SEMINARIO VIRTUAL: GIROS ÉTICOS: CIUDAD Y SOSTENIBILIDAD POST-COVID19

Santiago de Chile, 19 junio 2020 / 11:00 – 13:15 hrs.

Find the original publication and registration form: https://unegocios.uchile.cl/observatorios/observatorio-de-sostenibilidad/seminario-giros-eticos/

FUNDAMENTOS

Los últimos acontecimiento de Chile y el mundo debido al COVID-19, nos brindan la oportunidad para dar un “giro ético”, referido a conductas humanas con conciencia, generoso y humilde al aceptar que dependemos de la naturaleza y que el futuro de nuestras ciudades y sus habitantes depende de ésta. Enfrentados al cambio climático, la pandemia del Covid-19 y apoyados en los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS) de las Naciones Unidas, este seminario nos invita a enriquecer nuestro conocimiento, aportando a la sensibilidad y complejidad en los temas Ciudad.

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Cities and the Ethical Turn: Cities and Climate Change

Published by CitiesProgramme on October 28, 2019

Pictured: The Metro Station University of Chile, the most extensive Metro Network in South America, powered by 60% renewable energy. Sadly 80 stations have been destroyed in the recent protests. About Santiago’s Metro.

Author: Beatriz Maturana

The words ethics and cities have recently been combined by philosophers and urbanists to focus on a turn towards sustainability in the urban century. Climate Change charges this turn with an alarming urgency. While we know that there is no single solution to meet this challenge, today it is recognized that cities have the capacity, resources and ability to find solutions within the UN Sustainable Development Goals.  As stated by the C40 organization, “the outcome of climate change begins in the cities”.

In Chile, our National Urban Development Policy, Sustainable Cities and Quality of Life (NUDP 2014), lays the foundations and guidelines for the improvement of our cities in not only in their physical but also cultural aspects and in pursuit of sustainable objectives. In this way, we want to highlight the significant role of cities and their ability to improve the conditions of the planet and the lives of its inhabitants. This policy is based in the “conviction that our cities and populated centres could be much better than they are if, as Chileans, we agree on some fundamental aspects that govern its formation and development”.

Why Cities?

The NUDP places the urban issue as a “national theme” and a key pillar for our development. The policy objectives of quality of life and sustainability force us to urgently face the challenges of climate change.

• 70% of cities are already suffering the effects of climate change and 90% of all urban settlements that are located on the coastal edges. It will be these settlements and among them the poorest, that are first affected by the rise in the level of the oceans.
• Of the 9 criteria of vulnerability to climate change, Chile and its cities meet 7 of these: Low-lying coastal areas; Arid zones and Forest zones; Territory susceptible to natural disasters; Urban areas with air pollution; Areas prone to drought and desertification; Mountainous Ecosystems. [1]
• Changes that affect the water supply will impact more than 50% of the world’s population living in cities today. [2]
• In the case of Chile, 87% of its population lives in cities, and its capital city faces the effects of desertification.

How can cities, which are considered as a source of the problem, be re-thought as the source of a solution to climate change?

To discuss these issues and to better prepare us to face the challenges imposed by climate change, we will hold a day of forums, talks and interdisciplinary round tables. We will discuss the key aspects that, in line with our urban policies, highlight the urgency and allow a refocus and reassessment of the guidelines to strengthen our commitment to sustainable cities and quality of life. A report will be produced at the conclusion of the seminar.

In the wake of the October demonstrations Chile’s world standing as host for COP25 has shifted from its credentials of achieving carbon neutrality by 2040 to be the epicentre of the people’s movement for social justice. In the process, our cities and our urban conviviality have been severely wounded by vandalism at an infrastructural scale and civil disorder in widespread looting and arson. In this democratic republic, the institution of government is steering solutions to long due social justice issues that had not been met by governments of various tendencies for the last three decades of economic growth. With COP25 at our doorstep, the attention must draw together the social, the urban and the challenge of climate change.

The seminar ‘Cities and the Ethical Turn: Cities and Climate Change’ endorsed by COP25 will run on December 10.

Dr. Beatriz Maturana is a Cities Programme Global Advisor, an Adjunct Professor of the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University, Associate Professor at the Institute of History and Heritage, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism (FAU), University of Chile and the founder of Architects for Peace. Her teaching is in the areas of sustainable urban development & heritage, and interventions in public space and undertaking research on urban social integration. Beatriz graduated in Architecture at RMIT University, later undertook a Master of Urban Design and a PhD from the University of Melbourne. In Australia she practised as an architect, urban designer, and taught at RMIT, Monash and University of Melbourne.

