Living on the Edge

Jakarta residents are finding their home sweet home, with malls and assorted amenities, in the sprawling suburbs.

What’s the population of Jakarta today? The commonly held wisdom is that it is 12 million souls during the day – and nine million at night.

At 661 square kilometers, Jakarta’s population density amounts to around 8,500 people per square kilometer, about 2.5 times as dense as Paris and three times Los Angeles.

Even though it’s not the densest city in the world by far (India’s Delhi, for example, is 1.5 times denser while Mumbai is three times and Dhaka more than four times), it’s no wonder more and more professionals are relocating out of the city in search of a better quality of life and environment for their families.

Jeffry, for one, resided in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, when he moved to Jakarta from his Ambon hometown more than a decade ago; he then chose to relocate to Bekasi after his marriage in 2000. Living near Bekasi’s exclusive Harapan Indah complex, he has seen significant growth in lifestyle and gourmet choices in the neighborhood in recent years.

“I’ve been working for a company based in Daan Mogot for the past seven years, and everyone’s first reaction to my Bekasi address was always about how far and packed with traffic my commutes must be,” says Jeffry, who is in his 30s. “They are quite right, of course, since I’m basically crossing through Jakarta from its eastern outskirts to its west end every day.”

However, Jeffry’s silver lining is that he commutes on his motorbike, which exempts him from going along the most packed roads into Jakarta.

“The most important skill to have when living in Bekasi or other outskirts of Jakarta is probably a knowledge of and familiarity with the many shortcuts and alternative routes available,” he says.

Twenty-something Arkanda Caesario recently decided to rent a room in the Slipi area in West Jakarta, instead of going back and forth to his family home in Serpong every day.

“Trains going back to Serpong only run till 11 p.m., which makes it hard to go back if I have to work overtime,” says Arkanda. “Besides, most of my friends live in Jakarta anyway, so it’s much more practical for me to stay close to them and to where I work.”

Another professional, 36-year-old Yongky, views the issue of commuting very differently. Despite working for a financial institution in Thamrin, he prefers to commute daily from his home in Ciledug, which borders Bintaro Jaya – even though it takes him about two hours each way.

“I’ve had several jobs in the city, tried renting rooms and even have an apartment at Taman Rasuna, where I stay when I have to work until very late after attending company events and functions. But I still usually go home of Bintaro at the end of the day,” says the finance executive.

Cosmopolitan Choices

Yongky has noticed great changes in the demography of the Bintaro area during the past two decades. Back in the 1990s, many young couples and families moved to Bintaro to kick-start their new lives there.

“Now that their children have grown up, and with healthy smatterings of international and national-plus schools here and there, younger people have begun embracing a more cosmopolitan lifestyle,” he says, pointing out that even certain international coffee outlet has appeared in the area.

Nevertheless, Bintaro remains a residential rather than commercial area, “unlike Karawaci or Serpong, which have developed into their own business districts”, in the words of Yongky.

Filipina Anna, 45, who also lives in Bintaro, sees no real difference between people living in the Jakarta suburbs and those in the city center. Throughout her adolescence and youth, she has lived in Kebayoran and Mampang; she became a resident of Bintaro Jaya’s Sector 6 after marrying her Indonesian husband 18 years ago.

“Suburbanites are no less cosmopolitan than people in Jakarta proper,” says Anna.

Nevertheless, she admits that many suburbanites – herself included – still prefer to travel into Jakarta for dining and hanging out with friends.

“My default setting is Pondok Indah Mall,” she explains. “On Saturday mornings, I usually have breakfast at Cilandak Town Square. Only in rare cases when I’m craving home-cooked meals such as bubur do I go to the nearby Bintaro Walk.”

Like Yongky, Anna also sees a lot of family-oriented facilities in Bintaro. “There are parks and playgrounds all around, as well as communal facilities for cyclists.”

On the other side of the suburbs, Anita Rustandi finds many similarities between today’s Jakarta lifestyle and the Malaysian subculture of lepak or “hanging out”, where people go to coffee shops known as kopitiam and while away the day chatting over their glass of teh tarik (aerated tea).

Anita, who was born and spent her childhood in North Jakarta, migrated to Malaysia for a decade of schooling before returning to Indonesia in 2008, when she began living in Tangerang with her mother’s family.

“The F&B business in Tangerang has grown tremendously to cater to more discerning food lovers in this area,” she says. “For example, the massive food court opposite Alam Sutra’s Living World Mall is just like Kemang but on a bigger scale.”

Hip Haunts

More glamour than before is evident in the lifestyle of students in Tangerang. Arkanda mentions such hip haunts such as the al fresco Benton Junction near Karawaci’s Pelita Harapan University, home to trendy fast food chains such as Domino’s Pizza and Burger King, which have become commonplace around Karawaci and Serpong.

“Of course, when it comes to nightlife, there’s not that many clubs or lounges yet in the suburbs, so people still go to Jakarta for their nights out,” Anita says. “Then again, a new generation of young people has been born and bred completely in the suburbs, with little or no connection at all to Jakarta.”

Anita’s 12-year-old half-sister, for instance, was born in Tangerang and has lived all her life without ever having any need to go to Jakarta. When she hangs out with her friends, they go to new and airy suburban malls such as the Summarecon Mall Serpong (SMS).

“I remember telling myself as my family went and queued to see Marvel’s The Avengers at SMS during its opening weekend: ‘This is the suburbs, man, it’s not supposed to be this packed!’”

Another Jakartan, Are Riantini, talks about seeing more people – and traffic – around Cibubur, which her family has called home ever since relocating from Pluit in 2004. With Cibubur becoming more gridlocked over the years, she is now looking for other likely places for her regular getaways.

“Sometimes when my friends and I have nothing to do, we just head to Bogor to hang out at our favorite bakso stall, then go crazy at Bogor Botanical Gardens,” the 28-year-old says.

Like many of their peers, Are and Anita believe that family life in the suburbs is wholesome, and can see why so many people have decided to move out of Jakarta as the city’s traffic and density reach unacceptable levels.

The statistics seem to agree: the 2010 census recorded an 84 percent population growth in the Jakarta metropolitan area, which had occurred solely in the suburban areas of Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi.

It is perhaps the hope of suburbanites everywhere that the growth will not be so drastic or exponential as to compromise their future quality of life.

“So far, most of Jakarta’s suburban areas, Tangerang especially, have been developing at an appropriate pace, not too slow and not too sudden either, to give the market some time to absorb the new developments,” says Anita.

“Hopefully this will still be the case in the years to come.”

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