable local revenue base,
participation enabling procedures, adequate land and development
taxation measures, and capacity building. Also, the cultural aspect of
public spaces should not be neglected in the new urban governance.
Therefore, preserving material heritage and supporting the relation of
immaterial heritage with the contemporary has to be considered, as
well as the protection and promotion of cultural diversity.

City-wide public space surveys

It has been noted Durban,

Surveys will classify before that the South Arica
public spaces by type supply and quality of
[...] the “obvious” public spaces tend
to diminish with the
public spaces [...] it
distance from the
might be advisable to central city. Since, as
assess supply in terms argued previously,
of “raw supply” such as one of the principal
availability and access. purposes of public
space endowment is
to reduce inequality,
the first important step is to identify the parts of the city where public
space supply is lacking, or of a poor quality, or both. It is very likely that
this will occur in peripheral lower income neighbourhoods and even
more so in informal settlements and slums.

Marseille, France
Surveys will classify public spaces by type. In terms of playgrounds,
gardens, and parks (the “obvious” public spaces), it might be advisable
to assess supply in terms of “raw supply” such as availability (e.g.
surface per inhabitant) and access (e.g. walking distance by type of
open space).

Assessments can become more difficult when it comes to roads and

streets. While roads, streets and sidewalks are the most ubiquitous
and flexible public spaces, it is somewhat harder to assess their supply
in quantitative terms. But there will be exceptions; for example, it is
well known that most of informal settlements totally lack paved roads
wide enough for accessing most dwellings with a motor vehicle such
as an ambulance. In all road infrastructures, quality of (paving and
state of maintenance) will be important.

Linear public spaces reserved for non-motorized mobility are

important elements of a good public space system. First and foremost,
the all-important sidewalk – Is it wide enough? Is it in a good state of
repair? And then other essential elements of the sustainable city, such
as bicycle lanes? Are they designed and managed as a network, thus
allowing longer runs?

City-wide urban plans with a clear focus on public space:

a revolution in the making

The “new style of urban

governance” postulated Planning with a focus
above rests on a revolution on public space means
(literally: turning upside reversing this order
down) of the concept of
planning. The traditional
and starting, rather
concept of planning for than from the “private
expanding cities rests, city”, from the
by and large, on the “public city”. It is
identification of the the concept of public-
portions of urban territory
where private development
space led planning.
can occur, the setting of
rules about construction,
and the matching identification of infrastructure and public facilities
that can serve the development. Often, development happens in this
very order, with infrastructure falling behind construction.
 Planning with a focus on public space means reversing this order
and starting, rather than from the “private city”, from the “public
city”. It is the concept of public-space led planning. The idea is
to start with the infrastructure and the open spaces that the city
will require in the future, taking into account the “public space
deficit” identified through city-wide public space surveys. This
architecture will constitute the organized container for private
development, including the all-important solution of assisted self-
help housing.

Advance public purchase of land for future urban

development reserving fair shares of public space
for various uses

The advantage of this approach is that a municipality might be in

a position to co-ordinate its land and infrastructure development
policy. A forward-reaching administration can identify ahead
of time the corridors along which development is to take place,
acquire vast portions of land along these corridors, and then resell
part of this land, endowed with infrastructure, at a profit. It would
be a very equitable way of internalizing the value added by the
efforts of all, often pocketed by private operators through lack of
an enlightened and responsible development strategy. Cities like
Helsinki, in Finland, are renowned for having pursued consistently
a public land acquisition and management policy, and never
regretted it.

Mechanisms for land and building-rights tradeoffs to

secure public space

Whenever public land is not available for developing suitable and

accessible public space, the question will arise of how to secure
the land that the plan allocates to public space purposes. In some
cases, legislation or available municipal resources might allow for
expropriation or outright purchase. In many other cases, however,
these means may not be available. This is when alternative
options such as transfer of development rights can prove useful.
Interestingly, this is also where the concept of equity comes to the
fore. The owner of a piece of land zoned for public space might
claim being deprived of the “right to build” on his or her land. So
the municipality can choose to compensate the owner for this
loss. Where can the money come from? According to established

Blantyre, Malawi
“transfer of development
rights” procedures (TDR), the “Design must pay full
municipality can choose to boost attention to maintenance
development rights in a different and management costs by
area zoned for densification and using simple solutions and
exact fees from the owners in
exchange for the increased value materials that are durable,
of their land. These fees are used simple, easily replaceable
to compensate the owner of the and climatically adequate”.
preserved parcel of land, or to The Charter of Public
acquire the land outright. Space, para. 25
This procedure, when applied to
the public interest in mind, has three advantages. First, it promotes densification
and thus prevents urban sprawl. It is equitable, because it safeguards landowners’
perceived rights and secures precious public space for others. And it can be carried
out successfully at no expense to the municipality.