---

[1] Ministerio del Medio Ambiente. (2019). Simulaciones Climáticas.

[2] Plan de Adaptación al cambio climático para ciudades 2018-2022, 6/2018 (MMA, MINVU 2018).

Original Publication in UN's Global Compact Cities Programme: https://citiesprogramme.org/cities-and-the-ethical-turn-cities-and-climate-change/#_ftn1

Note: this text was written before the Chilean Government had to decide to move COP25 to Madrid, given the situation in the country, and before the team preparing the University´s conference decided to postpone the event for the same reasons. 

Taskafa: Stories of the Street. Post-event reflection

by Nicole Mechkaroff

Last Thursday's public discussion and film screening began to unpack John Berger's 'Ways of Seeing' where looking was understood to be inherently political.

'To look is an act of choice' - Berger

Claire Collie opened the discussion with a critical historiography of Melbourne, it's urban Renaissance narrative, and the counter-narratives that have been unseen to give rise to social injustice, erasures and structural violence. Claire drew upon Andrea Luka Zimmerman's attempt to resist a single way of seeing in the film Taskafa, and set the scene for alternative urban planning imaginaries for humans and non-humans to coexist.

A demonstration of verbal and non-verbal communication techniques between Elani Schmidt and therapy dog Leila dove into some qualitative aspects of human and animal interactions, and provided insights into the value of Animal-Assisted Therapy for people in need.

We also heard from Anna Rowe about her time spent in Mannar Sri Lanka. She discussed the work of Bridging Lanka with street donkeys. Once an important part of community life, these beautiful animals have become neglected. They represent a past that many would rather forget.

Many thanks to all guest speakers and filmmaker Andrea Luka Zimmerman for helping us come together to discuss these critical urban issues.

Sharing the city as a commons can create stronger, inclusive communities

by Darren Sharp

The sharing economy is an exciting and disruptive set of developments turning old paradigms of production, consumption and exchange on their head. Major themes include access over ownership and unlocking the idling capacity of various assets including stuff, space and skills.¹ At its most sublime level the sharing economy brings peers together to match needs with haves, build social capital and neighbourly connectedness through tool libraries, community gardens, clothing swaps, skill shares and Repair Cafes.² Melbourne is home to many inspiring sharing programs like the Clothing Exchange³ that runs clothing swaps to promote sustainable fashion; 3000 acres⁴ which works with public and private sector asset owners to unlock vacant land for urban agriculture; and Brunswick Tool Library⁵ that pools equipment for hire to encourage sustainable consumption.

Brunswick Tool Library in Melbourne provides local members with shared access to tools and equipment. Image source: Assemble Papers, photographer: Fred Kroh

But the sharing economy is not without its drawbacks including the enclosing influence of platforms that monetise formally sacrosanct areas of private life. A ride to work, some help around the house, or a spare room for an out-of-town guest have become commodities to be bought and sold through a handful of on-demand platforms. The economic benefits of these services favours asset owners with a desirable car or home to share. Governments have been slow to respond to the shocks caused by Uber, Airbnb, and Deliveroo and their disruptions to transportation, the housing market and the freelance sector.⁶ These so called 'gig economy' platforms provide convenience to their users but also raise serious concerns as this seemingly 'inevitable march of progress' creates winners and losers, enriching start-up founders and investors while making it hard for gig workers, who are mostly independent contractors, to make a living.⁷

Commercial platforms have also skillfully leveraged the agglomeration benefits of proximity, density and amenity of public goods and shared resources that nobody owns but that we all benefit from - what we used to call the commons. These include everything from the tax-payer funded public roads which are quickly becoming congested by the presence of Uber and other rideshare operators,⁸ and the unique culture and quiet enjoyment of our cities and neighbourhoods which is being threatened by Airbnb as long-term rental stock is removed from the market and converted into short-term housing accommodation.⁹

As David Bollier reminds us the enclosure of the commons is a recurring threat and happens when private sector interests often working with the support of government, privatise or convert shared resources into private resources and treat them as tradeable commodities.¹⁰ Enclosure of the commons has been going on for centuries if we look back at the English enclosure movement where aristocracy stole the pastures, forests, water and grazing lands used by commoners and declared them private property.¹¹ Today we see a new enclosure movement as big tech companies with the support of governments, use proprietary platforms and network effects to commodify our data and take over critical city infrastructure under the rhetoric of disruptive innovation and the smart city. The failed plans for an Apple Store at Federation Square is just the thin edge of the wedge - a branding exercise that sought to extract the civic and cultural value of Melbourne and its citizens to further Apple's growth ambitions.¹² We must zoom out to see how tech giants have their eyes on the bigger prize - capturing our cities for the deployment of more tightly integrated data and service ecosystems on which government, business and citizens rely on for essential infrastructure but which undermines our technological sovereignty.¹³

