Greater KL is killing the Klang Valley

Real, ugly as sin, and still growing

Greater KL: It's real, it's ugly as sin, and it's growing

Whether Khalid Ibrahim and his state government of Selangor likes the term Greater Kuala Lumpur or not, there already is such a thing as a Greater KL urban area. Just look at the images at Google Maps

• This link takes you to » satellite imagery of urban sprawl. The image above is based on it, I added the glowing yellow boundaries to show what an ugly blotch on the face of the Earth we've become.
• This image of » roads of the greater KL area is a good picture of the how the urban area sprawls.

Khalid Ibrahim as menteri besar of Selangor, which surrounds the Federal Territory, is rightly angry at the term "Greater Kuala Lumpur" being used in the 10th Malaysian Plan to include Petaling Jaya, Shah Alam and other towns surrounding KL proper. He is right to make noise: it's his job to safeguard the sovereignty of the State of Selangor.
His annoyance is obviously a political one, but it's more than just one politician criticising another politician of the opposite side. States have their rights, too. And power, authority, and yes, money, all come into it.
The 10th Malaysia Plan of the federal government seems to give semi-official federal recognition to the concept of a Greater Kuala Lumpur, without clearly stating whether the term is used: (1) only as a general description or (2) semi-official takeover of the urban mass around KL — which is probably Khalid's fear, or (3) a harbinger of a new regional governing authority somewhat like the Greater London council, Tennessee Valley Authority or its equivalents — also probably also another fear of the Selangor goverment.
The reality on the ground is shown in these images. There already is a greater KL urban area. It's a mess. Decades of unplanned, and foolishly-planned (Putrajaya, for example) and uncontrolled profiteering from housing and commercial development means that the metropolitan area of KL now stretches from Rawang to Port Klang and southwards almost to Seremban. The only ones who love it are property developers, road builders and toll collectors, and car salesmen.
Like a Pac-Man monster, it's going to gobble up everything in sight. It's real. It's ugly. It's growing. Soon there'll be nothing left of the Klang Valley. And even the term "Klang Valley", representing an area of countryside, estates, farms and towns, looks likely to be soon as dead as that pleasant image. Is it already too late to save that Klang Valley?
Usage note:
Given the manner in which the press routinely and mindlessly regurgitates anything that officials say or write, the terms urban conurbation, urban aggromeration and metropolitan area will all figure in any debate. These are all words with specific meanings in urban planning, and are used differently in different countries.
So you can make a guess what the language grandees in our press are likely to do. They'll probably choose the grandest-sounding term so we can be "on par" with the great cities of the world. Style mesti ada lives.

© 2010 uppercaise