Is Joburg a World-Class City?

This has been a hot topic in Joburg lately. I thought I would toss my two cents in.

It all started when the City of Johannesburg initiated an advertising campaign essentially claiming that Joburg is a world-class city. A Joburg resident, Steven Haywood, took exception to this description and challenged the city's claim lodging a complaint with the South African Advertising Authority.

Wits University

The straw that broke the camel's back apparently for Mr. Haywood was one particular tenet proposed by the local marketing officials. The city claimed Joburg had defied economic recession by creating new jobs. Mr. Haywood argued that the promotion contained blatant untruths and was at the very least misleading. He was specifically referring to the part of the radio advertisement that urged listeners to "Imagine a city where you can rest assured knowing that it is financially stable; that there is ongoing electrification of homes. A city that is saving the environment through different energy-efficient interventions. A city that continues to create new jobs despite the economic downturn. Can you imagine living in such a city? You do." 

Haywood stated that the city's finances had received three consecutive qualified audits, authorities were struggling to repair roads and rubbish was often left uncollected. The unemployment rate in Johannesburg in 2012 was 24.5%, with most of its young people out of work. The Advertising Authority agreed and ruled that the commercial should be withdrawn immediately "in its current form". It ruled that the commercial "communicates a misleading message about the overall well-being of the respondent", i.e. the city of Joburg.

Nelson Mandela Bridge

Even if the campaign was misleading and the particular claim was deemed false, I am still not sure if it necessarily disqualifies Joburg from claiming it is a world-class city. Even at the height of New York's fiscal woes in the 70's when it was crime-ridden and on the brink of bankruptcy, New York was still a world-class city.

But it did get me thinking. What does it actually mean to be a world-class city anyway? World-class is one of those nebulous and highly subjective descriptions whose definition totally depends on who you ask. Like beauty, world-class is in the eye of the beholder. Googling the phrase there was no shortage of cities claiming the title and opinionists giving their definitions and putting forth their candidates. An unofficial survey of the many opinions available online provided the following short list:

Europe: London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Barcelona, Vienna, Amsterdam, Istanbul, Prague, Athens
the Americas: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Ciudad de México
Asia: Tokyo, Shanghai, Singapore, Beijing, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Istanbul
Australia/Oceania: Sydney, Melbourne
Africa: Johannesburg, Cape Town, Cairo

night skyline

Some of them are undeniably world-class. Paris. New York. London. Tokyo. Jerusalem. Hong Kong. Moscow. No question. Some of them I am not so sure belong. Barcelona? Amsterdam? Chicago? Melbourne? Singapore? Great cities for sure, but world-class? And what about San Francisco?

So I asked myself, what is it about a world-class city like New York that definitely puts it on everyone's list.

Well first of all, New York is a great destination for tourists as well as immigrants. People desire to go there and to move there. It celebrates a unique cultural heritage. It has a breadth of world class performing arts institutions such as opera, ballet, music and theater. But more than that, it has an intellectual society that feeds the creative culture. And it has an intelligentsia who demands it be there and supports it financially.

New York has museums with collections of old world masters as well as a plethora of contemporary art galleries. It also has unsanctioned street and sanctioned public art. There are festivals and parades and holiday decorations. The inhabitants have sartorial flair. They care about fashion and they frequently lead the pack on that score or at the very least direct traffic.

Apartheid Museum

There is political intrigue and strong opinion and there are newspapers to report on it. Its city government and its Mayor are important in a larger sense. Their influence transcends their jurisdiction. New Yorkers have a collective sense of humor. They are funny. There are institutions of higher learning, world class universities and research institutes, teaching hospitals and think tanks. They have had some world-class crimes and criminals. They have had world-class heroes and social champions.

New York has inspiring houses of worship, cathedrals, synagogues, mosques, temples, and cultural societies. There are remarkable public parks and green spaces. People are in them all the time enjoying themselves. New York is on water, several rivers and a bay. There is commerce as well as sport on them.

There are filthy rich people who conspicuously consume. There are have-nots who aspire to be filthy rich someday. This is important because it means the city is alive and aspirational. It has a vibrancy. It has a vibe. There are ethnic and immigrant enclaves such as Chinatown, Little Italy, Little Brazil, Little India. There are world-class and Michelin-starred restaurants and a vibrant bar scene where the bartenders can make a decent cocktail. A late night and after-hours club scene. The city is beautiful at night.

A world-class city must have at least one major league sports team. Preferably more than one to provide a healthy competition. And more than one sport. New York is rich beyond compare in this category. It is home to a Grand Slam Tennis Tournament (that's my criterion).

Kippies Jazz Club in Newtown

There are historic monuments, districts and heritage architecture. There are new ground-breaking buildings and there's constant urban renewal. Some of the architecture is iconic, easily identifiable with the city and unique. NYC is walkable and has an extensive public transportation system. It is a place that draws world leaders and political decision makers. It is an economic and financial player. It has world-class shopping from flea markets to Madison Avenue.

I realized as I was enumerating my list that it really is more of a description of a "western" world-class city. I am not sure if any African city can ever really qualify on all of them especially when it comes to having a world-class opera and ballet company or museum filled with western art. Those are not really an intrinsic part of a non-western native culture. And Joburg is particularly challenged on the water criterion. It was built on a river of gold, not water. So I am willing to cut Joburg - and the rest of Africa - a little slack and consider other criteria.

When doing research on how other people define world-class, I found some pretty interesting - albeit unusual - possible other criteria put forth by bloggers and other opinionists to consider, like ...

• Jews, ... Joburg's got 'em, always had 'em ...
• Irish pubs, ... Joburg's got shebeens ...
• a place the Pope would want to visit, ... Well, the last Pope came in 1995, but we still have Archbishop Tutu .... and my favorite candidate criterion, 
• a high percentage of beautiful women ... Joburg's absolutely got 'em!

This last guy may be on to something. His suggestion is very similar to the Babe Theory which PJ O'Rourke uses to determine if a movement or a fad will be successful. Mr. O'Rourke proposed The Babe Theory in his 1991 book Parliament of Whores to explain why the Housing Now! movement was a bust. He said,

"... there were hardly any beautiful women at the [Housing Now!] rally. I saw a journalist friend of mine in the Mall, and he and I purused this line of inquiry as assiduously as our happy private lives allow. Practically every female at the march was a bowser. "We're not being sexist here," my friend insisted. "It's not that looks matter per se. It's just that beautiful women are always on the cutting edge of social trends. Remember how many beautiful women were in the anti-war movement twenty years ago? In the yoga classes fifteen years ago? At the discos ten years ago? On Wall Street five years ago? Where the beautiful women are is where the country is headed," said my friend. "And this," he looked around him, "isn't it."

It may be just that simple. According to Mr. O'Rourke one just needs to look for the babes, and that's where the social action will be, that's where the successful movements will be. And maybe even the world-class cities? Let's face it, it's just as good a criterion as the ones I proposed.

Anyway, I do think at the very least Joburg would qualify as a world-class African city. And if it continues along the path it is currently on revitalizing its downtown and cultivating the arts, there will soon be no need for the "African" qualifier. But that's just my opinion. Don't sue me over it.