Google is now in the city-building business as seen by Toronto waterfront re-development under its subsidiary Sidewalk Labs. The smart city plan involves "creating a neighbourhood from "the internet up", powered and severed by data; with sensors monitoring everything from air quality to pedestrian traffic, even the flushing of toilets."¹⁴ Quayside is the proposal's pilot community, a 12-acre area along the waterfront with an intention to expand the experiment to the remaining 800-acre site to Toronto.¹⁵ This is just one of a growing number of projects where tech giants with the support of governments are converting shared resources into private resources. Enclosure of the commons erodes community by turning citizens into consumers and creates vendor lock-in and walled gardens which undermines democracy by colonizing our public space with proprietary platforms that constantly monitor our behaviour and commodify our data in what academic Shoshana Zuboff has described as the pernicious rise of "surveillance capitalism."¹⁶

View of Toronto waterfront. Image: Sandro Schuh on UnSplash.com

The sharing city is a new imaginary of urban transformation that offers hope through peer to peer collaboration, citizen participation and shared infrastructure to create greater social and economic inclusion.¹⁷ Sharing cities proponents tell a new story of the sharing economy grounded in grassroots innovation, municipal provisioning of shared infrastructure and diverse forms of sharing that engender social justice, economic democracy and ecological sustainability.¹⁸ The idea of the sharing city was pioneered by Shareable¹⁹, a nonprofit action hub and news site for the sharing economy that uses narratives of change and enabling tools like collaborative mapping to encourage urban experimentation that brings civil society, local government and alternative market actors together to create new forms of sharing for the common good. Shareable launched the Sharing Cities Network (SCN), a grassroots initiative "to mobilize, inspire and connect" sharing advocates around the world. To date over 50 cities have created SCN nodes, run MapJams and ShareFests to connect the dots and activate sharing within local communities using collaborative mapping to make shared resources more visible, convene local stakeholders and create new opportunities for partnerships to emerge.²⁰

The Share Yarra Map was the result of a community MapJam workshop at Fitzroy Town Hall in 2014. Image: author

The sharing cities movement has inspired local governments to formally declare themselves Sharing Cities and drive new institutional arrangements through policies and programs to make their city assets like public buildings, vacant land and open data more amenable to sharing. Seoul has made 800 of its buildings available to the community for use during idle hours, run as start-up school to support the next generation of sharing entrepreneurs and has invested millions of dollars through subsidies from taxes paid by citizens.²¹ Seoul designates sharing enterprises and organisations as part of their Sharing City program if they commit to solving urban problems through sharing via the economy, welfare, culture, environment and transportation sectors. Amsterdam became Europe's first Sharing City and convened the Ambassador Group with local representatives from the corporate, government and knowledge sectors to develop a program of activities to support the ecosystem and prototype sharing projects. The Amsterdam municipal government has also run a pilot program to make its meeting rooms available to organisations with a social impact mission.²²

The 'city as a commons' is another new urban imaginary that creates post-neoliberal pathways for local governments to play a key enabling role in making services, programs and staff available to the community to support urban transformation through new models of collaborative urban governance. One of the best examples can be found in the City of Bologna's 'Regulation of Collaboration Between Citizens and the City for the Care and Regeneration of Urban Commons' that supports active citizens to co-lead city interventions through collaboration agreements, an instrument that aligns deliberative processes and intent with a legal contract between citizens and the municipality.²³ Since the regulation passed in 2014 with the support of researchers from LabGov, over 280 citizen-led projects have signed collaboration agreements with the city under the regulation to co-govern shared resources. Bologna 'city as commons' projects include an association of Bologna women who turned an unused city-owned building into an 'ethical boutique' to support migrant women and Social Streets that helps neighbours get to know each other and strengthen community by building mutual aid networks at hyper-local level.

