There are a
lot of large cities in Brazil. And most of them have similar problems which are
typical for the “Third World” cities. Among them there are poverty,
overcrowding and insanitation. Curitiba is a rare exception. This city (population
of 1.6 million people) is called “the ecological capital of Brazil”.
Such a miracle
was created by Curitiba Scientific Research Institute of Urban Planning. In
1965 the city master plan was developed. It provides for extension of the green
plantations areas and the priority of public conveyances development.
Curitiba
has radial-circular planning. Five wide thruways joint by belt roads disperse
from the centre. At the beginning the surrounded woodland parks restrained an
increase of city building up. So when internal growth powers ran out, five
residential areas appeared around the city and thruways linked all the areas to
the city centre. So the central traffic lanes of the arterial highways are set
aside especially for high-speed and express buses. There are separate lanes for
cars also. Safe and effective bus routes system was made thanks to the traffic
streams differentiation.
About 1100
buses make 12 500 trips and transport 1.3 million passengers a day. That covers 55% of Curitiba transport needs. With
the increase in population (it has trebled last years) the bus network also was
growing. Now five bus types allow people to get to every city place without
problems and excessive expenses. The first type is express-buses. They run
along the middle lanes of those five wide thruways. The second is high-speed double buses that also go along the
middle lanes. The busload of such buses is 270 passengers, they are of local
production and they appeared here in 1992. The third type is high-speed buses
going along the thruways and the wide city streets, their busload is 170
people. The fourth route’s type connects city districts located between
thoroughfares. And finally the fifth type is dense network of short routs
covering the whole city territory. These routs bring passengers to terminals
where people can change to one of the high-speed buses. The buses going along
different lines are painted in five colors: red, silvery, orange, yellow and
green to comfort the passengers.
In 1991 bus
network was fitted out by stations with roofs and turnstiles like subway. It
was possible to intensify passenger traffic and three times enhance it thanks
to reduction of time necessary for the passengers boarding. The spread of
express-routes network is 54
km and others’ is 500 km. Such system covers 65% of city area.
Moreover
this surface “subway” is very advantageous for people who pay fare only one
time. The passenger can get from one city district to another for 55 cents;
sometimes it is cheaper than by subway. That became possible because of unified
investments to city transport system. Curitiba bus lines belong to private
companies which work is coordinated by united center. It succeeded in
combination of society interests (safety, effectiveness and availability of
transport lines) and private interests. We should note that companies-owners
don’t get any subsidies but are financed from the found increased by public
transit’s incomes.
Thanks to
wise management the citizens’ fare expenses are only 10% of their common
transport expenses. As a result Curitiba consumes petrol 30% per head less than
the other Brazil cities. One car is accounted for three people, and Curitiba is
the second Brazilian city by this index. The atmospheric emission slumped and
road traffic became less intensive as a result of such transport policy.
The
residential areas stretched along the thoroughfares. Such city-planning in
combination with effective public conveyance system made it possible to unload
Curitiba centre. Fifteen city blocks in the centre were changed into pedestrian
zones. It is also interesting, almost detective story happened with them.
Building of the pedestrian zones started in 1972 and local shopmen gave it a
hostile reception, they were afraid of the decrease in their incomes. It came
to court. But the next major Jame Lerner began building without doubts. An
architectural engineering appeared in the streets late at night on Friday. Two
pedestrian blocks were ready by Monday morning. Shops’ owners and sellers came
to work and were presented with a fait accompli. The court decision forbidding
pedestrian zones was published only on Thursday. But it was too late. Enraged
drivers decided to make a protest. But when they arrived to building place they
saw a lot of children from surrounding houses. Boys and girls unrolled huge
pieces of paper along the streets and painted there. Citizens liked “The Drawing Holiday” so much that it
became a tradition, which repeated every Saturday. Sellers also had a lot of
advantages because pedestrian zones attracted a lot of people, trading volume
increased extremely much. Now local authorities want to build 150 km of bicycle tracks.
