Regenerating Johannesburg
February 12, 2008 7 Comments
Ponte City is a 54-story landmark in the inner city Johannesburg neighborhood Hillbrow. You can’t miss it. In the 1990s, I remember this well as I had lots of friends living in neighboring Yeoville or Berea. After a while they often moved on to the suburbs to the north or west of the inner city (Mellville, Parktown, etc) as Hillbrow became synonymous (both for real and in the popular imagination) with crime and grime.
You did not go there anymore. You just drove past. So would I on my way to the new suburban homes and apartments where my friends had moved: Bez Valley, Orange Grove and Kensington.
But as this article in the Christian Science Monitor shows, Ponte is now touted as the centerpiece of a redevelopment effort in central Johannesburg. Apartments in the building are going from $80,000 to $150,000.Is this all just a good puff piece or some real changes coming for the inner city? And what about the class politics of the ‘new’ Ponte?
See here (including a video report, with some stunning visuals, by the reporter Stephanie Hanes).
P.S. Have to say, the Christian Science Monitor is doing an interesting job reporting Africa.
* I pulled the image from Guy Tillim’s Johannesburg series.
It’s my understanding that the next stop from Melville is Park Slope, but you have to admire the developer’s vision. I am sure if you visited Fort Greene 15 years ago, you wouldn’t anticipate seeing the steel and glass monoliths rising in the neighborhood.
Gee jou hart vir Hillbrow, Johannes Kerkorrel
Beautiful pic!!!!!
Do you have a link more pix from Guy Tillim’s Johannesburg series?
Found it: http://www.michaelstevenson.com/contemporary/exhibitions/jhb/jhb1.htm
Amazing pics at that link Nerina.
And on the subject of Joburg makeovers… go to
http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/somethingtodo/2008/08/27/the-city-of-joburg-gets-an-electric-makeover/