Fin...

To those who have returned to the USA, I hope you had a safe flight and no major delays.

To those in Brasil still until the end of summer, have safe travels within Brasil, and your flight back home to the USA.

To this, this will be my last broadcast...

Sir DWD out.

To clear up a statement connecting Papal Action to favela social justice...

I had made a comment based on what I was told in a catholic classroom, how the late Pope JP II had made a donation to a local favela in Rio to prevent favela residents from being evicted from their homes. What I understood, the Pope asked the President of Brasil how much would it cost to bring them peace from the danger of eviction. He was told the price would be high. Then the pope offered his papal ring in request that the people of the Rio favela not be evicted.

Apparently the story has some mixed up facts.

The actual story was published 27 years ago in Time magazine, during JP II's first visit to Brasil.
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Monday, Jul. 14, 1980

Just "Look Around a Bit"

By Richard N. Ostling

In a troubled land, the Pope pleads for social justice

Visiting Brazil, a country in which doing something as simple as giving bread to a worker on strike can be a political act, Pope John Paul II last week did his work in the shadow of two Christs: the passive Christ who said, "My kingdom is not of this world," and the active Christ who called upon all mankind to "love thy neighbor as thyself."

In the slums of Rio de Janeiro. John Paul saw squalor. He climbed up a dirt road past the wooden shacks where 20,000 squatters exist under constant threat of eviction, toward a tiny parish church that serves the favela of Vidigal. On the way, he suddenly turned aside into a

three-room hovel, where Elvira Almeida Lima, caught by surprise, had yet to make her bed or clear the breakfast dishes. The Pope gently kissed the old woman and blessed her. As he left she clutched a tablecloth and buried her face in it, sobbing. When he reached the church. John Paul removed the gold ring that Pope Paul VI had given him when he was named a Cardinal. Then he handed it to a local priest as a donation to the parish.

Those were only two emotional events in a twelve-day, 9,000-mile journey with an exhausting itinerary that took the Pope all over Brazil, the world's largest Roman Catholic nation. The papal plane touched down at Brasilia, the futuristic capital of Brazil, where the Pope marked out one of his major themes by offering President Joao Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo a sermon on social justice. The tour's pitch rose in Belo Horizonte, the

nation's third largest city. Youths cheered wildly and chanted, "The Pope is our king!" John Paul spoke movingly to them of life under the Nazis, when, he said, "I saw my convictions trampled on."

Bells pealed all across the congested city of Rio as John Paul's "Popemobile" arrived. At a jammed open-air Mass in sight of Sugar Loaf Mountain, the Pope made his way to the altar, hugging and kissing babies. Two days later, in São Paulo, the fervor of an open-air throng of 1.5 million brought tears to John Paul's eyes.

The Pope's warm gestures, the stately progress via Popemobile through city streets, the huge adoring crowds, the songs and symbolic gifts (among other things, a guitar, a coffee plant, a h

ard hat) are now routine in John Paul's travels. In Brazil, the familiar spectacle tended to blur the importance of the trip. The Pope's visit has notable significance for Brazil, where 80% of the 120 million people are at least nominally church members, and some 80,000 groups of believers, known as "base communities," operate mainly without priests. But in the perspective of history, John Paul's achievement in Brazil may be his often compelling attempt to link the church with revolutionary social reform but to draw the line at political violence.

The papal strictures are clear enough.

But the distinction is far from clear between the strong social pressure that the Pope seems to endorse and the overt political action that he has forbidden. In Brazil, that line has become a razor's edge.

Brazilian Catholicism once lived all too cozily with dictators. After the military coup in 1964,

the hierarchy rendered public thanks to God for the soldiers who "delivered us from Communist danger." But for a decade and more. Brazil's bishops have been known for their willingness to stand up to the regime in the name of Christian justice. As one priest says, "The government calls a bishop a Communist, but when we see people being exploited, we have to say this is contrary to the Gospel." The toll has been high —since 1968, by church count, 122 bishops, priests and seminarians and 273 lay pastoral workers imprisoned or detained, and 84 people physically or psychologically abused. Despite the harassment, the progressive National Conference of Brazilian Bishops has become the most severe critic of the government. The church's task now, explains Paulo Evaristo Cardinal Arns of Sao Paulo, is to seek "a more just and participatory society." An indirect church-state clash occurred this spring when Brazil's auto metalworkers began a 41-day strike in Sao Paulo. The government, which is desperately trying to build up Brazil's industrial production, declared the strike illegal and took control of the unions. Bishop Claudio Hummes. Arns' head of the labor pastorate, promptly opened 75 churches for strike meetings and food distribution. Earlier this year, too, by an overwhelming vote (172 to 4, though with four abstentions and 100 absent), the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops took a stand on land reform, Brazil's most serious problem. More than 30 million people have been driven off the land and into the slums since 1964 to make way for industry and agribusiness. The bishops declared the government's economic policies are responsible for the hardship. Though some labeled the action "Marxist inspired," the bishops condemned the use of land for exploitation, urging instead land in the hands of those who work it.

