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A section from "Megacity: Food, Rituals, Logistics" collective research book produced at the Berlage Institute.

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Page 1: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes
Page 2: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes

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Gated Community and Social Housing Blocks exist side by side in a landscape of typical Istanbul topography.

“If you really want to change the city, or want a real struggle,

then it would require re-­engaging with things like public planning for example, or re-­engaging with government, or re-­ engaging with large-­scale institutionalised developers. I think that’s where the real struggles lie, that we re-­engage with these structures and these institutions, this horribly complex ‘dark matter’.That’s where it becomes really interesting.”

-­Wouver Vanstiphout

Public planning and city governance have

profession as obscure and enigmatic domains.

Seeming complexity

confusing position, somewhere between

political, managemental and cultural practices;;

therefore understanding it requires engagement

knowledge.From this joint

perspective Istanbul-­Behind the Scenes

reveals the “status quo” as well as an optimism

for “change”.After all, so-­called

“dark matter” is not that dark.

Rewiring the SimplifiedThings in the megacity are dealt in an

economical way, with a singular agenda. It is time for an integrated approach

Istanbul MeasuredIntroducing qualitative measures of success to

the public investments, on top of quantitative ones

The One Man Show“Mentality of an official” revealed: Strong

leaders, impotent followers

Conflict and Consensus in UrbanismA journey to find the right mix in

Metropolitan Governance

FEATURES

as Mayor of Istanbul

Page 3: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes

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Page 4: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes

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REWIRING THE SIMPLIFIEDEconomies of scale dictate its rules in megacities, resulting in increased specialization and organizational disintegration. It is only possible to rewire those solutions back to their

complexity by succesful urban operations. Here’s how for Istanbul.

ADMINISTRATION

Page 5: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes

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Each man on his own Various urban actors in Istanbul are initiating various developments simul-­taneously and seperately. This collage of wildly seperated elements gives the face of the contem-­porary Istanbul.

Page 6: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes

Take food system for instance, being a fundamental need, masses demand food. Someone has to produce it, some other has to deal with its logistics, some has to check if it meets the standards of hygiene and nu-­trition, some other has to decide on those standards, regulate them. There has to be a land positioned strategically concerning logistics, urban relations and an organiza-­tion to manage that land in order to deliver the goods to the customer and regulate those relationships;; decide on the prices, build the infrastructure, talk to the market-­ers and give decisions in other words, be the visible hand. Finally, it reaches to the consumer, goes to the homes of citizens. This brief look at the main elements

of the food system gives us an overview of the several tasks that this system alone has to deal with. But this is only one of sev-­eral stories of city. If we look at what hap-­pens to that food after it goes into the home of the customer, we’ll see a great deal is wasted. Then, along with the other wastes there comes another system of waste dis-­

posal. This system is no less complex then the food system and no less important for the entire city in terms of its daily life, when garbage crisis emerged Napoli in 2011, Italy had to send troops to deal with it1. Such a crisis reminds us that vulnerability of one system is the vulnerability of another because in such a situation from food sys-­tem to transportation system or to waste disposal systems, many others would also suffer. That is because they are in essence bound to each other.City breaths with its systems, day in day

out, and to manage all of them is one intri-­cate challenge of management.Like all the mortal beings who face a

is to divide the problems into its sub-­ele-­ments, simplify it and try to solve them one by one which would presumably conse-­quence on the solution of the entire prob-­lem2. That is why we have seperate organi-­sations in our cities to deal with for instance the public transportation, water infrastruc-­ture or social housing production. Each or-­ganization solves the singular problem that stands in front it;; each man on its own.

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality: a straight forward urban administration modelDue to its scale, Istanbul has Metropoli-­

tan Municipality on top of the 39 local mu-­nicipalities. This administrative model also exists in 18 other cities in Turkey that have a population over 750,000. In Istanbul, metropolitan municipality is responsible for urban planning task for the entire city from

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Cities are complex entities. Their material is accumula-­tion of masses who shares and touches each other on the same territory and deal with its complexity in diverse associations, some voluntar-­ily, some reluctantly.

ADMINISTRATION

Page 7: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes

1/100.000 scale to 1/5000 scale.3 This mod-­el is applied in order to deliver leadership and bring unity amongst the fragmented plans of the local municipalities, which had failed to integrate their plans and opera-­tions to each other. Although concentrating land management into a singular, city-­wide public organisation increased the unity of operations in the metropolitan area, the public services within Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality are divided into various sub-­organisations as well. Therefore, one can argue that with the establishment of Istan-­bul Metropolitan Municipality in 1984, the city has shifted the management system of the metropolitan area from a territorial divi-­sion into operational divion of tasks. There are several types of operational

units within the metropolitan municipality. -­

transportation management. These two organisations are bound to the metropoli-­tan municipality in their management, but independent in their budget. The system is followed by singular directorates that form the body of the metropolitan municipality: one directorate for landscaping, another for urbanism, one for rail system, another for road maintenance, one for earthquake risk management, another for real estate managment…These directorates, which divides the metropolitan municipality tasks into managable chunks, are supported by 25 subsidiary companies.4 They are private companies, established independent from the restraints of public regulations but the municipality has shares on each of them

and therefore they are underpinning its op-­

Just like the directorates, each one of them separates and isolates tasks of the city management and treats them individu-­

builds public spaces.5Liberated from the clumsiness of the

-­vate sector, hybrid city management units focuses on their individual tasks and their tasks only.

Learning to deal with megacityIn a megacity, numbers are everything.

-­ported for the packed population which can no longer produce and consume in the same territory and a megacity is where these balances cracked like no where else and no other time in the history of man. The challenge is the production of services that is concerned with the technical question of how resources are put together to deliver service to this large and concentrated pop-­ulation. It is precisely for that reason why municipalities in megacities are organized so severely sepereated and units are iso-­lated. This is one effective method to dis-­tribute and allocate resources effectively

and ensuring that the large population is served properly. However, it took a while for the megacities and their managemental arms to learn to do that.

Directorates and subsidi-­ary companies under Istanbul Metropolitan Mu-­nicipality have singular agendas to deal with their well defined problems: food wholesale infrastruc-­tures, sports facilities, waste renewal facilities...

Sources: Metropolitan Municipality Law 5216,ibb.gov.tr, local municipalities.

Page 8: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes

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The White Elephant Atatürk Olympics Stadi-­um was built in the western outskirt of Istanbul as part of the failed olympics bid of Turkey in 2008. The investment was made in total disintegration from the urban life.Today it is an underused, mon-­olith infrastructure, one of the white elephants of Istanbul’s urban development history only after a few years.

