Green Maps show oases of calm in the city

Green Maps show oases of calm in the city

Fritz Kuhlmann, Contributor, Jakarta

Complaining is all too easy sometimes. Jakarta is strangled by
traffic, a concrete jungle, suffocating from pollution, dirty and
frantic, common knowledge says. But that is only one side of the
city.

There is another, greener side. But it sometimes is hidden,
neglected or ignored.

"There are open spaces, but they are not really accessible or
inviting," urban designer Marco Kusumawijaya said recently. "A
lot of people actually don't really know the city they live in."

There is that fabulous mangrove forest north of Kota near the
shore where even monkeys play. But it completely lacks paths to
stroll on, signs explaining where to go and some locals use
certain spots of it as a garbage dump, Marco explained.

Even in posh Menteng, Central Jakarta, there are neglected
spots like one near busy Jl. Cokroaminoto. A very small
hedge and a very big sign indicate that this is supposed to be a
public park.

In fact there are some trees mysteriously managing to survive.
But the ground is covered with dead leaves, occasionally joined
by some crumpled plastic bags.

But neglect does not seem to be the main problem -- it's the
sheer scarcety of parks.

"There are just too few green spaces in the city," a young man
from the neighborhood said, walking his puppy.

"But it wouldn't really make sense to have more of them if all
too often you don't even have proper sidewalks for pedestrians,
for a start," his female companion commented.

In fact, the authorities, at least in the city center, do
provide good maintenance of most green areas. Directly behind
Menteng Plaza, for instance, there is a small garden with a
bright blue painted fence, lush green grass, fully equipped with
winding paths, benches to sit on and even some flowers. Not far
from there is the spacious Taman Suropati that features fountains
and sculptures.

Less fortunate quarters of Jakarta like central Kota, though,
hardly have any park. Quite a few designated green areas in the
past have been converted into parking lots or built upon. This
calls into question the Jakarta master plan 2000-2010 that aims
at increasing the proportion of the city's green spaces from 9
percent to almost 13 percent of its total land area.

The master plan also simply accommodated some of the
violations of the previous plan. More parks are built, as the
city government stresses, but perhaps for the time being, not
enough.

Still, compared to Bangkok, for instance, the situation in
Jakarta might not be that bad. In the center of the Thai
metropolis, Buddhist temples with their gardens often are the
only green spot to provide shelter for the rest-seeking
pedestrian.

Thai people put nicely potted plants in front of their houses,
but this does not make up for the lack of street greenbelts.
Anyway, many citizens of Jakarta prefer indoor window-shopping
instead of going to a park. On weekends, the malls are crowded.
During daytime, everyone seeks to escape the heat of the sun, but
it also became a matter of lifestyle and status. Malls have the
image of being modern, they represent a glitzy world just like in
those Hollywood movies. Ironically, the concept of
city parks itself is quite "Western". At night, most parks in
Jakarta become meat markets of prostitution. So even when the sun
is down, most people would not like to go for a walk in those
gardens.

Instead of complaining, a group of volunteers organized by
Marco Kusumawijaya have put together a Green Map of Kota to
follow that of Menteng.

"But it's not all about trees, birds, nature," he stressed.
His collaborators also look for cultural sights like temples or
for fair trade shops. The aim, Marco said, "is to help people
live a better, a more sustainable life".

So Green Mappers don't cry out for political demands?

"We simply try to raise awareness by providing information,"
Marco said.

More than 40 different icons are used to indicate points of
interest on the map. The volunteers collect all the data
themselves by going out into the streets to gather first-hand
information.

"It's like a hobby," volunteer Marisa Kamici, 30, said. She is
a landscape architect and her office is in the neighborhood.
But sometimes the researchers, asking around among the
inhabitants of Kota, meet mixed emotions.

"For some people, the whole concept of environmentalism seems
so strange, they don't understand what we are doing," Marisa
said. "Others are afraid we might be some kind of control,
reporting to the government."

So the Green Mappers carefully weigh their findings. Marisa
discovered that in one of the traditional Chinese markets of
Glodok, turtles are on sale, apparently an endangered species,
protected by law.

After intensive discussion of the group, that, too, will be
marked in the Kota map.

"We are not judging people," Marco said. "But we tell
things the way they are."

The Green Map movement is a global one, from a concept
invented in the early 1990s by Wendy Brawer from New York. The
American has related that she decided to "go green" after an
orangutan at the Yogyakarta Zoo tossed a stone her way during a
visit in 1989.

"Three years ago I went to the U.S. and got introduced into
that methodology," Marco said.

For areas outside Jakarta, the Green Map Yogyakarta was
launched in 2002, and Marco is currently working on one for
Bukittinggi, West Sumatra.

Still, the Green Maps are somewhat marginal. They are on sale
in only one single bookshop in Kemang, South Jakarta, and through
the group's website.

"We don't have a marketing unit," Marco said. The group does
receive some funding from the World Bank's small loans program.

"It's actually easier to get money than to get people involved
into discovering the green spots of the city," Marco said. "Many
Jakartans just don't care."