John Paul has made no comments on these specific church actions, but he may lay down general guidelines at a meeting of Brazil's bishops this week. Last week he steadily strengthened the hand of Brazil's progressives, in effect trying to seize the initiative in social action from Marxist revolutionaries. But as in Mexico last year, he issued notes of caution lest Catholics be lured into concluding that ends excuse any means.

Speaking to President Figueiredo and others at a Brasilia reception. John Paul listed "seven rights" that instantly became a declaration for activists: "The right to life, to security, to work, to a home, to health, to education, to religious expression. " In the slums of Rio he called out to the rich: "Look around a bit. Does it not wound your heart? Do you not feel remorse of conscience because of your riches and abundance?" He urged economic reorganization and a "more just distribution" of wealth. In a land where the church once preached passivity and fatalism, he urged the poor to "do everything legal to assure their families whatever is necessary for life." Afterward, listeners handed him letters asking for help in or der to get running water, electricity, sew age lines and title to the land they live on.

On Thursday John Paul stood for nearly two hours in a driving rain to meet workers in a soccer stadium in Sao Pau lo. He seemed to be drawn deeper into politics. As soon as John Paul finished his greetings, a metalworker took the micro phone, and implored him to support workers as they "break the barrier imposed by the political system that governs us." The Pope called out for social justice. But he added a line that again emerged at the heart of his message. Social justice "cannot be attained by violence. Violence kills what it intends to create.''

Reported

by George Russell/Rio de Janeiro and Wilton Wynn/Rio de Janeiro

With reporting by George Russell, Wilton Wynn

Presentation Schedule for the rest of week

Here is the tentative presentation schedule tomorrow and Thursday. Look for your presentation title, for I withheld names for confidentiality and security purposes...

Time	Student	Title / Topic
Wednesday, June 20th, 2007
9:00 - 9:20
10:00 - 10:20		Planning considerations for pandemic preparedness: Curitiba, Brazil, A Case Study
10:50 - 11:00		BREAK
11:00 - 11:20		Exploring the Political and Civic Function of Public Spaces and their Role in the Progression of Democracy
12:00 - 13:30		LUNCH
13:30 - 13:50		The Equitable Distribution of the Parks of Curitiba
14:30 - 14:50		A Closer Look at Social Service Institutions Provided to Favelas: Case Study on Vila Parolin
15:20 - 15:30		BREAK
15:30 - 15:50		Economic Development Plan for Vila Parolin: ABCD Approach for Rua Maria Moscardi Fanini
16:30 - 16:50		Evaluating Curitiba's Resettlement Policies for Informal Settlements
Thursday, June 21st, 2007
9:00 - 9:20
10:00 - 10:20		Curitiba's Urban Landscape: Integrated Land Use and Transportation Planning Molding a Brazilian Cityscape
10:50 - 11:00		BREAK
11:00 - 11:20		Sports Teams and their Effect on the Real Estate Values around their Stadiums
12:00 - 13:30		LUNCH
13:30 - 13:50		Curitiba's Sticks & Carrots - 35 Years of Policies and Incentives Used to Successfully Shape Real Estate Development around Curitiba, Brazil's Extensive Bus-Rapid-Transit Infrastructure
14:30 - 14:50		The Impact of Public Transportation on the Environment
15:20 - 15:30		BREAK
15:30 - 15:50		Curitiba's Built Heritage - a brief look
16:30 - 16:50		DEBRIEFING

Recap on Week 5: Maringa...

Welcome back from Maringa. After what was quite a challenge reuniting the class, in which half were in Montevideo, Uruguay, and were held up due to heavy delays due to fog and weather and had to catch a midnight bus to Maringa, we all made it together. Anywho, class involved a lecture on Maringa's history, before we took upon a bus tour around the city. We saw sights like the historic district, Av. Brasil, the old airport, and the defiantly designed cathedral. Did anyone notice the signals were like racecar signals?

Anywho, on Thursday morning, we had one more lecture on Maringa's population and economic activity, before the class broke for lunch and returned to Curitiba.

Recap on Week 4

Week 4 was quite a short week.

A few of us on Monday visited with the State Transportation Office, where we got some information on how the State Transportation system works, and the processes behind current projects.

Tuesday morning brought most of the class to visit Vila Parolin, a historic favela in central Curitiba, with a strong association president and social service presence. Here we had a lecture of social services present, and then a driving tour of Vila Parolin.

From here, Tuesday afternoon included a few lectures on flood prevention and hydrology on the Baragui river in Curtiba, among other topics...

Class schedule on Tuesday

Tomorrow,

AM options include:

8:30 AM meeting time to go to Vila Parolin with the prof...
9:00 AM meeting time to go to UFPR with the TA.

Class meets up in the afternoon for a lecture.

Just a reminder....

Return to the regular programming...

To all of those with student visas....

Celebrate!

You are now legal resident aliens of Brasil.

Thanks to our processing agent João.

Recomended by Dr. Steiner at UF...

