Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Sustainable Curitiba

I came to Curitiba because of its former Mayor and State Governor, an architect named Jaime Lerner. I heard him speak on three different occasions in Vancouver and Toronto, and was impressed with his ideas and accomplishments. For the past 4 decades, he has been trying to make Curitiba a model of sustainability. Unfortunately, he was out of town when we arrived, but I could feel his presence as we toured around the city.

On arrival we were pleased to find HSBC advertising all over the airport. This meant we could avoid ATM fees! In keeping with the city’s spirit of sustainability, we took a bus from the airport into town. On the way we read the literature provided by the airport's tourist information centre. We were happy to see there was a hop-on hop-off bus. However, this one was operated by the local public transit operator, not a private company.

To the casual observer, Curitiba looks like another large South American city, with a skyline of large mediocre apartment blocks, and a broad mix of buildings along its downtown streets. But when you look closely, you start to see some differences. This is the self-proclaimed 'environmental capital of Brazil' and the greenest city in South America in terms of park space per resident.

The 25 stops along the two hour hop-on, hop-off tour offered further evidence this was not a typical Brazilian city. They included:

·A 24 hour street, initiated by city planners, to increase around the clock activity and safety in the downtown;

·Theatro Paiol, a powder depot recycled into an arena theatre;

·a combined bus, train and city market development, considered a landmark in transportation terminals in the country, when it opened 35 years ago;

·a memorial for Polish immigration,

·the Museu Oscar Niemeyer, the largest and most modern in Brazil;


·a tribute to German immigrants,

·the ‘free university of the environment’ that promotes public education on the environment, inaugurated with Jacques Cousteau;

·an old glue factory that was converted into a creativity centre;

·a glass and steel Opera Centre in a former quarry, where the trees surrounding the building are the 'walls' of the auditorium;

·a park which serves as a tribute to the natives who first inhabited the area,

·a Ukrainian memorial, in tribute to the many immigrants from the Ukraine,

·a gateway to the Italian neighbourhood.

I was particularly interested in seeing the city's relatively inexpensive rapid transit system that uses buses rather than trains or trams. They run primarily on dedicated lanes. A key feature is the raised tubular glass platforms that are the fare paid zone. They allow easy access onto the buses. Hydraulic platforms are available for those in wheelchairs. Lerner claims it works since it wasn’t designed by experts. It seemed like such a good idea, I was curious to know if other cities have copied it.

Curitiba is the opposite of Brasilia. In addition to its focus on transit, it is a city designed for walking, with many wide, decorated sidewalks, and a portion of the downtown restricted to pedestrians. It was the first pedestrian only street in Brazil, created in 72 hours over a long weekend in 1973.

Unfortunately, I couldn't see some of the other initiatives I had heard about from Lerner. These included a garbage pick up program in which residents of low income neighbourhoods were paid to collect their own garbage...with bus tickets! To make the program more interesting and effective, the bus tickets were also lottery tickets, with draws each week. In another project, park light fixtures were made from recycled glass...by local children

We did see the current recycling program operating around town. There are 5 containers instead of the typical three. One is for organic waste, and one is for ‘stico’ which I am hoping means chewing gum, since I hate seeing it on sidewalks around a city.

One of our best stops was the Oscar Niemeyer Museum. It’s the building with the large eye out front. There we saw some very unusual pieces and a display on Niemeyer’s work. There was also a filmed interview with him, explaining the rationale behind his different projects, (and he has done a lot of them in South America). While he didn’t convince Sally that there shouldn’t be trees in Brasilia’s major civic plaza, I was impressed with his approach. However, while I like many of his buildings, I too do not like his major urban design projects like the civic square in Brasilia.

While I would have like to have stayed on for another day or two to see a bit more of the city, Sally was eager to get to the Iguazu Falls and Buenos Aires. So, on Friday morning, I stopped off in the Canadian Travel Agency in Curitiba, where I purchased two tickets for Saturday’s flight to the falls. Although HSBC has a big presence in Curitiba, their credit card did not work for on-line bookings with the airlines. But when we got to the airport, we found a special airport lounge for HSBC premier members. Go figure.

Although Brasilia and Curitiba had not been typical tourist destinations, we were glad we had visited them. We had again seen different sides of life in Brazil, but now we were off to do some real site seeing. It’s a shame we couldn’t take Brasilia’s and Curitiba’s perfect sunny weather with us.

24 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice post and makes me feel good that i'll be visiting Curitiba soon. How far is Iguazu falls from Curitiba? Which flight/mode of transport would you recommend?

Thanks in advance!

Venky

Anonymous said...

The most comic and amusing images and pictures online.
Counterfoil out
[url=http://www.funnyimgz.blogspot.com]funny images[/url]

Anonymous said...

Hello there! Do you know if they make any plugins to help
with Search Engine Optimization? I'm trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I'm not seeing very
good results. If you know of any please share. Cheers!
Also visit my site :: good plumbing companies

Anonymous said...

First of all I would like to say great blog!
I had a quick question that I'd like to ask if you don't
mind. I was curious to find out how you center yourself and clear
your thoughts prior to writing. I have had a difficult time clearing my mind in getting my
thoughts out there. I truly do enjoy writing
but it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes are usually wasted just trying to figure
out how to begin. Any recommendations or tips?
Cheers!
Also visit my web page : bartendcentral.com

Anonymous said...

