The island

One of the struggles in developing a participatory political system is striking the proper balance between national interests, and the needs and concerns of local communities.

Local community organizing can be a brilliant mechanism for effectively addressing day-to-day problems in creative ways that directly address the needs of residents. I have been impressed by the efforts of my fellow residents in Zamalek to better our community over the past three years. There has been an explosion of community activism trying to address infringements on public space by private enterprises, waste management and rehabilitating long neglected public parks, most notably the Grotto Aquarium Park.

These community activists have made some important strides in improving and preserving the quality of life in our neighborhood. More important than their achievements thus far has been their success in building an infrastructure of effective community organizations that are in the position to address the future needs of Zamalek.

At times, however, the demands of local communities can undermine and hamper the interests of wider sections of society. The fight over a centrally located metro station in Zamalek is one of those instances.

Something we can all agree on as Cairenes, including residents of Zamalek, is that traffic in our expansive metropolis is torturous. Movement throughout the city has become a dreaded burden that costs our economy billions of dollars annually. Finding solutions to Cairo’s transportation problem is a cause we must all support, and improved public transportation is one of the most effective solutions to our traffic problems.

An expansive, affordable metro system is one of the best ways of improving public transportation throughout the city. Metro trains have no impact on street traffic, can carry large numbers of people regularly throughout the city and offer low cost, low impact transportation to Cairo residents and guests.

Metro stations are not solely for the residents living around the stop. Metro stations are part of an urban infrastructure that serves the entire city. After all, Zamalek is not only the property of its residential community. Zamalek is a vibrant commercial center with countless small businesses serving Egypt in the fields of creative production, tourism, publishing, research and many others. It is home to Egypt’s premier college of arts with several thousand students who need to reach the island for their courses. We also, to our regret at times, are home to a wide array of schools. Older students could also stand to benefit from efficient transportation access to the island.

A section of Zamalek residents has fought vigorously to block plans to place a metro stop in the heart of Zamalek. My fellow residents have offered an array of reasons as to why the metro stop will be a bad idea. Unfortunately, some of the most widespread complaints have been classist and outrageous.

There have been residents who have complained that easy metro access to Zamalek would increase the number of working class youths who could access the island and disrupt the lives and safety of local residents. Some have complained it will lead to increased sexual harassment, a problem that plagues much of Cairo, though is admittedly less intense of an issue on our island.

Aside from assumptions that easy access for Cairo’s working class will ruin life in Zamalek, there have been residents who have argued to me that a metro station would actually increase traffic. This, of course, is absurd. A metro stop allows people to reach Zamalek without using busses and micro-buses that clog tiny streets and block traffic as they pick up and drop off passengers. Further, the quality of driving of micro-bus drivers is notoriously poor and a public safety problem that the metro will help to alleviate as more people opt to reach and leave Zamalek underground.

The most popular line of argument deployed by smarter opponents of the metro line is that the island is incapable of supporting the tunneling required for introducing a metro station in Zamalek. Residents have hired their own experts to prepare a report arguing so. On the face of it, this seems like a reasonable line of argument, and they claim this argument has been the main reason the city has chosen to avoid placing a metro station in Zamalek.

The trouble is that, on closer inspection, this argument appears to be patently false.

The metro plans have been adjusted and city planners say they will not be building a metro station in Zamalek for now. However, the tunnel for the metro will still pass through the island, so that at a later date the tunnel can be expanded to include a metro station in the heart of Zamalek. If the structural problems highlighted by community activists were truly a concern, then it would have been necessary to reroute the tunnel. With the current “victory” claimed by the residents, the metro will still pass through Zamalek and will have the same structural impact as before — however, without the public transportation benefit originally intended.

One of the troubling trends in successful community organizing at times is the inextricable link between privilege and influence. It seems clear that the access and influence Zamalek residents have enjoyed in the debate over opening a metro station on the island has been a product of their wealth and connections. If community activists in Boulaq sought to block a metro station in their neighborhood because of a doubtful threat to building infrastructure, they would almost certainly have been dismissed as ignorant and shortsighted.

This is not a problem limited to Egypt. As a student at Georgetown University in Washington DC, I witnessed firsthand the long term consequences of wealthy isolationist community organizing in opposition to public transit infrastructure.

Georgetown is a wealthy corner of Washington DC filled with townhouses and small apartment buildings. Decades ago, when plans for the DC metro were being finalized, influential residents in Georgetown successfully lobbied to block opening a metro station in their neighborhood. The consequences of this have been damaging to area businesses, as accessing the stores and restaurants in Georgetown is decidedly less convenient than other parts of the city. Students at Georgetown University have more limited transit options in traveling from other parts of the city to campus. The city has been forced to run several bus lines from Georgetown’s narrow streets past residential areas to compensate for the absence of underground transport. Awkward private shuttle busses run between nearby metro stations and Georgetown. Many visitors to Georgetown choose to drive to the neighborhood rather than deal with inefficient bus options.  

All of the “solutions” that have arisen as a result of Georgetown’s lack of underground transit has intensified traffic in the neighborhood, which, during rush hour, can reach a standstill. Parking in the neighborhood is an extraordinary challenge and can be very costly for visitors and residents alike.

The absence of a metro station has not stopped people from coming to Georgetown so much as it has resulted an elaborate and intrusive set of transportation responses that have lowered the quality of life in the neighborhood, and increased costs to residents and visitors in terms of both money and time. Today, most residents of Georgetown who I have spoken with are clearly frustrated that a metro station never opened in the neighborhood.

This is but one example of the negative consequences of wealthy communities being able to block infrastructure projects which serve to benefit the needs of the city. Zamalek would benefit from a working metro station as part of an improved underground transit network and my fellow residents should exercise more foresight when assessing the importance and benefits of a metro station in our neighborhood.

Finally, it may benefit us to recall the words of Enrique Peñalosa, the former mayor of Bogota, Columbia. He explained, “An advanced city is not a place where the poor move about in cars, rather it’s where even the rich use public transportation."