The quality of life in city centre for revitalisation (case study : Johor Bahru City Centre)

Abstract

Traditionally, city centre is the heart of social and economic activities of a city. However, rapid developments and changes in the traditional retail and commercial activities on the periphery of the city can lead to a decline of the city centre as a retail and commercial centre. In Johor Bahru (JB) city centre, the decline of the city centre was mainly due to the degradation of the quality of life, the land use pattern, the characteristics of the retail and commercial activities and provision of public facilities and amenities. One effort that can be undertaken to circumvent the downturn is to revitalise the quality of life (QoL) in the city centre. To this effect, the exercise requires both public and private sectors involvement in the urban management program. The first objective of this study is to identify the main factors that affect the quality of life in city centre revitalisation and the second objective is to identify the most appropriate urban management model for revitalisation. The study scope was focused on the shoppers, merchants, public agencies and non-profit organisations in JB city centre with a total 270 of respondents. The data needed in this study are collected by self created questionnaires and conducted through face to face method. Collected data was analysed using the frequency, cross tabulation, means and thematic analyses. The finding revealed that safety, public hygiene, good public transportation system and public maintenance are the most important issues that need to be addressed in order to provide a better quality of life for its dwellers. The result also suggest that 42% of the merchants and 93% of the public agencies and non-profit organisations selected Business Improvement District (BID) as the most appropriate model for revitalisation compared to Town Centre Management (TCM) or National Main Street Programme (NMSP). They believed that BID is financially independent, and can provide better services, promotion and marketing to improve the business environment of city centre to remain competitive. This study would serve as an important reference to the city council, local government and private and non-profit organisations in the development of partnership to get involved in marketing and revitalising the city centre.