ADMINISTRATION

Page 9: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes

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source: bernart mimarlik

Page 10: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes

Megacities for a long time had failed -­and in some areas are still failing-­ to deliv-­

3 million residents live in dilapidated tene-­ments as a result of the failure of city to re-­spond to housing pressures6. Mexico City

since the existing one creates losses that is

of this, only 40 per cent of domestic users are metered therefore authorities collect much less fees than they should charge.

maintenances are not made regularly and the system constantly cracks7. Most meg-­acities have experienced extraordinarily rapid growth in the number of private ve-­hicles. This is again a failure of the public service to provide preferable option to pri-­vate cars and that even further increases the congestion, posing mobility as a seri-­ous problem, however that is the most ba-­sic need and yet most common problem of megacities worldwide.Istanbul has a history with failing in

many of its basic services as well. Fail-­ure of providing social housing created a

quickly made, illegal housing units. Water and Electricity services for a long while worked with regular cuts in services and the city has never had a proper public transportation infrastructure.However, despite the initially inadequa-­

cy of cities to deal with such large amounts of demands in urban areas, they have learned and improved in time by engineer-­ing their processes. Today Istanbul, as well as other mega-­cities, are suffering less and less from the inadequacy of basic services. State policies and management cultures are hand in hand renewing themselves and eventually improving their numerical per-­formances.Although isolation of tasks creates ef-­

fectivity and good services in their own right, they don’t necessarily create a good

for each unit, one that is totally unaware of the larger context, freed from the territorial understanding of their tasks but abstracting the world from their disintegrated, singular perspective and therefore drawing it in the

world, capacities are the only measure of success and therefore physical correspon-­dance of this mindset is also merely capac-­ity based. This is the architecture of simple

run by one of the municipality subsidiary

of the parking infrastructure of the city. The company has a program of building multi-­storey parking structures in the city at the spots that are appropriate in terms of ac-­quiring the land. The aim of the program is to increase the parking capacity respond-­ing to the demands of the city with the ef-­

fective technologies that increase effectiv-­ity.8 However, the entire program suffers from the chronic problems of horizontally disintegrated urban investments.Firstly, the strategical decision of build-­

ing parking structures is part of the trans-­portation system and when an organisa-­tion gives independent decisions about a part of the system, general transportation strategy suffers. Secondly, in order to be tailored to the needs of the locality their location should be decided strategically in collaboration with the local municipalities ensuring their integration with the supply-­

on delivering maximum parking areas with minimum resources as a result of its task-­oriented position, such considerations are not part of their agenda. Last but not least, the parking plots are lacking integration with the territorial life qualities they become part of. In contrast they are monolith struc-­tures that fell haphazardly to the city in or-­der to meet numbers, failing to contribute to the urbanistic qualities of their surrounding.

fact still answers to the questions that are posed, they still work individually, however with a lot of missed opportunities, unculti-­vated collaborations, lacking the complex-­ity that characterizes the urban. In their disintegrated operations, city becomes an archipelago of isolated solutions which are adamantly left as “solutions” with a singular agenda, with a singular mind, uncombined.Contemporary orgasation of many

states all around the world have the same characteristical approach based on secto-­ral decomposition of services. “The sec-­tor based approach (education, energy, health, transportation) is still core policy option of states which prevent urban de-­velopment measures from becoming more horizontal and territorialised” is stressed by

aims to introduce the French understand-­ing of delivering sustainable urban services to the other cities around the world.9city scale, successful urban operations are the ones that rewire disintegrated opera-­tions back to their complexity. Urban devel-­opments are where the city processes see the light of the day and for a megacity they should be the bedrock of this integration process.

Paris amidst decentralizationFrance has a strongly centralized deci-­

sion making tradition in its public institu-­tions which have been relatively loosened during the 1980s with the decentralization processes. This created a culture of hori-­zontal integration of units to get away with large scale political, managemental or ur-­

example to observe how that system be-­

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ADMINISTRATION

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7 Ibid.

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Page 11: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes

haves on a megacity and what are the les-­sons to be learned from it.

Municipality together with a metropolitan body that consists of 1584 communal gov-­ernments. Due to the large quantity of hori-­

of territorial fragmentation. As a result, in trash collection, water or sewage and land-­use planning, inter-­governmental arrange-­

domains, multiple municipalities often de-­

companies, whereas before the decentrali-­zation even land use and planning were

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-­livery of urban services is organised very similarly to Istanbul. Tasks are seperated under 22 departments with topics such as

and transportation department and depart-­ment of housing. Similar to Istanbul Met-­

them are grouped under deputy secretar-­ies. However, the difference lies on how

the system behaves on the operational level when they need to communicate with each other.

the disparities related to the reconciliation of time especially between women and men and to prevent situations in which people are excluded from certain activities and services. For this purpose the munici-­

initiative of the Mayor Bernard Delanoe11.

department and had a temporary nature based on its mission, in other words, it was an external program which would exist un-­

simple objective and it developed relative policies and launched programs with the different departments of the municipality to

effects on a variety of urban services, for example parks and gardens have adopted new hours, opening hours of the munici-­pal swimming pools to individual swim-­mers are extended in the evenings eight new afternoon markets are opened and so on.This is how an initiative with a clear goal

Social housing developments in Istanbul are built in monstrous scale because it is useful to canalize energy and investment in a concentrated location. The price of this

ALTHOUGH ISOLATION OF TASKS CREATE EFFECTIV-­ITY AND GOOD SERVICES IN THEIR OWN RIGHT, THEY DON’T NECESSARILY CREATE A GOOD CITY.

Page 12: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes

Istanbul Metropolitan MunicipalityOrganizational Chart

ADMINISTRATION

“I HAVE ALWAYS FELT THAT IN ORDER TO BUILD THE METROPOLIS WE NEEDED TO BRING THE STAKEHOLD-­ERS TOGETHER AROUND A SHARED PROJECT.”

-­ PIERRE MANSAR

“I have always felt that in order to build the metropolis we needed to bring the stakeholders together around a shared

14 Seine -­

project since the time of Haussmann’s and an illustration of the bene-­

in terms of organisational elements and then of phys-­ical elements to deliver an environment which has the qualities of urbanity. It is noteworthy that this project is an exceptional case in

that has never been managed in a very long time in city’s history15 and it is no coin-­cidence that the foundations of the project have been set in 1985 after the decentrali-­sation of France. Therefore it is a useful example to learn from not just for Istanbul and other megacities as such, but even for

and refers to the southern arrondissements

occupied with rail tracks adjacent to in-­dustrial land efectively turning the area to an impenetrable barrier between the local residents and the waterfront. This was the state of affairs in the land when the city of

SEM to be used as a development vehicle: -­

-­velopment, project owner-­ship and studies company” and is founded in conjunc-­tion with the national train company SNCF together with the contribution of var-­

ious other public players.16 The chairman of

the mayor of the 13th arrondissement.17 now has an exclusively public

shareholding structure which breaks down -­-­

bend the entire system together, integrat-­ing several departments to realize some clear goals in the messiness of the city and once it was done, left the scene. The pro-­

was nothing more than a communicator.

form of management is nothing peculiar to

of division of labour within the municipaity are systematically overcome on the territo-­ry with an organisational apparatus, name-­ly SEMs. SEM stands for a mixed economy company which the city uses as an agency to conduct its developments.They hold the commune’s power of expropriating land as well as keeping the right to buy land that is available on the market. The development agency therefore usually inherits substan-­tial powers and implementation of the city’s plans is thus fragmented by several SEMs. However, poltical control of them ensures their ultimate responsibility to the city coun-­cil. Since 1980, the number of active SEMs

-­panying the decentralisation trend and they are the ones that strengthen the horizontal character of the public administration.12, 13

Seine Rive Gauche: an exceptional ur-­ban development

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Page 13: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes

Organizational Chart

IN ADMINISTRATION OF THE CITY OF PARIS, DISADVAN-­TAGES OF DIVISION OF LA-­BOUR ARE SYSTEMATICALLY OVERCOME ON THE TERRITO-­RY BY AN ORGANIZATIONAL APPRATUS NAMED “SEM”.

this is also a project that is not developed by any single department of the municipal-­ity but an external program that acts as a platform for the departments to collaborate and integrate their actions to each other

With this clear objective in mind, organsed a design competition to imagine the future of this territory and as a result six architects were selected, each one with their part in the larger development site. The value of the pro-­ject lies on its calibration to potentially have a posi-­tive effect on the city over-­all and developement with horizontal care, adding in much of France’s best ur-­ban thinking.

