Public property

THE CAPE Argus has embarked on a project to showcase public parks across Cape Town and what they offer to communities. Their value to building communities and contributing to the well-being of residents cannot be underestimated.

So far we have featured the Green Point Urban Park, De Waal Park and, today, the Gugulethu Smart Park. Yet there are many suburbs, especially on the Cape Flats, that are desperate for such recreational amenities. In some areas where there are parks, they have become the domain of gangs and other criminal elements who use the spaces for illicit activities.

Our divided history has shaped some of the suburbs in our city in a way that does not lend them to building communities. Apartheid spatial planning created suburbs with the sole purpose of removing people from prime land like District Six without taking care to shape communities that can thrive.

The net result is that housing remains the priority as long as there are backyarders and people moving into informal settlements. And the importance of urban parks cannot be taken for granted.

The Green Point Urban Park is perhaps the premier recreational amenity in the city. It is clean, safe and promotes bio-diversity. It offers the city a green lung, not dissimilar to New York’s Central Park, that is open to all its citizens.

The Green Point park should thus be the standard to which other parks in the suburbs should measure up.

BUT THE upkeep and maintenance of our parks cannot be the sole responsibility of our city administration. To keep them vibrant and sustainable, residents should be active in taking ownership of them.

In Gugulethu, Culbert Magadlela plays the role of guardian of the Smart Park, a World Design Capital project in NY110 that opened in February at a cost of R5.4 million.

While Magadlela’s official job is caretaker, he also plays the role of policeman – enforcing the no drug and alcohol rule – and child minder.

The City of Cape Town has put a premium on public spaces so we need more Magadlelas to keep them safe and clean. After all, communities are the ultimate owners of our parks.