The charming Cihangir neighborhood of central Istanbul While living in Berlin last summer I conceived of a research project that would take me across Asia, a continent that I spent a good part of my life in, but about which I have never written. This was a large gap in my research about the 'green divide' and I decided to revisit some representative cities in the Middle East, South Asia and East Asia.
Istanbul struck me as an ideal starting point from Berlin. It's a city that straddles both Europe and Asia, combines both European and non-European characteristics, and is a global megacity where I was sure I could learn a lot. It turned out to be an unexpectedly good choice that changed my thinking about developing world cities on many fronts.
Istanbul struck me as an ideal starting point from Berlin. It's a city that straddles both Europe and Asia, combines both European and non-European characteristics, and is a global megacity where I was sure I could learn a lot. It turned out to be an unexpectedly good choice that changed my thinking about developing world cities on many fronts.
Maslak business district at metro stop with green roof As with most every other city I've been to, Istanbul is a place that tourist attractions do not define or explain. My previous short visit to the city followed the typical tourist itinerary of a few days in the old city, visiting the Egyptian Bazaar and nearby mosques, drinking tea and smoking the hookah. This time around I rented an apartment for a month in the centrally located Beyoglu neighborhood, the historically European (ethnically and culturally) enclave of Istanbul. It made an ideal base for exploring the far reaches of the city as this area, including Taksim Square, is the major hub of much of the city's transit. My goal for the month was to meet as many people involved in urban studies and planning (academics, activists, government officials), and visit as many neighborhoods and parts of the city, as I could in a month. Very quickly a new identity emerged from the mists of the tourist fog and I realized that I'd been hostage to an image of the country and city quite at odds with reality
Dolmabahçe Palace on the crystal-clear waters of the Bosporus Istanbul is a a huge, modern Mediterranean city that has more in common with Rome than with Cairo or other Middle Eastern cities. It is an elegant, hilly city surrounded by the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus and the Black Sea. Water is rarely far away. Maybe most surprisingly, it is enveloped in expansive green forests like you might expect to see around some cities in Central Europe. Few cities in the world have as much forest within their borders as Istanbul (although this forest is shrinking). I would never have imagined it.
Below on the left is a map of the Balkans, including the region around Istanbul. Istanbul really is a European city. On the right: a closer view of the Istanbul region. The city is perched along the Bosporus, which connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara. It's easy to see its strategic historical position with control of movement between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, and between Europe and Asia.
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In addition to it's surprisingly green environs, Istanbul also surprised me with a higher level of organization and quality of infrastructure, including parks, than most other cities at this income level. Mexico City or Sao Paolo (cities with a similar GDP per head), are far behind, both in terms of the quality of their streets and other public infrastructure. Istanbul just looks far more developed and livable than cities in many of Turkey's economic peers. As I talked with people about this, an explanation emerged: the city has an ancient urban culture and has been a part of European history for thousands of years. Istanbulites take pride in the central city and the city invests to keep it livable and attractive. I believe another part of the explanation for the feeling of organization and well-being lies in the relatively low income inequality in Turkey. Istanbul is certainly a city of contrasts. Impressively wealthy areas line the waterfront contrasting with areas of poverty further inland. But with a GINI coefficient quite a bit lower than Mexico's or Brazil's, the contrasts are not as extreme and there seem to be relatively few parts of the population totally left behind by Turkey's strong economic growth.
A typically jam-packed street during rush hour. As delighted as I was with Istanbul, any city of this size has problems, and Istanbul has most problems typical of large urban areas. Two things in particular, however, conspire to diminish the quality of life here: the city's high population density and its growing dependence on the automobile.
Istanbul's population density is readily apparent, as much of its large population is squeezed into neighborhoods along the coastline. City neighborhoods tend to have multistory apartment blocks lining narrow streets. And with a rapidly growing number of cars, these streets are overtaxed and bogged down with traffic for much of the day.
The city is complicit in this expansion of automobile transport. Its investments in bigger roads encourages more car usage, and comes at the expense of open spaces and forests. The automobile-traffic clogged streets hinder movement in buses, by far the most common form of public transport in Istanbul. While there is one bus rapid transit line in the city (with dedicated lanes not shared with cars), it is not well integrated with the rest of the city's transport infrastructure and is itself overcrowded.