From organisational integrity to physical integrity

-­ban operation and then it is the project it-­self that becomes the ambition of to realize. Its role is to mediate a variety of

city as opposed to the counterpart develop-­ments in other metropols such as Canary Wharf in London or Maslak district in Istan-­bul where the development was prior to the infrastructure and therefore disintegrated from the transportation system of the city and therefore the city itself.Thirdly, the project is an integration of a

variety of uses for a variety of citizens. The program of the develop-­

-­es, schools, parks, library, movie complex and a vari-­ety of housing for a variety of income groups. The di-­versity of elements creates a concentrated multiplicity that ensures an urban life as the continuation of con-­

Lastly, the project is integrated with the close surroundings that it takes part of on the architectural scale. This has been en-­sured with the careful calibration of public and private use of spaces to make sure that the buildings do not hamper the broad-­er functioning of the city and an advantage

public stakeholders to make it happen. The organizational integration between the city

to coordinate and al-­lign each stake holders’ contribution to the necessary level is key to meet its ambition. Therefore, the project and the physicality it creates on the land is also an integrated, complex physicality in an array of scales, which breaks down as following:Firstly, the project is integrated to the

larger objectives of the city council. Domi-­

-­cil to manage the market but also more recent objective of extending the commer-­

competitive with its European rivals. This is -­

is over to coordinate the project with the general strategy of the city. Secondly, development incorporates

a new public transport exchange linking metro and ser-­vices. The projects are programmed in the ‘Contrat de plan’ for Ile-­de-­France, the

possible because SNCF is also one of the stakeholders of the project therefore the project naturally becomes part of the city transportation system. This ensures that development is integrated to the rest of the

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Page 14: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes

was the projects were not bound to the

any other administrative bodies to hinter -­

one of the signature projects of the devel-­opment by architects Jakob+Macfarklane Sarl D’architecture. It is a transformation project of former waterfront warehouse-­

the architects was to make the building not only accessible to the public but also as welcoming as any other waterfront prom-­

ground level, along with the exterior stair-­cases that allow people to circulate freely with an access to riverside terrace and the rooftop garden.18 These arrangements of the public circulations with the integration of public spaces to the project renders it a part of its close surrounding. These consid-­erations are repeated on each project by their architects as part of the larger agenda of and the jurors who evaluate the projects.

2 site in Istanbul. -­

interiority.

ADMINISTRATION

In Istanbul as well as other megacities, economies of scale dictate its own rules, resulting in the city as an agglomeration of island developments. The only considerate way to deal with these pressures is hori-­zontal cooperation of units who has territo-­rial understanding of their problems. This administrative understanding is not

unique to managing megacities but manag-­ing any large scale organisation, because as the problems get larger, branching the solutions emerges naturally. States them-­selves are about divaricating problems and

Official logos of the ministeries of Turkey

Page 15: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes

environment overall.

approaching them part by part. This is an

Accepting this phenomenon as a ten-­dency and overcoming its disadvantages should be in the agenda for Istanbul be-­cause complexity and integration are cor-­related concepts for a megacity. In order to create integrated urban operations, com-­plexity of considerations is necessary. To make sure that the complexity of demands are realized on site, integration of diverse

urban operation can respond to a variety

of agendas and incorporate the complexity that is required to create lively and diverse urban environments. It is no less than a crucial agenda for Istanbul to cultivate its messiness into a fruitful complexity and or-­ganize its sprawl in integrity and balance.However, to realize this, all the depart-­

ments of the city need to get familiar with the politics of mutuality and understand the rules of integrating their singular agen-­das to each other. This means sitting on the same table and looking for potentials in each other’s aspirations. This is where

a quantitative understanding of the world is no longer valid per se, but qualities also become part of the agenda. In a situation where they only integrate their operations numerically, politics of integration is not at stake, since politics is also about values.

its meaning when those qualities are also becomes part of the discussions, replacing their indicators of success with not just how they do numerically but also qualitatively. That’s why it is an equally important matter of how they are “Measuring Istanbul“.

Official logos of the Ministeries of the NetherlandsSources: Ministeries’ Websites

Page 16: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes

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Numbers translated to buildings The de-­velopments of Mass Housing Administration of Turkey are covering vast territories in Istanbul outskirts with an aesthetic of programmatic dia-­grams.The reasons are simple: quickly and effi-­ciently responding to the housing demands.

Page 17: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes

MEASURING ISTANBUL

quantitative concerns with a singular agenda. Qualitative management models can be a guide for city authorities to transform their measure of success and create sustainable

urban qualities.

MANAGEMENT

Page 18: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes

public.” Short term plans include 152.486 housing units for the low income group and 45.293 houses for revenue sharing programs. Construction of 30.218 housing units started simoultaneously in 64 regions and protocols have been signed with 132 municipalities for 113.072 houses within the scope of urban renovation.1In this tyranny of numbers one

question prevails: what does it all mean? Numbers themselves are mean-­

ingless, we can not associate with them since we do not have refer-­ence points to judge them, put another way, we are unable to translate them from quantities to qualities.2many other public authorities of Istanbul are very quantity based, amounts and effectivity are the domineering concepts and success is measured by numbers.

ties? The language of the measure of

success tells a lot about the mind-­set and the culture of an organiza-­tion, therefore decisive on its value creation. However, seldom it is questioned and time invested in it in order to think of its purposes and validate its relevance.

