Every cities or streets are unique in their very own ways. Things like social activities patterns, varying degrees of contact intensity and types of contact points are the main points to differentiate a city from one and another. The streets that I want to compare are the Charles Street, Boston and Petaling Street, Kuala Lumpur. For Charles Street, it is one of the oldest cities in the United States and was founded by founded in 1630 by Puritan settlers from England. Since its founding, Boston’s geography has undergone major transformations due to annexations of nearby municipalities and, more dramatically, in the creation of new landforms in ambitious landfill projects. After the US gained independence from Great Britain, the city continued to be an important port and manufacturing hub, as well as a center for education and culture.

Location of Boston Street Petaling Street Picture

For Petaling Street, it is a well-known shopping district, the whole area transforms into a lively and vibrant night market after dark, with hundreds of stalls selling all kinds of stuff at cheap prices, making it the most happening night market in the city. In the old days, an influential Chinese figure, Yap Ah Loy, had opened a tapioca mill on Petaling Street in his bid to persuade the Chinese to stay on. Until today, Petaling Street is called ‘Chee Cheong Kai’ which means ‘Starch Factory Street’ in Cantonese, referring to its history as the center for the production of tapioca flour

back then.

Location of Petaling Street Petaling Street Picture

First, there are urban morphologies for both areas. For Charles Street , it started as a piece of land where there aren’t many much road network and becomes one of the main road in Boston now. The road network was used to be simple and plain as there were not much development at that time. Shops were not being opened and full along the road and there is not much proper town planning. The main transportation was land transportation as the infrastructure is not that much developed. As time passed by, the road network is formed with a more organized pattern. Charles Street contains a lot of small junctions which allows more transport circulation to take place. Some roads are extended to the shops to allow for more businesses to take place in the area and people can reach their destination easily with the help of infrastructure like public transport (bus). As the development goes by, the area also provides better pedestrian circulation compared to the past. People can reach their destination with a safer and more comfortable path. At the same time, the famous Boston Park has also become one of the main attraction of the area which forms main junctions beside it and lots of activities are being carried around the area which will be mentioned later in the passage.

Urban Morphology of Charles Street

For Petaling Street, it started as a similar as Charles Street, Boston, but yet different path. It was established as a trading post for tin mining and the main transportation at that early age was made. There was edge which known as ‘S Bend river’ to separate the city. Chinese, Malay and British were the 3 early settlements and the area soon became the center of British Colonial Administration. There was no proper planning of town, based necessity only which is similar to the Charles Street. Landing area for river transportation was available at the time which was different compared to Charles Street which mainly using road transportation. The 2-main foot track that leads to tin mining area and market from landing area were the Petaling Street and Ampang Street. In 1960, the city developed away from river to land to cater more people in. The river was then straightened to allow railway to be built and to minimize the serious impact of flood of the area. At the same time, the planners relocate the

squatters and industrial development outside Kuala Lumpur. Lots of them were amalgamated and the road and railway system took over the main function of the river. There was still no proper rad network system at the area which always lead to heavy traffic congestion and that affected the daily activities of the place. In 2016, buildings are built in higher storeys due to the limitation high priced land. The policies and laws were implemented to show the contextual integration between waterfront and river. In order to avoid flood from happening, the riverbank was concreated safely and that improves the situation of the area. Plot remains as irregular as the street but with better town planning. For the road network, the roads changes from time to time to cater the increasing private and public transportations. Public transportation like Light Roll Transit (LRT) is introduced and most alignments of rail tracks are constructed along the river, as well as the opening of few stations like Kuala Lumpur ktm station, Pasar Seni Lrt station, Maharajalela Monorail, Hang Tuan station, Hang Tuah Monorail and Plaza Rakyat Lrt station.

