'Urban living should be simple'

Prathima Manohar is an urbanist, journalist and founder of The Urban Vision, a think-do-tank on cities. She has been a fellow of Stanford and Harvard Universities and a passionate votary of participatory governance of cities.

This bright young Bengalurean has written for the Wall Street Journal and International Herald Tribune and created documentaries for French television channels on developmental, cultural and social issues in India. Here are a few excerpts from an interview:

What is urbanism and who is an urbanist?

Urbanism as an idea is relatively new. It refers to the physical as well as the socio-cultural aspects of urban life. India is perhaps the last large rural population with only about 33 per cent of its population being urban. But we are now an urban species. Urbanisation is much more than geography. It brings in economic and social changes. From agriculture-based jobs, there is a shift to service-based ones. Women feel more empowered in cities. The old prejudices of a society weaken. But urbanisation also degrades the environment and therefore, we need to limit it to non-arable land. An urbanist is a specialist in the study and planning of cities. 

How did you get into this field?

It was the early 2000s, I was a student of architecture and a news junkie. I always felt that cities contribute so much to our nation’s GDP and yet their problems received very little attention from both the media and the political class. When I approached a daily with these concerns, I was asked to contribute a feature on urban woes! As I was writing about civic issues, I got to interact with a number of stakeholders and also researched issues concerning urban living. This was also the time when Bangalore Agenda Task Force at the city level and Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) at the national level started to unfold. I also discovered that there was no one stop solution to the problems that ail a city and it was to address these lacunae that I set up The Urban Vision in 2008.
 
Tell us about The Urban Vision.

It started as a social venture. We document good practices for urban planning and living; we provide a platform for public private partnerships to enable pilots of best practices in urban living and also run annual study programmes for leaders in real estate, infrastructure and such related environments. Contrary to popular belief, good practices for urban living are actually simple. Sustainability and good quality of life and an equitable distribution of resources are possible. Public or private partnership would be as simple as improvement of a run-down open space in collaboration with local businesses and artists. We need to take opinions from all the stakeholders before planning anything, instead of blaming one another.

Isn’t the concept of “planned city” a myth, unless we are starting with a clean slate?

Cities are dynamic entities. Master plans become outdated even before they are released. What we need is a set of principles along with a set of tactics as part of a plan for a city instead of rigid master plans. Cities are complex mixed use environments. So, we need education, health care facilities, business and service centres, art and civic centres, parks and affordable housing. We need to ensure clean air, water and garbage clearance. A city needs to be transit-friendly and walkable too. City living means sharing of resources. To achieve these goals, we need decentralised participatory governance and a platform for micro planning and micro intervention. Planners need to take into account the social aspects of city building as well as the aesthetic one.

What are the solutions to Bengaluru’s civic problems?

Obviously, there is no magic wand. Fixing a city’s ailment is a political, rather than a design process. We need political will to address challenges that ail Bengaluru.
For the traffic woes, it is a no brainer that in such a dense populous city, we cannot afford individual cars. Focusing on high capacity infrastructure for public transport and for the last mile connectivity, focusing on walkability are a must. For this, we need to reclaim our footpaths. This would improve air quality and health of the citizens too. Regarding garbage, individual civic behaviour such as not littering and segregating at source are important. At the community level, urban gardening could take care of a lot of wet waste. Our compulsive consumerist lifestyles have to change.

What about the role of the government in the urbanism movement?

The urban landscape is a contested space. Builders, planners, activists, citizens and government all have their say. The biggest problem is that there is no direct political power governing the urban space. This is not the case in cities like New York or London. The mayor of London is politically as important as the prime minister. We need to erect accountable city governing structures. The government is now planning 100 smart cities. This will have huge economic and social implications. We need to stress on quality of life in cities. While technology has its place in a smart city, liveability is much more important. People still prefer good quality of air over smart traffic apps.

Which city would you like to live in?

Bengaluru because it is home. Mumbai because it is the lab of urbanisation and the scale of challenge for an urbanist is astounding and Barcelona as it is a beautiful city.