-­ministration of Turkey, a significant portion of its operations are con-­centrated in Istanbul. The cover of housing applications brief booklet

housing units by the year 2023, the -­

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MANAGEMENT

Hsuccess for our cities? What is the vocabulary that we adopt when talk-­ing about our physical

environments and what is our ref-­erence points to assess their quali-­

Page 19: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes

In fact, it is seldom that only num-­bers can measure true success. Numbers gain meaning as long as they serve to solve a certain quali-­tiative issue and for public organi-­zations that deal with the city, it is those intangible assets that play a central role in value creation. The assets that can be articulated by words rather than numbers.This does not mean that city

authorities in Istanbul don’t have values and visions. Istanbul Met-­ropolitan Municipality (IBB) for-­mulated its vision as “The leading and pioneering municipality which makes Istanbul, the apparent face and opening gate of Turkey to the world, a sustainable city with a high quality of life by patronizing its unique heritage.”2 This as well as all the visions indicates long-­term goals of the city, underlin-­ing the values of the organization and they do so by formulating in-­tangible goals in order to deliver sustainable, long-­term qualities. Numerical goals respond to the basic demands such as the num-­ber of social housing needed or the length of water infrastructure required. In contrast, intangible as-­sets produce value through chains of cause-­and-­effect relationships involving two or three intermediate stages. For instance, the ambition in the vision “opening gate of Tur-­key to the world” is a qualitiative

figure that implicitly assumes that being an opening gate to the world will strengthen the global signifi-­cance of the city, which will attract international attention via events

-­ments and that in turn contribute to the social diversity of the city as well as providing economical ro-­bustness to deliver better services to the citizens.However the problems arise

when qualitative intangible mean-­ings of the vision are translated to the actions to realize them together with the short-­term goals. In other words, the vital issue is how one manages his resources in order to realize his intentions.3 IBB and all the other public and

private agencies that take part of the management of Istanbul suf-­fer from reducing their visionary ambitions to mere numbers when translating them into actions. IBB as well as all the local municipali-­ties that take part in city creation has the same strategic manage-­ment plan that involves 4 layers of information that determines how they function. First of these layers is the vision statement of the insti-­tute. This is usually formulated as a paragraph that communicates the largest values and aspirations of the institute as a whole. It is placed in the center of the strategy while the rest of the 3 layers are devised

from it sequentially and they are re-­spectively named strategic goals, strategic objectives and actions. Strategy is generally a branching process originating from the vision statement and ending with actions that are controlled by numerical in-­dicators of success and linked to a directorate under the organization to execute it. In short, in an ideal situation where each directorate meets their numerical tasks that are put in front of them, the ide-­als of the organization supposed to be realized naturally. However, that is not how things work out. By only meeting numerical goals, an organization can realize its short-­term objectives that have direct consequences but not the long-­term objectives with indirect con-­sequences. The reason is, visions are qualitative matters that can not be captured by numbers and this strategy falls short of translating them into meaningful actions.In his book ‘

Words’ Sir Terry Leahy emphasiz-­es the importance and difficulty of balancing short-­term and long-­term plans for institutions: “To do some-­thing to plug a short term need, to get through a week or a month throws a company off balance and postpone the long term goals to next time. The next time comes, the pressures are still the same and another short term solution is

Hurriyet News

Page 20: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes

chosen(...) For many organizations setting long-­term goals may seem as something of a luxury as they are constantly under pressures to deliver the short term.”5 This situation is very similar to

significant players amongst the

is proactively building the city. However, their developments all around the city are an example of the chronicle short-­term thinking in the public domain. There is a strong pressure for cheap housing by re-­newing the existing housing stock, which is under threat of destruction in case of an earthquake. These are very serious pressures that

be underestimated. In that respect,

and building large quantities of housing for the minimum cost as well as being stakeholder in vari-­

ous upper-­class housing projects in order to finance itself. Added on top of each other, that becomes a significant portion of the new de-­velopments of Istanbul. With this

short-­term pressures successfully by numerically doing an excep-­tional job of producing large num-­bers of housing for the minimum resources. However, lack of long-­term strategy which might have in-­cluded qualitative considerations such as pursuing integration with the rest of city operations, pursu-­ing a social agenda, is justified by the enormity of the pressures6 and at the current conditions it is seen as a luxury, however when the next time comes, pressures are still go-­ing to be there and another short-­term solution will be chosen, only to be invalid again. During our interview with the

head of Toki Istanbul Implementa-­

tion Directorate Niyazi Özdemir, he shared his observation that the concept of an “old building” in Am-­sterdam is 100 years old whereas it is 30 years old in Istanbul. He then shared that his prediction for

that he is a part of is 50 years7. However, to make a more credible prediction, they can be compared to similar examples from the past. In France, during 1950s and 1960s large social housing developments were built, namely Grands En-­sembles -­velopments, these social housing projects were built under high pres-­sure of the post-­war period. They were massive in size and built with

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Happiness is a warm gun -­

MANAGEMENT

THE VITAL ISSUE FOR CITY CREATION IS HOW ONE MANAGES HIS RESOURCES IN ORDER TO REALIZE HIS INTENTIONS.

Page 21: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes

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technical, numerical concerns and successfully meet those considera-­tions. However, due to the lack of a more holistic approach to the city, which would create longer lasting values, they soon became horrific suburbs detached from the urban areas and proved to be failures in terms of the social aspects of those

their erection they became envi-­ronments in which no body wanted to live anymore and they started to be demolished.7 Lack of long-­term qualities in the urban devel-­opments and measuring success merely by numbers created results in the short term but wasteful in-­vestments in the long term.

that value creation is central to their operations and they have in-­troduced nonfinancial and nonnu-­merical metrics for them to meas-­ure their success.9 Innermost idea is to intensify the communication of ideas within the organization, re-­placing the culture of quantities.10Balanced Scorecard is not one-­

size-­fits-­all strategy, it is developed as a series of principles for any type of public and private organisa-­tions. Different organizations have to develop their own strategies to apply this tool. Here, various appli-­cations of balanced scorecard are discussed as examples of how oth-­er organizations developed tech-­niques to better translate their vi-­sions to actions. In three key steps of the process, the principles of the strategy are exemplified together with what would it possibly mean for Istanbul.

how Istanbul is managed, but not the only actor. In Istanbul, there are several urban actors: national government based Minister of En-­vironment and Urbanism, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and its

Local Municipalities, all have au-­thorities of varying forms on the land and together they form an unarranged entity that is when ob-­served overall has a quantitative strategy for city creation and prob-­lems of this strategy applies to the entire entity. In other words, what

entire system.-­

plan and David Norton adressed this not very unique management challenge with the strategic man-­agement system they have devel-­oped: Balanced Scorecard. They have developed it for organizations

IN AN IDEAL SITUATION WHERE EACH DIRECTORATE MEETS THEIR NUMERICAL TASKS THAT ARE PUT IN FRONT OF THEM, THE IDEALS OF THE ORGANIZATION SUPPOSED TO BE REALIZED NAT-­URALLY. HOWEVER, THAT IS NOT HOW THINGS WORK OUT.

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MANAGEMENT

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The Great Reunion Managers of Municipality subsidiairiy companies comes together to discuss if they are in coordination with the budget plans. Nothing else is talked about except for numbers. Then, they are spread out once again, to execute their tasks totally in isolation from each other.