Asking questions are genuinely fastidious thing if you are not understanding something entirely, except this paragraph gives nice understanding even.
Feel free to visit my blog post : http://about.duquesnay.org/index.php?title=Comparing_Quotes_Saves_On_Auto_Insurance

Anonymous said...

I really love your website.. Excellent colors & theme.

Did you develop this site yourself? Please reply back as I'm attempting to create my own personal blog and want to find out where you got this from or just what the theme is called. Appreciate it!
My web site - how to quit smoking

Anonymous said...

Hey there admin, I just wanted to give you a quick heads up that your current Web address:
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4088226422072866788&postID=7662570197527695303 is being flagged as
a possibly harmful web page in my internet browser
safari. I would highly suggest having someone look into it.

You can lose a lot of guests due to this problem.
Best of Luck.

Look into my page: buy short term housing
My web site :: free short term rental contract

Anonymous said...

Have you ever thought about adding a little bit more than just your articles?
I mean, what you say is important and everything.
However think about if you added some great
photos or videos to give your posts more, "pop"!
Your content is excellent but with images and videos, this blog could definitely be
one of the best in its field. Superb blog!


my site; rheem furnace troubleshooting
Also see my page > furnace troubleshooting chart

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the marvelous posting! I genuinely enjoyed reading it, you happen to be a great author.
I will always bookmark your blog and definitely will come back in the
future. I want to encourage you continue
your great writing, have a nice holiday weekend!

my website rheem furnace
Also see my website > furnace repair cost

Anonymous said...

Good day! Do you know if they make any plugins to assist with Search Engine Optimization?
I'm trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I'm not seeing very good gains.
If you know of any please share. Kudos!

Look at my site ... furnace repair cost

Anonymous said...

Woah! I'm really digging the template/theme of this site. It's simple, yet effective.

A lot of times it's challenging to get that "perfect balance" between superb usability and visual appeal. I must say that you've done a very good job with this.
Also, the blog loads extremely quick for me on Firefox.
Exceptional Blog!

My weblog: furnace repair experts

Anonymous said...

Hello! I hope you don't mind but I decided to publish your weblog: http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4088226422072866788&postID=7662570197527695303 to my online directory website. I used, "Blogger: Michael Geller's
Blog" as your blog headline. I hope this is fine with you. If you'd like me to change the title or perhaps remove it entirely, contact me at renfeliciano@gmail.com. Many thanks.

Also visit my webpage :: short term apartment rental miami

Anonymous said...

Hello, I am new to running a blog and websites in general and was wondering how you got the
"www" included in your domain name? I see your domain name,
"http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4088226422072866788&postID=7662570197527695303" has the www and my domain looks
like, "http://mydomain.com". Do you know the simplest
way I can alter this? I'm using Wordpress. Many thanks

my webpage http://www.austinplanetarium.org/
Also see my website :: mobile home plumbing repair

Anonymous said...

Greetings! I've been following your blog for a long time now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from Porter Texas! Just wanted to tell you keep up the excellent job!

Feel free to visit my blog; mosfet switch design

Anonymous said...

I enjoy what you guys are usually up too. This type of clever work and reporting!
Keep up the good works guys I've added you guys to our blogroll.

Here is my webpage; thamorgroup.com

Anonymous said...

I'm truly enjoying the design and layout of your site. It's a very easy
on the eyes which makes it much more pleasant for me to come here and
visit more often. Did you hire out a developer to create your theme?
Exceptional work!

Feel free to visit my weblog jsl studio shoes

Anonymous said...

Hello your web site url: http://www.blogger.com/comment.

g?blogID=4088226422072866788&postID=7662570197527695303 appears to
be redirecting to a completely different web site when
I click the home-page button. You may want to have this checked.


Here is my web page; myanimelist.net

Anonymous said...

Hello just wanted to give you a quick heads up.
The text in your post seem to be running off
the screen in Opera. I'm not sure if this is a formatting issue or something to do with internet browser compatibility but I figured I'd post to let
you know. The layout look great though! Hope you get the problem fixed soon.
Many thanks

Feel free to surf to my website; running shoes brands list

Anonymous said...

Hi! This post could not be written any better!

Reading through this post reminds me of my good old room mate!
He always kept talking about this. I will forward this write-up to him.
Pretty sure he will have a good read. Thanks for sharing!


Here is my website - sports bra for large chest

Anonymous said...

Hi there! I could have sworn I've been to this website before but after browsing through some of the post I realized it's
new to me. Anyhow, I'm definitely delighted I found it and I'll be book-marking and checking back frequently!


My homepage: computer parts worksheet download

Anonymous said...

Spot on with this write-up, I truly believe that this
site needs much more attention. I'll probably be returning to read through more, thanks for the information!

My web page :: profitbetkz.com

Anonymous said...

I do believe all the concepts you've offered to your post. They are very convincing and can definitely work. Still, the posts are very short for newbies. May you please extend them a bit from subsequent time? Thanks for the post.

Also visit my page: Isabelle

Anonymous said...

This piece of writing provides clear idea designed for the new
visitors of blogging, that genuinely how to do blogging.

Here is my blog post; geee.ru

Anonymous said...

The goal of P90 X is tips to prepare Correct Order P90x Workouts sheets.
The actual idea in the and are going to make you
sweat allowing each of your muscles be effective. The news media continues to
shine a spotlight on the startling fact bras, because they can prevent proper draining of the lymph nodes
and can lead to mastitis.

Review my web page ... %anchor_text%