Enrique Penalosa

What should a politician care about most? For starters, getting people to ride the bus. Enrique Penalosa spent just three years, from 1998 to 2001, as mayor of Bogota, Colombia, a city of seven million known for high crime and sprawling slums. In that brief time, Penalosa was able to effect sweeping change, creating three large libraries, 180 miles of bike paths, and Trans-Milenio, a bus rapid transit system that carries 500,000 passengers each day and is arguably one of the best bus systems in the world. Penalosa saw the murder rate in Colombia’s capital city fall, and he oversaw the planting of 100,000 trees.

At first, he may sound like a typical earth-friendly left-winger. But for Penalosa, radical city planning requires everything but big-government liberalism. Privatizing city services maximizes efficiency, in his view. Civic leaders should risk their political lives, if necessary, to reorder a city’s priorities and make it a beautiful, livable place. Could the “Bogota Miracle,” as some have called it, happen in the U.S.? Probably not. Penalosa says Americans are entirely too consensus-oriented. That said, he believes American planners can do better, and lately he has been crisscrossing the country, giving speeches about how to improve urban development. He recently stopped off in New York City for a brief chat. 

EP:I think the greatest challenge of all cities is to make them more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly. As planners know, there are tons of things that can be done in the U.S. and everywhere else to achieve that. But we live in a time of great complacency, so it can be difficult. Planners tend not to question the establishment, and maybe, in order to create the cities of the future, we have to. We have democracy, which means that public good should prevail over private interest, but too often that’s not the case. For example, I believe that all waterfronts should be public. But look at the Long Island waterfront. Look at New York City’s waterfront. That’s hundreds if not thousands of miles where the public could have access—but they don’t.

TNAC: Compared to Colombia, the U. S. has a more decentralized, deliberative political system. Americans are averse to sweeping changes. If you had been mayor of a large U.S. city, could you have accomplished so much in only three years?

EP:Certainly, greater participation of the population makes implementing very innovative ideas difficult. But some of the more radical steps I took simply required enforcing existing laws that people weren’t following. I stopped tens of thousands of cars from parking on the sidewalk; this wasn’t permitted to begin with. I began enforcing the law requiring wider sidewalks to be constructed; the existing width requirements weren’t being followed. So, I could do many things without city council approval simply because they were already “the law.”

To answer your question about the United States, there are times when I’m visiting smaller communities in New England and I learn how implementing innovative ideas can prove difficult. By definition, something that is “innovative” will only be supported by a few at first. How can you convince the majority before they really live it? It’s a quandary.

But politicians in the U.S. are also less willing to assume political risk and show passion for a very clear vision. As a leader, you just need to make these decisions. Some people will like the results. Others won’t. And sometimes you must spend your political capital, and hopefully after you implement these measures, people will realize you were right all along.

A good example is Manhattan. I think it’s clearly crazy that so much public space is wasted parking cars next to the sidewalks. This is extremely valuable space which only benefits an extremely small minority. The majority of people in Manhattan don’t use those parking spaces. It would be much better to remove some of the parking and make wider sidewalks or create well protected bicycle-ways.

The reason I don’t think this is done? The [Bloomberg] administration doesn’t see this as a priority or doesn’t want the hassle of changing the status quo. But this is exactly the kind of effort which could very powerfully improve the livability of New York City. I also think they should experiment with turning Broadway into a pedestrian street, at least for a few hours on Sundays at first.

TNAC:Prior to becoming mayor of Bogota, you spent years thinking about urban planning and equity issues. What advice would you give in these areas to a newly elected mayor?

EP:The first step is to create a vision of an ideal city block, and move forward from there. The “demonstration effect” is very powerful. You don’t have to change the whole city at once. In some cases, though, the scale does need to be large enough to make this effect work. For example, you cannot just put in a bike path for three blocks; it has to be 30 miles so it really changes habits. But ideally, you should just work block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, and create demonstrated effects that people will see.

TNAC:You’ve stated that the well-being and happiness of children is the true barometer of a city’s health. Can you elaborate?

EP:A city that works for its most vulnerable citizens—the children, the elderly, the disabled, the poor—tends to work well for everyone else. It has a lot to do with the quality and safety of public space. In some societies, people feel unsafe walking alone down the street. But in a city where you see children comfortable and safe in the streets by themselves, the city has passed a litmus test. To use an example, think of the city as a mountain stream. If the trout are swimming in the stream, it’s an indication that the water is clean and well oxygenated because trout are very sensitive and need those conditions to survive. If you see children out by themselves, it’s a good indicator that what they need is being provided.