By the late 20th century, Colombia was considered a failed state and Bogota, its capital, reflected every aspect of this. The public realm of the city was a no man’s land: cars were parked on sidewalks, traffic lights were disregarded, parks had fences around them to exclude non-residents and the divide between the poor and the wealthy was made painfully evident.
By the mid-1990s, however, an unprecedented transformation began to take place. Today, Bogota is a global example of urban innovation. The city government invests in public parks and libraries, something previously unthought of. Bogota developed a pioneering bus-rapid transit (BRT) system, its TransMilenio, and takes pride in having one of the most comprehensive urban cycling networks in the world.
Most of these changes are evident from the city’s physical landscape. However, they stem from a far broader social phenomenon: the deep reinvention of civic culture. Bogota evolved from having an introverted outlook to becoming an inclusive community, increasingly aware of the vital importance of its collective spaces.
Reclaiming the city
In 1993, Mr Antanas Mockus, president of the National University – Colombia’s most prestigious public educational institution – scandalised the country when he pulled down his pants in front of an audience of 1,000 belligerent students. A year later he was elected Mayor of Bogota, displacing traditional politicians from office and introducing a team of academics as part of his advisory board. His unusual approach worked towards a change in civic behaviour and encouraged citizens to reclaim the ‘livability’ of Bogota.
He employed mimes to enact traffic accidents at the most critical street junctions and distributed cardboard signs that drivers could use to signal ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ to those who followed or broke norms on the road. He forced bars and nightclubs to close early in an effort to reduce the homicide rate and would accompany the police to the main night hubs, in costume with an oversized clock, instructing people to go home. Soon, people took it upon themselves to educate their fellow citizens, socially sanctioning those who did not follow civic norms. The exceptional model favoured social reward over government punishment, successfully scaling change without incurring vast capital costs. Citizens felt empowered and their dreams of a better city materialised at great speed; the transformation of Bogota was off to an excellent start.
Bogota evolved from having an introverted outlook to becoming an inclusive community
Public space as a social equaliser
With political change underway, the city also began to experience the emancipation of public spaces. The Ciclovias, which closed off major avenues on Sunday mornings, invited the public to cycle, walk or jog along it. The weekly event became routine for families, couples and teenagers who lacked recreational space. However, while it provided a minor remedy to the city’s dire need for public space, there still remained a long road ahead.
Enrique Peñalosa became Mayor of Bogota in January 1998, taking the lead of a city that desperately wanted to reinvent itself after Mr Mockus’s successful tenure. Mr Peñalosa proved to be a formidable executor, simultaneously tackling multiple fronts. He believed that public space had a crucial role in reducing social inequality as, he argued, disparity becomes most evident during free time; the rich man can play golf at a private club, while the poor man is lucky if he can watch television. He saw leisure time as a determinant of class and argued that the lack of public space perpetuated urban poverty.
Mr Peñalosa’s tenure was thus marked by investment in public infrastructure as a vehicle to social equality. His policies sought to reclaim privatised land to build public parks and libraries across the city, from the wealthiest neighbourhoods to the poorest slums. After initial resistance, the government expropriation scheme successfully brought hundreds of acres back into public hands and turned them over as recreational hubs for public use.
He [Enrique Peñalosa, Mayor of Bogota] saw leisure time as a determinant of class and argued that the lack of public space perpetuated urban poverty
El Virrey Park and El Country Metropolitan Park are two examples where privatised tracts of open space in high-income areas became available for public use. The former runs linearly along one of the city’s canals, offering playgrounds and exercise centres, as well as green areas and bicycle paths. The latter, previously the polo field of one of the city’s most exclusive member clubs, now has a running track and picnic areas and, more recently, has become an open space for the city’s Jazz Festival. The model, repeated in other areas of Bogota, catalysed further change in the collective mindset of the city that now preferred a stroll in the park to an afternoon at the club.
