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Overhaul urban institutions
- The city government should be overhauled
- Urban institutions should be restructured
- A good city is produced by good codes
- Where is the city father who will give us a Dhaka we deserve?
The bottom line is Dhaka can never transform itself without a political will. The deadly combination of a lack of such a will to better the city and the ineptitude of existing urban institutions makes Dhaka what it is. The institutions empowered to manage the city have failed most miserably in their role. In fact, much of the woes of the city can be traced back to the corrupt chambers of these institutions. Everyone knows that but nothing is done. The present structure and method of operation of these urban institutions will not produce anything productive and progressive for Dhaka. If we really desire a better city, all those dysfunctional and diseased institutions should be thoroughly overhauled, transformed, or even disbanded if need be, and new effective organisations put into place. Above all we need a mayor who loves his or her city dearly and wishes to see it bloom, and not someone whose idea of development is to legally vandalise the city by sponsoring mindless markets and tottering over-bridges. We need a Teddy Kollek who transformed a sleepy Jersusalem into a modern city, a Rudy Guiliani who changed dreary parts of New York to an upbeat one, a Jaime Lerner who proved that the fate of any city can be turned around. Why not get Jaime Lerner to run Dhaka for a year as an honorary mayor?
Next to institutions, a good city is produced by good codes and sound laws. Codes should be creatively put together; they should also be flexible and adaptable to changes. They should be written with area and use particularity, and not enforced indiscriminately.