The Perfect City

I just had one of the most inspiring lectures of all time! Enrique Penalosa, the ex-mayor of Bogotá, Columbia was the guest speaker. He was beyond cool! He had a cool-ass accent, was extremely funny, and inspired us to make the world a better place.

 

Pps.org had this to say about him:

 

An accomplished public official, economist and administrator, Enrique Peñalosa completed his three-year term as Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia on December 31, 2000. While mayor, Peñalosa was responsible for numerous radical improvements to the city and its citizens. He promoted a city model giving priority to children and public spaces and restricting private car use, building hundreds of kilometers of sidewalks, bicycle paths, pedestrian streets, greenways, and parks. After organizing a Car-Free Day in 2000, he was awarded the Stockholm Challenge Award and rewarded by a referendum vote endorsing an annual car-free day and the elimination of all cars from streets during rush hours from 2015 onwards.

 

Peñalosa also led efforts to improve Bogotá's marginal neighborhoods through citizen involvement; planted more than 100,000 trees; created a new, highly successful bus-based transit system; and turned a deteriorated downtown avenue into a dynamic pedestrian public space. He helped transform the city's

 attitude from one of negative hopelessness to one of pride and hope, developing a model for urban improvement based on the equal rights of all people to transportation, education, and public spaces.

"I was almost impeached for getting cars off sidewalks which car owning upper classes had illegally appropriated for parking." -- Enrique Peñalosa.

After he finished his speech, I was extremely excited, and had thoughts of making my own city. It would be a small city where technology is at its best. There would be great transportation systems within the city’s downtown area that would not include private cars. 

People in my city would walk more. It would be safer (less children dead for playing too close to the roads) and provide an amazing form of exercise for everyone, and might just be a way to decrease obesity. People would want to go out and smell the fresh air… Children would want to play around without feeling the need to stay away from the road. 

The ground floor of every building would be filled with all sorts of shopping (clothing, grocery, etc. etc.), restaurants, café’s and anything else. I want it to have beautiful architecture (it must be beautiful architecture if I’m the one designing it, lol).

 I want there to be huge-ass sidewalks along the beach for public, with restaurants and boutiques. I want it to have many green parks with amazing man made lakes. The list goes on forever, but you get the

 picture, I want everyone to interact with one another, and I just want it to be heaven!

 

Before I get too carried away, yeah, the lecture was cool, and I became inspired. I wish I would have that kind of power someday and build my own city!