The rapid growth of the city over the last decades, encouraged by expanded automobile infrastructure, has led to a massive loss in green cover over the last 35 years. The pictures below, courtesy of an academic researcher in Istanbul, show how the city's (and region's) forest cover has dramatically shrunk since 1977.
Istanbul's population density is readily apparent, as much of its large population is squeezed into neighborhoods along the coastline. City neighborhoods tend to have multistory apartment blocks lining narrow streets. And with a rapidly growing number of cars, these streets are overtaxed and bogged down with traffic for much of the day.
The city is complicit in this expansion of automobile transport. Its investments in bigger roads encourages more car usage, and comes at the expense of open spaces and forests. The automobile-traffic clogged streets hinder movement in buses, by far the most common form of public transport in Istanbul. While there is one bus rapid transit line in the city (with dedicated lanes not shared with cars), it is not well integrated with the rest of the city's transport infrastructure and is itself overcrowded.
The rapid growth of the city over the last decades, encouraged by expanded automobile infrastructure, has led to a massive loss in green cover over the last 35 years. The pictures below, courtesy of an academic researcher in Istanbul, show how the city's (and region's) forest cover has dramatically shrunk since 1977.
Istanbul's Disappearing Green The reliance on the automobile in this densely populated city has not only led to a dramatic decline in forest cover, but has distorted the structure of neighborhoods. In a city where streets and sidewalks make up a large percentage of available public space (there are not many parks in central areas), city sidewalks are often almost comically marginalized to make space for cars and car parking. The images below show some typically vestigial sidewalks in Istanbul providing practically no room for pedestrians to walk. This situation is often aggravated with the most confounding design and placement of bus stop shelters which totally block the sidewalk and force pedestrians to enter the busy street to pass.
But as I write above, Istanbul strikes me as a highly organized, efficiently managed city. Everywhere I looked I noted impressive infrastructure improvements, ranging from new subways and bridges to expansive new parklands along the waterfront. The streetscapes themselves are being renewed with better sidewalks and newly laid brick streets. . There is a certain amount of dissatisfaction among many groups with the ruling party's conservative policies in Turkey, but it's hard to deny this government's success in making massive improvements to the physical structure of Istanbul. In a city growing and evolving as rapidly as Istanbul, mistakes are naturally being made. I will go into some of these further below. But first, I share some pictures below of newly redesigned streets with protected sidewalks and carefully laid pavement bricks and stones. These new streets are not the exception in Istanbul, but are becoming the rule.
The city is also managing to plant trees in the sorts of narrow streets that typically remain treeless elsewhere. In cities around the world urban planners tell me that there is no place to plant trees in narrow streets like those found in many poor districts (particularly informal neighborhoods). But Istanbul provides a great model for what can be done. The pictures below come from several different neighborhoods in the city. .
Trees on streets provide many benefits, but they don't transform streets into areas where children can play safely and where people can spend leisurely afternoons away from the crowds and noise of the city. Accessible parks are an essential part of the good life in any city, and this is an area where Istanbul has traditionally lagged. The current administration recognized this shortcoming of the city and has embarked on an ambitious park-building program the scale of which I've seen nowhere other than China. Vast areas of the city's shoreline, areas along highways, and significant portions of any new development are now being devoted to parkland and green spaces. Even crowded, poor neighborhoods are getting new small parks. I'm not exaggerating to say the developments are remarkable and impressive. Detractors may say that these parks are cosmetic cover ups or used to direct attention away from land grabs elsewhere. But from what I could see, no matter the government's intentions, these are real parks used by large numbers of people. Below are some images of Istanbul's well-tended parks and green spaces.
Where the city may be failing in its modernization and upgrading efforts is in the poorest parts of the city, informal settlements known as gecekondu ('geh-jay-kondoo'). This terms means something like 'built overnight' in Turkish.
Gecekondu are found throughout and all around Istanbul. I visited several, but in this section will write about the gecekondu I encountered in the Tuzla district.
