Like an over-exhausted worker, the city could revisit its potential value and step up to future challenges.
akarta, Indonesia’s largest city and its political and economic hub, is located on the north-western coast of Java. The capital has one of the world’s highest rates of urbanization with more than 10 million inhabitants and a growth rate of 1.02 percent annually.
Greater Jakarta is home to more than 30 million inhabitants, about one-tenth of the total population of Indonesia, yielding one of the highest incomes per capita in Indonesia.
As the capital, the metropolitan area imposes massive pressure economically, socially and environmentally on all of its components.
“With great power comes great responsibility,” as Ben Parker once told his nephew Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man.
Naturally, Jakarta needs to fulfill its functions and develop according to global trends. However, with its double role as the country’s center point, the capital inevitably faces a burden: Instead of living up to its capacity, it also exploits its potential, risking its sustainability.
The current presidential vision to end Jakarta’s function as the capital could be seen as a potential retreat in an encouraging way: a very necessary retreat for the city and its citizens, that provides more space to breathe for Jakarta and Jakartans.
Such a retreat could allow Jakarta to become a social-economical-environmental capital to regenerate future development of the metropolis, to focus on healing the damage and improving the city’s resilience. Like an over-exhausted worker, the city could revisit its potential value and step up to future challenges.
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