Cape Town - Six thousand kilograms of cigarette butts, 5 475kg of dirt from drains, 4 745 illegal posters, 1 825 rat bait boxes and 365 tons of landfill waste – this is what the Central City Improvement District removes each year to keep the Cape Town CBD clean.
It also issues more than 18 000 fines, makes 2 190 arrests and gets involved in 58 000 crime prevention initiatives during this time to make the inner city safe for residents and businesses.
If this top-up service stopped, the effect on the CBD would be staggering, said CCID chief executive Rob Kane. It was through its partnership with the city to provide basic services, that the inner city could retain its reputation for being safe and clean.
Now in its 15th year, the CCID is working hard to meet its mandate of getting rid of crime and grime in the inner city – and its efforts are paying off.
A huge investment of more than R2 billion on the Foreshore – with the expansion of the Cape Town International Convention Centre and the new Christiaan Barnard Hospital – has contributed to the revitalisation of the area.
Speaking at the CCID’s annual meeting on Monday night, Kane said the overall property value in the city had risen by nearly 400 percent from R6.1bn in 2005 to R23.6bn this year.
The annual sales of the residential sector had doubled in the past two years, from R115 million in 2011 to R249m last year.
A retail survey by the CCID revealed that only 24 percent of businesses reported a drop in trade, down from 49 percent in 2009.
“We’re very excited about the next five years, particularly if you look back at how the central city has grown in just the past five.”
The CCID, which was started in 2000 by local property owners wanting to attract investment by paying for top-up services, is also expanding. It will soon break ties with its managing agent, the Cape Town Partnership, and move into its own offices. Kane said that since the mandate of the CCID had changed, so had its spatial needs.
The CCID has also submitted its next five-year implementation plan to the City of Cape Town, and if approved it would take effect in January.
Kane said the CBD’s visitor economy supported 4 600 hotel beds in 57 establishments, while the 269 000m2 of retail space in the inner city was at a 94 percent occupancy rate.
The CCID’s security officers, a familiar sight on the streets, reportedly help people in some way at least five times a day. They are also involved in six arrests on average, issue 70 warnings and deal with at least one illegal trading offence each day.
The CCID’s cleansing operations teams have their hands full keeping the city free of litter, and in one day can remove up to 17kg of cigarette butts from 270 bins. About 15kg of dirt is collected daily from 42 municipal drains, and a ton of waste is taken to a landfill every day.
Its social development team helps at least one adult or child living on the streets daily, and in the past year referred 111 adults to shelters.
The CCID’s area stretches from Buitensingel Street to Table Bay Boulevard, and from Canterbury Street to Buitengracht.
The central city hosted 661 events in the past year – an average of two a day – attracting more than 1.3 million people.
Kane said the World Design Capital 2014 title had had a significant impact, particularly on the East Precinct where there was renewed interest in property from smaller, creative industries. It had also encouraged more creative uses of inner-city spaces, including the commissioning of artists such as Faith47, for public artworks.
Cape Argus