[sustran] FW: Jaime Lerner Lecture Notes
Paul Barter
paulbarter at nus.edu.sg
Mon May 22 13:41:10 JST 2006
Forwarded from another list.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Dempsey [mailto:dempseys3 at COMCAST.NET]
> Sent: Wednesday, 17 May 2006 3:42 PM
> Subject: Jaime Lerner Lecture Notes
>
> Notes from the 5/10/06 Jaime Lerner appearance at the Great
> Valley Conference. Lerner is the former mayor of Curitiba
> (and governor of the surrounding state). Curitiba remains a
> shining example of how design can improve the quality of
> life, even in a third-world, relatively poor city:
>
> Jaime Lerner - 40 years in city building
>
> Went in '88 to consult in Cuba, renovate Havana (jokes that
> Castro speaks for 10 - 12 hours when he's happy.
> Lerner jokes that he's feeling happy, so watch out!)
>
> "City is not a problem, city is a solution"
>
> Promises 2 - 3 years to improve quality of life.
>
> Needs political will, build core responsibility -
> *not* a problem of scale or finances.
>
> Recounts the example of having to clean a bay for his city.
> Rather than hire a garbage cleanup, he told fishermen that
> the city would pay for garbage when they "fished" it out of
> the bay. Fishermen could sell fish to the market, and garbage
> to the city. Either way, they could win. It save the city
> millions in cleanup costs, and made the bay more productive
> for fishing.
>
> Slides show: Vita the turtle - an admirable animal that has
> its residence near its work. It even has an urban design
> etched in its shell ("casque" says Lerner).
>
> On the other hand (new slide with cartoon car) Otto the
> Automobile is the kind of guy who's always the last to leave
> the party. People are folding chairs, putting away dishes and
> he's still around. He has a terrible drinking problem, and
> smokes. He also is something of an egoist. He can only carry
> a few people.
>
> He's like your mother-in-law. You want a good relationship,
> but you don't want her to run your life.
>
> Accordian buses, like those in Curitiba that supplanted a
> proposed rail installation, can transport 300 people (Volvo
> says 270, but Lerner says Swedes don't know Brasilians)
>
> "Without design, you don't have priorities."
>
> "Cities are a strategy for living and working together." The
> spine - public transport and land use.
>
> Separate living and working, and it's a disaster.
>
> You can apply design criteria either to a city or a state.
>
> Curitiba has 1.8M in the city, 3M in the metropolitan area.
>
> Slide: a wide road flanked by skyscrapers:
>
> X X
> X X X X
> X__X__X____X__X__X
>
> The wide road is the transit corridor. The building heights
> (density) decreases with distance from that corridor.
>
> When Lerner ran for Governor, he polled only 6% of the vote
> when the campaign began. His opponent was an experienced
> politician, and an actor (handsome! ...the room laughed).
> Lerner's design thoughts won, though.
>
> His design for the larger scale of the state
> (Garana?):
>
> Ensure development is no more than 1 hour from hospitals and
> universities. His agrarian reform resettled 100,000 slum
> dwellers to new housing on enough land to grow their own food
> in 4 - 8 rural villages. The design paradigm: Street crosses field.
>
> All transit modes are possible, but they must never compete
> in the same space.
>
> Curitiba's mass transit volumes:
>
> 1974 - 25,000/day
> 2000 - 2,000,000/day
>
> Frequency of buses: 30 seconds. (!)
>
> The Curitiba system is a public/private partnership.
> The buses are privately owned, the routes, stops and fares
> are publicly controlled. There are no subsidies.
> (I've also read that it boasts increasing ridership despite
> increasing per-capita auto ownership, something that not even
> the Europeans can boast).
>
> Sustainable cities are particularly important, especially in
> light of the climate change problem.
>
> Lerner's five commandments:
>
> 1. Use fewer cars.
