Sustainable town planning

On May 21, we attended a National Building Museum/American Planning Association symposium examining a century of city planning. Discussion snippets:

* Carolina Barco, Columbia’s Ambassador to the U.S., described Bogota’s evolution. In 1992, the city was overwhelmed by crime, traffic jams and other ills. Planners devised a multi-pronged solution including improved public transportation, better policing, an arms-for-food exchange, and building libraries next to parks and closing bars by 1 a.m. Bike commuting was encouraged and peak time license plates were issued, getting 40% of the cars off streets during rush hour.

* University of Michigan’s Robert Fishman resurrected a book about urban utopias. Projects included Yorkship Village’s elegant 1918 wartime emergency housing in Camden NJ and the Radburn NJ greenbelt town proposed four decades before Columbia, MD. Lessons learned: simple beats comprehensive and highways spawn sprawl; once the National System of Interstate Highways was approved, “the toothpaste was out of the tube.”

* University of Florida dean Chris Silver spoke about visions for new cities that would reverse overcrowding and underservice.