The Central Business District, commonly called Johannesburg CBD, is one of the main business centres of Johannesburg

Johannesburg

Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. It is the most dense collection of skyscraper

Skyscraper

A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...

s in Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, however due to white flight

White flight

White flight has been a term that originated in the United States, starting in the mid-20th century, and applied to the large-scale migration of whites of various European ancestries from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions. It was first seen as...

 and urban blight, many of the buildings are unoccupied as tenants have left for more secure locations in the Northern Suburbs

Suburbs of Johannesburg

The suburbs of Johannesburg are officially demarcated areas within the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. As in other Commonwealth countries, the term suburb refers to a "neighbourhood", although the term has a somewhat stronger meaning in South Africa as most "suburbs" have legally recognised...

, in particular Sandton and Rosebank

Rosebank, Gauteng

Rosebank is a cosmopolitan commercial and residential suburb in the northwestern part of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is located in Region 3, and will be the location of a Gautrain station in 2011....

. There are significant movements to revive the area for gentrification

Gentrification

Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...

.

History

The area that is currently the Central Business District has been the central area of Johannesburg nearly since its inception. Its central location in the city as well as careful planning led to it to be chosen as the best location for residential and commercial development, especially during the economically prosperous 1960s and 1970s. Many large commercial products were completed in this period, such as the Carlton Centre

Carlton Centre

The Carlton Centre is a skyscraper and shopping centre located in downtown Johannesburg, South Africa. At , it has been the tallest building in Africa for 38 years. The Carlton Centre has 50 floors. The foundations of the two buildings in the complex are 3.5m in diameter and extend 20m down to the...

, which is still the tallest building in Africa.

Under apartheid, the Central Business District was classified as a whites-only area, meaning that black people were allowed to work and shop there but could not live there. Application of the Group Areas Act

Group Areas Act

The Group Areas Act of 1950 was an act of parliament created under the apartheid government of South Africa on 27th April 1950. The act assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas in a system of urban apartheid...

 became very lax in the 1980s, among other things because courts were not able to handle all the cases, and when the Act was abolished even more disadvantaged black people moved into the City Centre, often taking over whole buildings by overfilling them with people that the previous middle class white tenants found unacceptable neighbours.

This is not only true of previously established residential areas such as Hillbrow on the periphery of the CBD but also of former office blocks in the heart of the CBD, that were converted to residential accommodation as businesses fled the centre in the late-1980s and 1990s. A crime wave

Crime

Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...

 swept through the city as businesses left the CBD, which made walking around the area dangerous. Many businesses and people fled the Central Business District and surrounding areas such as Braamfontein

Braamfontein

Braamfontein is a central suburb of Johannesburg, in South Africa. It is well located, straddling Jan Smuts Avenue and Empire Road. The Nelson Mandela bridge is a landmark that connects Braamfontein to the city...

, Hillbrow, and Yeoville for more secured houses or offices in the Northern Suburbs. By the late 1990s, the Central Business District was a no-go zone and a virtual ghost town. The situation has improved since. The provincial government of Gauteng

Gauteng

Gauteng is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. It was formed from part of the old Transvaal Province after South Africa's first all-race elections on 27 April 1994...

 is based in the CBD as are several large banks. However, most businesses where middle-class people work have secured buildings that often include parking, shops and restaurants so that workers do not necessarily need to ever walk on the streets.

Gentrification

There have been significant movements to redevelop the city centre. The Johannesburg city government

City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality

The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality is a metropolitan municipality that manages the local governance of Johannesburg, South Africa...

 installed CCTV

Closed-circuit television

Closed-circuit television is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors....

 camera

Camera

A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...

s all over the Central Business District, which decreased crime dramatically. Several historical buildings have also been developed and turned into condominium

Condominium

A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...

s, which developers hope will draw new residents to the area. The process of gentirification and redevelopment is ongoing as of 2005.

External links

• Johannesburg Central Business District Redevelopment Plan