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Translating the VisionLofty statements such as “an

empowered organization”, “a pio-­neering municipality” or “being a global city” don’t translate easily into operational terms that provide useful guides to action at the lo-­cal level. The authorities who has to execute actions to realize these statements don’t usually have the same understandings of these concepts, let alone being aware of them properly. This is one of the challenges in front of public and private enterprises to act in bal-­ance with all levels of its organiza-­tion and subunits.

scorecard encountered a similar gap while applying it. The senior executive group had reached an aggreement on the overall strat-­egy: “to provide superior service to targeted customers.” However when formulating the measures for the customer-­perspective por-­tion of strategy, it became appar-­ent that although the 25 senior ex-­ecutive agreed on the words of the strategy, each one had a different definition of superior service and targeted customers.9 To have their balanced scorecard it was neces-­sary for them to write down the vi-­sion of the entire organization, its yearly goals to achieve that, and its subunits’ responsibilities. The exercise of developing operational measures forced the managers to sit on the table, clarify those mean-­ings and arrive at a consensus and clear understanding of what the or-­ganization aspires to be and how to reach there.In Istanbul, since it is a political

entity with multiple actors there is a multiplicity of visions by several authorities. Local municipalities, Metropolitan Municipality and the National government have differ-­ent visions and future expecta-­

and local municipalities. However, there are also many possible com-­mon grounds for them, “heritage” and “human oriented service” are two statements that are stated by several authorities frequently. Ar-­riving to some degree of consensus amongst the shared values and fur-­ther clarification of their meanings are necessary for the authorities

MANAGEMENT

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to have a more balanced manage-­ment and coordination amongst the actors ensuring that they reach to common targets and in balance with each other. This would give at least a unification of the values on top of the system that may find dif-­ferent physicalities under different units. For instance, the fact that

infrastructure of the city, is not an obstacle in front of them to have common visions such as better-­ment of basic services that are the rights of each citizen. After all, this would make them realize that they are players of the same team, only with different roles.

Business PlanningMost organizations have sepa-­

rate procedures and organizational

units for strategic planning and for budgeting, as a result, they become two different documents detached from each other. In their monthly and quarterly meetings, manag-­ers only discuss about the budget because periodic reviews focus on comparison of actual and budgeted results of the operations. Strategic objectives and therefore long-­term, qualitative matters becomes off the topic forcing them only to focus on short-­term goals that are numerical evaluation of their operations and the finances related to it.The very exercise of creating

balanced scorecard forces manag-­ers to integrate their strategic plan-­ning and budgeting processes to each other by adding strategy also as the topic of their meetings. This opens up the validity of their pro-­cesses to discussion regardless of

their financial alignment with the

they are required to prove how they are contributing to the cities’ aspirations on top of how they are doing numerically.

bank which was a composition of more than 70 different initiatives. This multiplicity of units were in-­tended to create a more competi-­tive institutions but they were in-­adequately integrated into the overall strategy. After building their balanced scorecard, managers dropped many of those programs and consolidated others into initia-­tives that were better aligned with the company’s strategic objectives. If they were only talking about num-­bers, they would have never real-­ized that meeting set numbers and reaching to the strategic objectives

MANAGEMENT

Overdetermined, Operations based, Numerical

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality

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don’t necessarily go hand in hand. In the old system as long as a unit does numerically fine, it would be there, however the tone of the dis-­cussion became different when the qualities and value creation also became part of the discussion, re-­sulting in constantly reorganizing themselves to reach their shared vision.IBB has 29 subsidiary compa-­

nies on top of more than 70 indi-­vidual departments. The manager who is responsible of their integra-­tion of the IBB by financially con-­trolling their progresses holds the annual meetings with the subsidi-­ary companies. This avoids con-­fronting their qualitative produc-­tions to the overall aspirations the city because that is not part of the discussion. An example for that is

responsible of the same tasks for the city, however they operate in-­dependent from each other, this results in not only avoiding them to learn from each other but also creates a fragmented urban devel-­opment. Changing the tones of the discussion and linking budgets to strategic goals is a must in order to reevaluate and rediscuss subu-­nits organizations of the city but also to create sustained qualities for the city by pursuing its strategic objectives actively. In that picture

on the numbers would be opened up to debate and the meetings would have a more qualitative tone thank quantitative one.

Communicating and LinkingThe communication of the objec-­

tives up and down the organization

is also a crucical aspect of qualita-­tive management. Conventionally, the ones on the top make the stra-­tegic plan for the organization and determines each and every unit’s and individuals’ role in the gen-­eral strategy ensuring their over-­all unity. Then the individuals of the organization are only informed about their role, shrinking their world to their singular goals. When a scorecard is disseminated up and down the organizational chart, strategy becomes a tool available to everyone. Thus, subunits know what they are contributing to in the general organization and indi-­vidual employees understand how their own productivity supports the overall strategy. That is an impor-­tant step to share the responsibility vertically between the institutions of the city as well as amongst the

KPP2

Our vision and strategic aims

KPP5

The planning cycle The ‘Golden Thread’

Consultation

Mon

itorin

g

KPP3

Key policy priorities 2013-2017

Organising for success

o

o

o

Introduction

KPP4

KPP1

Bold, Qualitative, Verbal

City of London

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the Bureucracy in Istanbul as part of the field trip for this work, spent a week in the administrative bodies of Istanbul. After circulated around numerous institutes, it was full of stamps, checks and signatures, exemplifying the inability of the higher officials to give responsibility to the front-­line officials.

individuals within the institutions.-­

nique to empower individuals to set goals for themselves what were consistent with the organization’s. It created a small, fold-­up personal scorecard that people could carry in their pockets. The scorecard contained three levels of informa-­tion. The first one describing the objectives of the corporate, sec-­ond one is the translated ones of those for each business unit, the third level was to be determined by the individuals themselves. This forced them to articulate which of their own objectives would be con-­sistent with the business unitand corporate objectives, as well as what initiatives they would take to achieve their objectives. This encourages the individuals to be more engaged with their roles thinking qualitatively, rather than merely focusing to meet numerical goals that are brought top down by their superiors. This means IBB should avoid

overly determined actions to real-­ize its strategic objectives and in-­stead focus on communicating the main ideas better with the other

-­palities or subsidiary companies, the ones who have to execute them. This would push the respon-­sibility downwards in the organi-­zation and the units would take a

MANAGEMENT

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more active role in realizing the bold objectives of IBB. Instead of controlling by numerical goals, the ideas are shared with them and the subunits are let to figure out which meaningul actions to take in order to realize these goals.This scenario does not just ap-­

ply amongst the institutions but has implications amongst the in-­dividuals within those institutions. Ankara centered administration of

-­tanbul implementation directorate and Istanbul manager distributes the tasks within the directorate to the relevant individuals. Top down character of the decision giving mechanism is already reflected on the name by the word “implementa-­tion”. Decision giving power is con-­centrated in Ankara leaving the of Istanbul branch with some numeri-­cal targets to meet, unaware of what he is contributing in the long term. This process shrinks his worldview to a numerical and con-­trollable perspective and avoids him to think and act qualitatively. Same applies as you go down the organisation, leaving the front line officials with simplified tasks to accomplish during their working hours, sucking the creativity and gumption from their mentality. This is “the mentality of an official” with the popular saying in Turkey, de-­scribing a personality who does his

job soullessly and half-­heartedly.However if these front-­line em-­

ployees would be treated as in-­dividuals who are ready to take initiative and responsibilities by communicating the wider goals of the city rather than their singular objectives, they would be urging for betterment of their environ-­ments. This would change their job description from “delivering 300 cheap housing units in 9 months of time” to “creating a livable envi-­ronment for the economically dis-­advantaged with the least usage of resources”. Clearly, it is more likely for the second official to col-­laborate with an architect for in-­stance11…Communication within the or-­

ganization is the key incentive for long-­term, sustained qualities in the environment and without it the organization as a whole is unable to navigate to the future and create sustainable values for itself. That is not a luxury but a necessity.Since it is the front-­line individu-­

als who are the ones to execute the programs of the ones of the top, their worldview determines the qualities of their creations. In other words, vision statements and strategic objectives are nothing be-­yond good intentions unless they are shared by the organization as a whole. Because the an organisa-­tion is by definition is an entity.

