Boring cities are excellent cities. By that I mean that cities which focus on a variety of factors that contribute to housing affordability, public safety, good schools across the board, and sound public services along with an enabling business environment are those that will likely be the most successful cities.
This is important to say, as the temptation for city leaders across the world is to mimic “superstar” cities with hip and trendy neighbourhoods that are the darlings of magazines and media reports. Maboneng in Johannesburg was one such district, universally lauded and praised and endlessly fawned over by everyone from politicians to international lifestyle magazines and TV shows to the hipster crowd. But it was an area which eventually folded, because city officials chose to bask in its short-lived sunlight, instead of using the publicity to potentially attract investment while getting the basics of public safety, affordability, good schools and sound public services up and running.
I think it is also worth saying that these superstar places and their attendant affordability issues are why much of the developed world is going through a demographic crisis. Those places are great for hip and fashionable 20- and 30-somethings, but what about people who want to buy homes, which are usually a prerequisite for family formation?
What about those young people who aren’t earning elevated STEM incomes and want affordable homes with proximity to good schools and amenities, where their incomes aren’t swallowed up by local taxes that keep shiny superstar cities papering over their deficiencies and poor policy choices?
No coincidence
It is no coincidence that Sunbelt cities in America are enjoying a renaissance, as are places like Boise, Idaho which are getting an influx of Californian millennials tired of high prices, taxes, poor public services and crime. Even cities thought to be part of dying regions such as Cincinnati, Minneapolis, and Des Moines are benefiting from positive in-state migration, while battling disadvantages around their arctic winters, due to the affordability of housing, vibrant local job markets, and good school districts.
Even Minneapolis’s blunders around policing after the murder of George Floyd have not dampened the overall outlook in the Twin Cities metro region. All of this is to simply say that places that have focused on the basics are reaping the rewards of positive net migration, while even some superstar cities like San Francisco and Chicago are haemorrhaging.
So, what lessons can we learn for South African cities?
Good schools
It is clear that one of the main deficiencies in our country and especially in our cities is a dearth of good education. This is not a problem of financing, as education expert, Nic Spaull, has often noted in the past. South Africa spends almost a fifth of the national budget on education, which is twice as much as countries like Spain, Japan, and France. This ends up amounting to an average of about R1,600 per month, per pupil, in the public education system. This compares favourably with the prices fed-up parents are paying for low-fee private education in areas where there aren’t former Model C schools
The question is which political party will be brave enough to truly take on the unions and other special interests, and advocate for carefully-designed pilot school voucher programmes that allow both private for-profit providers and non-profit groups to compete for education rands? I think it is safe to assume that parents generally care more about their own children’s futures than bureaucrats ever will. Designing a system where poor and working-class parents have the same or similar choices as those of middle- and upper-middle income parents is a profound social good.
This is why it is not surprising to me that cities in sunbelt regions and in middle America (like Kansas) that have positive net migration have shown the most willingness to go against teacher unions and institute charter school eco-systems, with promising results for children of colour especially.
This education pipeline should be extended to higher education, where cities with universities that prioritize getting good outcomes in STEM fields especially, like Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, have found companies following where the talent is. Pittsburgh, by the way, is also incredibly affordable for a city, with a vibrant job market. It has been able to transform itself from a steel town to a diversified economy especially in tech and healthcare.
While South Africa itself is stymied by its over-centralized bureaucratic structures, city leaders should really be working with universities to prioritize much-needed skills that correspond with local job markets, and should aim to attract global investment.
Housing affordability
While I realise that I am entering the realm of speculation, it is instructive that despite the City of Cape Town’s excellent public services compared with the rest of South Africa, the city has become wildly unaffordable (much like cities in developed nations where there is a severe dislocation between local incomes and housing prices). This presents a structural danger to the city’s future economic growth, should a city region like Nelson Mandela Bay, for example, actually vote in competent city management who will turn it around.
Middle-income (family) housing is critical for a city’s long-term resilience, because young families are on average the highest-spending and most stable demographic in any economy. They contribute to demand for good (public) amenities and for a variety of services provided by private businesses.
As much as I personally love Cape Town, it would be disingenuous if I did not admit (as a card-carrying member of the DA too) that Cape Town’s success is largely down to the fact that every other major metro is run like a useless fiefdom by often wildly corrupt and incompetent people. The housing crisis is not really hurting Cape Town yet because every other place is run so poorly.
Opportunity zones
Another clearly-needed intervention is the turning of our townships into opportunity zones run by the private sector, where business formation is rewarded with a deregulated business environment with tax incentives, and where beyond basic worker protections, unions are basically shut out of using minimum wage laws and collective bargaining agreements.
People who hate this should note that jobs close to unemployed people are better than R350 grants (unnecessary drains on the fiscus) and military-aged men with nothing to do all day and no to very little income. And the horrible social and crime consequences that come with that.
In short, good cities are a lot like a good marriage partner: steady, reliable, consistent and what may be considered boring, for people who haven’t yet fully matured.
What South Africa needs more of is good cities that get those basics right, because ultimately our lived experience in this country is largely determined by competence and non-corruption in our local governments.
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.
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