Not just numbers: Why our cities are so messed up

It was late night. The roads were completely empty, with not a soul in sight. Suddenly a sports car raced into view. From my perch on the balcony, I saw it screech to a halt. The traffic light was red. The driver patiently waited for it to turn green before racing off again.

At this point, I might have run after the car in a vain attempt to bestow a medal and a certificate on the driver for observing traffic rules, if this event had occurred in Mumbai. Since it was in Christchurch, New Zealand, where everyone follows the rules at all times of day and night, I merely marveled at the strange occurrence and went to bed muttering “Why, why, was there a traffic camera ”

For the past few days, following my return from New Zealand, I have been counting the number of wrongly-parked vehicles I encounter between my home in Bandra and office in Wadala. The count starts from the moment I step out on the road, and carries on all the way. Usually, I find at least 10 cars en route with drivers sitting inside, parked at awkward spots with their tail-lights blinking. Traffic backs up a long way because of these idiots, as an entire lane is blocked at a critical spot, but the drivers — who often appear to be the owners of the long sedans they are driving — do not seem to care. They are wealthy, literate, well-dressed barbarians.

It is because of a combination of inadequate infrastructure and more inadequate civic sense that our cities are the way they are. It takes a little trip to a country like New Zealand to remember that it is possible for cities to be clean, tidy, organised spaces with seas that you can swim in without risking horrible skin diseases, and rivers you can drink from, unlike, say , the infamous Mithi River, whose water even even a mad dog would not ingest.

Nature has been kind to New Zealand. The country is beautiful, with green rolling hills, pretty streams, golden sand beaches, and an abundance of marine species in the seas that surround it. But here’s the thing: Nature was kinder to India. We messed it up, big time.

The sheer variety of natural landscapes in Maharashtra itself is stunning, to say nothing about its immense wealth of flora and fauna. Heck, we still have leopards in Borivali and crocodiles in Powai lake! However, we’ve failed to find a way to coexist happily, profitably and sustainably with this abundance.

There’s an old fable about a man who found a hen that laid one golden egg every day. The greedy fellow was in a hurry to get all the eggs at once, and so, cut the hen open, to find that there were no eggs at all. Collectively, we are like that fool.

Everyone is in a hurry to make a quick buck, by whatever means. Since we have an overabundance of laws, the bucks can usually only be made by breaking some rule or other.

Everyone is also hustling to save a few seconds of their time by jumping a red light, or parking at the door of the shop they need to buy from, with no concern for anyone else.

We get used to this kind of behaviour, but we should not. If we want things to get better, we must push for a higher standard of civic behaviour.

The starting point for this is perhaps in inculcating a culture of respect for civic laws.

That is impossible as long as political parties play the populist card by endlessly regularising encroachments, thus encouraging lawlessness and land grabs.

We are a poor country with a vast population; we need to provide spaces for poor people to live and work in our cities. This should be done, not via land-grabs and subsequent regularizations in lieu of votes, but by planned development and strict implementation of rules. Obviously, no rule can be implemented if every rule is merely an excuse for extortion, meaning that you can flout any rule by paying a bribe.

So we’re stuck, not because we can’t make things better, but because we won’t.

India is easily capable of creating public infrastructure of the best global standards. Take Mumbai’s new international airport terminal, for instance. It’s fancy. Why can’t Dadar station be a cheaper, more robust version of that Why do the flower sellers and vegetable vendors have to spill out onto Tulsi Pipe road day after day, year after year, without any government body being able to find a place for them An airport “duty free” kind of architecture that allocates space to shops at railway stations would surely serve their needs, and get them off the roads. And why do vehicles have to be piled up two deep on the side of the road, choking it completely Why can’t we build proper parking lots at all busy spots

For the city to be able to implement these simple and doable fixes, the mindset must evolve from jugaad and passing the buck to lasting solutions and cooperation across departments.

The slums, traffic snarls, filthy rivers and polluted seas, that we have are eventually expressions of the corruption and moral backwardness of our society. They are not the results of poverty or population alone. They are the results of endemic corruption and failures of governance at all levels from the municipal to the national, going back decades.

Take building laws, for example. Our cities have such laws, much like cities in countries around the world. The difference is that here even the safety laws are seen as impediments to be skirted. It’s like the rule that says we should wear seat belts and helmets. In our great country, we tend to do so only if the traffic policeman is visible in the near distance.

In 2011, Christchurch was hit by two strong earthquakes. The second was particularly severe, as the epicentre of the quake lay right under the city's central business district. One big building fell. A total of 185 people died.

Between 2011 and now, at least three big buildings have collapsed in and around Mumbai just on their own. More than 140 people died. I shudder to imagine what might happen if a strong earthquake hits Mumbai.

I hear our city is hosting the BRICS Cities Conclave this week. Exchanging notes with those big boys is surely helpful, but to learn how to make safe, livable cities, we may need to take a few notes from smaller cities such as Christchurch and Auckland in New Zealand, and Zurich and Geneva in Switzerland.

Forget the differences in size. Not every Indian city is as big and crowded as Mumbai. India has many small cities with populations the size of an Auckland or Zurich. Show me one that is half as livable. There is none. India has no city in the top 100 list of most livable cities in the world.

If our small cities are as messed up as our big cities, obviously size is merely an excuse to hide our failings. Merely saying "We are great, we are great" does not make anyone great. Acknowledging shortcomings and fixing them does.