The Geocentric Urban Management Trolley Project was initiated in 2017.
The aim of the project is to provide urban cleaning and maintenance teams with a platform to improve their daily tasks, assist with moving of equipment and tools and enable recycling while performing their tasks.
“As Geocentric we are very proud to launch our new mobile phone reporting application,” said Gene Lohrentz of the urban management company recently. “This is another way in which we are enabling our CID business and property owners to interact with their City Improvement District Management.
“We want our CID contributors to become part of our family by interacting with us about issues they might encounter. The mobile application makes that possible on the devices most people have with them every day.”
It appears that even injured, neglected or lost birds or animals who happen to find themselves in Strand, can rely on the kindness and efficiency of the SBID and its partners!
Relief for Hot Dog
On 6 February around midday, Strand Safety Officers Kevin en Nxesi came to the rescue of a dog that had been locked in a car since about 7am that morning. They had been informed about the animal by members of the public.
It had appeared that there was no water for the dog, notwithstanding the fact that it was a particularly hot day. (The incident occurred just beyond the boundaries of the Strand BID.)
The safety officers assisted in forcing open the windows of the vehicle and putting a bowl of water in the car for the overheated animal. The SPCA had meanwhile been alerted and subsequently removed the dog.
The SAPS was also in attendance.
Help for Hassled Birds
In one incident, Inspector Rohann Nolte of Secure Rite, who is employed by the SBID in Strand, found two small rock kestrels in Beach Road, one of which had possibly been injured by an airgun bullet or something similar. He arranged for the ruffled birds to be safely delivered to Birds of Prey Africa in Stellenbosch for further care.
“We currently reside and do business in a much safer, greener and cleaner Strand.”
Expressing satisfaction with the progress made by Geocentric during the 2016/2017 year, Strand Business Improvement District Board Chairperson Grand Goodwin said this was confirmed by statistics. “We realize that we cannot take the status quo for granted and that the team must consistently work hard to maintain the current standard”, he said.
He went on to say that they were very excited about the proposed new interventions by Gene Lohrentz of Geocentric regarding the management of the Traders Market and the Strand Initiative Marketing project. “We believe that the aforementioned interventions by Geocentric and the CID are important ingredients to our goal of making the Strand a more attractive business and tourist destination.”
The Strand Business Improvement District (SBID), which is a non-profit organisation funded by local property owners whose mandate it is to address the growing challenges in urban management, safety and security, and investment withdrawal within the Strand CBD precinct, recently added from within stakeholder ranks a new initiative named ‘Future Strand’ that will be managed by the SBID.
This stakeholder group aims to consider ways to positively influence the future viability of the Strand as a vibrant central business district.
“Keen to differentiate the Strand business district from neighbouring Helderberg precincts of Somerset West and Gordons Bay, Future Strand’s short-term objective is to build a unique identity for the area that ensures it becomes a leading centre for commercial, residential, cultural, tourism and activities.”
Since its inception three years ago, the SBID has yielded some surprisingly successful results and many of the urban challenges within the CBD of Strand have been halted. Whilst the focus remains on basic safety and cleanliness, a natural shift towards creating and enhancing the people-centric vibrancy has come to the fore.
Community involvement is however required. Both SBID and Future Strand embrace partnership thinking, which amongst other things provides for collective and collaborative solutions involving shared human and financial resources.
The objectives of SBID and Future Strand are the following:
Improvement Districts and Area Based Partnerships rely on strong relationships between partners, stakeholders and the communities they serve. In the case of the Strand, there is a large number of potential participants (some overlapping), each with a significant stake in the success of SBID and Future Strand:
During a recent speech delivered at the Atlantis Aquifer, Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille thanked Capetonians who had been making efforts to cut their water usage, saying that about half of water users had restricted their daily usage to 87 litres per day.
But added that this was not enough. “We need each and every Capetonian and business on board as a partner on this journey,” she said.
“We are in an unprecedented drought crisis and this phase is critical because if the City and residents don’t do enough together and simultaneously, we will run out of water.”
She said the City was doing everything in its power to ensure additional supply, including finding and hiring the country’s best team of experts who were working 80-hour weeks with the metro to ensure that additional water could be brought ‘online’.
The Atlantis plant was one of several sites for alternative water sources which form part of the ‘Water Resilience Plan’.
The City of Cape Town had recently refurbished many of the boreholes around this West Coast area to increase the production of this plant. She pointed out that these boreholes formed a part of the City’s unique Artificially Recharged Aquifer System and said a lot of work had gone into ensuring an increase in the volume of water from this aquifer system.
Prior this work, the system had been producing around four million litres of water per day. “We have now increased the yield from this aquifer by an additional five million litres per day.”
The water is serving homes and industrial businesses in Atlantis, Mamre and Pella on the outskirts of the West Coast, which is quite a vast area. “So the additional capacity will be welcomed,” the Mayor said.