Buildings of Petaling Street

Morphology Diagram of Petaling Street

Secondly, there are contact points in these 2 areas which might be affecting the social activity patterns. There are 3 main types of social activities which are the necessary activity, optimum activities and social activities. For Charles Street, the necessary activities always occur in the main street as there are lots of shops like restaurant, café, market and so on. It is the place where people work around and also have their daily activities which makes it as the busiest street at the area. The street also leads the people to the main junction, as well as the Boston park. The optional activities often occur in the area of café and park as people can choose to go there during their free time. These are the places where people can enjoy their time around with family or friends. Social activity often occurs along the main road and in the park area. These are the 2 main areas where people spend time at and lots of social activities are carried around. By hearing and seeing, the people are experiencing passive contact among each other without realizing it. It triggers the happening of social activities, as well as helping the businesses to grow along the street. Different areas create different nodes. Those shops like café and restaurant can be the nodes for certain people like the young

generation to hang around. Housewife might take market as her main node for daily grocery while bank can be the nodes for businessman for financial issues. These nodes will then create a main contact point which are the main junctions of Charles Street which links the city and the park

together. People goes to work and go back home using Charles Street and most of them will come across with the main junction in daily life. Meanwhile, the people who want to go to the park from the city will also get across the junction to reach their destination.

Long Section

Short Section

Contact Points of Charles Street

CafeDe Luca’s Market Park

For Petaling Street, it takes a different approach as it involves not only local, but also foreigner like tourists and workers. For the local, they always gather around places like bus station as that is how they get to work every day in place like Petaling Street. For tourist, they have a wider area to gather at as they purpose to visit the whole area instead of aiming a particular area. They do not go to Petaling Street by bus but taxi as it is more convenient to them, so taxi station might be the main node for the tourists. Another difference in nodes in Petaling Street is the vehicular and pedestrian. The nodes covered for pedestrian is smaller which is around the Petaling Street area while the vehicular node for those drivers is far further than that. Besides, one of the main nodes in Petaling Street is the main junction where almost every tourist and local will using it in order for them to reach Chinatown. That is why the nodes in Petaling Street can be more diverse and complicated compared to Charles Street as it involves much more groups of different individuals together.

Plan View (Contact Points)

Nodes for Petaling Street

China Town

Workers and Tourists

Lastly, there are varying degrees of contact intensity in different district in both sites. For Charles Street, the intensity of city is much higher compared to the park as most of the daily activities happens there. For example, tatee café that is located at the junction creates a contact point which attract people to it, making it as one of the high contact intensity in Charles Street, especially for the young generation. Shaded areas in shop lots create low contact intensity as people need to find a shelter during raining or sunny day. Besides, people walk their dog, meeting their friends along the street every day accidentally creates a new moderate contact intensity in the area. People meet and greet with each other occasionally can create another passive contact as well. Other than that, market creates high intensity, especially in the morning as most of the housewife and old people will go there for daily grocery. They can communicate with each other there without knowing each other and that can create passive contact. Public areas like public benches can create a public communication with each other. Every come and leave at the seating area create a passive contact with each other and the contact intensity might be high or low depends on the weather and timing. On the other hand, the drivers that pass through the city area create a high contact intensity, especially during the day, as they might be able to see or hear what is going on at the street.

Street View (Contact Intensity)

Activities of Charles Street

For Petaling Street, it has slightly different compared to Charles Street as most of the it is differentiated by public and private space. The contact intensity of public space can be higher as people like tourists and locals will gather there for business and trade while it is lower in private space as it allows for few individuals to get into the premises. Besides the usage of commercial building has the highest intensity which will also provide the highest contact intensity compared to others like heritage and private, as commercial building can always attract people to come to buy stuff, especially for the tourists. At the same time, temporal activities like market and hawker stall often occur in urban or civic area which will also create a very high contact intensity which will lead more people around for passive contact.

As a conclusion, Petaling Street still needs a lot of improvements compared to Charles Street. Although Petaling Street has high contact intensity and strong contact point, the lack of reliable infrastructure and system might ruin the user experience, as well as causing serious problem like traffic congestion and illegal parking. It needs to provide a more friendly and safer environment for the user to walk around to convince the people, especially the young generation to stay in Petaling Street, instead of leaving it for another city. Petaling Street might seem old from outside, but it is a place that is full with rich culture. In order to sustain and make it as a better place to stay, drastic action must be taken immediately before it is too late.

REFERENCE

1. Jonker Street Activities - What to Do in Jonker Street. (n.d.). Retrieved November 27, 2016, from http://www.malacca.ws/jonker-street/activities.htm