ABSTRACT
For quite some time, and certainly long before changes in Johannesburg's governance in the post-apartheid era, the inner city had been read as a space that was systematically slipping beyond the control of both national and local government. Moreover, these patterns were dramatically talked up in the local press at a time when government seemed unwilling or unable to respond. As the political transition unfolded, and while the metropolitan council got its political and administrative house in order, there was a very real sense that no one was minding the inner-city store. It was in this context that the state of the inner city became a symbolic test of the state's control over city development. As a result, and in line with the developmental vision of reconstructed local government, much effort is now being directed toward inner-city regeneration in Johannesburg.
