I woke up on Thursday morning with a hateful throb in the back of my throat. This initial hint was quickly met with deep body aches, a racking cough, and the constant battle of sniffing back drippy nose mucus. ("Drippy Nose Mucus"... Good band name.... Just saying....) Anyways, long story short: I didn't come to class that morning. And as such, I apparently missed a very cool movie on Curitiba, Brazil. Despite attempts to stream the video from home, I had no such luck. So, I chose to read up on on Curitiba instead, in an effort to still answer this blog prompt in a relevant fashion. So, let's start off with some fast facts that I garnered!
-Bestowed upon Curitiba are the titles of "the greenest city on earth," "green capital," and "most innovative city in the world."
-Its contemporary status as a green community can be traced to its 1970s mayor, Jaime Lerner, who largely focused on the revolutionary move of pedestrianizing the city.
-One of Lerner's major motivations in his work with Curitiba was to preserve the history and culture of the place.
-It is a city renowned for its high-functioning transportation system-- praised by Lonely Planet as being "easier to get around... than any other large city in Brazil."
-There is an abundance of green spaces which offer ecological merits in reduction of urban heat island, while also offering social merits in serving as gathering places and places of beauty.
-Curitiba has a varied history, rich with the different cultures which settled there in the 19th Century.
-On that note of cultural vibrancy, there appear to be many excellent restaurants in Curitiba. If I wasn't hooked before, Curitiba's got my attention now.
Perhaps what's most interesting to me about Curitiba is that its proficiency and prowess in sustainability is relatively new. Curitiba's status as a green community was one hard fought for. There was a time when Curitiba was right on track to follow in suit with other Brazilian cities-- automotive, sprawling, and cookie-cutter. However, at the insistence of Lerner, Curitiba took a different path. With help from the local business sector, Lerner opposed the proposed plan for Curitiba and implemented a different vision instead-- one with a prolific public transit system, a waste program that pays people for their trash, an excellent recycling sorting system, affordable housing, and with vibrant gathering spaces. The reason for Lerner's success in this endeavor is what I find most interesting-- in his words, "We had to work fast to avoid our own bureaucracy." A major factor in meeting his goals was resisting the flow of the status quo, despite the social sanctions that followed. He bravely proposed and fought for his vision, and in essence decided to seek forgiveness rather than permission. (His actual philosophy is "act now, adjust later.") I resonated with this piece of Curitiba's story because it feels especially relevant to this month, in light of the recent presidential inauguration. I feel that it's important to fight for what is ethical and sustainable, even if it's not what our government is fighting for. It's inspiring that young people with a vision were able to make these changes in a relatively short amount of time. I feel as though there may be hope for more Curitibas.
Fast facts gathered from: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/brazil/the-south/curitiba/introduction and https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/06/story-of-cities-37-mayor-jaime-lerner-curitiba-brazil-green-capital-global-icon
No comments:
Post a Comment