Citizens' Future of Yamashita Pier: Proposal Presentation Gathering

Last Friday night, I attended a gathering to present proposals for the future of Yamashita Pier created by citizens at the Yokohama City Health and Welfare Center Hall in Sakuragicho.

The purpose of the gathering is partially reproduced from the flyer.

Yamashita Pier was the planned site for a casino. Yokohama City is planning to announce a redevelopment "business plan" by the end of this fiscal year (by March 31st). Citizens who opposed the casino have been expressing their opinions on the future of Yamashita Pier at every opportunity, with the number of such opinions reaching over 10,000. Going further, in February 2012, the "It'd be great if XX was at Everyone's Yamashita Pier" project proposed a specific vision for the future, and in November 2012, a "Yamashita Pier Symposium for Citizens" was held to propose ways to utilize the pier.

(Omitted)

On December 6th, citizens held a "Citizens' Forum to Discuss the Future of Yamashita Pier," where they presented seven proposals for utilization, which they refined into "citizen proposals" with the help of expert knowledge.

The proposal to be announced is a plan that will embody the citizens' aspirations and involve them in creating a lush green corner of the Inner Harbor, a "shared space where citizens can gather, relax, and interact," precisely because Yamashita Pier is city-owned land, i.e., "shared property of the citizens." The citizens do not want the project to be left entirely to large corporations, pointing out that it is "shared property of the citizens."

One of the five proposals presented was a "public transportation network centered on LRT" proposed by Kenichiro Fujimura, director of the NPO Yokohama LRT Association (Fujimura is also a member of this Honmoku LRT project). Specifically, the idea was to extend the LRT line to directly connect existing urban areas such as Yokohama Station, Sakuragicho Station, and even Honmoku and Gumyoji, and to establish stops and a vehicle depot at the pier.

I would like to have the opportunity to hear more about this proposal from Fujimura.

The other four ideas were also wonderful and I was deeply moved.

Rather than saying that one option is better, each of these proposals made me realize that there is a possibility for a sustainable, world-class redevelopment direction that is not based on short-term profits, but is also beneficial for future generations and for the city of Yokohama. I really hope that these kinds of proposals will be incorporated into the redevelopment.

Nowadays, due to aging and the changing times, there are areas undergoing redevelopment here and there. I have heard that even though many buildings have already been built, there are not enough tenants and the number of customers is sparse.

There is also the example of Nakano Sunplaza, where redevelopment plans were made but actual construction was stalled due to rising material costs.

After attending this meeting, I thought that we are now at a turning point.

I feel that we need to think outside the box of preconceived notions of how things have always been.

This is a great opportunity to create a new urban development plan for Yokohama that takes a broad perspective, encompassing everything from the redevelopment of Yamashita Pier to Honmoku. Am I being too optimistic in thinking this way? (EK)