Bogota and Curitiba Revolutionizing City Life

Many cities in our world have been changing the way in which people live. These urban areas have revolutionized the way a multitude of people live with one another. Curitiba and Bogota are two cities that have modified “city life” in recent years. Despite their dissimilarities, Curitiba and Bogota are prime examples of urban areas where politicians and citizens were able to come up with sustainable solutions to the issues of a city.  

At first, one might think that other than being on the 
same continent, the cities of Curitiba and Bogota have nothing in common. Upon further investigation, one is able to realize that these two cities actually have some similarities. In the last 50 years both of these cities experienced massive population growth. “In the 1960s, the population growth in Curitiba reached the highest growth rate of the country, an average of over 5% per year” (Carballo 2010). As stated in one of the videos, Bogota faced similar growths in its population as well. As a result of the drastic rise in the number of people living in these metropolises, the cities were beginning to face other problems that in turn hindered the landscape, infrastructure, health, and welfare of the area and its people.

As multitudes of people were migrating to Curitiba, more and more automobiles were being found on the streets. In the 1970’s, when the now-renowned planner Jaime Lerner became mayor, he was challenged with an issue. Developers in the city had planned to expand the road network in Curitiba, thus causing the city to be less “pedestrian friendly.” Bogota had also been experiencing issues with cars during its rise in population. When Enrique Penalosa was mayor he encountered a problem where the Japanese International Cooperation Agency proposed that seven elevated highways be built within Bogota. During the 20^th century, these cities in South America were beginning to encounter the phenomena of the luxuries of automotive transit. Sadly, the consequences of these automobiles were altering the face of the cities in negative ways.

One of the biggest problems of Curitiba and Bogota is the slums that surround the periphery of the urban areas. These slums are full of poor people that live wretched lives. More often than not, these individuals resort to violence and crime to survive. Both mayors in these cities recognized this as a problem. Instead of disowning these people, they believed that by improving the lives of the poor they could quite possibly also enhance the city life for all citizens. For example, in Curitiba Lerner put forward a program where slum dwellers were able to receive food in exchange for cleaning/collecting the garbage. Penalosa tried to improve the lives of the poor in Bogota differently. He improved their lives by enhancing the facilities that many citizens used for recreation. The two progressive mayors in Bogota and Curitiba realized that the problems in the slums needed to be fixed, and they did their best to improve the conditions for all within their cities.

Yet, despite facing similar issues, the two cities of Bogota and Curitiba are different from one another in several ways. Even though both countries are found in South America, these two cities are found in countries that have distinct cultures. Curitiba is found in Brazil, whose way of life is based mostly on Portuguese culture while the lifestyles of the people in Bogota, which is found in Colombia, is influenced by Spanish culture. Another difference is the importance of each city in their respected countries. Bogota is the capital city of Colombia, so it is recognized by many as being an epicenter of many things within the country. Sadly, unless they know about its link to urban planning, many people might not know about Curitiba. Unlike Bogota, it is not the capital city of its respected country, Brazil. These two cities are also drastically different in size. In terms of population, both are large cities, but Bogota almost has 7 times as many people living in it than Curitiba. In 2010, there were 7,363,782 people living in the city of Bogota  itself (excluding the larger metropolitan area) while the city of Curitiba had a population of 1,764,540 (City Data 2010).