The fight for city spaces is nothing new and is in fact an inherent part of the urbanisation phenomenon. While the true fight for space is really equal opportunity for the urban poor, the commercial-residential loggerheads saga is a close second. In its simplest form, the commercial establishments want a no holds barred right to pursue their livelihoods, while residential neighbourhoods want to be insulated from the noise, congestion and safety issues that go hand in hand with a commercialised locality. In what has been a traditionally adversarial relationship, only a new set of thinking and planning instruments can have a remote chance of putting this perpetual bug bear to rest.
The devil is neither the commercial nor residential entities themselves, but an archaic, bureaucratic method of planning for the city. Planning is not an ivory tower process of pen pushing “babus”, but a hard and often difficult understanding of the city where the rubber really hits the road. The “babu” approach is to give a flourish on a piece of paper and dish out universal rules and regulations for a city as varied as there are individuals. Imagine the idiocy of rules which apply equally to the congested and highly commercialised Chickpet and the relatively calm streets of Jayanagar
It does not take a rocket science expert to realise that true city space planning can only be done bottoms up, road by road, locality by locality and resolution of conflict by conflict. In this, we do have instruments called the Ward Committee and the Municipal Planning Committee (MPC), both enshrined in the constitution The Ward Committee has been relegated to a grievance platform rather than the unit of governance it is supposed to be. The MPC is lost in the corridors of power despite court rulings. At the heart of spatial planning is a micro approach to planning by the stakeholders of their locality who have an intimate knowledge of the textures and contours of their surroundings. It is ultimately a devolution of power as granted by our constitution. And therein lies the devil; no politician or bureaucrat willingly gives up power, especially of the cash generating metropolitan like our city.
