U

rban activists all over Indonesia have raised concerns that their cities are becoming more and more like Jakarta with their high-rise buildings and shopping centers and they say this is not necessarily a good thing.

An urban planner with Tanjungpura University, Mira S. Lubis, recently said on the sidelines of a discussion on a bill on urban issues that the physical development of Pontianak, as well as that of other smaller neighboring cities, is similar to Jakarta'€™s.

'€œThe cities look the same. We have the same malls with the same franchise stores,'€ she said.

Mira said the city administration in Pontianak still considered Jakarta as a good reference on how a city should be developed.

'€œThey do not realize that Jakarta, with its urban issues, is not a good example at all,'€ she said.

Mira said that although the population of Pontianak was only around 600,000, the problems were similar with Jakarta, only on a different scale.

'€œUrban sprawl is a worrying problem now. Pontianak is like a magnet for people in West Kalimantan who are looking for jobs or establishing businesses,'€ she said.

Mira said residential land was expanding rapidly while the needed infrastructure was remaining far from adequate.

According to the urban planner, traffic jams have become a major issue as public transportation is not well developed, while residents must travel farther because of the urban sprawl.

Mira said that luckily local leaders like outgoing Jakarta Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo and Surabaya Mayor Tri '€œRisma'€ Rismaharani had inspired many Pontianak residents to pay attention more to
their city.

'€œA number of urban communities have now been founded with various positive activities,'€ she said.

The same concern was also delivered by Adin, the director of the community laboratory Hysteria in Semarang. '€œUniformity becomes the problem of almost all cities in Indonesia,'€ he said.

Adin said it was important for the city to have an identity, so the residents had the sense of belonging to it.

Hysteria has held many urban-themed events like art festivals, discussions, exhibitions and movie screenings involving the residents in order to encourage them to explore their city more.

'€œThe activities are aimed at making them acknowledge their own environment. So, they will be more aware,'€ he said.

Adin said the activities have so far brought positive effects to the residents in that they have become more united. '€œSome of the residents even initiate their own activities without our supervision,'€ he said.

Erlin Goentoro, a program manager of Ayo Rek, a media platform that gathers information about Surabaya and its residents, said many Surabayans now feel proud of their city, especially when comparing its condition with Jakarta.

'€œThey are quite chauvinist. During an interview, many of them compared the city with Jakarta, saying that Surabaya is cleaner and greener,'€ she said.

She said, however, that the development of Surabaya was similar with Jakarta with its shopping
centers.

'€œThe theme of a Surabaya visit is even '€˜mall tourism'€™,'€ she said, adding that the development was quite worrying as there was even an area that had four malls in a row.

Erlin said Ayo Rek helped outsiders as well as Surabaya residents get to know their city '€” other than
the malls.

'€œWe have many potential tourist spots, like historical kampungs and cultural institutions,'€ she said.