Lockdown and the city: the dawn of new CID practices

Abstract

This research report investigates how the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown have impacted City Improvement District management in the City of Johannesburg. CIDs in the CoJ are currently under voluntary status which means that they must rely on the goodwill of the constituents in their areas. The lockdown has required people to work from home bringing to question whether there is a need for CID management if the properties that enlist their services won’t be benefitting from their cleaning and security services during the lockdown. Secondly, the lockdown has also brought to question how long CIDs in the city can operate under voluntary status and how the incoming Special Rating Area bylaw will influence CID management post-lockdown.

The research methods that were used to achieve this include interviewing CID managers and city officials, distributing a survey to different CID managers on the Gauteng Precinct Management Association and carrying out observation at two improvement districts to see first-hand how they have adapted to the lockdown.

The initial expectations were that CIDs in Johannesburg would struggle as properties would not see the benefit of CID management. This is also because CIDs in Johannesburg are currently voluntary establishments which means that properties do not have to pay should they not feel they want to. Nonetheless, the main finding is that properties within their areas have found much more benefit from their services during the lockdown period. This is because they have continued to keep their areas clean but most importantly also kept their properties secured. CIDs have offered services that go beyond cleaning and security which have helped properties significantly during the lockdown period.