Crime and grime meet urban renewal in Hillbrow

The Hillbrow Tower is the ambivalent symbol of modern Johannesburg.

Both iconic and infamous, the tower represents Hillbrow’s cosmopolitan glory days and the urban decay plaguing the inner-city since apartheid’s demise. Now the tower headlines the City of Joburg’s efforts to revitalise and restore Hillbrow as the core of Johannesburg’s vibrant identity.

Ironically, restoration of the tower itself is not included in initial phases of development. City of Joburg spokesperson, Nthatisi Modingoane, explained that the tower remained the property of Telkom, for which it was built in 1971. However, following discussions with the communications giant, the city council hopes to include the tower in later developments. Johannesburgers who fondly remember the revolving restaurant once occupying its top floors might even see that attraction restored.

“Personally, I would love to see that,” Modingoane laughed.

Meanwhile, Hillbrow presents considerable challenges to transformation. Once a rare multiracial suburb in a city divided by apartheid, and a haunt for Johannesburg’s artists and activists, Hillbrow now features in the imagination as a den of drugs, prostitution and crime. Following other successful inner-city interventions, including the renewal of Braamfontein and the Maboneng Precinct, the city council hopes to change that image.

The first phase of development, due for completion mid-2015, will transform the tower’s immediate vicinity into a pedestrian-friendly precinct. Upgrades to pavements, drains and lighting will accompany creation of new trading spaces to attract private investment. Planned transformation of public transport in the area, which lacks the vast parking lots so familiar to Johannesburg, is tied to the city council’s attempted reduction of traffic congestion.

“We want to drive a message that will encourage cycling, walking and use of public transport,” said Modingoane, adding that creation of work opportunities in the city centre will reduce travel cost, the primary expense for many poorer South Africans.

Modingoane said locals have responded positively to the planned transformation. The intention, he stressed, was not to expel poorer residents. Instead, the city council hopes, through creation of urban ‘corridors of freedom’, to ‘restitch’ Johannesburg’s cosmopolitan identity for the future.

Are you excited about the urban renewal projects taking place in inner-city Johannesburg? What is your opinion of this latest plan? What would you like to see brought to the transformation of Hillbrow?

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