A City That's Doing Something Right 

A. There's good news and bad news about life in modem cities - first, the bad. People who study population growth predict a nightmare by the year 2025: the global population will be more than eight billion, and almost four billion of these people will be living in cities in developing countries such as India and Nigeria. Population growth is already causing  unbelievable overcrowding. Due to this overcrowding, many cities have problems with air pollution, disease, and crime. People spend hours in gridlock- that is, traffic so horrible that it simply doesn't move- when they commute daily from their homes to their work and back. There isn't enough water, transportation, or housing. Many people don't have access to health  services or jobs. Now the good news: in some cities, instead of worsening, urban life is actually getting much better. 

 

A City and Its Mayor 

B. It might not be a surprise to find that life in affluent cities is improving. But what about cities that aren't rich? The city of Curitiba, Brazil, proves that it's possible for even a city in a developing country to offer a good life  to its residents. The former mayor of Curitiba for 25 years, Jaime Lemer is an architect and a very practical person. Under his leadership, the city planners established a list of priorities-in other words, a list of what was most important to work on. They decided to focus on the environment and on the quality of life. With an average income of only about $2,000 per person  per year, Curitiba has the same problems as many cities. However, it also has some creative solutions. 

Garbage Collection 

C. One creative solution is the method of garbage collection-Gambio Verde, or Green Exchange'. This does far more than clean the streets of trash. In neighborhoods that garbage trucks won't reach, poor people bring bags of trash to special centers. At these conters, they exchange the trash for fresh produce such as potatoes and oranges. They receive one kilo of produce for every four kilos of trash that they bring in. At a recycling plant, workers separate glass bottles, plastic, and cans from other trash. Two- thirds of Curitiba's garbage is recycled, which is good for the environment. And the plant gives jobs to the poorest people, which improves their lives. 

 

Transportation 

 

D. Due to careful planning, Curitiba does not have the same traffic problems that most cities have. The statistics are surprising. The population has grown fast, to over two million people, but traffic has actually decreased 30 percent. Curitiba needed a mass-transit system but couldn't afford an expensive subway. City planners began, instead, with an unusual system of buses in the center lanes of five wide major streets. At each bus stop, there is a forty-foot- long glass tube. Passengers pay before they enter the tube. Then they get on the bus "subway style"- through wide doors. This allows people to get on and off the bus quickly and efficiently . People don't crowd onto the bus; loading and unloading takes only 30 seconds. This makes commuting more pleasant and also helps to solve the problem of air pollution.

 

A Creative Social Program

E . There is an agricultural operation just outside Curitiba that looks like other farms but actually helps to solve a social problem, in addition to growing crops. At Fozenda da Sotidaridade (Solidarity Farm) , the workers are not experienced farmers. Instead, they are drug addicts and alcoholics who volunteer to spend up to nine months in a program called Verde Saude  (Green Health). The program helps them in two ways. First, it gives them jobs. They cultivate medicinal plants and then process them into herbal teas, syrups, and other products that are sold in health food stores. Second, it helps them to get off drugs and alcohol and to turn their lives around. In exchange for their labor, they receive counseling, medical care, and job training. 

 

The Environment 

F. To make the environment both cleaner and more beautiful, Curitiba encourages green space. It has low taxes for companies that have green areas, so several hundred major industries such as Pepsi and Volvo have offices in the city- being willing to incorporate green space in their plants in order to take advantage of the city's low tax rate. Bringing natural beauty into the city is a priority. For this reason, Curitiba gave 1.5 million young trees to neighborhoods to plant and take care of. And the downtown shopping area is now a pedestrian zone- in other words, for walkers only, no cars- and is lined with gardens. Curitiba provides the city people with 22 million square meters of parks and green areas- more than three times the amount that the World Health Organization rerommends for urban dwellers.

 

A Symbol of the Possible 

Clearly, overcrowding in big cities worldwide is the cause of serious problems. However, the example of Curitiba provides hope that careful planning and creative thinking can lead to solutions to many of them. Curitiba is truly, as Lewis Mumlord once said of cities in general, a "symbol of the possible."