Space should always be used wisely

I couldnrsquot figure out what all the fuss was about to be honest when I learned that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has cleared a proposal to change the reservation of a football ground in Bandra Apparently if everything goes according to plan and any potential legal challenges do not result in a stay order the ground will soon become a convention and exhibition centre Even if there is a stay order of sorts my belief is that the groundrsquos days are numbered anyway because it has been noticed In this city of short memories where nostalgia will always be a luxury to be noticed is rarely a good thingThe reason I didnrsquot feel strongly about this news was my complete lack of interest As someone who has never played football since school and never watched a match in its entirety I felt that the BMCrsquos proposal was justified because it didnrsquot affect me in any way I think this is also how corporators make their decisions by doing what doesnrsquot affect them personally It may also explain the state governmentrsquos approach to education given the average corporator or ministerrsquos lack of familiarity with anything beyond Std X If something doesnrsquot affect them in any way it stands to reason that they will feel no need to prioritise better classrooms healthier meals or spaces for children to run around inI understand that some people may think of this as a callous way to govern a city or state but luckily for Bombayrsquos wellbeing these people are never elected as corporators In fact empathy has always been a failing if one is to try and become a corporator I have learned this simply by watching how the BMC works since I was a teenagerHerersquos something we need to consider before getting all hot and bothered about this plan Football grounds donrsquot really serve a purpose in a city that is starved of convention centres A convention centre is for bigger things like meetings and trade shows where a couple of thousand people can gather to discuss important subjects like eyewear or textiles A football ground by comparison only brings happiness to the young people who can kick a ball around it If the BMC starts using the happiness of young people as a parameter on which to base its decisions how will Bombay attract the kind of serious business folk it really needsThe good thing is that this sort of approach has been in place for a while now Sure it may mean that open spaces are shrinking and everything that was once managed by residents is being repurposed for public projects but criticism of this seems a little shortsighted Take Bombayrsquos fabled waterfront for example Once upon a time millions of residents could see the sea if they chose to It was right there in front of them across large swathes of South Bombay and if its disappearance on account of the Coastal Road has not been mourned itrsquos because we all recognise how good this has been for owners of fourwheelers That is the mentality we need to cultivate whenever we learn about the loss of a football ground How can anything be a loss when onersquos city gains an exhibition centreAnother interesting thing I learned while reading about this ground is that Bombay has no official policy when it comes to open spaces This may seem like a failing until we stop to acknowledge how policy has an annoying habit of getting in the way of real estate plans The BMC has reportedly taken over 15 lakh sqm since 2015 and I believe this shows how committed it is to making property available to residents who have a lot of money at their disposal This may sound as if the BMC places commercial interests over everything else but when did that become such a bad thing Are we really advocating for a city where the poor have as many rights as the rich We should always remember that there are still a few open spaces left for anyone who chooses to look hard enoughA couple of generations from now our grandchildren may not know what it means to play outdoors or what it feels like to sit in the shade of a tree That is still a small price for what they will have been bequeathed by us in return Their Bombay will be a magnificent city of skyscrapers flyovers and convention centresWhen he isnrsquot ranting about all things Mumbai Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet He can be contacted at wwwlindsaypereiracomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper