[sustran] Re: FW: Jaime Lerner Lecture Notes

Pendakur pendakur at interchange.ubc.ca
Mon May 22 23:38:29 JST 2006


If there is a pdf version of his presentation, We would all benefit from 
seeing it.  I would like to see it if one is available.  Thanks.  Cheers.
Setty.
Dr. V. Setty Pendakur
Professor Emeritus, University of British Columbia
Honorary Professor, China National Academy of Sciences
Secretary,TRB-ABE90 and Director, ITDP

President, Pacific Policy and Planning Associates
702-1099 Marinaside Crescent
Vancouver, BC, Canada  V6Z 2Z3
Phone: 1-604-263-3576, Fax: 1-604-263-6493
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Barter" <paulbarter at nus.edu.sg>
To: "Asia and the Pacific sustainable transport" 
<sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2006 9:41 PM
Subject: [sustran] FW: Jaime Lerner Lecture Notes


> 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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> equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries 
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