COMMENT | The proposed Urban Renewal Act (URA) has arrived at our doorstep; but it is an awkward juncture; we are divided as to how to move our cities forward.

On one side are those that want everything flashy new, bright, tall and slick. And they - the Fast Food Gang - want it all now, not tomorrow.

On the other side, we have those that prefer a more considered, more humanistic approach to city design; the Slow Food Gang. If the former is all about tearing down the past, the old, the dilapidated and abandoned, the latter proposes co-existence.

Most of our cities were first settled well over 150 years ago. Kuala Lumpur started about 168 years ago.

From a small trading outpost of wooden shanties, it's now a shining beacon of a modern metropolis. KL is, without a doubt, a beautiful city. But its growth has been incremental over the decades, slow and steady, enclave by enclave.

URA

Not satisfied with the generally snail’s pace of development in the city or the piecemeal approach to urban design, the URA is a bold new tool to...