He has made some notable changes and improvements to Indonesia's capital, but despite his best efforts, some problems persist.

A recent survey conducted by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), published earlier this month, revealed that 51 percent of respondents familiar with the issue – comprising researchers, lecturers, bureaucrats and councilors – were not satisfied with Anies' performance as governor.

Several indicators received low satisfaction scores from the surveyed observers, including employment, environment and housing crisis issues. On the other hand, they believed Anies has done well in increasing living wages in the capital and improving the city's transportation system.

These findings are in contrast to a similar survey performed by the Populi Center earlier this year, which suggested that 86 percent of Jakarta residents were satisfied with Anies' leadership.

The outgoing governor received exceptionally good scores on his COVID-19 response, Jakarta's health insurance scheme and his efforts to provide more open green spaces.

Similar to the observers’ opinions in the CSIS poll, public respondents in the Populi survey said Anies failed to properly address employment and housing issues through the flagship Jakpreneur entrepreneurship program  – previously named OK OCE – and zero percent down-payment housing scheme.

Anies promised in his 2017 campaign to create 200,000 new entrepreneurs through training and access to financial assistance. But by the end of 2021, only some 6,000 of about 283,000 entrepreneurs registered in the program have received financial aid.

As for the housing program, Anies has so far built 967 subsidized apartment units for low-income families, far below the target of about 232,000 apartment units.

He also changed the program’s eligibility criteria, making the units available to potential buyers earning up to Rp 14.8 million (US$996.7) instead of up to Rp 7 million, casting doubt over his intent to keep his promise to the city’s low earners.

Congestion and pollution

Anies has taken various noteworthy steps to tackle Jakarta's persistent traffic problems and resulting air pollution, including by significantly expanding Jakarta's bike lane networks and building the city's first protected cycling lanes last year.

In the past four years, Jakarta has constructed 103.5 kilometers of bike lanes and is currently seeking to build another 195.6 km cycling route before the end of the year.

Despite these development, Jakarta still falls short of being considered a bicycle-friendly city, according to Julius Caesar, a 46-year-old office worker from Kebayoran Lama, South Jakarta, who cycles daily to his office on Jl. Sudirman, also in South Jakarta.

"There were some improvements during Anies' term. However, cyclists still don't feel safe and comfortable using the 11 km protected bike lanes along Jl. Sudirman as motorcycles also drive along the dedicated cycling lanes," said Julius, who is a member of Bike to Work (B2W) Indonesia community.

"To make matters worse, some bike lanes are often used for car parking."

Anies' efforts to address severe congestion and air pollution also extended to expanding Jakarta's bus rapid transit (BRT) system, reaching his target of providing more than 80 percent of Jakartans with access to bus stops within 500 meters’ walking distance from residential areas.

In early 2019, Jakarta launched the country’s first-ever modern subway system, MRT Jakarta, which helped increase the capital's public transportation ridership from around 180 million in 2017, when Anies took office, to 280 million in 2019.

Roadway congestion levels have also improved significantly. In 2017, Jakarta was the fourth-most congested city in the world, according to Dutch location technology company TomTom. It ranked seventh in 2018 and 10^th the following year.

The number of vehicles on Jakarta's streets then plummeted in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. But traffic has largely returned to pre-pandemic levels and subsequently, the city's air quality has worsened in recent months after COVID-19 curbs were eased to their lowest level.

Flood mitigation

Wisnu Tri Wibowo, a 27-year-old app-based ride-hailing driver living in a flood-prone area in Cengkareng, West Jakarta, said flooding in his neighborhood had worsened in recent years under Anies' watch.

"Recently, every time we get heavy rain, the roads and alleys in my neighborhood become inundated by ankle-deep water; this has never happened before," Wisnu said on Wednesday.

He noted that the problem stemmed from an overwhelmed drainage system in his neighborhood, especially following the expansion of the nearby Pesakih low-cost apartments in 2018.

He said wastewater from the city-owned apartments flowed through the sewage network in his neighborhood, putting an extra burden on the system that is already struggling to cope with the increasing rainfall due to climate change.

A report last year by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) described flood control in Jakarta as "directionless and ineffective".

The report suggested that Anies' administration had not done enough to increase the capacity of rivers, canals and reservoirs to prevent flooding, with the agency finding rampant illegal structures built along riverbank areas. the BPK said the city had failed to properly manage reservoirs and carry out sufficient efforts to acquire land to create more open green spaces to help absorb rainwater.

Anies' river “naturalization” project, which aimed to transform riverbanks into green spaces to mitigate floods, has stalled for the past few years because of land-procurement issues.

By law, houses cannot be built within 50 meters of a water's edge. But due to a lack of enforcement, illegal dwellings encroach many of Jakarta's riverbanks.

Anies, who pledged not to carry out any forced evictions during his election campaign, has shifted his flood-mitigation priorities to constructing thousands of vertical drainage holes to prevent inundation in the capital.

He aims to construct 1.8 million drainage holes before his term ends in October but fewer than 4,000 have been drilled so far.