Curitiba
Day 7
Wednesday, January 8, 2015 Our flight was about an hour and a half long. When we got to the airport there was not a set van to take all of us. We had to separate. I was in a car with Jessyca, Cristina, and Renee. Our driver spoke no English whatsoever. He was driving crazy: running red lights, passing cars, and speeding. I tried my best to speak to him in Portuguese, I’m pretty sure he appreciated me trying. Cristina and I were especially excited to be in Curtiba. On this day Cristina and I gave our presentation. We worked pretty hard on it, I think we did fairly well. We told our peers about Jamie Lerner, probably the coolest guy in Brazil. He was mayor of Curitiba in 1988 and wanted to make Flowers Street a sustainable pedestrian shopping mall within 48 hours, although his secretary said he was crazy, they managed to do it in 72 hours. That’s insane! They knocked down a street a rebuilt in 3 days. We also spoke about the transportation in Curitiba. They have buses that stop at tubular bus stops, where you pay in side of them before you get on the bus, that way there is less idle time and the commute is quicker. The buses carry about 300 people at a time. They have special lanes made specifically for the buses, although while there I noticed cars share the lanes as well. Also, we mentioned how they recycle in Curitiba. They separate organic and inorganic materials. Papers, plastics, and cans are sorted then bundled for processing. Curtiba has the highest recycling rate in the world—70%. They give those jobs to people who are recent immigrants, have disabilities, or are recovering alcoholics. There are many urban parks throughout Curitiba. All are designed to be placed around the waterways, to beautify the city. They each provide something different for the community. Jamie Lerner sure raised the bar when it comes to making a sustainable city. He’s someone to look up to. Day 8
Thursday, January 9, 2015 We woke up, got some breakfast, and bought our tickets for the Curitiba bus tour. It took us to all of the urban parks and Flowers Street. The one park we went to, Barigui Park, was used for people who want to work out. There were three different lanes that wrap around the park. One is for walkers, one is for joggers, and the last one is for people who are riding their bike. In addition, there is park equipment, but not just any old jungle gym, it’s specifically made for people to work out. Capybaras were placed around the park to cut the grass. We also stopped at the beautiful Parque Jardin Botanico. There was a giant green house with huge plants inside. All of the flowers at the park were gorgeous. The city keeps drains around the plants to catch the excess runoff from the sprinklers, that water is then reused. I was disappointed we didn't go to Flowers Street. I really wanted to see it since that is what I presented on. Our bus did drive on it though, but it would have been nice to have a better perspective on it. Also, I wanted to use their bus system, not the one that we used to go on the tour. Since Cristina and I also presented on that, it would have been nice to see it firsthand. After learning about urban planning and smart growth during the fall semester in Tait’s class, it was interesting to see all of the ideas implemented into one city. |