Bree Street a big part of City Centre Revival says the City of Cape Town

Cape Town’s CBD has always been the heart (and engine) of the Mother City and a driving force for the local market. As the city emerges into a post-pandemic world, the City of Cape Town is focused on reviving the City Centre. Apart from new trendy restaurants and an increase in foot traffic as many return to offices, events are also returning  - the Cape Town Carnival is returning in-person on the 19th of March for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic!

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Following in the footsteps of cities around the world, the City of Cape Town launched an ‘Open streets for safer dining’ initiative which aims to increase outdoor dining spaces for restaurants in the City, closing Bree Street between Hout and Wale to vehicles from 14:00 to 23:00 every Saturday. The Mayor of Cape Town, Geordin Hill-Lewis, announced the initiative in late December saying, “starting on the 18th of December, Cape Town will close certain streets to vehicles and open them for pedestrians and diners only, allowing 20 selected restaurants to use the street space for more safe, outdoor seating”. The City hopes that this initiative  will positively impact the local hospitality industry which was hard hit during the Covid-19 lockdowns. This initiative has also been expanded onto other streets within the CBD such as Long Street, with 13 restaurants together with the City of Cape Town hosting an open-air dining experience in January. These initiatives have been overwhelmingly successful with huge turnouts and will go a long way in reinvigorating the CBD economy.

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Another interesting tactical idea that has been warmly embraced in the CBD includes the Parklet at Cafe Frank and another at Micaffè Cape Town - both located on Bree Street. A Parklet, also known as “street seats” are public spaces created by transforming underutilised on-street parking bays into vibrant public spaces and are another example of partnership between the city and local businesses. The parklets on Bree Street come at a crucial time as the city looks for innovative ways to recover. This intervention has been well received, bringing life back to the CBD and creating a sense of place on Bree Street. Small interventions like the Parklet will be key to the revitalisation of inner-city areas in South Africa as they change the way pedestrians and restaurant patrons use urban space as there is a shift to more people-centred spaces.

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The CBD is also becoming more accessible again as the MyCiTi N2 Express service, which provides affordable and reliable public transport, between Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha and the Cape Town CBD, is set to resume from February 2022 after almost a three year suspension. Several train lines including the Southern and Northern Lune have been reopened for service.

CBD revival might have been impacted by the pandemic but certainly a new era awaits with exciting events, infrastructure investment and public-private partnerships. If you are looking for a starting point, head to Bree Street which is now well known globally with Vogue Magazine referring to it as “Cape Town’s Coolest Street”. As Cape Town’s Mayor says, “Bree there, or be square”!