Can U.S. Cities Learn From Bogota, Colombia?

"The former managing director of Arthur D. Little consulting in Colombia, Peñalosa worked to combat urban devastation in untraditional ways, using bike paths and public parks to lift downtrodden neighborhoods and to reduce national crime rates. In a country best known for paramilitaries, drug cartels, and crime kingpin Pablo Escobar, Peñalosa focused his efforts on education and public spaces. He built or reconstructed more than 1,200 urban parks, created 50 new schools and rehabilitated 150 more, planted 100,000 trees, increased public-school enrollment by 34%, and introduced nearly 200 miles of pedestrian walkways and bike paths throughout Bogota... Today, Peñalosa sees an opportunity to reinvent urban America under those same principles."