A Social Streets gathering in Bologna  - an example of the 'city as a commons' in action. Image: https://www.shareable.net/blog/how-to-start-a-social-street

Such experiments in collaborative governance through "public-private partnerships of people and communities" are underway across other cities in Italy with five types of actors including social innovators, public authorities, businesses, civil society organisations and knowledge institutions.²⁴ Following the success of Bologna, LabGov turned its attention to Centocelle's Archaeological Park in Rome which became the focus of urban commoning initiated by researchers and community stakeholders working on collaborative governance experiments. A co-design process was used which led to the creation of a community group dedicated to the regeneration of the park. This has resulted in a variety of site interventions including rubbish removal, tree planting and landscaping which has activated the park and created opportunities for collaboration between citizens and the local council.

Sharing cities and the 'city as a commons' movements demonstrate how alternative urban imaginaries, narratives of change and collaborative mapping create new structural contexts outside of neoliberal market and policy logics to support transformative modes of experimentation. These new imaginaries provide a guiding vision for urban actors to develop new economic practices through the social production of value and modes of collaborative governance like Seoul, Amsterdam and Bologna. Urban actors can share resources and use technology to strengthen community but resisting enclosure and maintaining technological sovereignty will be an ongoing challenge that will define our future cities.

About the author.

Darren Sharp is the Director of Social Surplus and works with grassroots innovators and public sector partners to develop community empowerment strategies, collaborative governance experiments and facilitate capacity-building using strength-based and design-led approaches. Darren is also the Australian editor of Shareable, Melbourne coordinator of the Sharing Cities Network and co-authored the book Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons which contains 137 case studies and policies that showcases how city residents around the world are using commons-based strategies to meet their needs in housing, food, transportation, work and energy. Darren helped established and run Livewell Yarra, an urban living lab in Melbourne and recently completed his PhD at Curtin University Sustainable Policy Institute where he undertook action research on transformative urban experimentation for sustainability transitions funded by the CRC for Low Carbon Living. His recent academic publications appear is Sustainability and Urban Policy and Research.

References:

¹ See: Botsman, R. and Rogers, R. (2010). What’s Mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption. New York, NY. HarperCollins; and Gansky, L. (2010). The Mesh: Why the Future of Business is Sharing. New York, NY. Penguin Group.

² https://www.shareable.net/blog/the-repair-caf%C3%A9-foundation-builds-community-by-fixing-things
³ https://www.events.clothingexchange.com.au/
⁴ https://3000acres.org/
^{5 https://brunswicktoollibrary.org}
6 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/28/uber-lawlessness-sharing-economy-corporates-airbnb-google
⁷ https://www.businessinsider.com.au/australia-uber-drivers-make-less-than-minimum-wage-2018-3?r=US&IR=T
⁸ LeBlanc, S. (2018). Studies are increasingly clear: Uber, Lyft congest cities. Associated Press. Available from: https://www.apnews.com/e47ebfaa1b184130984e2f3501bd125d/Studies-are-increasingly-clear:-Uber,-Lyft-congest-cities
⁹ https://theconversation.com/australian-governments-are-treading-lightly-around-airbnb-76389
¹⁰ http://thinklikeacommoner.com/
¹¹ http://wealthofthecommons.org/essay/commons-%E2%80%93-historical-concept-property-rights
¹² https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/heritage-authority-refuses-fed-square-demolition-permit-for-apple-store-20190405-p51b97.html
¹³ https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/digitaliberties/digital-democracy-and-technological-sovereignty/
¹⁴ https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-31/concerns-over-google-city-in-toronto/9815446
¹⁵ https://sidewalktoronto.ca/
¹⁶ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/feb/02/age-of-surveillance-capitalism-shoshana-zuboff-review
¹⁷ Shareable. (2018). Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons. San Francisco, CA: Shareable. www.sharingcities.net
¹⁸ Sharp, D. (2018). Sharing Cities for Urban Transformation: Narrative, Policy and Practice. Urban Policy and Research, 36(4), 513-526. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08111146.2017.1421533
¹⁹ www.shareable.net
²⁰ Johnson, C. (2013). We gathered, we mapped, we shared: a #MapJam follow-up. Shareable.
Available from: http://www.shareable.net/blog/we-gathered-we-mapped-we-shared-a-mapjam-follow-up
²¹ https://www.shareable.net/blog/sharing-city-seoul-a-model-for-the-world
²² https://www.shareable.net/blog/amsterdam-to-launch-airbnb-style-rentals-of-municipal-buildings
²³ http://www.comune.bologna.it/media/files/bolognaregulation.pdf
²⁴ Iaione, C. (2016). The CO‐City: Sharing, Collaborating, Cooperating, and Commoning in the City. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 75(2), 415-455.

