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Take paradise, put up a parking lot
Evergreen memory: The luscious greenery under the Gondangdia elevated railway tracks is now history since it was reduced to make room for a parking lot of Buddha Bar
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Evergreen memory: The luscious greenery under the Gondangdia elevated railway tracks is now history since it was reduced to make room for a parking lot of Buddha Bar. Courtesy of Green Map Indonesia
An eco-friendly community initiative in Central Jakarta has been ousted by a restaurant business with political sway, triggering strong criticism from several urban and green activists.
To make way for parking spaces for clientele of the posh Buddha-Bar restaurant, its management arranged for the eviction of the plant nurseries and waste separation plant, and reduced a composting plant to a third of its original size.
Long-time Menteng resident and Gondangdia Subdistrict Council member Kusumo Nugroho had initiated the community waste management project under the Gondangdia railway lines next to the Buddha Bar restaurant on Jl. Teuku Umar, and had invited plant vendors to operate small nurseries there. Kusomo said recently he had to contain his disappointment when the project was evicted without him being notified in 2008.
In his old green Dutch house on Jl. Rasamala (the only one left on the street with original architecture intact), Kusumo said now that there was nowhere to separate garbage. His plan to reduce the amount of waste going to the city dump was ruined.
A soil expert from The Center for Soil Research, Kusumo, took the initiative to build the waste management plant in 2004, using residents' donations.
"The plan was to reduce by one third the amount of garbage being sent to Bantargebang *the city dump* from Gondangdia subdistrict," Kusumo said. Gondangdia has around 3,400 families.
With support from neighborhood leaders and the current city secretary, Muhayat (who was then mayor of Central Jakarta), the neighborhood received permission to use land belonging to the state rail company (KA) for the project.
From 2004 to 2007, Kusumo transformed the site - once occupied by homeless people and used to dump building material - into a luscious green space.
Fifteen people were employed to pick up garbage from around Gondangdia, three times per week. The workers would also separate the waste and make compost with it using a crushing machine that sped up the process.
The plant was able to produce around three tons of compost per week, which provided workers with an income. In 2007, Kusumo invited plant vendors to set up small nurseries at the site.
"It was beautiful, clean and green. There were beautiful plants and even a little hut for people," he said.
The composting work was hampered during the construction of the parking space and now the plant can only produce less than 1 ton of compost per week.
The number of workers has also dropped to just five. Since there is no longer any space for garbage separation, the workers have stopped collecting household waste.
Kusumo said there was nothing he could do once construction of the parking lot began.
"It was a matter of top bureaucracy between KA and the tenant," he said.
KA Greater Jakarta spokesman Akhmad Sujadi said the Buddha Bar management had rented the site as parking space for five years. He did not disclose how much it had paid.
Jakarta Buddha Bar is run by PT Nireta Vista Creative, partly owned by Djan Faridz - a businessman and newly elected member of the Regional Representatives Council (DPD), representing Jakarta.
Also involved in the running of the restaurant is Renny Sutiyoso, daughter of former Jakarta governor Sutiyoso who had approved the costly repurchase and restoration of the former immigration building.
Green Map activist and Jakarta Arts Council chairman Marco Kusumawijaya lambasted the move by the Buddha Bar management.
"It is so shameful of Pak Djan Faridz, a newly elected DPD member, to have evicted an eco-friendly endeavour and small business just to expand a parking lot for his Buddha Bar business.
"And it is so shameful for the governor *Fauzi Bowo*, who is Mr Farid's personal friend, not to have prevented this from happening. It is outrageous and sick that the city cannot be even slightly consistent in pursuing the simple imperative of a just and green city."
When contacted by The Jakarta Post, Faridz said in a text message (SMS) that the company provided space rent-free for the reduced compost plant.
But Kusumo said the eviction of nurseries and the reduction of the waste management site was more than disappointment for him.
"We are losing something beautiful ... The nursery people lost their livelihoods since they had to leave the site. Garbage is now left unattended," he said.
However, Kusumo says he will not let this problem stop him from pursuing his green goals.
These include a new initiative dubbed "Garbage Bank" in which the subdistrict provides incentives to households by paying them for organic waste.
"There's no losing hope for the good of the community. If we can only work with five of the original 15 people, we will do it. Even if it's only 500 kilograms *of compost*, we will sell it."