A position I had rigidly maintained for years was that the 'Green Divide' (the unequal distribution of urban trees and green space in favor of the wealthy) uniformly exists across cities around the world. Before coming to Istanbul, as I discussed my upcoming research with academics here, I was typically confronted with disagreement on this thesis. I assumed that there was some communication problem, as many Turkish academics are not accustomed to using English. How could it be that the poor would have street trees and green spaces while those of higher economic classes didn't? This went against everything I had witnessed in urban Latin America, Africa and even the United States. But in Istanbul the poorest really DO have more green, as you can see in the pictures below.
Gecekondu are found throughout and all around Istanbul. I visited several, but in this section will write about the gecekondu I encountered in the Tuzla district.
A position I had rigidly maintained for years was that the 'Green Divide' (the unequal distribution of urban trees and green space in favor of the wealthy) uniformly exists across cities around the world. Before coming to Istanbul, as I discussed my upcoming research with academics here, I was typically confronted with disagreement on this thesis. I assumed that there was some communication problem, as many Turkish academics are not accustomed to using English. How could it be that the poor would have street trees and green spaces while those of higher economic classes didn't? This went against everything I had witnessed in urban Latin America, Africa and even the United States. But in Istanbul the poorest really DO have more green, as you can see in the pictures below.
Destroyed gecekondu dwellings Sadly, the somehow charming, green gecekondu settlements are under threat and are being dismantled, often replaced with soulless high-rise apartment blocks totally set apart from nature and dislocated from the pre-existing social fabric. It's as if the Turks had learned nothing from decades of misguided urban redevelopment in Europe and North America.
In Tuzla I saw widespread destruction of homes, especially along major streets. I wondered what had become of the families who had built their Istanbul lives here. There was no indication of what would follow this demolition, but with the rapid growth of this city, I imagine that cleared areas along wide thoroughfares would be converted to a mix of high-rise commercial and residential use.
As a gecekondu neighborhood develops, population density increases and the settlements gradually take on the dense character of much of the rest of the city. Trees and small garden plots disappear, and the buildings become taller and taller. In some cases, gecekondu are destroyed to make way for highrise developments like those pictured below. They seem like human warehouses to me. You can see a couple of examples in Tuzla below.
In Tuzla I saw widespread destruction of homes, especially along major streets. I wondered what had become of the families who had built their Istanbul lives here. There was no indication of what would follow this demolition, but with the rapid growth of this city, I imagine that cleared areas along wide thoroughfares would be converted to a mix of high-rise commercial and residential use.
As a gecekondu neighborhood develops, population density increases and the settlements gradually take on the dense character of much of the rest of the city. Trees and small garden plots disappear, and the buildings become taller and taller. In some cases, gecekondu are destroyed to make way for highrise developments like those pictured below. They seem like human warehouses to me. You can see a couple of examples in Tuzla below.
A feature of Istanbul that sets it apart from many other cities is its countless beautiful staircases, which connect neighborhoods and bring people up into the hills of the city, or down to the sea.
The most wonderful thing about the staircases is that there are, of course, no cars. They are in fact a model for what the streets of Istanbul could be like if they were pedestrianized.
Staircases provide much needed, car-free public space in the city, and I would always see people sitting on these city staircases, especially in the evenings. Often large groups gather here, enjoying a beer and sometimes even a barbecue while taking in the view..
Below are a few shots of some staircases I climbed.
The most wonderful thing about the staircases is that there are, of course, no cars. They are in fact a model for what the streets of Istanbul could be like if they were pedestrianized.
Staircases provide much needed, car-free public space in the city, and I would always see people sitting on these city staircases, especially in the evenings. Often large groups gather here, enjoying a beer and sometimes even a barbecue while taking in the view..
Below are a few shots of some staircases I climbed.
People make all the difference. My productive time in Istanbul was made possible by the dozens of extremely kind and generous Turks I met. I don't believe I've ever met such a universally giving and hospitable group of people in all my travels. `
 Professor Adnan Uzun (left), an acclaimed landscape architect, went out of his way to show me parts of Istanbul I would never have seen on my own. Here he stands by the shore of the Black Sea. |  Professor Besime Sen, above, shared her valuable insights into Istanbul's urban development and also extended an invitation to her home. I will never forget the coziness of her beautiful apartment, nor the regional specialties she shared with me from her home town. Besime has become a special friend to me. . |
A small sampling of the wonderful people who helped me in my research and who often became friends.
And as usually, I include some pictures of the wonderful Turkish food I enjoyed.
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