>
> 2. Separate garbage
>
> 3. Keep work and home close
>
> 4. Waste minimum, save maximum
>
> 5. Have multi-use facilities (a stadium doubles as a market
> in the morning)
>
> Curitiba's education system promotes these things (and the
> history of the city). The kids teach the parents.
>
> The education is fun. Skits, and costumes are plentiful
> (slide of the "leaf" family...people in tree
> suits)
>
> Curitiba has a free university for the environment.
> Why not train *everyone* about the environment (even the janitors)?
>
> Built a botanical garden in two months, not the typical 100
> years. Mentions that speed is an important feature of
> development changes. (His current practice, Lerner calls
> "urban accupuncture.")
>
> A city's identity is like a family portrait. Its preserved
> history is a prominent feature of Lerner's public spaces and
> monuments.
>
> Lerner tells about meeting a man very interested in
> biodiversity, fierce about it, even. He asked "Do you have
> different land uses where you live, like entertainment,
> shopping, offices?" No, said the biodiversity fan. "What
> about different kinds of people, those with different
> income?" No, says the biodiversity fan.
>
> The crowd laughs, and Lerner says social diversity is as
> important as biodiversity.
>
> Shows a slide of redesigned street furniture, modelled on
> Paris book vendor stalls (street merchant stalls with folding
> security doors that double as sun shades).
>
> With all his cautions about autos, Lerner still designed a
> museum for Brasilian racing. He even designs electric line towers.
>
> One principle of city design: create meeting places.
> (In Japan... he says you have to have real chutzpah to
> propose urban accupuncture in Japan)
>
> ...Jokes that age has its advantages, but you still have to
> get up three times a night.
>
> Waste land, like old quarries is a starting place for many
> projects for parks, theaters, etc.
>
> Cities must integrate formal and informal spaces to avoid
> violence. Talked about bringing dangerous streets to life by
> bringing "portable streets" to them (trucking in tubes with
> meeting places, theaters,
> vendors)
>
> Has a show of his designs at a Chicago museum.
>
> Sponsored the "World Nature Games" - an olympics using
> natural features (kayaking, cross-country runs, etc.) Did so
> without building any buildings.
>
> Makes recycled buses into travelling culture shows - theaters
>
> His final words: "It is possible. You can do it. Si, es possible"
>
> Standing ovation
>
> Panel discussion: the room's energy diminishes immediately,
> after the charming Lerner.
>
> - GVC (the sponsor) takes credit for the Hwy 99 bond money
> earmark - for high tech, sustainable visitor centers.
>
> - Also touts the regional blueprint (Lerner would probably
> agree that vision is important to promote, and the Blueprint
> does that.)
>
> West Sacramento mayor Cabalodon: sustaining a vision is
> difficult if only because of political turnover.
> Unlike Lerner, politicians don't stay 40 years on the job
> here. (Odd, Supervisor Illa Collin is just retiring after
> some decades on the job...)
>
> - Transactions, not vision are the focus of city councils.
> Vision itself must be the product of civic involvement by the
> population. A politician has to overlook stakeholders to
> maintain the vision.
> (Nice excuse for lack of civic leadership...But Cabaldon was
> courageous enough to attend this lecture, not something one
> could say about any other Sacramento City or County leader)
>
> - The owner of a local taqueria (Sal's), a woman on
> Schwartzeneggar's business council, says business buy-in to
> the vision is important, as is education.
>
> Lerner comments:
>
> We cannot have consensus in everything. When the discussion
> is done, you have to stop it.
>
> For business people, what makes them invest, what makes the
> difference?
>
> - quality of life
> - qualification of employees (education)
> - logistics (civic design)
>
> Administration is still difficult (shakes his head, recalling
> a conflict about redesigning a single bus stop).
>
> County administrator: implementation is tough.
> Visionaries need to show up to get what they want.
>
> The vision must be long term.
>
> --
> One aside: Lerner previously mentioned that Brasilian
> politicians get free media for a few months before their elections.
>
> --
> --
> --Regards,
> --Mark Dempsey
>
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