JAKARTA: Many Jakarta residents are urging the city administration to expand green open spaces, saying the capital lacks affordable public places to relax and socialise beyond shopping malls.
Public demand for more parks comes as Jakarta’s green open spaces remain insufficient, covering just 5.59 per cent of the city’s total area as of April, well below the 20 per cent target set under the 2007 Spatial Planning Law.
For many residents, the shortage is most evident on weekends and holidays, when public parks are crowded and affordable leisure options remain scarce.
Almost every weekend, Rizaldi, a 31-year-old office worker from Tangerang, Banten, travels to the capital to meet friends in parks as a low-cost form of recreation amid mounting economic pressures, including a weakening rupiah and rising prices of basic goods.
His preferred spot is the Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) complex in Central Jakarta, where he can sit on the grass, drink coffee and spend hours socialising without spending much money. Still, he said choices remain limited, noting that Jakarta lags behind many global cities in providing accessible public open spaces.
“Many public spaces are located in malls, where people are expected to spend a lot of money,” Rizaldi told The Jakarta Post on Monday (June 22).
Aulia Nadhira, a 28-year-old Jakarta resident, acknowledged some improvements were made in green spaces across the capital in recent years. However, she noted that many of them are privately managed and not always affordable or equally accessible to the public, despite rising demand for outdoor leisure areas.
“Jakartans are starved of greenery,” she said. “That’s why semi-outdoor cafes are always crowded nowadays.”
Deputy Governor Rano Karno has said expanding green open spaces is among the city administration’s priorities, highlighting the issue during a plenary session of the Jakarta Legislative Council marking the city’s 499th anniversary on Monday.
Meanwhile, city officials say efforts to increase green coverage are already underway. Jakarta Parks and Urban Forest Agency head Fajar Sauri said the administration has pursued various strategies, including requiring developers to provide green areas in housing and commercial projects, converting idle government land into parks, and transforming riverbanks and spaces under toll roads into green areas.
The initiative is aimed not only at expanding recreational space but also at reducing urban heat caused by dense concentrations of concrete and asphalt, he added.
“Over the past year, around 257 hectares of green space have been added, showing the administration’s commitment to expanding public green areas,” Fajar told the Post.
However, urban planning experts say progress remains insufficient. Urban planning expert from Trisakti University, Yayat Supriatna, said green space once covered around 30 to 40 per cent of Jakarta in the 1960s, but decades of rapid urban expansion have significantly reduced this.
“Given Jakarta’s rapid population growth since the 1970s, housing development should have shifted to vertical living long ago,” Yayat said.
“It may be too late now [for Jakarta to fully restore its green spaces].”
Another expert separately said “stronger political will” is needed to enforce regulations requiring adequate open space between buildings, warning that current efforts remain “insignificant” in impact. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
