The Izmir Model

The Izmir Model THE IZMIR MODEL PROPOSAL FOR A DEMOCRATIC MUNICIPAL MODEL FOR IZMIR 139 The Izmir Model Proposal for a Democratic Municipal Model for Izmir 2nd BOOK THE IZMIR MODEL PROPOSAL FOR A DEMOCRATIC MUNICIPAL MODEL FOR IZMIR İlhan TEKELİ Translation BİS Organizasyon Coordination Mehmet URAL Ayşegül SABUKTAY Grafik Design and Implementatiton Emre DUYGU Administration Office THE IZMIR MEDITERRANEAN ACADEMY BRANCH OF IZMIR METROPOLITAN MUNICIPALITY Mehmet Ali Akman Mah. Mithatpaşa Cad. No: 1087, 35290 Konak-İzmir Phone: +90 (232) 293 46 13 Fax: +90 (232) 293 46 10 www.izmeda.org [email protected] THE STORY OF THE PREPARATION OF THE IZMIR MODEL The book Proposal for a Democratic Model for Izmir was consummated as the product of a process of collective work organised by the Izmir Metropolitan Mu- nicipality. The name given to this collective process is, for short, the “Izmir Mo- del”. The Izmir Metropolitan Municipality formed an inner team of 12, composed of experts as well as senior administrators of the municipality with the purpo- se of drawing the conceptual framework of this project. This team had its first meeting on 21 January 2017. After two meetings, this team ensured that four research projects were conducted and the findings of these research projects took definitive shape in four distinct workshops, with the aim of clarifying the basic concepts/values to be employed for the Izmir Model. Later, for the Model to be based on the data ﬂowing from the experience/performance of the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, the inner team organised research to be conducted by handpicked academics/researchers on 20 different topics determined by the inner research team. After in-depth discussion carried out on the conclusions reached in these research projects in workshops in which members of the inner team, the researchers that conducted the studies themselves, the relevant members of the municipal bureaucracy and denizens of Izmir participated, the authors of the studies gave them their final form. The last of these workshops on the 20 studies was completed on 2 December 2017. Upon the completion of the preparatory work for the Izmir Model in the space of eleven months, it was time for the writing of two books, the two fundamental products of the work conducted on the model, titled Story of the 2004-2018 Period of Municipal Administration in Izmir and Proposal for a Democratic Mu- nicipal Model for Izmir. In the ideal case, it would have been most preferable for these books, the empirical and the normative Izmir Models, to be prepared by the members of the project team and the researchers of the 20 studies. But in practice, since this did not turn out to be possible, the team decided that the books should be authored by İlhan Tekeli, who had acted as the moderator of the project workshops. Thereupon İlhan Tekeli prepared drafts, which he opened for discussion in two workshops that met on 3 March 2018 and 28 May 2018 and thereafter put the final touch on both books. During the work that lasted a year and four months in all, a total of 31 workshops or meetings, attended by many people, were held. 89 people from the administration of the municipality, as well as 78 academics, experts and others from outside the municipality participated in these meetings. The product that has come to the light of day contains their contribution as well. THE IZMIR MODEL PROPOSAL FOR A DEMOCRATIC MUNICIPAL MODEL FOR IZMIR 3 CONTENTS A BEGINNING RATHER THAN AN ENDING - Aziz KOCAOĞLU 6 I. INTRODUCTION 9 II. WHAT VISION DOES THE IZMIR MODEL TAKE AS ITS POINT OF DEPARTURE? 14 II.1. HOW WAS THE IZMIR VISION FORMED? 14 1. Izmir Should Cast Itself As an Innovative Design City 14 2. It Should Become an Active Node in the Network of Mediterranean Cities 14 3. It Should Attribute Priority to Practices of Participatory Governance in the Activities of the Local Government 14 4. The Protection and Enhancement of Izmir’s Unstressed Quality of Life, Not Treating Anyone as the Other, Open to Conviviality and Interaction 15 II.2. FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF THE VISION 15 1. Quality of Life 16 2. Participation and Governance 21 3. Innovation 25 4. Sustainability 29 III. WHAT ARE THE FOUR ELEMENTS THAT FORM THE MAIN CORPUS OF THE IZMIR MODEL? 35 III.1. STRUCTURE, FORMS OF ESTABLISHING RELATIONS, FUNCTIONS, AND PERFORMANCE CRITERIA OF THE MAIN ACTOR, THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT ENTITY (METROPOLITAN MUNICIPALITY) 35 III.1.1. What Kind of Framework Does the European Charter for Local Self- Government Provide? 36 III.1.2. How Was the Structure of the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Formed? 38 • What Restrictions Does the Constitution Bring? 38 • How Did the Two-Tier Municipal System Emerge in Turkey? 39 • Law No. 5393 Broadens the Scope of Responsibility of Municipalities 44 • Provincial Frontiers Become the Frontiers of Metropolitan Municipalities 46 • How Are the Economic Enterprises of Municipalities Established? 