Urban Spatial Planning in Surabaya Tends to be Partial

 There is a serious problem in the distribution of space allocation in the city of Surabaya. The distribution and disparity of Surabaya's urban space is the result of the struggle of the various elements that make up the city of Surabaya in the 1900-1960s. The struggle for space that occurred at that time was caused by the relationship between the poor and the state and private entrepreneurs who faced each other in accessing urban space. The poor who are actually also part of the state entity in every historical period have to deal directly with the state and private entrepreneurs for the same interest, namely the control of urban space.

Courtesy of Freepick.com

Collusion between the state and private entrepreneurs during the colonial period showed a repressive face in order to exploit resources to the fullest. The poor are the direct victims of this system. Poor people are reproduced continuously and are positioned in non-strategic places such as factory workers, shop assistants, domestic servants, and agricultural workers. this position has placed the poor as individuals who are very weak politically, socially and economically. The contests that took place in the urban space were never won by the poor. Various instruments that represented the state were never present and sided with the poor. The weakness of the poor in the contestation in urban space has placed the poor in places that are not feasible, both aesthetically and economically. The houses built are a reproduction of the poverty suffered so that they show something in contrast to the area called urban space.

Experience in the city of Surabaya also shows that independence is only partial, not felt by the poor. Poor people in Surabaya are increasing in line with the massive wave of urbanization. Adequate and legal urban space as a living space for the people is increasingly difficult to obtain, so the struggle for urban space has escalated.

The government seeks to control public spaces that are often accessed by city residents by controlling the poor people who take over the area in certain ways. In some cases the government did not take action against the poor who succeeded in taking over land which was a non-strategic urban space. This policy is part of the canalization policy for the poor in the city of Surabaya so that they do not wander throughout the city.

The struggle for urban space always involves the private sector and the Surabaya City Government. This seems to be a common thing in the practice of spatial politics. The role of the private sector in the development of facilities/infrastructure is indeed large, even the City Government cannot exceed its role because the city government is not an investor but a regulator. So that the city government has a tendency to always accommodate the interests and needs of the private sector (investors) including in the case of eviction of public property. 

The rapid growth of the city of Surabaya has an impact on the expansion of land in the surrounding area to accommodate the growth of this city. In Surabaya, changes in the function of the designation of an area have begun, not just the transfer of functions. Housing has changed its function into a warehousing area, and vice versa the suburban area for agricultural productivity located in Arfea, west Surabaya has shifted into luxury housing, apartments and tourist centers. Another impact is related to the emergence of new poor people who have given up their land, houses and they remain in Surabaya. So that in Surabaya these figures are also quite high, and there are many research areas, and other social problems such as the affordability of facilities and services for education, health and clean water. Surabaya also has problems typical of big cities, namely air pollution, environmental destruction, availability of clean water, waste treatment, and inadequate infrastructure.

In reality, green open space in Surabaya is only 3,000 hectares compared to the built area, which is still not sufficient for Surabaya, which has an area of 326 thousand hectares. Based on the 2005–2020 East Java RTRWP, there should be around 6,500 ha of green open space in Surabaya including urban forest. The forms of green open space that already exist in Surabaya are urban forests, city parks, urban recreation parks, urban forest areas in Surabaya, in Lakarsantri covering an area of 8 hectares, the Wonorejo Nursery Gardens covering an area of 2 hectares and the Wonorejo reservoir covering an area of 5 hectares. Urban recreation parks in Surabaya are located in Taman Surya, Taman Bungkul, and Taman Flora Kebun Bibit, while other forms of green open space are city parks and green lanes on the edge or in the middle of main roads, such as Jalan Raya Darmo, as well as green areas in the buildings themselves.