A blog post on another researcher's blog which compared Curitiba and Bogota.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Notes on Bogotá vs Curitiba

Curitiba, Brazil
Bogotá is interesting and important for many reasons but I write only to draw some quick comparisons between it and the Latin American success story probably best known by U.S. planners: Curitiba, Brazil. We mostly know Curitiba for its visionary mayor, Jaime Lerner, who made as much progress as anyone in a metropolitan city in promoting transit over car use for commuting, among several other impressive accomplishments. (PBS even has a web site on the city's planning history.) Lerner went on to become a multi-term mayor and then governor of that state -- and an international spokesperson for rational, economical, "smart" urban development -- and has even longer led a planning/architecture firm that remains extremely influential in Curitiba development and policy circles.

The New York Times Sunday Magazine published a provocative May 20 piece on Curitiba. (This is available online for the right price, or you can read it without the pictures in Matt Kahn's blog here.) It emphasized two points made in recent years: That Lerner's initial great successes were due in no small part to the existence of a military dictatorship at the national level at the time, and that many positive planning indicators have begun to slip lately, especially in the face of a growing low-income population at the urban periphery. Even the transit mode share is dropping.

Meanwhile, I visited Bogotá for the first time last week for a Lincoln seminar (all presentations are here) and, in addition to soaking up what I could of the urban colonial milieu in el centro, met Arturo Ardila-Gómez, a professor at the University of the Andes. His MIT urban studies dissertation, supervised by Ralph Gakenheimer, compared the transit planning processes of Bogotá and Curitiba during many of their formative transit years. He summarized his argument and evidence, as best I remember, as disputing the first part of the NYT article; namely, Lerner was effective mainly because he was a coalition builder, even when the system was not particularly democratic. Another point made in this presentation is that both bus systems were successful, in various respects, because they managed to balance the authority and expertise of both the transit operators and the municipal government. (He also has a nice essay on Bogotá, mostly from a planner's perspective, here in the Harvard Review of Latin America, circa 2003.)

I do not really know much about either city, or country, and hope the accidental reader can offer useful comparative information.


Bogotá, Colombia
A densely sprawling city of 7 million plus, I can tell you that Bogotá is substantially safer and more pleasant than I imagined, owing apparently to a series of quite visionary and effective mayors over the past decade and a half. And the country is far more compelling than the casual observer might guess: The ambassador to the U.S. Carolina Barco is a city planner (MCP, Harvard; SPURS, MIT) and the foreign minister Fernando Araujo was appointed to that position in February, just 7 weeks after escaping from the leftist FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) rebels, active in Colombia for 40 something years, after being held prisoner in the rain forest the previous 6 years. If you happened to catch him on Charlie Rose two months ago, available here, it was quite a tale. Then there is the extraordinary rising star of 34 year old Senator Gina Parody, the sponsor of our meeting in the National Congress. (Significantly, the president of the Colombian congress is also female.)

President Uribe, another controversial yet extremely popular center-right figure -- snubbed recently by Al Gore due to rumored past connections with right wing paramilitary groups, and who has the additional baggage of a good relationship with our President Bush (in return for $700+ million/year in U.S. aid, that we know of) -- is pushing for a NAFTA-like Latin American free trade agreement while prioritizing a domestic crack down on rebel violence. (The Washington Post has audio interviews from his recent visit to D.C., where his lobbying to the new Democratic leadership in Congress was widely reported as having received little sympathy.)

That said, a highlight of the trip for me was when Uribe spoke to our seminar and took questions in the National Congress building. A former mayor and governor, he impressed even political opponents with his detailed knowledge of municipal finance and land taxation policy wrinkles, and his openness to debate on these issues. Since lots of heavily armed people would like him dead, security was high. (His father was assassinated by the FARC in 1983 and he has survived several such attempts.)

I also enjoyed meeting two past mayors, one now running for reelection: the bold, innovative, and engaging Enrique Peñalosa, largely responsible for the successful Curitiba-like bus rapid transit, the TransMilenio. As Mexico still does, Colombia only permitted mayors to serve one 3-year term in a row until recently. This is crazy, especially for planning purposes, but at least Colombian mayoral terms have recently been extended to 4 years. Allowing a second consecutive term seems wise. (And the Colombian president can now serve two 4-year terms; Uribe is the first two-term president in the country's modern history, with approval ratings in the 60s and 70s.)

(I was introduced to Professor Ardila by my former student, Professor Eduardo Behrentz, an air quality expert now directing the Environmental Engineering Research Center at the University of the Andes. This photo has him pointing to an announcement of that day's march protesting the pending trade agreement. Like many Colombian academics, he actively advises the government and writes op-eds, such as on the issue of the exhaust of the diesel TransMilenio buses. It is quite unhealthy as diesel particulates are bad enough, but Colombian diesel is particularly high sulfur. Efforts to change this at the refinery stage have sputtered. He advised importing cleaner diesel until better domestic supplies are refined.)

Every Colombian politician I've mentioned here is astoundingly well informed, a lot smarter than most smart people I know, and -- as influential pivots in contentious, risky settings -- somewhat polarizing. Their attention to fundamental planning issues and interest in the related scholarship is especially refreshing. I dearly hope to learn more about these cities, their planning processes, their results, and not least their lessons for elsewhere.

Posted by randall crane at Thursday, May 31, 2007