One of the World's Most Livable Cities Focuses on People, Not Cars

Between its excellent public transit, its dignified approach to providing for the poor and its emphasis on planning for people, not cars, Curitiba Brazil is one of the world's most livable cities, writes Bill McKibben.

1 minute read

November 9, 2005, 10:00 AM PST

By Michael Dudley


"From time to time over the next few years, I would see Curitiba mentioned in planning magazines or come across a short newspaper account of it winning various awards from the United Nations. Its success seemed demographically unlikely. For one thing, it's relatively poor - average per capita (cash) income is about $2,500. Worse, a flood of displaced peasants has tripled its population to a million and a half in the last 25 years. It should resemble a small-scale version of urban nightmares like São Paulo or Mexico City. But I knew from my evening's stroll it wasn't like that, and I wondered why.

"Maybe an effort to convince myself that a decay in public life was not inevitable was why I went back to Curitiba to spend some real time, to see if its charms extended beyond the lovely downtown. For a month, my wife and baby and I lived in a small apartment near the city center. Morning after morning I interviewed cops, merchants, urban foresters, civil engineers, novelists, planners; in the afternoons, we pushed the stroller across the town, learning the city's rhythms and habits. And we decided, with great delight, that Curitiba is among the world's great cities."

Wednesday, November 9, 2005 in Common Dreams

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