Maintenance-oriented design

The Charter of Public Space, para. 25, incorporated a number of converging

experiences and summarized them in the recommendation that “Design must pay
full attention to maintenance and management costs by using simple solutions
and materials that are durable, simple, easily replaceable and climatically
adequate”.

Too often, architects and urban designers forget that a public space project,
mindless of environmental conditions and maintenance costs can turn out to be
very expensive. On the other hand, there are plenty of solutions based on solid
and durable materials that can be also enjoyable and aesthetically attractive.
Such materials may appear to be expensive in the construction phase, but they
often turn out to be money savers in the long run. One example is the celebrated
sidewalks of the Copacabana public beach in Rio de Janeiro, designed by the
famous Brazilian architect Carlo Burle Marx.

Encouragement of temporary public-space uses of idle land

Eleven years ago, Jaime Lerner,

[...] « Where there are the inventor of the city of
only economic activity and inventions, Curitiba, produced
no people, housing must at the instigation of Oscar
come in.» Jaime Lerner, Niemeyer a little book titled
Acupuntura Urbana. In one
Acupuntura Urbana
 small chapter titled “Continuity is Life”, Lerner insists that where there are only
economic activity and no people, housing must come in. And if there is no activity,
it is important to introduce services. An urban vacuum has to be filled, preferably
with an activity that can bring about animation. If future uses are uncertain,
portable structures can be installed, immediately. If the place is dead at night, let
it be a night time activity. It is a form of instant acupuncture that can revitalize a
whole urban environment.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is getting more
involved in urban development and in agriculture-based activities that can help
the urban and the rural poor. One of them is urban agriculture. There is no reason
why undeveloped land, particularly publicly owned land bordering roads, cannot
be used for growing crops. The same applies to public urban markets, other
important public spaces, where produce and other goods can be sold by informal
vendors. Often, such markets can be the result of clever urban recycling, as in the
case of Durban’s Warwick Junction project.

Participation of citizens in all aspects of public space development

such as planning, design, resourcing, maintenance and enjoyment
(the ”citifier” concept)

Saying that citizens should enjoy their public spaces can sound like a banality.
Why shouldn’t they? After all, public spaces are created and maintained for them.
Yet, enjoyment can be prevented by a number of negative factors. The first one
is distance: residents who live far away will find it hard to enjoy a playground, a
public library, a small park on a regular basis. Others are a lack of time, which is
an indicator of urban inequality (the poor enjoy much less leisure time than the
wealthy – they cannot afford to “take off for the day”). Other reasons can be lack
of security, or bad design, or
[...] public urban poor maintenance.
markets, other important
One good premise for
public spaces, where future enjoyment and use is
produce and other goods participation in all aspects of
can be sold by informal the public-space cycle process:
vendors. [...] can be the creation, design, maintenance,
result of clever urban management, use, and
evaluation. In fact, the quest for
recycling, as in the
case of Durban’s Warwick
Junction project.

Durban,
South Africa
Yet, enjoyment
can be prevented
by a number of
negative factors
: [...]distance
[...] lack of
time [...]a lack
of security, bad
design, or poor
maintenance.
Blantyre, Malawi
good public spaces can trigger practices far more advanced than the conventional
participatory processes of top-down initiative and project formulation, followed
by some form of consultation and later by execution. There is hardly a more
initiative-inducing project than a playground for children, a neighbourhood park
to walk and run in, the adoption of measures for making streets safer and more
attractive. Initiatives of this kind are growing everywhere, and are often supported
by local organizations with very good skills in the interface between residents and
local government and by public-space specialists with expertise in the realm of
urban “placemaking”. And many of them are crowned with success. So, public
space can become the ideal platform for building a sense of accomplishment that
can lead to the building of confidence needed to establish a permanent sense of
community and to move on to even more ambitious collective goals. UN-Habitat
has championed the “I am a City Changer” slogan. Along with that aspiration, it
would be wonderful if we could also transform ourselves from “city users” into
“cityfiers”: people who nurture the urban wonderment with the care and respect
their common living environment requires.

