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The objective of this paper is to present how native Jakartans, or Betawis, are transforming their traditional livelihoods in the wake of four decades of urbanization. Specifically, this paper looks at the Rawabelong neighborhood known as a location to buy decorative plants, flowers, orchids, and plant-related accessories for decades. This primary research, including historical analysis and timeline mapping, site visits and analysis, and interviews with the local Betawi populations, was conducted as part of Tarumanagara University's Urban Lab in the Department of Real Estate and Urban Planning. The findings reveal both a loss of traditional livelihoods and neighborhood character due to urbanization, as well as the existence of resilient pockets of Betawis who have not only continued their traditional livelihoods but also used creative means to evolve their business along with the process of urbanization. We learn from the investigation that there persists a large demand for these small businesses, that the continuation of these businesses and activities are essential to the distinct character of Jakarta urban culture, and that the physical spaces resulting from these activities are unique and holistic in an increasingly acrid urban environment. By presenting these results, the Urban Lab team aims to bring recognition to the importance of such areas to the fabric and culture of Jakarta, as well as initiate discussions amongst stakeholders on how to maintain and enhance the livelihoods and physical spaces such as those present in Rawabelong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bird markets remain part of Jakarta's cultural interests in the midst of Jakarta's development path to modernization. It brings us to a time-space imagination where birds were owned and traded to resemble the social status of a person, especially in Javanese traditions. It also, therefore, marks the migration period of Javanese to Jakarta who still retains their tradition and culture in the capital city. Today, several markets even persist in the contestation between the process of space acquisition for bird enthusiasts, the formal grids and regulation of urban development, also endemic animals, and environmental conservation. Although contested, it is suggested that the bird market reflects what Foucault implied about heterotopia. The bird market represents a liminal space of the ideal romantic-traditional society which in reality does not 'fit' under the hegemonic urban construct - yet it constructs the way we relate to urban life today. This article seeks through the possibility of exploring 'this otherness' the re-positioning of the traditional market in Jakarta today and how it constructs and is re-constructed by the dominant discourse of the city. It is also argued that this memory of a time that the bird market retains cannot be detached from the social networks of bird enthusiasts who are engaged not only in economic activities of selling, buying, or biding but also in chirping contests. Not only the social value, but the bird market also depicts a political-economic logic between traders, contests organizer, competition jury, and the market as to control - boost or suppress the price of birds and promote particular kinds of birds to be included in the competition which often leads to further exploitation of bird in the natural reserve. This paper concludes on how this nexus of the social, political, cultural, and environmental context of the existence of the bird market shapes and re-shapes the city today and how each actor related to it reflects on the transformation and potential of the bird market in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]