Dubai is really divided into two sections: old and new. Old Dubai encompasses the areas on both shores along the mouth of Dubai Creek called Deira and Bur Dubai. New Dubai then takes over further down the coast from Bur Dubai near the world trade center and stretches about 30 km along the beach to the Jebel Ali Free Trade Zone, passing through Jumeirah, Downtown Dubai (a moniker that was decided upon by the planners and Emaar, the developer, despite it not at the moment really being a downtown area), and Dubai Marina among other districts. New Dubai can also be thought to encompass all of the inland development that stretches from the ocean through villas and “satellite cities” into the desert. Really, at least in my mind, the distinction is made by what developed from the older society, roughly pre-1970, and what was the result of the vision of Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed al Maktoum. To orient you a bit with the city, below are some pictures of the various areas in Dubai (at least the ones I’ve visited so far).
Deira
Bur Dubai
Trade Center
Downtown Dubai
My exploration of Dubai began in Deira and old Dubai with only brief introductions to new Dubai as I hunted for housing further down the coast at the suggestion of a friend. My hostel was on the wrong side of the airport, meaning that it was a 45 minute walk along a relatively industrial stretch of road (read: no stores or services to entertain my eyes or provide respite from the heat on the walk) to get to the heart of Deira, but once there it was worth the walk. Here I found a vibrant city full of narrow streets, short blocks and bustling with activity, at least in the evening once people were off work. Around every corner are curbside restaurants, shops with proprietors trying their best to draw you in to purchase odds and ends, and, most importantly, cultural relics. This part of the city is a relatively dense network which evolved out of necessity during the 1800s and early 1900s as Dubai, previously a small fishing village, faced a growing population with the discovery of first pearls and then oil and diversification of the economy away from fishing and dhow trading. It is in Deira that you find many of the old souqs, now transformed to attract tourists more than locals but reminiscent of the old days nonetheless, the dhow wharfage, and a few scattered cultural houses and buildings to stop and learn about the history of Dubai before the boom.
Across the creek in Bur Dubai, the story is much the same. Here resides the Grand Mosque, the Bur Dubai souq, and the Dubai museum which is worth a trip even if you are staying at the glamorous hotels down Jumeirah Beach way. Interesting architectural relics and traditional buildings litter parts of the city, but I will save a discussion of these for another post, here focusing instead on the character of the city.
Until you travel far enough down the coast to reach the site of the World Trade Center, you are surrounded by a city environment that encourages walking and bus transit. Its narrow streets run one lane in each direction and are prone to traffic without many cars meaning that it is often easier to walk to your destination than to drive. All of the shops and restaurants under the hotels and apartments above also entice you to walk if only to window-shop and admire the gold, spices, and other goods brought up the creek from Iran, Oman, and other points unknown. However once you hit the Za’abeel Roundabout, Za’abeel Street and Al Dhiyafah Street form a line in the sand (literally) that marks the end of this pedestrian paradise and the beginning of the new mode of planning in Dubai characterized by the car.
Continuing roughly west you come now to the dominion of Sheikh Zayed Road—the dominant feature of the Dubai landscape for the next 30 km until the city fades back into the sands en route to Abu Dhabi. Here the city developed in a line sporadically over the economic boom of the last couple of decades. The highway served the purpose of allowing development to occur, but as such it runs right down the heart of the community dividing it in two. Before the Metro, there was no way to cross from one side to the other without driving along the highway to the next off ramp and making a U-turn. If you lived on the wrong side, you needed a car to get across. Off the road there are some nice communities—one of my favorites is the Jumeirah Beach Residences.
These satellite communities all developed in master-planned communities by the large developers here and so have fairly good services within them for residents but often lack complete mixed-use functions. For example, where I live in Jumeirah Lakes Towers has grocery stores and takeout food as well as a hotel, but no real source of entertainment. I have to go across to Dubai Marina or JBR to get those. With the Metro crossing, that’s only a 20 minute walk, but before I imagine it would have been a hassle just to go out for the evening. Since these communities developed as master planned “cities” (most of them have “city” in their name too), they have little connectivity between them with highways often running off of Sheikh Zayed Road right between two adjacent satellite communities.
Let me illustrate what I mean by this and how disruptive it can be. One of my first days in my new apartment, I needed to make a run over to Fedex/Kinko’s to get some business cards printed up. I looked at the Google Map for the area (it won’t give walking routes here because it doesn’t know where the sidewalks are—sometimes there aren’t any on streets here) and it didn’t seem too far, perhaps only about 45 minutes on foot. Armed with my iPod, I set out, navigating through the Marina and over to Dubai Internet City, a collection of high-tech companies clustered around a picturesque lake.
