Ex-Bogota Mayor presents his concept of a developed city

From the International News in Pakistan:

What makes a difference between a developed city and a backward city is not the quality of expressways, highways or flyovers but that of pedestrian streets, bicycle tracks, public parks, water fronts and bus ways for mass transit, says Enrique Penalosa, a world renowned urban strategist and former mayor of Bogota, Colombia.

Penalosa said this during his presentation in a seminar on organised “Sustainable Urban Development & Mobility” which was organised by the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) in collaboration with the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI), a programme of the Clinton Foundation, and SHEHRI-CBE at a local hotel on Tuesday.

The objective of this seminar is to provide key stakeholders an opportunity to hear about a different and more socially inclusive and efficient urban vision, which would improve the quality of life and make our cities more competitive.

Penalosa who was the main speaker at the seminar discussed in detail the vision of a developed city and gave several practical examples from the west and parts of Asia on how that vision can be materialised.

Public parks, pedestrian streets, bicycle tracks and water fronts are crucial for a city to be developed, he said. These are the things that please people that make them happier and improve the quality of their lives, he added. ...

A developed city is one where rich uses public transport. A good city is a city for the poor, elderly and children,” said Penalosa. He adds, “20th century would be remembered as a disaster in urban history since giving the cities to cars is the biggest mistake we ever made.” He further said that the developed cities in Europe realised that building roads for cars was a big mistake. It was not what they wanted therefore, they built pedestrian streets stretching up to hundreds of kilometres.