Build city through intentional action

Welcome not only to a new year, but also to the next decade.

Crystal ball gazing is a blurry art, but is the quality of your life better than it was 10 years ago?

Humans remain incapable of predicting the future in specific detail, but we are able to predict some broad brushstrokes through two human capabilities — seeing patterns and our ability to make stuff.

One effective way of knowing the future is by creating it.

We do so by setting an objective, then planning our resources to build a path to that desired outcome.

The other is by doing a bit of introspection — recognising our habits and seeing the trend.

Eating unhealthily is the pattern; heart disease is the predictable outcome.

We are able to change the future, but it requires creating new patterns through intentional action.

What if we were to apply the same perspective to the best little city in the world?

Where was Nelson Mandela Bay in 2010, where is it likely to be in 2030? w

What are the patterns; what are the predictable outcomes if we change nothing?

What should the city’s intentional action be focused on in the next 10 years?

Here are some ideas of intentional action we can undertake.

First, we need city governance that works.

Our politics and politicians are trapped in a vicious downward spiral.

We need a council able to make decisions and for that we need political parties to work together.

For the ANC to maintain it can govern a divided city alone is a failure to recognise its own record of the last 10 years.

For the DA to think moral authority alone makes good governance is to ignore the practical realities that organisations need everyone working to make them work.

For the EFF to continue sniping from the sidelines, keeping its hands clean as it deposits dirt on others, is a failure to understand that work means getting your hands dirty.

Second, we need a functional, competent city administration.

Four children died in Motherwell because they ate contaminated food waste.

Those deaths were preventable.

Rubbish collection, water, sewerage, electricity all need working infrastructure.

That requires appointing competent officials, deciding on priorities based on what we can afford, allocating funds timeously and ensuring ongoing maintenance.

Third, we need to get our heads and hearts in the right space as a city.

We have an incredible natural resource base that we are destroying because we don’t recognise ourselves as being part of an ecosystem.

That bit of plastic thrown out the window that is washed into the stormwater drain, then into the river and out into our bay, comes back to us in the fish we catch and eat.

But it isn’t just plastic that is toxic, it is the way we think about this place.

We can think of our city as the armpit of SA and use every negative incident to reinforce why that is the case.

Or, we can emphasise the assets we have and how, combined, they have the potential to create a foundation for the best little city in the world.

A better life for all cannot be wished into being, it requires practical steps to get there.

One of which is how we construct the city’s brand and market it.

Why should those outside of the city want to visit, invest, share our city with their friends and family?

Not necessarily because of our world-class production capacity and two harbours, nor because of our great beaches or proximity to Addo, nor because of our outdoor and sea-based sporting choices, but perhaps because Nelson Mandela Bay is a package deal.

Creating that lifestyle destination requires energy.

Eskom isn’t going to switch on overnight, but rooftop panels can be installed within weeks.

What if local communities installed their own microgrids?

One pilot project in this city has done exactly that.

The work isn’t in imagining it — it is in figuring out how to roll it out across the city.

Want to move the manganese dumps? How about we take over the ports from the moribund Transnet?

Is that a far-fetched idea? What isn’t far-fetched is securing the natural resources we have — Algoa Bay, the Swartkops estuary and the Baakens valley.

Different groups are attending to aspects of each, but are uncoordinated.

How about making these designated “protected areas” and appointing a co-ordinating authority?

It’s 10 years to 2030; perhaps a better life for all starts by all agreeing to act intentionally in using the opportunities we are given.

We need to get our heads and hearts in the right space as a city.