City
managers pay attention to ecological education of citizens. Without that all
efforts on the creation of “ecocity”
would vain. All conservancy activities go only thanks to reciprocal responsibility
of the citizens. There is the Free Ecology University here. Its edifice is good
example of successful ecological solution. During its building different
secondary materials were used, even old telegraph-poles.
Speaking
about secondary materials, Curitiba program “Refuse is not refuse” was
commended by UNO award. As a result of well thought-out system of the
ecological education near 90% of Curitiba citizens not only throw out their
garbage but give it to recycling like in Hamburg or Oslo.
Besides
that information is an important aspect. Everywhere in the city there are a lot
of information billboards for people to read in detail about Curitiba, its
districts, its historic and architectonic sights and also about cultural,
social and ecological programs which have made “the Brazilian miracle” of
Curitiba. New projects are always discussed on the newspapers’ pages.
Today’s
Curitiba major Rafael Greca pays great attention to the city social programs
which accounts several hundreds: from perfection of the library system to help
for homeless people. A peculiarity of such programs is prevention from
parasitic attitude which became a scourge of poor districts even in such rich
countries as the United States. Curitiba administration knows about folk
wisdom: you can feed hungry men only one time with a fish and feed him for life
with a fishing-rod.
Educational
program LICEU is very interesting. It is the system of professional trainings.
People can graduate from the courses and get a specialty of motor mechanic,
cook, hairdresser, programmer or the other necessary one for the city. Most of
lyceum’s pupils are yesterday’s peasants and migrants with no education.
Municipality buy houses in the new city district and reequip them into trade
schools. For better adaptation to the city environment pupils study at little
schools not at big ones. A great number of such colleges are situated near
Curitiba residential districts where a lot of pupils live. $4 is the fee for
three months in LICEU.
A program
“A Way to Work” was developed for the poorest city districts. Rebuilt and
reequipped buses became classrooms. Every term they remove from one district to
another and stay for three months there. During four months more than
100 000 specialists graduated from the program “A Way to Work”.
Some of the
programs are intended for new workplaces making. One of them is called TUDO
LIMPO (Everything is clean), it recruits jobless people to put their yards and
houses in order and cleanliness. At the same time people not only draw salary
but also change their relation to the residential areas where they live. They
transform their muddy streets into cozy and clean places.
But such
programs are not enough for some categories of people, for example, alcoholics
and drug addicts who need rehabilitation before supporting themselves. City
created the farm “Fazenda” where recovering people work and pass the first
phase of medical treatment.
All these
programs are simple and inexpensive but too efficient, they are a fundamental
part of the city-planning transforming
Curitiba into the city FOR people. They pursue an aim to change people
consciousness and help them to feel themselves like heads of their city and of
their life. The local authorities initiated a number of programs to educate
children to be loving and careful heads of their city.
Curitiba is
the most quick-growing Brazilian city. Thanks to its social programs and unique
friendly climate Curitiba attracts a great number of migrants. The squatters
occupying empty adobes (such settlements are called “favelas” here) is a big
problem for many Brazilian cities. And at the same time it is the first index
of that city can’t manage with the influx of new inhabitants. How is this
question decided in Curitiba? New roads are built in the outskirts of the city,
and along these streets there are new lots for sale. 60% of settlers look for a
job in the building trade and so these people already don’t have obstacles in
building of their own houses. When a future homeowner buys a plot in the city
he will also get two saplings and free architect’s consultation. It is
necessary to strengthen people and help them to choose a house type and the
local powers realized an idea of “The Street of the Technologies” where every
house is built with different technology.
The name of
Curitiba ex-major Jame Lerner became a symbol of the thriving state. He was a
city head during 25 years, since 1970. He had an education of architect and he
could unite a group of like-minded persons round him. And they made Curitiba an
ecological capital of Brazil. Now Lerner is a governor of Parana state, Brazil.
And no wonder that his political rating is one of the highest ones.
by Valentin Ivanov
It was an
excellent art intervention to the poor district life and what is more there was
involvement of residents. Artists say their aim was to make people believe
their forces. It was very important to understand that people can change
situation and their life themselves.
