Ali Sadikin's Controversial Idea: Parking Parking Project On The Ciliwung River

Density Jl. General Sudirman, Central Jakarta in the 1973 era. (Perpusnas)

JAKARTA - Parking management matters are not easy to fix. Jakarta leaders have been made many times dizzy about parking matters. Ali Sadikin is one of them. The governor of DKI Jakarta in the 1966-1977 era was once faced with the problem of lacking parking land availability.

The availability of land in Jakarta is very limited. The government could not fully present a parking lot. Ali tried to rack his brain. He then got the idea to bring official parking over the Ciliwung River. The idea was then opposed by many parties.

The image of Jakarta as an economic and business center never fades. This condition was supported by the progress of Jakarta which became the Metropolitan City in the 1970s. The population increased. Likewise with the number of motorized vehicles.

The growth of motorized vehicles, especially private vehicles, has become a new problem faced by the City of Jakarta. Illegal parking grows. However, motorized vehicles are prone to damage due to illegal parking. Damage is usually caused by trivial things.

Parking attendants are often the culprit of disputes because of the lack of parking fees. Sometimes the problem reaches the police station. The car owner was injured. The parking attendant was thrown in prison. The problem of illegal parking finally reached Ali Sadikin's family.

The governor of Jakarta once considered parking matters to be trivial. However, the vehicle that is increasingly making parking problems need to be handled specifically by the government. Ali also began to think about managing the parking properly.

All parking responsibilities are given to the government. Ali tried to establish PT Parking Jaya as the sole manager of the parking lot in the DKI Jakarta area in 1972. As a result, the government's opportunity was to make a profit from the parking lot, such as at the traffic center to large trading in the mosque.

The number of vehicles causes us to think about the place to park. And it can be seen immediately, that in general private vehicles need a lot of parking lots.

Mainly in shopping centers, trade, recreation, and other activity centers. It is estimated that at that time, a hundred Mobols were parked every day, and the levy was parked once Rp25," said Ali Sadikin as written by Ramadhan KH in the book Bang Ali: Demi Jakarta 1966-1977 (1992).

Recently, Ali considers the availability of land to be a problem of parking management in Jakarta. Jakarta's situation is getting dense, so the estuary. Ali also tried to rack his brain to be able to maximize parking management in Jakarta.

Ali also began to try to involve the private sector in parking management. He issued an idea to use the Ciliwung River as a car park. Entrepreneurs can use the parking lot above Ciliwung as a business business.

Ali approved all entrepreneurs as long as they did not reduce the beauty of Jakarta City. Ali Sadikin's idea was greeted with pros and cons. Those who support think Ali Sadikin is smart in looking for loopholes to increase regional income from parking.

Those who refuse are not a few. Indonesian environmental experts began to get out of the nest. They considered Ali Sadikin's plan to have a lot of harm. Environmental expert, Otto Soemarwoto, considers Ali Sadikin's plan to make Jakarta like an epidemic city.

This condition is because rivers that are not exposed to sunlight can make the source of the epidemic easy to breed. Instead of making a parking lot, Ali is advised to make the Ciliwung River a classy tourist attraction such as Venezia or Amsterdam.

The option is considered to be able to make a lot of money, rather than being a parking lot. The commotion that came to be tried was accommodated by Ali. Finally Ali ignored his intention. He took the decision considering that there were no private companies that were really serious about working on parking matters.

I strongly oppose the plan. If the river is closed and not hit by the sun, the disease is easy to breed. Moreover, the Ciliwung River water often brings garbage from upstream. From the start, I suggested that it would be better to reorganize the Bogor, Puncak, and Cianjur areas, as well as make the Ciliwung River area a typical tourist asset in the Netherlands and Venice, Italy."

"Why? If the area becomes a tourist asset, many people who live there feel the need to take care of it. They have feelings of having it. Fortunately, Bang Ali ignored his intention. But unfortunately, he did not make the river area a tourist asset, "said Otto Soemarwoto as written by Widiarsi Agustina and Rinny Srihartini in his writing in Tempo Magazine entitledOtto Soemarwoto: THINKers and Environmental Warriors (2008).