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Cities are about the unexpected, the gallery ‘discovered’ around the corner, the coffee shop with no name with the Ethiopian hostess who serves freshly brewed Ethipoian coffee to her family as well as her patrons, a rooftop party with a sweeping view of the city at an architects penthouse . This is an opportunity that I think much of the ‘regeneration’ in Johannesburg has missed. The redevelopment of the city has followed a pattern of large companies buying up old buildings and refurbishing them along similar generic lines of mass mid income rental housing stock. How is this model really any different from Paulshof or Midrand? Granted, the buildings in town are far prettier, but it’s the same concept. Development in the city should pioneer that nieche market that makes cities exciting, the city won’t ever compete with the malls of the suburbs it’s not mass market, that is where the appeal lies.