Affordable Living in Sustainable Cities congress - Day 2 - November 2nd 2018

Affordable Living in Sustainable Cities congress - Day 2 - November 2nd 2018

Pictured above (left to right): Nicole Mechkaroff, Janet Stanley, Mia Davidson, Kris Hartley, Claire Edwards, Joyati Das, Lorenza Lazzatti.

Architects For Peace's Nicole Mechkaroff (President) and Lorenza Lazzati (Secretary) shared the floor with Prof. Janet Stanley (University of Melbourne), Claire Edwards (GHD Engineering), Joyati Das (International Society of Urban Health) and Dr. Kris Hartley for Civic Playhouse Youth Perspectives on Public Space: the Inclusion Imperative chaired by Mia Davidson (EAROPH).

The session focused on two themes: Sustainable Environment & Livability and, Accessibility and Participation. Based on our work carried out over time, Architects For Peace's presentation reflected on the key roles of public space as multi-functional areas for social interaction, cultural expression and economic exchange.

Being a part of the congress was a meaningful experience, reinforcing the value in collaboration and knowledge sharing to avoid duplication and actively work towards fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals.

Understanding Melbourne’s multicultural melting pot

A Vietnamese grocer on Paisley Street extends its shop onto the footpath Image: Jimi Connor.

Underneath the perceived boundaries and divisions of Melbourne’s suburbs exists a fluid and constantly evolving network of multicultural communities. Arguably, these overlooked populations have played a pivotal role in the development of the social and cultural fabric of Melbourne; helping to define now sought-after suburbs like Carlton, Brunswick and Collingwood. The suburb of Footscray, located five kilometres west of the city of Melbourne, is a major point of confluence for some of Melbourne’s largest multicultural communities. From its infamous notoriety as a haven for drug users, to its current status as an entry point for immigrants, the urban environment of Footscray has successfully adapted to accommodate to the needs of a constantly developing city. It has achieved this by enacting an alternative model of urban development: whereby different waves of immigrant communities have been able to alter and adapt the urban environment—to suit their own particular practices and identities. The result is an urban fabric that is wholly unique: a complex hybrid of contrasting cultural practices, which overlap and intertwine with one another.

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El Parque Forestal: persistente proyecto urbano integrador de la naturaleza y la ciudad

Parque Forestal: a persistent urban project that integrates nature and city

In the month of urbanism, I was invited to write a column for the National Museum Benjamín Vicuña MacKenna (Santiago, Chile). This column is intended as “a space of reflection and participation and seeks to collect the opinion from citizens, specialist and academics on the city”. I chose to write about Parque Forestal, an urban park designed in the year 1900 by the French architect George Dubois. 

This linear urban park is significant in that it recognises and incorporates the geographical situation and natural landmarks defining the city (the Andes, its mountain ranges, and the Mapocho River). Because of the Parque Forestal´s flawless design logic, new parks continue to be created in all the municipalities crossed by the river. These parks stretch along the Mapocho river, creating a system of open spaces—urban “windows”— and allowing us to contemplate the Andes mountains in a continuous manner.  

In times when urban gestures tend to be timid, surrendering the responsibility of cities (in all their complexity) to others, often the market and their developers, it is crucial to revisit and value the work done by our predecessors—the urbanists—and recuperate the drive that will permit us make cities better places for all. (Article in Spanish, published by the MNBVM on November 1, 2017).

Parque Forestal y Río Mapocho durante la proyección del Museo Arte de Luz, donde 14 artistas expusieron sus obras (2015). 

Frecuentemente asociamos el urbanismo a los llenos formados por los edificios e infraestructura. Se nos olvida que parte importante de esta forma e imagen de la ciudad está compuesta por sus espacios abiertos, los vacíos, los espacios verdes—esos relieves que nos recuerdan que la ciudad respondió en su origen a su situación geográfica y paisajística natural—.

A pesar de que en Santiago transgredimos constantemente estos orígenes, aun conservamos sus huellas. Entre estos, el río Mapocho, algunos de los riachuelos (hoy canales), incluso nuestra avenida principal (Alameda) que alguna vez fue un curso de agua. También nos quedan parte de las vistas majestuosas de la cordillera que se insinúan entre edificios y gigantografías que imponen en el habitante sus burdos mensajes.

En la conformación de Santiago, se valoró y destacaron sus orígenes, su topografía y es así como el río Mapocho, a pesar de la canalización que lo despojó de su capacidad de mantener sus ecosistemas, fue por otra parte enaltecido con el Parque Forestal. Parque lineal, diseñado por el arquitecto francés George Dubois en el año 1900, como primer parque urbano moderno del país y que formó parte de un conjunto de estrategias urbanas que transformaron y humanizaron la ciudad.

