[sustran] Re: "Seven Sustainable Mayors": Profiles of Courage

[Craig Townsend]

Dear Sustranners,

I have been giving a fair amount of thought to the call for the nomination of
“profiles of courage” or “heroes” who have transformed urban transport systems
in cities around the world. I was looking for examples from North America and
Southeast Asia, regions I know best, but I couldn’t come up with much. Based on
some recent articles I’ve read on the emergence of Chicago as the putative “most
sustainable city” in the USA, I was thinking of nominating Mayor Richard Daley,
who according to these reports has spearheaded many initiatives in that urban
region of over 7 million inhabitants
(http://www.newtopiamagazine.net/content/issue17/features/greencity.php). 

I was then thinking about appropriate nominees from Canada, where I’m from.
However, I began having difficulty because there have been a number of good
actions on urban transport in Canadian cities (particularly when compared
against their counterparts to the south of the border), but they have rarely
been associated with particular individuals or mayors. In fact, in many cases
the actions taken toward more sustainable transport have involved members of
local communities and neighbourhoods coming together to oppose the grandiose
projects of charismatic and powerful politicians or “great leaders”! 

I have a number of uestions that may be worth further discussion:

-is it wise to emphasize the actions of “great individuals” rather than the
collective actions of members of communities joining together to make changes or
oppose changes?  

-does a focus on great individuals encourage a sense of powerlessness, prevalent
particularly in cities of the developing world among the poor masses, who are
encouraged to sit around passively waiting for a charismatic and decisive
leader, patron, or saviour?

-in cities where mayors and political leaders come from small ruling elites and
there are great chasms in wealth and power, is it wise to further elevate those
people’s achievements over that of their less privileged city neighbours?

What about nominating as “profiles of courage” communities which have faced
adversity and which have resisted in the face of power? What about the Baan Krua
Muslim community in Bangkok where they (with the leadership of some community
members and sympathetic outsiders) have resisted the efforts of a cabal of elite
businessmen and politicians seeking to build an elevated expressway ramp which
would have displaced their community and sacred grounds (but which would have
increased the elite accessibility and property values of some central area land.
This community has for over 15 years been fighting daily for their right not to
be evicted, and they need all the help they can get because the current national
government of Thailand (led by the country’s richest man) is seeking to revive
the expressway project, which was supposedly cancelled by the previous
administration. 

Similar “profiles of courage” can be found in Canadian cities. In the 1960s the
low income residents of the Downtown Eastside and Chinatown communities in
Vancouver, Canada, resisted the plans of a charismatic and autocratic mayor and
urban transport planners to build an expressway through their community. (It’s
worth noting that these big infrastructure profiles are often routed through the
communities of low income ethnic minorities with little representation on city
councils or other governments.) Their heroic actions have shaped Vancouver’s
urban transport system which among North American cities is exceptional because
there is no expressway or highway through the inner city or inner suburbs (the
communities made sure that a law was passed by the City Council ensuring that
their victory would be preserved).

I agree that there is a need to celebrate achievements in moving toward more
sustainable urban transport, and that celebrating individual achievements has a
role to play. But I feel there is a need for more deliberation about the kinds
of achievements and individuals that should be elevated, and also how can we
recognize collective actions of the less powerful? 

Thanks if you have read this far!

Best regards,

Craig