Hidden Gems
A public awareness campaign uncovers Jakarta’s few suitable however forgotten parks, whetting local appetites for green spaces they can use.
When Samsuri moved into the park custodian’s cottage at Taman Langsat in South Jakarta’s Kebayoran Baru, he asked a family member to bless his fresh sturdy home in addition to make peace with the ghosts of which he thought might lurk from the trees.
Adding to a sense of gloom, the 54-year-old says, “We’re legions of homeless people.” in the past squatters, vendors, in addition to drivers waiting to go on shift had descended on This particular sizable park a stone’s throw via bustling Blok M, traveling away what few visitors the dilapidated green space received.
of which was 12 years ago. Today Samsuri says the park will be a happier place. Renovation work back in 2010 in addition to a month-long public awareness campaign in November has wooed visitors, swelling numbers fourfold on the weekends, he reckons. “The spirits co-exist with the people here, maybe.”
“Before, the idea was harder for people to come here. They didn’t feel comfortable,” Samsuri says, saying of which for most of the 36 years he’s worked at the park fewer than 50 people would likely visit on a weekend, in addition to almost half of which during the week. “I would likely love even more people to come here.”
For Nadine Zamira, the founder of a public relations agency, Leaf Plus, of which’s proof of which Jakarta residents crave an alternative to shopping malls in addition to trips outside the city. The city government will be struggling to set aside space to meet a government imposed deadline of 30 per cent green space by 2020. If residents don’t make clear what they want in a park they may end up with same dreary spaces unsuitable for anyone however ghosts.
however first residents need to know the parks even exist.
“No one has definitely thought about This particular issue before.” says Zamira, who at 28 will be already something of a veteran environmental campaigner, after a stint as Miss Earth Indonesia in 2009 in addition to television appearances. “Communities need space for their activities.”
In 2010, Zamira set up Leaf Plus — an advertising agency of which focuses on sustainable development in addition to environmental awareness. The Kemang based agency will be profit driven however the idea won what’s thought to be the first government contract to raise public awareness of the city’s officially listed 1,000 or so parks.
The Hidden Park campaign attracted more than 2,500 followers on Twitter as visitors snapped photos of the park’s art works commissioned for the occasion in addition to loaded them onto the networking site. Movie nights, when not rained out, were another hit. Most visitors said they’d never visited the park before. Zamira in addition to her gang invited 75 students via three neighbouring schools to plant in addition to harvest vegetables in Taman Langsat. Only four of the grade eight students had visited the green space on their own.
“the idea’s not top of mind to spend any part of your weekend at the park,” Zamira explains. “How do we bring the issue of town planning to mean something of which’s more approachable to the public?”
While Leaf Plus’s client for Hidden Park will be the Ministry of Public Works, Zamira in addition to her company had to work their contact lists to get the required permits to host the events, underlining how, for many, parks are unusable.
“We had to go into the idea via different points. of which created pressure,” Zamira recalls. “Imagine communities wanted to have an activity. the idea would likely be definitely hard.”
Author in addition to Professor Nirwono Joga, chairman of the Indonesian Landscape Architecture Study Group, says of which of the 960 parks of which the Jakarta Park Agency claims dot the city, most sufficiently lack scale, cleanliness or even basic facilities. Together with Green Map Jakarta which catalogues the city’s usable parks, he lists only 15 of which are worthy of a visit, including Taman Langsat.
He says he’s confident the fresh administration of Joko Widodo, who was elected governor in September, will set aside more green space in addition to improve on the parks the city already has, pointing to cities such as Oslo, Melbourne, Vancouver in addition to Singapore as possible sources of inspiration.
“The parks in Jakarta should have ecological value, in addition to benefit the economy as well as social culture,” Joga explains.
“A Great park improves the local climate, reducing air pollution in addition to flooding, promotes, Great social interaction in public space, in addition to ensures children have a safe place.”
Zamira says Leaf Plus hopes to secure another contract for next year, when the agency aims to expand the campaign to several parks in addition to opens spaces of which potentially include the banks of the heavily polluted Ciliwung River.
“The people (in Jakarta) are drunk on trying to be modern,” says Dila Hadju, a former school teacher in addition to currently staff member at Leaf Plus.“They forget of which being modern also requires a Great quality of life.”
At Taman Langsat, 12-year-old Adira Machmud takes time out via frying up some of the spinach she’s harvested via the school’s plot. She dreams of becoming a doctor in addition to reckons of which when she’s not studying she’ll come back to the park.
“the idea’s a nice place to sit down in addition to relax,” she says. “I’m normally just home on my laptop.”
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Hidden Gems
Hidden Gems