Command-­order relationships aslo keeps the entity as a singular whole but with losses in how the information circulates within it. The command and order relationship engulfs visions because as you go further away from the administra-­tion to the management the goals become numerical, shrinking the world of the ones who execute it to what they can measure and con-­trol. As the perspective of individu-­als narrow, they become detached from the wider goals of the institu-­tion and therefore lack the actions that would realize the visions, the only asset to create longer lasting values.However, to reorganise these re-­

lationships between individuals is not just a managemental challenge but also a cultural one. Because this is fundamentally not about the ones on the bottom of the organi-­sation but on the top. Because this requires a different type of leader-­ship, one of not parental protec-­tionism and unproductive authority but rather one of trust and sharing the responsibilities. It requires a culture of collaboration, rather than a culture of “The One Man Show”

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THE ONE MAN SHOWCULTURE

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Decision giving mechanisms

of Istanbul are hierarchi-cal, the leadership figures are parental. This cultural phe-

nomenon effectively avoids both vertical sharing of the responsi-bilities and horizontal formation of collaborations. As a result, The situation is either way absolute submission or infinite conflict.

Istanbul is the consequence of these interactions.

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CULTURE

Niyazi ÖzdemirGeneral Director of TOKI Istanbul Implementation Directorate

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Bayram Ali ÇakirogluGeneral Manager of Istanbul Food Wholesales Directorate

A food seller

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CULTURE

Erdal GemiciHaydarpasa Port General Manager

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Olga Sankova Niyazi Özdemir Onur Can Tepe

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Necati DemirciIstanbul Wholesale Market

Deputy Manager

Banu ÖzkayaIstanbul Wholesale Market Foreign Relations Manager

Stefano Graziani Andres Lopez

CULTURE

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A warehouse in Haydarpasa Port

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CULTURE

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39

The One Man Show

Modernity in Turkey has been initiated by a revolutionist, avantgarde group who problematized the Ottoman empire and its cul-tural foundations thus founded the Republic with strong and convincing arguments treating the nation as a tabula rasa conditon.This radical idea originated in Atatürk’s mind and quickly convinced its followers and collaborators, eventually the entire nation has been reinvented on the persona of one man.One can argue that in fact there has never been any revolution in terms of how this society organized itself; one man and his infinite responsibilities for the people who made him that specific man.This pattern of human behaviour can be followed in the entire nation from as small as how a family is managed, to as large as how a state is managed and all the rest in between.Captains and their ships...

One should not confuse it with a tradition. This behaviour is not a tradition, tradition is artificial. Traditions has rules that some of them are counter-intuitive, they are beyond the urges, they demand adaptation of the individuals to partly give away their impulses and adopt new behaviours.One man show is not a tradition, it is what any person with some leadership skills does the first. It is instinctive, addictive and what’s more, it is normal. However, the difference is made by abnormals who manage to build institutions out of individuals, who manage to shift the level of an organization from one state to another by establishing rules of interaction rather than rules of authority. Then follows the tradition. Tradition is not the accumulation of information but accumulation of wisdom over long periods of times. Tradition gives the newcomers a foundation to built upon mutually with the dynamism of the youth and the experience of the old. Then leave it to the next generation when the time comes. One man show is counter tradition.

One man is alone in his mind, therefore suggestive in his suppositions. That is why he is inspirational and yet, he makes inevitable mistakes. He is the control-freak. His responsibility is beyond his capacities but he is unable to cooperate, he can only operate. His authority is legitimate but unchallenged. His value system is strong but immature. He lives in hierarchy, treating his superiors exactly how he is treated by his minors, and he contently does so. He constantly and adamantly reproduces the same pattern, day in day out.

You can find him in his city. You will see him designing bridges, building infrastructures, destroying neighbourhoods. He con-stantly mobilizes investment to spread programs and infrastructures all over the city. He has friends who are helping to achieve his best and meet his desires. He can build districts out of numbers, blocks out of gecekondus and he loves doing big things... He is obsessed with significance therefore his actions are big. He is the ultimate utopian and the grand optimist, therefore his city never stops developing. He builds, he destroys, he builds again. Please don’t be mad to him, he only does what he knows the best...

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CONFLICT AND CONSENSUS IN URBANISMPOLITICS

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41

The Unbeatables Prime minister, Mayor and Minister of Sports in a meeting with the olympics comitee for the candi-­dacy of Istanbul to host 2020 summer Olympics.Due to the centralized power model of metropoli-­tan governance, in case of an alliance amongst President Erdogan and Mayor Topbas there is virtually nothing they can not do in the city, but until when?

CONFLICT AND CONSENSUS IN URBANISMWHAT MIX IS THE RIGHT MIX?

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It has been developed by a total of 250 people consisting of plan-­ners, urbanists, the academia and experts from different fields. Istan-­

conducted the work which is a de-­partment under , one of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality subsidiary companies. The plan is regarded by the mainstream me-­dia as the main law of the city1, implying its importance and rigor-­ousness. It used to be one of the critique that many architects in the city enjoyed making, to not having one master strategy for the entire city. Masterplan is conceived as one collective answer to many of the problems of the city such as gecekondus, connectivitiy issues and lack of green areas. Finally, it was there. However, things did not turn out as expected;; same prob-­lems, same fights are on the public debate.The master plan is sued numer-­

ous times by civil associations and chamber of architects and engi-­neers. The courts suspended the plans for some times, investigated the claims and ultimately revalidat-­ed them over and over again. How-­ever, four years after the plan saw the light of the day, national gov-­ernment declared its ambitions to build a new airport and a new city on the north of Istanbul and Min-­istery of Transportation revealed their plans to build the third bridge to cross Bosphorus on the north of the second bridge. These plans are not just absent in the original plan, they are also in great contrast with the general aims of it which can be summarized as protecting the

northern forests through horizontal growth on east-­west axis.

-­ister Erdogan publicly announced the details of his long-­anticipated

to open up an arti-­ficial sea-­level waterway on the west of Istanbul and create a new city where it meets the Black Sea. The announcement was made dur-­ing his elections campaign to give it a political legitimacy and Mayor

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POLITICS

In 2006, Istanbul reached to its long waited master plan after years of search and expectation.

