Through our stories, we find that a common approach to space management in Singapore is the idea that everything has its proper place. For instance, skateboarders should be at the skate park and street advertising should stay in the designated boards. The government’s proposed changes to the Public Order Act (POA) is a great example of how such management extends beyond just physical space and into the political realm. If the POA is changed, the Speakers’ Corner at Hong Lim Park will become a designated ‘unrestricted area’, or the state’s proper place, for political expression, but everywhere out of it is subjected to a permit.

The changes also affect the space allowed for filming as law enforcement officers will also have the power to stop people from videotaping security operations even if in the public. However, certain restrictions on this has been explicitly stated, including the fact that this is “not targeted against the filming of acts of civil disobedience”. Perhaps this was in anticipation of questions if it targeted filmmakers like Martyn See, who had documented the only public protest during the 2006 IMF-World Bank meeting in Singapore in his short film Speakers Cornered.

Despite these upcoming regulations to better manage political space, a solution that has existed, and continues to exist is to reclaim virtual space to discuss politics. For instance, you could read an interview a friend recently did with See and watch his banned political films, Singapore Rebel and Zahari’s 17 years all in the comfort of your personal space without applying for a permit.

It seems that smokers have “reclaimed” new spaces to light up a cigarette based on this sighting posted at STOMP. “Yellow boxes”, a way to demarcate where smoking is allowed in Singapore, have been spotted in strange places. No one can confirm if these boxes are set up by the authorities but they sure remind me of, Yellow Puff, a piece of conceptual work from local designer Larry Peh.

A group of residents of Bukit Panjang have been farming on state-owned land in their neighbourhood thanks to the cheap monthly rent offered by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA). According to a Lianhe Zaobao report, SLA has been allowing such community initiatives take over these empty plots of land at lower than market rates since 2002 with its Temporary Occupation License. At just three cents per square metre, renting land the size of a soccer field would cost $210 a month as compared to the prevailing market rates of up to $2800.Besides farming, communities have also set up basketball courts, mini gardens and facilities for archery at 190 sites all over the island.

SLA said that rather than let these empty plots that are marked for future use remain unused, it decided to open them up for community use on a temporary basis. The only conditions are that the land is well-maintained and not use for commercial purposes. Currently, it has 14,000 hectares worth of such land, the equivalent of 20,000 soccer fields and you can find a full list of where they are here.

It is great to hear that the state is thinking beyond economics in land use as Prof Ho Kong Chong argued, and it reminds us of our folks in Balik Kampung. We’ll like to hear more communities take the initiative in deciding how to use the space around them. Tell us if you’re involved in such a community or you have plans to start one!

Yes, says economist Edward Glaeser in an interview with The Straits Times today. The professor from Havard University, who studies how cities work, said that density should not be a worry as there are many solutions available like building skyscrapers.

Instead, the question is who are we packing in? Only by having enough “smart people” can the city constantly reinvent itself to thrive. And such innovation in cities have not been very successful when it was implemented top-down. For Prof Glaeser, cities should be planned around human dynamics rather what the state thinks it should look like. 

Such thinking seems to go against how the state has been clearing street hawkers and buskers off the streets of Orchard Road of late. Is there not enough space? Not so, since the streets there were recently widened and renovated. They were reacting to a complaint from the Orchard Road Business Association that these hawkers make the shopping district “low class”. But the street businesses are just people trying to make a living and it is just good business sense to go to a space where they are crowds. That’s why the shops of the association are in Orchard too, so why not try to co-exist?