magpie vol 4

56 VOL 1. NOVEMBER 2012

travelpalette

Aside from the endearing real estate, Paternos-ter’s tiny filling station – two pumps planted in the ground – is perhaps the most eccentric of its many small-town quirks. As I step out of Pa-ternoster Express (coffee, matches, and damp firewood for sale), I wonder if there’s enough un-der the pump to supply the entire village for the necessary trips to the nearby commercial hub of Vredenburg. To satisfy a touristic appetite for the quaint and

the picturesque, Die Winkel op Paternoster (‘Oep ve Koep’, it informs) on St Augustine Street pro-vides visitors with preserves, marmalades, warm bread, glycerine soaps and overpriced lunch-eons. I wasn’t convinced, so I crossed the road towards the humbler Paternoster se Padstal, a makeshift trade-post covered in tarpaulin and net-ting, with buoys hung in rows like festive baubles. Inside, the smell is pretty unsophisticated. The

source, I saw, was the several bunches of bok-koms hanging from a string of tackle. The juvenile mullets, salted and tied by their tails, are a West Coast delicacy and source of steady income for fisherman in the area. Somehow, the smell doesn’t bother me. I find

myself inhaling.

BOKKOMS / a West Coast delicacy of salted mullets put out to dry in the wind. KONFYT (Afrikaans) / a jam or preserveOEP VE KOEP (Afrikaans) / open for businessPADKOS / snacks such as biltong, nuts or dried fruit eaten during a long car journeyPADSTAL / a farm-stall along a scenic route selling home-baked goods and local produce. TE KOOP (Afrikaans) / “for sale”STRANDLOPER / a term for the Khoisan hunter-gathers who once combed the West Coast beaches for seafood, bone and shells.

VOL 1. 57 NOVEMBER 2012

travelpalette

The West Coast keeps you out before it lets

you in.


SCAN

Visit our blog and learn how to salt your own bokkoms, West Coast stylewww.magpie.co.za

There’s a feeling of earnestness in the landscape as the anaemic sun struggles through the weather. Magenta dai-sies push themselves through neolithic granite, as if in de-fiance of the surrounding monochrome. The West Coast keeps you out before it lets you in. Winter affords one an escape from the gloss of tourism brochures gushing about the quaint and the picturesque. I didn’t come as a tour-ist, really. I came as a strandloper. I went in search of the sublime. As the weather changes, cloud formations begin to mimic

the reservoirs of rainwater that have gathered on the dirt roads and in the potholes. Telephone poles link together for kilometres. The hinterland is still, except for a few clock-like wind turbines. The next day, it rains again.

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THE GREAT

PADSTALS

1.Weskus Padstal, Yzerfontein

2.The Farmstall, Melkbosstrand

3.Vyge Valley Farmstall, R27 opposite

Jakkalsfontein

4.The Marmalade Cat, Darling

these road-side stalls with their homebakes and pastoral charm

are the perfect antidotes for highway trance

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IN THE NAME OFPROGRESSTHE POLITICS OF THE INNER-CITY REVAMP

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In 1853, civic planner Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann embarked on one of the most ambitious urban renewal projects in history. He would redesign Paris, reorganising its streets, rotating its facades and resituating its arrondise-

ments into the spiralled snail-shell seen on visitors’ maps today. This inclusive city plan would later become the fertile locus of Paris-ian society, both polite and bohemian. Railways were upgraded and new lines

laid down. The public transport system, while complex, was streamlined and effi-cient. There were public parks and court-yards and landmarks like the Palais-Garnier Opera House devoted to cultural enlightenment. Haussmann’s Paris launched an aesthetic

and social coup d’état, a vision that ush-ered the capital into modernity. The project transformed Paris into a city that was, by the Baron’s own standards, “worthy of Western civilisation.” He even had an eponymous Boulevard built in his honour to prove it.In recent years, Cape Town has been

showered with generous accolades: it played host to the 2010 Soccer World Cup. It won the coveted title of World Design Capital for 2014. Last year, Table Moun-