Page 43: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes

stage, right next to him during the public announcement. The project is clashing with the master plan

to develop and has been backing proactively. Then why did he sup-­port the project? And If the national government had such ambitions for the city, why there is not any clue of them on the master plan?The answer lies at the metropoli-­

tan governance issues behind this contradiction.Istanbul, as well as many other

megacities, has an exceptional status of governance. As globali-­sation progresses, urban regions are emerging as key players in the world economy. The pursuit of com-­petitiveness in urban regions has become a major local and national policy objective.2 Therefore a spe-­cial status of government started to emerge, and a long series of dis-­appointing experiments have been made on metropolitan governance all around the world. Cities are managed by their municipalities whereas megacities are governed by their metropolitan authorities. Just like after a certain scale mac-­ro-­economics turn into politics, be-­cause it becomes a matter of world views and priorities, metropolitan governance is also a highly politi-­cal task. Therefore, its actors play their political roles, make alliances with their friends and confront their

with his beloved friend Erdogan during the announcement and he was not generous enough to offer his critical friendship to him. That

-­terests of the national government since they positioned themselves as an apolitical institute entitled to give decisions on their own for the sake of their scientific independ-­ence.3, 4Metropolitan governance is not

apolitical, it is essentially about balancing the distribution of power with keeping the ability to concen-­trate it occasionally to deliver lead-­ership.5In Istanbul with the military coup

on 1980, the municipal structure of Istanbul was fundamentally changed. Villages around the me-­tropolises with populations over 300,000 were turned into suburbs or neighborhoods and were united with metropolitan municipalities. In 2004 Istanbul Metropolitan Munici-­pality’s jurisdiction was enlarged to cover all the area within the pro-­

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vincial limits and all the rights of making plans from 1/100.000 scale till 1/1000 scale is concentrated on the Metropolitan Municipality, leaving local municipalities with almost no authority on land.6 This was done to ensure the unity of city governance and deliver the leader-­ship that was missing. Its elected mayor has substantial powers over the city and as long as he is in con-­sensus with the national govern-­ment there is virtually nothing they can not do and that is exactly the case for the last couple of years. Although it is a very successful

model for leadership that ensures a high level of consensus on many urbanistic matters and effectively canalize investments when neces-­sary, it does not decentralize pow-­er to include more actors to deliver more healthy policies and urbanis-­tic decisions. Improving governance in met-­

ropolitan areas is not just about reforming institutions and numeri-­cally performing well, it is also

about changing behaviours and the culture of governance. More “in-­clusive” and participatory forms of governance are replacing tradition-­al rule-­driven systems. Successful-­ly managing change in the culture of governance requires opening up the process to new players who have a legitimate concern about their “place” in the urban area. The actors in the governance process now comprise a more socially and culturally diverse population, the business sector, associations, and all levels of the public administra-­tion intervening in the urban area.7

-­tralization of power in metropoli-­tan governance amongst the meg-­acities is Seoul, an example worth having a look at.

provinces called ‘do’. Six metro-­politan cities, and Seoul which is considered as a special city. Seoul’s administrative tiers can be subdivided into ‘gu’ units and further yet into ‘dong’ neighbor-­

Deadlock The most prominent opera house of Istanbul has been closed for more than 3 years now. Everything started when national government declared plans to renew the building as part of 2010 Istanbul ‘capital of culture’ agenda, the idea was rejected straight ahead by the artists using the building. Despite all the efforts, a normalised communication could not be estabished and the building which was emptied to be renewed is neither renewed, nor opened again. It is a political deadlock at the heart of the city.

POLITICS

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hoods. The next level is subdi-­vided into ‘tongs’ Currently, there are 522 dongs and 13,787 tongs.8 That means the territory of Seoul is divided into 13,787 parts as the smallest form of administration, in contrast to the 39 municipalities of Istanbul as the smallest adminis-­trative unit. Fragmentation of that level obviously comes with its par-­ticularities for better and for worse.

the dongs and the tongs, and in-­corporating them into the govern-­ance process was critical for the

Although, this model involves a seemingly smooth, decentralised form of governance that does not mean things are without a problem, in fact multiplicity of actors at the same level increases the chanc-­es of contradictions. Between the

and district offices, conflicts often arises about cross-­jurisdictional public administration. In order to overcome those conflicts and ar-­rive to consensuses government and district offices, have regular meetings such as “Association of

District mayors” where Mayor of Seoul and District mayors attend quarterly, and “Conference of Dis-­trict Vice Mayors” where Vice May-­or of Seoul, department heads and District vice mayors attend every month. Seoul city adopted give-­and-­take, or win-­win strategies to manage consensus. For instance,

provides welfare fund, conveni-­ence facilities, and health care for residents in a district, while resi-­dents consent to sit incineration plants in their district.9 This mode of constant conflict and consen-­sus creates a healthy environment and still large scale plans, that re-­quire high level of leadership, are achieved. An example is the mas-­ter plan that was announced in

Create Seoul Jointly with Its Citi-­zens” in which the city as a whole arrived to a consensus on pursu-­ing five main goals, namely “wel-­fare, economy, culture, sustainable urban development, and citizen’s rights,” which will be backed up by 285 projects in 15 fields.10London on the other hand deals

Spontaneous Urbanism

urbanistic decision is given live on TV as a result of the discussion among two individuals.

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greater transparency and account-­ability into strategic decision mak-­

the new model was that it would be a streamlined authority. However, the election for mayor indicated that although Blair was keen on devolution, he also wanted to keep control of the process. He did eve-­rything he could to stop the elec-­

him as too independent and likely to develop his own policies rather than conform to central govern-­ment.11 Even though the mayor’s powers are limited, he or she can use his or her electoral mandate to voice opinions and pressurise the government for more autonomy. This is precisely how Livingstone sees his role. His broad agenda is to increase the financial resources available to the mayor and also expand the policy topics under his control. He has said that he aims to turn the British regional govern-­ment system into one that is similar

12 So this form of centralized metropol govern-­ance model where the authority is very much concentrated on the top of the triangle is not without con-­flicts of interest. National govern-­ment and the mayor has different world-­views and priorities but that does not avoid them from arriving to a consensus when the interests overlap with each other. London

the culture of communication and collaboration with each other, although they don’t seem to mind interaction from time to time. This picture is a reminiscent of a culture where they cultivate their conflicts into healthy consensuses in times of necessity, which is what city needs more than a master plan.

