Friday, June 27, 2008

Enhancing Urban Livability and Sustainability

I recently finished a short contributing piece that will hopefully be accepted in a booklet to be put out by a non-profit organization based in India, called Shikshantar: The People's Institute for Rethinking Education and Development. The booklet will highlight inspiring stories of cities from around the world that serve as leaders for promoting sustainability, cultural vitality, and healthy living. Here's a link to Shikshantar's website if you're interested in learning more about them: http://www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/

My specific piece is on Curitiba, Brazil and is posted below. Many of the city's initiatives could be applied in cities across the US and some of them even here in Northfield, MN: i.e. pedestrian only zones, green tax breaks, city sponsored composting and recycling programs, etc. Hope you enjoy it!

Enhancing Livability in Curitiba, Brazil

Ryan Doyle, St. Olaf College, USA

Despite rapid immigration from its impoverished rural surroundings, innovative urban planning has led to a happier, healthier and greener Curitiba. Much of this success is due to creative planning by local city administrators who managed to instill a sense of public responsibility that serves as an example for both rich and poor cities alike. The most notable of these public figures is Jaime Lerner, who served as Curitiba’s mayor multiple times between 1971 and 1992 and is widely considered the visionary behind many of the city’s innovative programs. These initiatives include:

-A citywide limit on people’s ability to cut down trees on their own land without a permit. For every tree a resident does cut down, two more must be planted in its place, leading to the planting of 1.5 million trees since the 1970s.

-The creation of a world-renowned Bus Rapid Transit system that provides affordable, speedy, and eco-efficient transportation for about 70% of Curitiba’s daily commuters. The system’s megabuses carry up to three hundred passengers each and travel as fast as subway cars, but require about one-eightieth the construction cost. Well-placed Plexiglas tube stations create efficient boarding and departing for passengers while reducing idling time and air pollution. As a result, auto traffic has been reduced by 30% since 1974 and Curitiba boasts the lowest levels of air pollution in Brazil.

-The designation of a pedestrian only street Rua das Flores in Curitiba’s downtown shopping district has gained the support of local business that have seen their profits and sales rise significantly. Local business owners responded by sponsoring community projects, organizations and local events.

-Facing an influx of streetchildren, the city opened free municipal day-care centers, offered teenagers jobs in public gardens and parks, and set up a system that links businesses needing small chores and maintenance jobs with streetchildren needing food and employment. Young people who once took flowers and vandalized green spaces now work to maintain the beauty and livability of public places.

-Offering tax breaks to Curitiban planners who include green initiatives into their construction.

-A program allowing residents to trade collected trash for fresh food or bus tickets in crowded squatter settlements unreachable by garbage trucks. The city’s organic waste is composted for use as manure on outlying farms that produce food for the trash-for-food exchange program. Inorganic waste goes to a municipal plant built out of recycled materials where disabled people, recovering alcoholics, and immigrants sort the trash for recycling. Curitiba boasts one of the highest recycling rates in its region, and the recovered materials are sold to local industries.

These initiatives have revitalized the city and its people. They have brought a new sense of civic pride to a city that could otherwise have been doomed to join the ranks of urban slum-cities ridden with automobiles, poverty, garbage and pollution, but devoid of green space and affordable transit. In fact, 99% of Curitibans polled in 1994 said that they were happy with their town. Most importantly though, Curitibans have an extraordinary sense of civic pride and a unique willingness to sacrifice some personal comforts for the good of the city. As one citizen states, much of this is due to Lerner’s vision and example. “All of this is possible because the people of Curitiba now think they live in a First World city. This message was inbred in us by Jaime Lerner. We’re proud to live in Curitiba.”

Works Referenced

McKibben, Bill. Hope, Human and Wild. Canada: Little, Brown and Company, 1995.

“Orienting Urban Planning to Sustainability in Curitiba, Brazil.” Local Governments for Sustainability. [updated May 2002; cited 20 June 2008]. Available from http://www3.iclei.org/localstrategies/summary/curitiba2.html

Monday, June 16, 2008

Yes, I am officially joining the blog movement…

For a long time I thought blogs were reserved for artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, or people who thought strangers might want online access to the details of their personal lives. Yet my growing interest in and research into environmental news and politics has made it quite clear that blogs can serve incredibly important civic purposes too. Over the past year I’ve read my fair share of environmental and political blogs, and learned quite a bit from the successes, failures, and advice of others. Therefore, I’m starting this blog because I think it’s time for me to share what I’ve learned and what I am constantly learning more about with those who might be interested.

This blog will have very little to do with the personal details of my life. Instead it’s a way of sharing ideas and opening the possibility of conversation to millions of people who I would otherwise never know existed. In this sense, I hope it can serve as a small bridge between different sustainability efforts, both locally in Northfield, MN and across the globe. I hope it serves as a way for people to connect with each other, build knowledge, and encourage action.

This summer, I’ll be interning at a small, non-profit organization called the Center for Sustainable Living in Northfield, MN. Thanks to the support of St. Olaf College and the Center’s unique take on experiential learning, I have the opportunity to spend the summer pursuing independent sustainability projects and further exploring my personal interests in environmental politics.

Broadly defined, the main purpose of my summer work will be to investigate how civic leaders can make it easier for everyday people to live happier, healthier, and more sustainable lives. Specifically I’ll spend time investigating and posting examples of public policies and community initiatives that do/do not make it easier for everyday people to behave well. I’ll share the experiences I have in the next few months working on elementary school composting programs, holding home energy efficiency workshops for local residents, researching the likelihood of and means for implementing a plastic bag tax in Northfield, spending unstructured time exploring the parks of Northfield and the natural lands of St. Olaf, and more.

I welcome any comments or stories people would like to share. I hope at least a few readers will find this useful!