48 • How Does the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Carry Long-Term, Innovative Thinking within This Legal Framework? 48 III.1.3. How Does the Izmir Model Conceptualise Local Government and the Relations between Central Government and Local Government and What Kind of Approach Does It Propose on This Question? 49 III.1.4. What Kind of Relations Should Metropolitan Municipalities Establish with District Municipalities? 54 III.1.5. Communication Strategies of Metropolitan Municipalities Concerning the Formation of the Public Sphere, Political Interaction, Publicity, and Public Relations 56 III.1.6. Funding and Fiscal Management Policies to Be Pursued by Local Government 60 III.1.7. Human Resources Management of the Izmir Model and the Strategies and Policies It Advocates Concerning the Improvement of the Capacity of the Bureaucracy and Other Employees 62 III.2. STRATEGIES AND POLICIES RECOMMENDED BY THE IZMIR MODEL FOR IMPLEMENTATION IN PROVIDING SERVICES IN BASIC AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE 65 III.2.1. Sustaining Locally Focused Development 65 III.2.2. Multifaceted Environmental Awareness and Responsibility 73 III.2.3. Provision of Fundamental Urban Infrastructure 82 III.2.3.1. Provision of Potable Water for Izmir by IZSU 83 III.2.3.2. To Protecting and Improving the Izmir Bay and Bringing It into the Life of the City 85 III.2.3.3. Providing the Urban Transportation Infrastructure and Operating It 90 III.3. CONCEPTION FOR SHAPING SETTLEMENTS IN THE IZMIR MODEL; APPROACHES AND PRACTICES PURSUED IN REGULATING AND IMPLEMENTING 96 III.3.1. Mechanisms for the Preparation and Implementation of an Environmental Plan to the scale of 1/100,000 for Izmir (Land + Bay) 99 III.3.2. Development Management for the Multi-Focal Settlement of Izmir 101 III.3.3. Participatory Urban Design Projects 103 III.3.4. Green Vision for the City/Province and Landscape Plans 106 III.3.5. Projects of Urban Transformation 107 III.3.6. Design Guides 109 III.3.7. Management of the Implementation of the Decisions of the Development Plan 110 III.4. STRATEGIES, POLICIES AND PRACTICES OF THE IZMIR MODEL TO ENSURE THAT THE DENIZENS OF IZMIR ACQUIRE THE CAPACITY TO DEVELOP INTER-SUBJECTIVE JUDGMENTS SO AS TO FORM A COMMUNITY IN IZMIR’S LIFE, TO CREATE A PUBLIC SPACE, AND BRING ABOUT A SENSE OF PLACE 111 III.4.1. Formation of a Community That Has Not Been Fragmented by Exclusions 112 III.4.1.1. Health Care, Social Projects and Social Services 113 III.4.1.2. Strategies to Be Implemented and Policies to Be Pursued with the Aim of Increasing the Contribution of the Municipality, Non-Governmental Organisations and Democratic Mass Organisations through Relations among Themselves and with Inhabitants to the Transformation of the Society into a Community 119 III.4.1.3. Izmir Mediterranean Academy 123 III.4.1.4. Cultural Strategy for Izmir and Cultural and Artistic Activities 125 III.4.2. Formation of Public Spaces That Allow for Interaction among People 127 III.4.3. Creating the Possibility for the Inhabitants to Develop a Feeling of Place 128 III.4.4. Increasing the Social Capital in the City and Ensuring That Power Is No Longer Something That Is Captured, But Is Constructed from Within Social Relations 130 IV. IN CONCLUDING 130 REFERENCES 132 THOSE WHO CONTRIBUTED TO THE WORK ON THE IZMIR MODEL 136 A BEGINNING RATHER THAN AN ENDING Developing a city begins by getting fully familiar with that city and analysing it well. By learning and getting to know its “presences” and “absences”, its past and its future goals, its people and their outlook on life, their sentiments, their stances, their expectations, and drawing the road map accordingly. This was precisely our point of departure. By making our own, by digesting and internalising the values that “make Iz- mir what it is”. As a municipality that set out with the goal of “development that starts from the local”, while striving for an Izmir with high competitiveness, integrat- ed globally, sustainable in its development, using its scarce resources in the most efficient manner, wielding an ever-increasing “quality of life”, our greatest source of energy came from the denizens of Izmir. We know very well that at the most basic level of local government lies de- mocracy. Just as local government is no longer about classical services such as roads, running water, infrastructure, zoning and planning alone, but has to shoulder as its central duties the development of cities and raising the “quality of life”. As a municipality that is honest and democratic, that has established “trust” in its own city on solid ground, something that is unfortunately less and less the case elsewhere, as a municipality that has embraced, and been embraced by, its denizens, we believe that we bring a new lease on life to the conception of administration in Turkey.

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