What Morsi means for the suburbs

Mohamed Morsi is Egypt’s first elected president. His 4 army predecessors all lived in the large bustling inner city Cairo. Nasser lived all of his presidential life in manshiyet el bakry, close to Heliopolis (at that time considered to be a neighborhood for the affluent), while Sadat lived in his Nile front house in Giza. Mubarak, who lived in Heliopolis since he was an army officer and vice president, moved the presidential office to the neighboring Heliopolis palace in central Heliopolis. The block where his house was located, has been, since then and still remains even after his overthrow, completely cut off from its surrounding fabric by checkpoints and barricades. His neighbors were continuously scanned for political affiliations and security clearances, only for living on the same block. Probably, some of them had been living there long before Mubarak became president. The area was a complete black hole in the perception of the city and it wasn’t until Google earth started showing the area, that the size of that block became evident, and with it the suffering of its residents.

Morsi, the new president, lives in new Cairo, considered by many as the most successful of the new cities (suburban) model launched by Sadat since the 70's. The new city started out as three separate suburban housing settlements to the east of Cairo, and were later joined together into one large city. Morsi lives in a new Cairo typical 3 story family house with its unidentifiable neoclassical (supposedly luxurious) style mixed with a large Islamic verse literally glued on top of the pediment. If, like Mubarak, the neighborhood in which his house lies will be sealed off for security measures, and considering the urban arrangement of new Cairo’s plots, we are looking at a great deal of discontent from his neighbors, as well as many of new Cairo’s residents. If the presidential offices remain in Heliopolis, the idea of moving back and forth everyday in a 20-30km commute becomes completely absurd. According to David Sims’s numbers in ‘Understanding Cairo’, almost 64% of new Cairo’s built residential units are uninhabited, and it is already suffering and suffocating from lack of proper infrastructure and daily traffic jams. If we add Morsi's high security commute, which demands clear and flowing roads, then we are looking at a much worse situation. Furthermore, it is evident that Morsi will not practice a radically different economic and development model than Mubarak’s (if at all different), which was based on brutal neoliberal policies focusing on concentrating capital in the hands of very few, and catering to the benefit of real estate development tycoons. Perhaps the names will be different, but the policies remain the same. This definitely means that his policies towards Cairo’s suburbs and Egypt’s new cities, which have clearly shown significant failures over the years, will be similar to Mubarak’s fake bubble of real estate speculation in order to maintain a hardly hit economy that needs a booming construction sector to get back on its feet. This also means that his so-called priority to inner city under-developed informal settlements is simply election talk. Perhaps he will do better than the complete neglect and sometime intentional destruction of these communities that was characteristic of the Mubarak era, but a genuine interest in providing suitable and sustainable communities for inner Cairo residents remains highly improbable.

Morsi's Family House in New Cairo

Presidential Guard secure Morsi's house after election results were announced with supporters celebrating

Nevertheless, Morsi does add a lot of legitimacy to these new cities. Mubarak’s neighboring district elkorba, was very well maintained, planted, lighted...etc. and provided some pleasant examples of public space, only because Mubarak lived next doors. Yet another severe example of the dissociation between Mubarak’s family and the rest of Egypt. I can imagine a huge boom occurring in new Cairo soon. Not only in terms of development and construction, but also a big leap in terms of state investments whether in public spaces, infrastructure, parks and green areas (which have all been completely lacking for years now). I imagine Morsi will be quickly blinded by the elite neighborhood he lives in, and the trials by city officials to portray the new cities as the cure to all of our continuous urban failures.

Morsi indeed could mean an electric shock to the dead body of the new cities program and Egyptian suburbs.