Mobilization of resources through fair and efficient taxation

of private property and capture of land-value increment due to
public investment

This fundamental function of local government is justified by the fact that private
property in cities enjoys a number of municipal services not paid for as utilities. It is
calculated in an equitable manner, commensurate for the value of the property. In
many cities, however, the assessed value of property may not be commensurate
with its value as it increases over time, or the collection of the property tax may be
faulty or inefficient. This is one of the main causes of the chronic resource deficit
of so many municipalities.
 As cities grow and expand and new public
[...] there is a infrastructure is built, or in the case of major
great potential for rehabilitation / regeneration projects in parts
involving businesses of the existing urban fabric, public investment
invariably produces a significant increase in
of a different nature the value of private property adjacent or near
in non-profit public the intervention. Since this increase in value
space development and is not due to any investment on the part of
management [...] it the owner, this justifies the full, or partial,
is equally important recapture of the corresponding land-value
increment.
for the public sector
counterpart to be This procedure was recognized internationally
fully equipped to as far back as 1976, by the first United Nations
establish, and manage Conference on Human Settlements. Notable
these partnerships among national-level applications (UN-
HABITAT 2009) is Colombia’s tax law of 1997
[...] (Law for Territorial Development) that set out
several ways in which local authorities could
participate in capturing unearned value increments on real property. Property
owners could negotiate a cash payment to the municipality, could pay in kind
through transfer of a portion of the land, or could participate in the formation
of an urban development partnership. This mechanism is an important source of
income for the Colombian capital city’s Urban Development Institute, responsible
for infrastructure and public space development in Bogotà including its well
known Transmilenio transport system.

Incentives for private sector involvement in public space

development and management.

Of course, the construction of a new road or a park, not to mention management

contracts, naturally involve private sector companies. Aside from this, there is a
great potential for involving businesses of a different nature in non-profit public
space development and management. It is important that such an opportunity be
considered in a positive way, and not simply as a necessity to exploit the business
sector when in need of resources. But it is equally important for the public sector
counterpart to be fully equipped to establish, and manage these partnerships in
such a way that they become an asset in the public interest. The free nature of
public space also involves the need to find justifiable incentives for private sector
involvement instead, or in addition to, the natural vocation of the private sector,
which consists in making money. Many companies may be interested, for example,
in becoming patrons of a playground, a park or a street. Others may be interested
in outright donations of land. A case in point is the Jeevanjee Gardens in Nairobi, a
gift to the city on the part of an enlightened patron that have become one of the
most treasured public spaces in the city. Another common practice is support for
city museums and libraries. Public concessions in public parks and other public
spaces can also become an interesting source for public space budgets as well as
a welcome facility for visitors and public space users.

Nairobi, Kenya
(Jeevanjee Gardens)

Layout and illustrations: Isabelle Colas

Write up: Pietro Garau

References

United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) (2009), Planning sustainable cities: global
report on human settlements, 2009, Earthscan.

[Link], [Link], [Link] (2015), The Charter of Public Space ;LISt Lab, Rovereto, Italy.

[Link] (2012),“La Ville Unique”, in L.N Tellier, C. Vainer (ed.), Métropoles des Amériques en Mutation (ISBN
978-2-7605-3476-6), Presses de l’Université du Québec, Montreal, Canada, pp. 265-277.

[Link] (2012), The Cost of Inequality, Gibson Square, London, UK.

J.E. Stiglitz (2012), The Price of Inequality, W.W. Norton & Company, New York City, USA.

[Link] and [Link] (2012), Working in Warwick, School of Development Studies, University of KwaZulu-
Natal, South Africa.

M.O. Smolka, (2013), Implementación de la Recuperación de Plusvalías en América Latina, Lincoln Institute of
Land Policy, Cambridge, Mass., USA.