tain, the city’s natural compass and best-known landmark, was listed number five of the world’s seven natural wonders, placing the Cape Town onto bucket-lists, classroom curricula and pilgrimage itineraries every-where. But how does South Africa’s most popular

tourist destination and all-round pretty city live up to the laurels of compliments it ac-crues in both local and global press? Back in 1998 Tony Spencer-Smith, contrib-

uting editor for the Cape Argus, deplored the Central Business District’s ailing state: “When the south-easter is blowing, the churn and swirl of litter is like being caught in a giant washing machine which is failing to cope with its dirty load… As for night in most parts of the city centre, forget it. You expect to see Mad Max looking out of the bleak darkness.” In the years following the elections, the City

Centre ebbed into urban decay. Its natural amphitheatre slowly began to collapse in on itself like a sinkhole under torrential rain. After the corporate diaspora, tourists avoid-ed the city’s grimy streets and dexterous pickpockets. It was a barren post-struggle outback, starved of parking space and crippled by poor urban management and declining property value.

PARIS IS LEARNING: Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann’s progressive urban planning transformed the French capital into ‘the City of Light.’

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A designated bicycle lane intersects Bree Street, the first step towards boosting Cape Town to ‘cycling city’ status.

THE PEDDLING CITIES

A spirited bicycle culture in cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen (the Danish capital was named Union Cycliste Internationale’s inaugural Bike City of the Year in 2011) relieves congestion and reduces emissions. To promote utility cycling, renowned Danish design houses create bicycles for all purposes, while archi-tects plan cities equipped with two-wheel parking and designated cycling lanes. To show off its peddling ef-forts, Denmark tallies up the daily kilometres cycled by its commuters using an online meter.

Cape Town is beginning to show signs of a germinat-ing bike culture. Arterial cycling lanes zigzag across the City Bowl. The City’s World Car-Free Day initia-tive aims to “convince” motorists to leave their cars at home and catch a bus or train. “Current private car usage trends are unsustainable from both an envi-ronmental and urban development perspective,” said Brett Herron of the City’s Transport, Roads and Stom-water Committee.

Unlike Denmark, Cape Town still lacks a sophisti-cated enough infrastructure to include cycling in the broader transport system. The roads are more haz-ardous, with alarmingly high accident rates, the mu-tinous minibus taxis that are the cause of 10% of the country’s annual accident quota. “Bikers, cyclists and pedestrians are most vulnerable on the road,” said Western Cape Transport MEC Robin Carlisle.

URBAN RENEWAL PROJECTS in both the public and private sectors in the last decade are numerous and on-going. In response to the declining condition of the white-designated

City Centre in the late nineties, several coalitions came forth to devise a solution to the problem. The Central City Improvement District (CCID), a subsidiary of the Cape Town Partnership, was established in 2000 by residents and small businesses partnering with the Council to “rejuvenate” services and infra-structure in the City Bowl.

Commute to the City Bowl during the working week in 2012 and you’ll notice tall yellow cranes swivelling across the sky-line, evidence of an estimated R3-billion investment scheme currently under way in the City Centre. According to CCID chair Rob Kane, the current property boom financed by a host of corporate investors, including Old Mutual and FirstRand’s joint R1.6 billion office renovations, is transforming the CBD into an emerging “commercial hub.”

RACE TO THE CITYThe nineties was a decade of social upheaval for central Cape Town. More motorists began using cars in the city centre, causing congestion and rapid urban decay. Ac-cording to the City’s census records there was a sudden influx of immigrants to Cape Town’s inner city, contribut-ing to 58% of the population growth in the latter half of the decade.

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CLICK www.bicyclecapetown.org


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The Greenpoint Urban Park, which opened to the public in January 2011, is modelled after London’s

Mile End Park.

hydro-powered turbines to generate electricity for

the Park

a biodiversity garden with over 300 species from Cape’s fynbos

floral kingdom

a MyCiti park-and-ride stop

water-saving toilet facilities

recycling bins throughout

cycling, and jogging routes

outdoor exercise equipment

sustainability check-list

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For meat-loving diners who don’t mind sharing their side of Portia’s Sticky Chicken Wings, Africa Cafe in the central city is a true site of exchange. Their communal feast in the traditions of Xhosa, Zulu and Ndebele cuisine guarantees a healthy mix of sugar and spice.