In lower-income areas, the parks were supplemented by public libraries that offered educational and leisure facilities to enhance the value of time off. In addition to equality,
Mr Peñalosa sought to cultivate equity by not only generating public space, but also ensuring the availability of high-quality leisure options for the weakest social sectors. The library scheme prioritised excellent architectural design as a way to further emphasise the importance of social equity; the poorest of the poor could now access educational facilities comparable to those of their wealthier counterparts.
Setting a precedent
While Mr Peñalosa invested in physical infrastructure, he did not lose focus on the social change that the city had started. In February 2000, he kicked off the Bogota Challenge, the world’s first large-scale car-free day. Used to the Ciclovía Sundays, thousands of people cycled or walked to work for a day, now a tradition repeated several times a year in Bogota. Beyond the environmental values of such an initiative, it continued to de-prioritise private use of the city’s public realm. Collective interactions and community building replaced individual vehicles, serving as a prologue for what was to come in the following months.
By December 2000, Mr Peñalosa inaugurated Bogota’s first mass transit system. Adapted from Curitiba’s (Brazil) bus-rapid transit model, the TransMilenio intertwined mass transit and public space. It was designed to give a facelift to the corridors it ran along, intervening to create ample, planted sidewalks in conjunction with pedestrian bridges and bicycle lanes. TransMilenio reverted to the notion of an all-encompassing streetscape that rejected the street as a channel for motor vehicles, returning to the greater public. These corridors reinvigorated property value and enhanced public safety, a phenomenon that would be repeated in the subsequent phases of the system.
The idea of designing all-encompassing streetscapes was not limited to TransMilenio corridors. Streets and avenues were dug up, often tearing down adjacent properties in order to cater for the desired uses. The sidewalk went far beyond serving as a functional mechanism for walking between two points; it became a destination in itself. It offered a broad range of activities to encourage public interaction: stalls appeared in designated places and at Christmas time the sidewalks were lined with light decorations that, paired with live entertainment, invited the community to directly engage with the city. Bogota also invested in public art, placing sculptures and installations in plazas and neighbourhood squares. This became an open call for urban artists, who started populating empty walls with graffiti, making Bogota one of South America’s top destinations for street art.
Public space is an essential manifestation of a reclaimed city in which citizens appropriate its every aspect, from politics to culture
Bogota also invested in a comprehensive network of dedicated bicycle lanes as part of the streetscape renovation programme. Ciclorrutas, as they are locally known, set bicycles on an equal platform as motor vehicles. Over 350 kilometres of bicycle lanes connect cyclists to every main hub around the city, also linking them to public transport. The lanes are nested along the sidewalk, clearly separated from vehicular lanes to prevent cars from invading them. They are signaled as a road would be, with street signs and traffic lights, and demarcated from pedestrian transit areas with distinct pavement and street paint. The designated lanes are safer than those painted along the sides of a street but, more importantly, they promote urban cycling by placing high value to these corridors.
The way forward
Public space in the city should not be limited to the empty areas designated for gatherings or large-format events. It must be understood as a collection of spaces that integrate the city, linking its citizens to the physical realm as well as to one another, reducing inequality and building community. As seen in the case of Bogota, public space is an essential manifestation of a reclaimed city in which citizens appropriate its every aspect, from politics to culture.
Indian cities are evolving, albeit slowly, to place a heightened emphasis on public space as a means to achieve integration. Mumbai and Bengaluru have implemented schemes similar to Bogota’s Ciclovía: Equal Streets and Bengaluru Cycle Day, respectively. Yet, to promote large-scale change, citizens must reclaim their cities politically to demand physical renovation and urban innovation.
The Mayor of Bogota has only been democratically elected since 1988, previously being designated by the state governor and having little or no accountability. However, empowered citizens brought about the transition they never thought possible: from the capital of a failed state, to an emerging metropolis that has set a global example.
All photos: Laura Aparicio
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