El Parque Forestal, que acompañaría en su recorrido al Río Mapocho, fue concebido como lugar de paseo y contemplación, de encuentro e integración, fue delineándose paulatinamente con edificios residenciales y coronado por el Museo de Bellas Artes (1905-1910). La irreprochable lógica de su concepción como paisaje urbano longitudinal, unificador y complejo en su ambición, permitió que en la medida que la ciudad crecía, este parque continuara extendiéndose e integrando municipios, más allá de lo originalmente proyectado. Es así como nuevos parques se han sumado a su sistema, tanto desde el oriente como del poniente de la ciudad, uniéndose a este poderoso gesto urbano inclusivo.

Además de la belleza de su diseño y sus árboles, el Parque Forestal tiene valor inmaterial como construcción cultural reconocida en su calidad de zona típica. En el esparcimiento y el caminar se mezclan y conviven creativamente diversos grupos sociales, diversas edades y nacionalidades, enriqueciendo el parque con sus picnics, actividades comunitarias y variadas expresiones artísticas. En tiempos de condominios (ricos y pobres), donde lo fácil e inmediato es optar por el cerramiento y la exclusión—la antítesis de lo urbano—, el Parque Forestal, hito urbano integrador, complejo y persistente, se mantiene firme y abierto.

El parque Forestal nos recuerda que es posible e indispensable pensar la ciudad desde el proyecto urbano, con estrategias generosas que nuevamente transformen a Santiago y la conviertan en una ciudad amigable. El proyecto urbano requiere valorar los vacíos, proveyendo con más avenidas en la que podamos reconocer el entorno natural con sus magníficas vistas de la cordillera, integrando a todos sus habitantes en el reencuentro con la naturaleza y de paso, en el redescubrimiento de nuestra identidad.

Vista de la Plaza Italia (Baquedano), desde el Parque Forestal, con la cordillera de fondo (2017). 

Tanto hacia el oriente, como al poniente de la ciudad, nuevos parques se han integrado al sistema originado por el Parque Forestal (vista del parque en la comuna de Providencia).

Beatriz Maturana Cossio (PhD): Architect RMIT University. Master of Urban Design and PhD, University of Melbourne, Australia. Academic Director & Director of International Relations at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of Chile. Adjunct Professor of RMIT University, Australia. Founder of Architects for Peace.

The city, an absent topic in presidential candidates' programs in Chile [and in most places]

La ciudad, tema ausente de las candidaturas [presidenciales, Chile]

La siguiente carta fue publicada en el Diario La Tercera:  http://www.latercera.com/noticia/la-ciudad-tema-ausente-las-candidaturas/

Señor director,

Las ciudades son responsables por el 75% del consumo de energía; entre 40 y 50% de las emisiones de CO2 y en Chile el 85% de la población vive en ciudades. Por eso llama la atención que la ciudad no figure en las propuestas de los candidatos presidenciales.

Datos oficiales señalan que en nuestras ciudades mueren 3.723 personas como consecuencia de la contaminación ambiental (2015). Nuestras ciudades están rodeadas de microbasurales y sus periferias crecen a la par con los índices de segregación social. El acceso a áreas verdes es cuatro veces mayor en la zona oriente comparada con el resto de Santiago. Hoy enfrentamos guetos verticales y planes reguladores débiles o inexistentes.

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The Rise of Open Streets

Introduccion by Ajith Kuruvilla

To all my friends that still believe that streets belong to car, watch this documentary. I remember when i first started cycling to school, uni, work over 15 years ago it was a world where there were no bicycle lanes, close shaves with a car on a daily basis and often abuse and spitting by many car users. I know how much has changed since then for bicyclist, but i also know, for car users their ownership of the road has decreased, the speed limits have decreased and the petrol price has gone from 75c to 1.60c.

So for my friends who still want to complain about the cyclists and the hippies and continue to elect pro automotive governments ahead of greater levels of public transport and people friendly streets, just think where the world will be in another 15 years time considering major cities like LA, NYC, Bogota, Mexico City have already moved in people ahead of cars direction.

The Rise of Open Streets

(Source: https://vimeo.com/78886448)


The Rise of Open Streets from Streetfilms on Vimeo.
Streetfilms has been documenting the ciclovia/open streets movement for over seven years, beginning with our landmark film in 2007 on Bogota's Ciclovia, currently our most popular film of all time.