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POLITICS

ALTHOUGH SEOUL AND LON-­DON EXAMPLES EXHIBIT REVERSE GOVERNANCE MODELS, THEY BOTH IN-­CLUDE A HEALTHY DEGREE OF CONFLICT AND CONSEN-­SUS.

with things differently. In 1997, a major change took place in British

the elections after 18 years of Con-­servative rule. This was to have a major effect on the institutional context for strategic planning in London. In their 1997 election manifesto, Tony Blair ’s Labour

a commitment to an elected mayor of Lon-­don. The mayor was conceived as having strong executive pow-­ers. Alongside the mayor, an elected Assembly would have a scrutinising and checking role. It was hoped that the strong mayor would overcome the prob-­lem of lack of political leadership in the capital and that the elec-­toral processes would introduce

one example of this type of rela-­tionship where the double agenda of national government and the mayor of London formed the Olym-­pic Delivery Authority as the third actor to mediate the differences on the basis of “the project”. It is

a non-­departmental public body of the De-­partment for Culture, Media and Sport, re-­sponsible for ensur-­ing the delivery of venues, infrastructure and designing the legacy for the 2012

13

In conclusion of these two re-­verse models of metropolitan governance is, although they are different in nature, they both in-­clude a healthy degree of conflict and consensus and that is their

Page 47: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes

erate coherently for longer periods of times15.In other words, there is nothing

essentially wrong with the model of metropolitan governance of Istan-­bul, there are only actors who don’t play their roles properly. Turkey’s

great case to observe why they are not played well and what are the consequences of it. In a situation of smooth con-­

sensus, national government and Istanbul Metropoltian Municipality showed a great willingness to the comittee and a gret deal of promis-­es16. The mega investment project for the olympics are developed by the national government to be pre-­

The project promises four zones of development in the city and a transportation network in-­between linking them to each other. Three of these zones are located in the European side while one takes place in the Asian side. Although these are very positive promises for the city, they could only be better in a situation in which the mayor had played more strongly. In fact, he could have used this flow of investment by pushing for inte-­grating these developments with his 1/100.000 master plan for the city and evolve the original plan to a more complex level by integrat-­ing additive concerns of his plan, such as new commerce centers,

the culture of communication and collaboration with each other, although they don’t seem to mind interaction from time to time. This picture is a reminiscent of a culture where they cultivate their conflicts into healthy consensuses in times of necessity, which is what city needs more than a master plan.

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THERE IS NOTHING ESSEN-­TIALLY WRONG WITH THE MODEL OF METROPOLITAN GOVERNANCE IN ISTANBUL THERE ARE ONLY ACTORS WHO DON’T PLAY THEIR ROLES PROPERLY.

strength. Metropolitan governance only functions without conflict on

Bologna where the scale of the city much smaller and therefore oppor-­tunities and interests on it are not as concentrated as a megacity. So the question is “until when and in the name of what, will metro-­politan governance be capable of solving the problem of conflict?”14In fact it cannot and

it does not have to. Metropolitan govern-­ance is not normative, it can not be apolitical. Conflict of interests, contradiction of visions are necessary for a megacity as long as the moments of consensus is found and when found, cultivat-­ed. If there is only conflict, you are not going anywhere. If there is only

consensus as in the case of Istan-­bul and if it is not arrived as a re-­sult of challenging each other then it is not consensus, it is keeping up the appearance. That means some parties’ interests are excluded in the process and that is bad for two

reasons, first you do not include a variety of actors to difersify the mix of projects for better environments and second you do not create a sustain-­able state of affairs. Especially, stability is central for govern-­

ing a megacity since metropolitan governance requires large invest-­ments of money, labour and en-­ergy. Larger the investment, longer the duration is needed to absorb that investment. That is why you need sustainable conditions to op-­

Page 48: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes

better organised housing develop-­ments and green zones. By doing so the plan would not just be about

The mayor could have diversified the mixture of concerns and this would not just create a plan that is better aligned with the city’s am-­bitions but it would also eliminate the autocratic character of the de-­cision with a more inclusive one for a more stable environment.However, continuous misplayed

role of the mayor rendered the en-­tire investment unrealisable. Here is an explanation of how:

came up with plans for Taksim Square, the most representative public space of Istanbul. The plans included a shopping mall by reviv-­ing a replica of the old military bar-­racks on the area that is today a park adjacent to Taksim square. Final circle of this long series of autocratic decisions about the city to a level of micro-­management, created an extreme outburst in the society. Thousands of people gath-­ered around the park to avoid the plans being realized and expressed their objection to the nature of the decisions that is given about their city and their life at large. The fact that whatever national government imagined about Istanbul went un-­challenged, exhausted the nerves of the citizens and country went into a turbulence involving pro-­tests, police brutality and seeming-­ly a referandum about the future of the park. Under this instability and public unrest over a public space project that is much more smaller

to trust Turkey to realize the devel-­opments it promised. Turkey failed the bid for 2020

summer olympics. This is the announcement of this

article...In fact, Turkish megacity urban-­

ism is no different than Turkish economy. It is “strong but vulnera-­ble” as noted by the Economist.17,18 It is strong because the political instruments behind its investments are in absolut consensus with each other but it is vulnerable because conflicting forces can not find a

POLITICS

NATIONAL GOVERNMENT AND MET-­ROPOLITAN MUNICIPALITY SHOWED A GREAT WILLINGNESS TO THE OLYM-­PICS COMITTE AND GAVE A NUMBER OF PROMISES.

HOWEVER, TURKISH MEGACITY UR-­BANISM IS NO DIFFERENT THAN TURK-­ISH ECONOMY. IT IS STRONG BUT VUL-­NERABLE.

Silent Majority -­opments to the rally area. There is no clearer picture about the relationship between politics and urbanism.

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place for themselves in this picture that’s why influencing the city with guerilla tactics causing turbulence. In other words, its strength is at the price of excessive volatility. This volatility that is caused by unbal-­anced mix of conflicts and consen-­suses in the megacity politics is the reason why Turkey failed the

properly.-­

edy but an opportunity for the play-­ers to evaluate how they played. At best, it is possible to cultivate this conflict into a consensus and to learn from the experience. The visious circle of only two

possibilities between a shopping mall and things-­shall-­stay-­as-­they-­are can be expanded to find an architectural model that finds the right mix in between. A multiplic-­ity of future scenarios and a dis-­cussion around them can create a healthy tone in the environment in which the art of collective deci-­sion making would be practiced. This requires a two-­sided commu-­nication and longer negotiations

the project would find the right mix of conflict and consensuses, in short interests, to mold the future of the most representative public space of Istanbul. This right mix is not able to be

pinpointed clearly since it is not a numerical figure or a clear amount but it should be understood more as a process of conflicts and con-­sensuses amongst urban actors. It is a condition that parties collide with each other until the balance emerges.

heaviness of giving the right an-­swer to the questions, but rather understand that possible solutions lies in processes, the dynamic that can deliver the ‘right mix’ emerges naturally to continuously produce its future.Megacity is about continuous

change, that’s why it is “tomorrow where most of its productivity, moti-­vation and achievement is stored.”Hence, to make this investment

to your tomorrow is not just but possible but also necessary

‘Gezi Park‘ -­‐

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UNDER THE INSTABILITY AND PUBLIC UNREST OVER A PUBLIC SPACE PRO-­JECT THAT IS MUCH SMALLER THAN THE OLYMPICS DEVELOPMENTS, IT IS UNIMAGINABLE FOR OLYMPICS CO-­MITTE TO TRUST TURKEY TO REALIZE THE DEVELOPMENTS IT PROMISED.

BUT PROBABLY, THIS FAILURE IS NOT A TRAGEDY BUT AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THE PLAYERS TO EVALUATE HOW THEY PLAYED THEIR ROLES.

-­opments to the rally area. There is no clearer picture about the relationship between politics and urbanism.

Page 50: Istanbul, Behind the Scenes