Eskişehir livable but needs support to get through crisis
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Radikal
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Nisan 07, 2009 00:00
The fourth most habitable city in Turkey, the western Anatolian province of Eskişehir, ranks second in human capital, third in creative capital and fifth in compe-titiveness, but this extraordinary model needs support too
While cities like Kayseri and Konya try to develop their cultural variety and urban life to match their dynamism in industry and commerce, another city has already achieved a high level of habitability: Eskişehir.
To observe Eskişehir’s transformation in recent years is to observe the importance of acting with a base of vision, effort and will for success. It is to see how to make a city habitable from every angle, from economy to culture, using democratic norms. It is to talk about a model for increasing the hopes of people about Turkey’s tomorrows. Without a doubt, Eskişehir has problems Ğ there is still a lot of work to be done and many projects to actualize Ğ but its example is a success story that should be supported and emulated.
Eskişehir, the shining star
With its concert halls, theaters, opera building and festivals, Eskişehir is the dynamic culture and arts center of Anatolia. At the same time, it is a city that has had important breakthroughs in entrepreneurship and competition, as reflected by its economic dynamism in recent years. The importance granted to education is a primary factor behind the city’s success in both areas. Eskişehir has three universities, Eskişehir, Anadolu and Osmangazi.
According to the "Provinces’ Habitability Index" created by CNBC-E Business Magazine and the "Competition Index of Turkey" by the Education Consultancy and Research Center, or EDAM, Eskişehir is the fourth most habitable city in the country in terms of its economy, health, education, security, urban life and arts and culture. This ranking is based on six main factors: crime rate, earthquake risk, interest in arts and sports, air pollution and traffic, the number of doctors and hospitals per person and the prevalence of green areas. The competition index also features a "Human Capital Index" compiled based on the student-teacher ratio from kindergarten onward, the approximate years spent in study, the percentage of people who can read and write and success in university exams. Eskişehir ranks second on this index, behind Ankara.
On the "Creative Capital Index," which assesses things such as research and development budgets and per-capita academic publications and patents issued, Eskişehir comes in third, after Istanbul and Ankara. On an index measuring regional development, urban activity and economic efficiency, the labor market, creativity, human and social capital and physical infrastructure, Eskişehir ranks fifth, above cities like Kayseri and Konya.
Yılmaz Büyükerşen, mayor of Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality, has put a strong emphasis on letting universities have a voice in the city’s development. Büyükerşen said he organized seminars, congresses and symposiums in the first half of the 2000s under the motto, "What type of a city Eskişehir should be," and that although he has benefited from the data resulting from these events, no other local administrators have been interested in them. Büyükerşen said the primary mission of a mayor is to keep his city alive, which means youth growing up in the city have to be able to dream of a future there and the population has to get out on the streets, meet each other and have a desire to interact with people unlike themselves.
Büyükerşin has succeeded in these goals. With its art, culture and entertainment events like the International Eskişehir Festival; its malls, parks, gardens, bridges and gondolas on Porsuk Creek; its artificial beach, statues and rail system, Eskişehir seems like a European city, a model one for Turkey with a high standard of habitability. The most important problem still facing Eskişehir is traffic congestion.
Cosmopolitan identity
Another factor that adds dynamism to Eskişehir and differentiates it from other Anatolian cities is its cosmopolitan social and cultural structure. People coming to the city from other places strengthen the city’s identity, which is seen as a culture of harmony and tolerance that is open to differences. Büyükerşen said migration could be an asset if the migrants’ potential and the dynamism of migration are managed well.
Cemalettin Sarar, acting board president for the Eskişehir Chamber of Commerce, indicated in a 2007 interview that Eskişehir has a multicultural identity because it received migration from the Caucasus and the Balkans in the 19th century, and that for that reason, the xenophobic approach that may be observed in other cities is nonexistent in this one. According to Sarar, people not asking each other, "Where are you from?" nor perceiving people coming from other places as "outsiders" is a quality Eskişehir shares only with İzmir. He said that this quality differentiates Eskişehir from conservative Anatolian cities and that it owes the transformation it has experienced since the beginning of the 2000s to its culture’s adaptability to globalization or Europeanization.
Eskişehir has had considerable economic success in the fields of machinery, assembly and metal goods and defense and aeronautics while creating a global brand in textiles. But that economic productivity and vitality has declined in recent years. Interviews with the presidents of the Chamber of Commerce and the Commerce Market of Eskişehir point to the city’s 65,000 university students as the main factor providing economic vitality today. Eyüp Kelebek, a journalist for daily Referans, wrote an article on Oct. 8, 2008, that pointed to the calmness of industrial investments in Eskişehir and the lack of investments at the Organized Industry Area of the city. Among the indexes featured in the "Competition Index of Turkey," Eskişehir performs the worst on the "Economic Activity and Vitality Index," showing the need to support the city’s industrial development.