Not soon after that film's debut Mike Lydon of The Street Plans Collaborative decided to get one going in Miami in 2008 which led to his research for The Open Streets Project, a joint project with the Alliance for Biking & Walking.

In 2008, there were new events in over a dozen cities including San Francisco, Portland and NYC. Since 2006, open streets events have increased 10 fold.

Since Streetfilms has ample footage of nearly a dozen such events, we decided this was an opportune time to interview some of the most important people in the movement, including former City Transportation Commissioners Janette Sadik-Khan (NYC) and Gabe Klein (Chicago), as well as former Bogota Parks Commissioner Gil Penalosa and Enrique Jacoby, from the Pan American Health Organization.

"The Rise of Open Streets" looks at myriad angles of the Open Streets movement. From its little known origins to the joy it brings to participants. From the sundry types of programming to the health benefits it brings citizenry. From the inspiration it gives people to further change the balance of our streets to giving city residents a few hours of peace from the normal tumult of loud city traffic. And it not only looks at big cities like Los Angeles, but smaller ones like Fargo, Berkeley, and Lexington.

We were proud to partner with The Street Plans Collaborative and the Alliance for Biking & Walking to produce this film, which we hope will give municipalities another tool and encourage even more events throughout the world. Funding for "The Rise of Open Streets" was graciously provided by the Fund for the Environment & Urban Life.

Honduras's chartered cities

Trujillo, Honduras

This is a complicated and strange story, but it is worth following as it could have a major impact on small nations with frowned upon economies. This is an attempt at a very condensed version of the events that almost led to a private city of "peace, prosperity, happiness, and well-being" in Trujillo, Honduras.

In 2009, Hondura's democratically elected government was thrown out in a coup d'état by the military. Since then the new Honduran National Congress has been pushing the idea of setting up three segregated private city states ("charter cities") on under-utilised land. The future cities all occupy and extend various afro-indigenous towns along the Caribbean and Pacific coasts with what is an extension of the "special economic zone" concept, or "Aynrandia", depending on who is talking.

The modern Charter City concept can be easily traced back to Paul Romer's website. For a 10 minute insight into what he espouses, watch the following TED video. It also talks about the early reception of his concept in Honduras.

In Romer's talk, these new cities will give 700 million potential migrants the ability to migrate to a free trade zone close to home... rather than to the United States. It's all about free choice - as long as you don't mind not being able to vote. Others see this as a form of 21st Century colonialism, taking U.S. cities to where the cheap labour is. The concept of the charter city is well-supported by free market libertarians, including reason.com, who last week wrote:

For the last few years, libertarians and other futurists have gazed upon this misgoverned mess of mountainous jungle and imagined a clean slate for innovations in political and economic growth. Honduras, they believe, can become a laboratory for creating wealth-producing institutions that can then be replicated worldwide. The only catch: To become a 21st-century trailblazer, Honduras—or at least a small territory within it—must become, well, not Honduras.

[ Here is the long version of the article quoted above. ]

In 2011, preparations were made. The constitution of Honduras was amended, and an area at Trujillo on the coast was cleared for a cruise ship development. Global Research has reported what this meant at ground level:

The cruise ship dock and mega-tourism project ... are annihilating the Garifuna community of Rio Negro, which has literally been bulldozed away, and the families were resettled in a “model community” outside the neighboring Garifuna community of Cristales.

Romer's run with Honduras' government came to an end last September when the government side-stepped the Transparency Commission they'd asked him to set up (though that's now denied), and awarded the contract for the first city to little known Grupo MGK. CEO Michael Strong previously founded the Free Cities Institute, and more recently the Flow Project, which promotes radical social entrepreneurship as a way to find peace through commerce.

The FLOW Movement combines freedom, voluntary exchange and enterprise from the classical liberal tradition with love, compassion, social and environmental consciousness that is championed in the human potential movement in order to create an inspiring, integrated vision. [ link ]

The next month, Honduras' Supreme Court quashed the constitutional amendment in a four to one vote amid concerns about sovereignty. This was remedied by firing the same four judges over another issue. As of this January, the development has another green light.

While Strong believed his utopian libertarian city is the peaceful solution to global poverty, the current inhabitants of the sites might disagree. Grassroots International reported in February that a peasant revolt was occurring, and that nine people have been murdered so far this year, adding to the 79 killed since 2010.

Strong recently left Grupo MGK and is thinking of concentrating on the U.S. domestic market, particularly Detroit.