My destination was in Dubai Internet City, so I began scouring the buildings for the store. There were 8 buildings around the lake, and luckily in one I found a map of where all the companies in the whole compound were. To my dismay, Fedex/Kinko’s was in Building 12, in “Phase II” of the development which was clustered around a separate lake further away. I set out on foot once more only to find my path obstructed by a 4 lane one-way road and an elevated highway to the Palm Jumeirah that sat on a solid concrete foundation breached only for a vehicle tunnel. I walked along the road up and down to see if there was any pedestrian crossing but, finding none, turned back. This time I looked for the bus stops. I figured that the buses at least had to go through, but after examining the signs on 4 different stops, I found no bus that crossed the highway. Here I had encountered a seemingly unconquerable obstruction for pedestrians. Returning to the tunnel, I spied a small access way running the length of the road no wider than my body plus the curb. Figuring it was my only chance to get across, I waited for traffic to subside before dashing across all 4 lanes to the access way as it branched off with the tunnel from the main road. Hurrying along both for fear of an errant driver and the police (I still question the legality of my passage) I quickly found myself at the end of the access way out of the tunnel at the confluence of my road with another 4 lane off-ramp from the highway out to the Palm. Waiting again for a suitable gap, I dashed across the highway to the narrow sidewalk/access path on the other side and hustled to the safety of the greenbelt just a bit ahead. As I made this final dash for the grass (after crossing the road), a police car whizzed by me at about 60 km/hour and though he undoubtedly noticed me and may have wished to cite me for my crossing, the silver lining of these roads is that he, like everyone else, had to go far ahead just to turn around and see if he could find me (had he wanted to). I don’t know if he tried because I was soon safely tucked away inside Fedex/Kinko’s.
That may give you a bit of an idea about what the city of Dubai actually is. I’ll hope to provide a few more insights about it through the rest of my posts and try to dispel the common vision that it is all glamorous five-star resorts (or in the claims of Jumeirah, 7-star for Burj Al Arab) and a life of luxury and living the high life. There is more to this city and though I may complain from time to time about Sheikh Zayed Road and the difficult of moving around, I have enjoyed it here. However the areas I enjoy most are those that are perhaps least frequented by tourists. Another foreigner, a British woman who has lived here for 5 years, shared my sentiments when we chatted about it, as do most of the architects with whom I meet. The times I have enjoyed most (aside from the occasional evening repose on the beach near my apartment) have been wandering the narrow streets of Deira and Bur Dubai. Here the city is alive with people moving about. Cars are few and pedestrians dominate with casual street interactions livening up the evening. Yet since this is the old part of town, many Westerners avoid it and even scorn it. One expat my second day snorted at what he called “Dirty Deira” when I mentioned I was staying there. He claimed it was filthy and reeked of curry from its predominantly Indian and Pakistani population. In his sentiments, the dichotomy of Dubai exists very clearly.
During the boom, many Westerners moved to the new areas. They were only here to make some money, have some fun, and leave, or were part of new companies popping up in the cities along Sheikh Zayed. With the salaries that Westerners command here for their knowledge and expertise (along with a bit of a racist or discriminatory atmosphere toward those from the subcontinent), they could afford cars and apartments in new, modern buildings. The older part of Dubai which was already crowded and visibly aged compared with the new areas was left to the more stable but poorer population that provides the city’s services. Seemingly unseen by the locals, the predominantly Indian, Pakistani, and Pilipino populations that cook, clean, and run every store in town strengthened their foothold in Deira and Bur Dubai. This became the lower rent district and for those who could not afford cars provided everything necessary within a convenient walking distance. The result is that today even after property prices have dropped across the city, there is a lingering imaginary line that divides where the “service population,” if you will, lives and where the upper management population lives. For the most part, you won’t find too many Westerners in Deira, Bur Dubai, Karama, and Satwa, but you will find a lot of great, affordable Indian food!
Going back a minute to the idea of Deira and Bur Dubai being abandoned by the Western population: there is an additional irony in some ways to this abandonment. According to those with whom I have met, the buildings in Deira and Bur Dubai, those which appear on the surface to be old, are most likely better quality, more efficient buildings than the ones in New Dubai. Looking at the opulence of the new spaces, it might sound crazy—if they are shiny and always clean, how can they be poor quality?—but it may well be true. As one architect told me, though Deira may look a bit “long in the tooth,” the buildings underneath are actually built better and more efficient than those in New Dubai. Now that’s not to say that all buildings in New Dubai are all bad by any means. However, the buildings in old Dubai were built with a lot of local knowledge in the time before air conditioners were widespread and as a result are reasonably comfortable without the A/C. On the other hand, when things were put up so quickly in the boom they sought to emulate Western buildings without really appropriating the methods and technology properly. As a result, there is a higher probability that a new building will be low quality than the old buildings. So in the end, in the name of modern appearance and supposed high quality, the properties that garnered the most money were actually the poorer quality buildings.
These things combined to provide an interesting set of impressions of my new city which are constantly being altered and improved. I hope over the next few weeks as I finish my stint in Dubai I will get to share more of my thoughts both on the city and its character, its satellite areas, and its sustainable features.
*This claim was made by the Emirati leading my tour at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, one of the premier tourist attractions in the city.
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