“This work demonstrates our commitment to addressing this current drought crisis. I repeat my commitment that I will not allow a well-run city to run out of water.”
She added that she had made it clear when the site of a new desalination plant with the V&A Waterfront had been announced: “we have a plan and we will supply water, but we need Team Cape Town to assist us”.
In the meantime, the City of Cape Town announced that Level 6 water restrictions will be implemented from 1 January 2018, which means that households using more than 10,500 litres per month could face fines and penalties. A proposal for a drought charge of between R45 and R2 800, depending on the value of the property, has also been tabled.
Take a look at these shocking images of Theewaterskloof Dam looking more like a desert than a body of water:
In a special message SBID board chairperson Grant Goodwin said they were again pleased with the progress made by Geocentric, the management body of nine metro improvement districts, during the 2016/2017 year.
He went on to say statistics confirmed that “we currently reside and do business in a much safer, greener and cleaner Strand. We realize that we cannot take the status quo for granted and that the team must consistently work hard to maintain the current standard”.
“We are very excited about the proposed new interventions by Gene and his team regarding the management of the Traders Market and the Strand Initiative Marketing project. We believe that the afore-mentioned interventions by Geocentric and the CID are important ingredients to our goal of making the Strand a more attractive business and tourist destination.”
The tourist-friendly location of the Strand market and the history of informal traders in the area set the stage for a prime opportunity to transform the newly upgraded market into a modern, vibrant, commercially sustainable business. The market space is located in the Strand Precinct on Beach Road and the draft Strand Informal Trading Plan proposes that it will consist of 70 trading bays.
A series of infrastructural upgrades took place in Strand during 2017, which included among others the reconfiguration and resurfacing of the parking areas, the realigning and upgrading of the sea wall, the redevelopment of the ablution facilities and offices and provision of space for an informal trading market.
In view of the fact that the traders who will be operating in the market area do not currently have a legal entity – representative of all traders – that would potentially contract with the City of Cape Town for management of the market, the City approached the SBID to consider and propose a management plan for the Strand Pavilion Trading Market. The task of the management body would be to ensure that the facilities are well maintained and that trading activities are managed optimally.
In its call for a proposal the City pointed out that it was a high priority to ensure that the market was well managed and that the space was safe, clean and inviting for customers to have fun and enjoy all that would be on offer.
It would be a priority to create a safe market environment through, amongst other things, monitoring compliance by not only traders, but also visitors with the rules of the market. Law enforcement officials would have to be involved in the event of any law infringements in the market. The City of Cape Town advises that the service provider may employ a combination of CID security and EPWP Unit City Law Enforcement Officers in order to ensure that the market would be safe and secure throughout the week.
In his message SBID chairperson Grant Goodwin said he was excited about the prospect of the intervention and wished Geocentric’s Gene Lohrentz and his team well with the process.
The current management of informal markets is based on the formulation of by-laws and policies, as well as trading plans and permit fees in some cases. Management is also based on the employment of district area cooridinators responsible for informal trading in specific regions.
The Strand Precint, which is a historic beach resort area that is popular with with tourists and locals alike, is home to many economic activities. Both recreational and small-scale fishers sell fesh fish directly to the public from the slipway. The area also includes a parking area, a hotel, offices, restaurants and public ablution facilities, as well as accommodating traders predominantly over weekends and during the summer season.
Notice is hereby given of the Annual General Meeting of the Strand Business Improvement District NPC that will take place on the 25 October 2017 at 14:00 at the Friedman and Cohen, Corner of Main Road and Wesley Street, Strand.
Please confirm your attendance / non-attendance by email to info@strandbid.co.za.
Resolutions presented at the AGM can only be voted on by bona fide members of the Strand Business Improvement District NPC. This membership is available free of charge to all owners of commercial and industrial property within the Strand Business Improvement District NPC, but they must be registered before 11 October 2017.
If you are not the registered owner of this property, kindly forward this notice to the registered owner immediately.
For further information, AGM documentation and how to register go to www.strandbid.co.za or e-mail info@strandbid.co.za or call 083 255 7657
Membership of the SRA, which is a non-profit company registered under the Companies Act, is open to all the registered property owners who are encouraged to apply for membership so that they may exercise their rights to influence the business of the SRA. Membership cannot be denied to a registered property owner and as a member the property owner is entitled to attend, participate and vote at members meetings of the Company held under the auspices of the Companies Act.
Should a member be unable to attend they may give another individual their proxy to attend and vote on their behalf. Non-members may attend and participate at members’ meetings but cannot vote and as such may thus have limited influence on the SRA’s activities.
Membership application forms can be downloaded from the link below – once complete please send the form back to info@strandbid.co.za
Click below to download the Membership Application Form