For a recent perspective on what is happening with Honduras' charter cities, watch this 25 minute Inside Story from Al Jazeera.

External links:
Different ways to design a free market city (video, April, 2011)
Free Cities conference, 2011
Michael Strongs education blog
Honduras shrugged, Economist 2011
Charter Cities
Honduras Resiste

Architectural design studio: designing for a purpose

Writes: Beatriz C. Maturana

The following article features a design studio (taller) at the University of Chile, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, led by Orlando Sepulveda (7th semester architecture students). 

The studio focuses on a significant and poorer district in Santiago, so significant in fact that one of its landmarks, Zanjón de la Aguada—a canal formally known for its industrial and organic waste pollution—had the unfortunate capacity to conjure inhospitable images of misery, crime and industrial decay, images that have negatively shaped the perception of that part of the city. Fortunately but slowly, these perceptions are fading away as something of the past. Most recently, the news that the Metro (Santiago´s underground) will open a station in heart of this district and the completion of the Parque La Aguada, part of the Bicentenary Projects (an extensive new flooding park running along the Zanjón de la Aguada canal), may put a definitive end to the stigma attached to the area and hopefully will positively impact on the entire city. A question arises as to how the improvements brought by these large urban interventions can be sustainable over time and ensure the best possible results for the district and for the enjoyment of the existing population.

Figure 1: proposal by María de la Luz Lobos, Mathilde Marcantoni and Gabriel Arias. 

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A stroll along Paseo Bulnes and Sta. Isabel Street

Santiago, Chile

Paseo Presidente Bulnes

click here for competition details

Paseo Bulnes (Bulnes Promenade) and Santa Isabel areas represent another significant historical district in downtown Santiago (centre). A recent call for an international competition of ideas aims to revitalise its civic character and further its importance within the city´s grid. The elite jury for this competition includes the Pritzker Prize Rafael Moneo.

Find more about Paseo Bulnes and the competition here: Se revitaliza el Paseo Bulnes and Paseo Bulnes International Competition

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The Qualities of the Urban Environment in Emerging Regional Metropolises: The Case of Doha, Qatar

Source: http://www.q-urbarch.org

Major cities in the Gulf region have recently acquired a geo-strategic importance. Through the shift of global economic forces cities in the region, and Doha is no exception, are developed as central hubs between old economies of Western Europe and the rising economies of Asia. In the context of international competition between cities new challenges are emerging where cities need to find ways to sustain and extend their position in the context of a global knowledge economy. Knowledge based economies have been identified as the key driver for spatial and urban development processes. They include services, high tech industries, and higher education institutions, and are characterized by strong international presence and transnational practices. Yet, how exactly can cities survive in the global competition of geographic locations? How can they influence their significance within a knowledge economy context?

Doha: From a Traditional Settlements to a Globalized City

Continue reading and find more about this research at The Qualities of the Urban Environment in Emerging Regional Metropolises: The Case of Doha, Qatar

'via Blog this'

Implementing the right to the city in Brazil

The right to the city is a concept employed by a variety of actors at different scales, with its use ranging from being nestled within the status quo to staunchly anti-capitalist. Although present in many declarations and charters, the one place where binding legislation on the right to the city actually exists – along with inevitable, significant tensions inherent in its implementation – is Brazil.

Comunidade Campo Grande Jurubatuba, an informal settlement in Santo Amaro subprefecture, São Paulo. Magic Condominium Resort tower in the background.

Thanks to decades of struggle by an alliance of social housing movements, professionals, squatters, NGOs and academics, legislation ensuring the right to the city has been enshrined in the 2001 City Statute, a development law regulating the chapter on urban policy, specifically articles 182 and 183, in Brazil’s 1988 Constitution.

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Empowering Communities to Preserve Character of Place

Landscape Architect Assoc Prof Ray Green discusses his ground-breaking approach in which a community is able to define the character of its neighbourhood. This methodology seeks to restore the balance of power between communities and external bodies such as planners and developers. With host Jennifer Cook.

"Typically these so called character studies are done by town planners, landscape architects, urban designers based on their professional judgements. My research is based quite differently where I assume that the local residents of these towns are the true experts." -- Associate Professor Ray Green

Credits:
Host: Jennifer Cook
Producers: Kelvin Param, Eric van Bemmel
Series Creators: Eric van Bemmel and Kelvin Param
Audio Engineer: Gavin Nebauer
Voiceover: Nerissa Hannink

Note: Permission to republish this article has been granted by the University of Melbourne, unimelbvisions.