PLEASE (DON'T) ENTER: A man ignores the "DO NOT ENTER" sign at Ayodya Park, formerly known as Barito market. The city administration fenced off the site after the eviction last January. (JP/R. Berto Wedhatama)

Besides the aesthetic and ecological aspects, public parks should also cater to the public needs, experts say.

A lecturer of landscape architecture at Trisakti University, Iwan Ismaun, said besides vegetation, a park should also have public facilities such as toilets, gazebos and other facilities matching the park's concept.

"It must benefit the surrounding community, including street vendors. The park should be able to improve their quality of life," Iwan told The Jakarta Post recently.

A similar opinion came from Iwan's university colleague, Yayat Supriatna, who said parks should be accessible to the community.

"Most parks (in the city) forbid informal activities, such as street vendors. But if we organize and empower them, the vendors can become the park's supporting activity," said Yayat.

Both experts agreed parks should serve as water catchment areas. They said this could be done without eliminating the social function of the park.

To allow for water catchment, Yayat explained a hybrid park could use a certain tree that absorbs more water or creates biopores. Iwan said a park's landscape should be permeable, including paved areas.

"We can make an elevated building on a park and leave the ground bare for water catchments and residents' activities," Iwan said.

However, Iwan said it would be hard to implement the concept because the city's administration has a different definition of green areas.

"The regulation stipulates a green zone should have vegetation, while we say a green zone should have elements and structures of nature, including water ways and fountains," he said.

The administration plans to increase the total green area in the city to 13.9 percent by 2010 from the current 9.6 percent.

Most of the greening programs include evictions and do not involve public participation. Officials say there are 16 evictions planned for this year, with a goal to clear 55,540 square meters of land for green areas.

Recently street vendors at Jl.Barito, South Jakarta were evicted. The administration said the vendors covered Ayodya Park and made it dirty.

Before being evicted, the vendors were part of a design for the area's revitalization.

The design, made by YP+A Design, a professional architecture firm, would not only give the park an open green area, but would provide space with recreational, educational and economic functions.

Yannes Pasaribu, a director of YP+A Design, said Ayodya Park was located in a traffic node and, therefore, had the potential to attract other vendors in the future.

Instead of evicting the market, he said, it is better to create a hybrid park, incorporating the economic activity within the ecological function.

"We could create a designed steel frame and glass structure, so the public can see through the market. We could also create several entrances to the park," Yannes told the Post recently.

According to him, many people were willing to finance their design because Barito market was famous abroad as an iconic flower market.

"Mixed-use park, or hybrid park, will give the community added value. Also, a park with a kiosk or a cafe will be much safer for residents to walk by at night than a park without activity," Iwan said.

However, the proposed design was rejected because the park agency head Sarwo Handayani said the park design should only have green open space and a lake, and no construction of any kind.

Yayat said the administration embraced the concept of a sterile park because of a trust issue. He said the administration did not trust the public's ability to maintain public parks.

In response to protests over limited public participation, the administration recently held a park design competition for Ayodya park.

The winner was Basuki Triwidodo, an alumnus from the school of landscape at the Trisakti University, followed by students from the school of architecture at the Bandung Institute of National Technology and students from the school of architecture at the Bandung Institute of Technology.

"We held the competition so people could contribute their ideas for the park. We want to raise their sense of ownership," an official at the Park Agency Alda Erythrina told the Post recently.

Alda explained the design for Ayodya Park would have to wait for further discussion before being implemented. It is possible for the agency to compile elements from participants' designs into a brand new design, she said.

The Park Agency will also hold design competitions for four other green areas in the city -- areas near Melati dam in Central Jakarta, BMW park in North Jakarta, Tebet green lane and Semanggi green belt in South Jakarta.

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