Improving Downtown Yogyakarta: Central Java

In the city of Yogyakarta all, or most of, the retail activities are concentrated in downtown Jl. Malioboro, This poses so many problems for the 2 kilometre strip, the most obvious being traffic congestion.

Back in the 1990’s, the local government put forward a plan to create a super-mall in the city centre covering 2 square kilometres, but this soon shelved as it didn’t really address the problems. All it would do is divert the problems to the outskirts of the city and they are congested enough!.

So, what we have now is pure mayhem and for anyone that has been to Yogyakarta then you will know the hassle of crossing Jalan Malioboro. But it’s not only the traffic, there is other problems with ‘centre-city’ concentration - pollution, lack of open space, uncontrolled street vendors and motorbikes, and deteriorating public facilities.

There was an excellent article written by Emile Leushuis in the Jakarta Post the other day about this topic.