108 Shortmarket Street,Heritage Square021 422 0221

Tamboers Winkel features a communal dining table modelled on childhood memories of the owner’s own farm kitchen. The idea is to enjoy traditional South African farm cooking while striking up conversations with friendly strangers.

De Lorenz Street, off Kloof021 424 0521

SITES OF EXCHANGE

Humans, a highly social and somewhat cautious species, are drawn to enclaves of warmth and comradeship. We slip into galleries, cluster around Middle Eastern street vendors selling poppadums, peruse food markets blooming with fresh produce and linger outside populous foundries, coffee houses, squares, pubs and plazas. Instinctually, we avoid gloomy alley-ways and sites of dereliction.

Today’s sites of exchange are imperative to a city’s social and trade econ-omy. Most cafes offer Wi-Fi, so although we may be enjoying our cappucci-no solo, we’re never alone. The connectivity allows patrons to conduct busi-ness, networking and conference calls in an environment far more casual than a stuffy boardroom. Cape Town, while perhaps not as coffee-centric as Paris, is historically a site of exchange, a refreshment station for spice traders en-route to the Far East.

Today, the city plays host to diplomacy and public dialogue in its many re-cesses. Embassies, museums and the Edwardian-style City Hall, the tradi-tional venue for the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra. Communal dining, such as Africa Cafe in Shortmarket Street, is founded on the principle of ubuntu. Exhibitions and conferences at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, open-mic jazz sessions and industry brainstorms provide venues of cultural dialogue. It is upon these microcosms of human experience that the Cape Town Partnership bases its well-marketed slogan of inclusivity.

Creative Mornings Cape Town at the Upper East Side Hotel, Woodstock hosts a monthly breakfast-time lecture free of

charge.

RSVP

www.creativemornings.com

THE SHARE FACTORParisian cafe society is the most famous example of urban com-munity. Cafes in Haussmann’s

Paris, with their brown-gravy interiors and blithe chequered table cloths, were fragrant co-

coons of intellectual debate and free thought. An accommodat-ing bohemian culture of cheap drinks and unabashed politics developed, concerned not with

profit-making but with the pollina-tion of music, art and literature in

European metropoles.

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A DOSE OF FRESH AIR

Public parks and greenbelts are essential for engagement with a city. These leafy commons highlight the importance of fresh air for office-bound city dwellers, providing space for edu-cation, events and exercise. Greenbelts like the 16.5-hectare Green Point Urban Park (with its appeal of free entrance and clean toilets) allow organic linkage between man-made structures, making movement in cities more fluid. The Park, formerly the Green Point Common, is widely thought of as the city’s first soccer field, making it an important gathering point for spectators dur-ing the 2010 World Cup.

Public gardens, with their literary grandeur and lateral topography evoke the intellectual stimu-lation of those who frequent them. Here, visitors enjoy the rare use of all five senses. The sensory and aesthetic pleasures on a stroll down Gov-ernment Avenue are numerous. The clip-clop of mounted security, the scent of the Company’s roses, the taste of candy-floss, the vision of co-lonial architecture and the whoosh of wings of frantic pigeons add therapeutic value to stretch-ing one’s legs.

A well-planned city is good for the collective psyche. People are happier when traffic lights are working, public fountains clean and streets litter-free. Paved surfaces disconnect people from their natural surroundings. This is why the city of Philadelphia, USA, is actively ‘depaving’ parts of its urban centre in an effort to reintroduce citizens to the sensation of grass.

During the Soccer

World Cup, the City of Cape Town channeled

R13-billion into new infrastructure such as transport and public

spaces.

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magpie vol 4

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konfyt afrikaans

te koop afrikaans

humbler paternoster

weskus padstal

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