To observe Eskişehir’s transformation in recent years is to observe the importance of acting with a base of vision, effort and will for success. It is to see how to make a city habitable from every angle, from economy to culture, using democratic norms. It is to talk about a model for increasing the hopes of people about Turkey’s tomorrows. Without a doubt, Eskişehir has problems Ğ there is still a lot of work to be done and many projects to actualize Ğ but its example is a success story that should be supported and emulated.
Eskişehir, the shining star
With its concert halls, theaters, opera building and festivals, Eskişehir is the dynamic culture and arts center of Anatolia. At the same time, it is a city that has had important breakthroughs in entrepreneurship and competition, as reflected by its economic dynamism in recent years. The importance granted to education is a primary factor behind the city’s success in both areas. Eskişehir has three universities, Eskişehir, Anadolu and Osmangazi.
According to the "Provinces’ Habitability Index" created by CNBC-E Business Magazine and the "Competition Index of Turkey" by the Education Consultancy and Research Center, or EDAM, Eskişehir is the fourth most habitable city in the country in terms of its economy, health, education, security, urban life and arts and culture. This ranking is based on six main factors: crime rate, earthquake risk, interest in arts and sports, air pollution and traffic, the number of doctors and hospitals per person and the prevalence of green areas. The competition index also features a "Human Capital Index" compiled based on the student-teacher ratio from kindergarten onward, the approximate years spent in study, the percentage of people who can read and write and success in university exams. Eskişehir ranks second on this index, behind Ankara.
On the "Creative Capital Index," which assesses things such as research and development budgets and per-capita academic publications and patents issued, Eskişehir comes in third, after Istanbul and Ankara. On an index measuring regional development, urban activity and economic efficiency, the labor market, creativity, human and social capital and physical infrastructure, Eskişehir ranks fifth, above cities like Kayseri and Konya.
Yılmaz Büyükerşen, mayor of Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality, has put a strong emphasis on letting universities have a voice in the city’s development. Büyükerşen said he organized seminars, congresses and symposiums in the first half of the 2000s under the motto, "What type of a city Eskişehir should be," and that although he has benefited from the data resulting from these events, no other local administrators have been interested in them. Büyükerşen said the primary mission of a mayor is to keep his city alive, which means youth growing up in the city have to be able to dream of a future there and the population has to get out on the streets, meet each other and have a desire to interact with people unlike themselves.
Büyükerşin has succeeded in these goals. With its art, culture and entertainment events like the International Eskişehir Festival; its malls, parks, gardens, bridges and gondolas on Porsuk Creek; its artificial beach, statues and rail system, Eskişehir seems like a European city, a model one for Turkey with a high standard of habitability. The most important problem still facing Eskişehir is traffic congestion.
Cosmopolitan identity
Another factor that adds dynamism to Eskişehir and differentiates it from other Anatolian cities is its cosmopolitan social and cultural structure. People coming to the city from other places strengthen the city’s identity, which is seen as a culture of harmony and tolerance that is open to differences. Büyükerşen said migration could be an asset if the migrants’ potential and the dynamism of migration are managed well.
Cemalettin Sarar, acting board president for the Eskişehir Chamber of Commerce, indicated in a 2007 interview that Eskişehir has a multicultural identity because it received migration from the Caucasus and the Balkans in the 19th century, and that for that reason, the xenophobic approach that may be observed in other cities is nonexistent in this one. According to Sarar, people not asking each other, "Where are you from?" nor perceiving people coming from other places as "outsiders" is a quality Eskişehir shares only with İzmir. He said that this quality differentiates Eskişehir from conservative Anatolian cities and that it owes the transformation it has experienced since the beginning of the 2000s to its culture’s adaptability to globalization or Europeanization.
Eskişehir has had considerable economic success in the fields of machinery, assembly and metal goods and defense and aeronautics while creating a global brand in textiles. But that economic productivity and vitality has declined in recent years. Interviews with the presidents of the Chamber of Commerce and the Commerce Market of Eskişehir point to the city’s 65,000 university students as the main factor providing economic vitality today. Eyüp Kelebek, a journalist for daily Referans, wrote an article on Oct. 8, 2008, that pointed to the calmness of industrial investments in Eskişehir and the lack of investments at the Organized Industry Area of the city. Among the indexes featured in the "Competition Index of Turkey," Eskişehir performs the worst on the "Economic Activity and Vitality Index," showing the need to support the city’s industrial development.