Enrique Peñalosa: A Vision for Bogotá
Annelise Wunderlich, Graduate School of Journalism

For a man from a war-ravaged place like Colombia, Enrique Peñalosa is surprisingly cheerful. The former mayor of Bogotá said he did not come to Berkeley to talk about Colombia's bloodshed or booming narcotics trade. Instead, he wanted to talk about the dangers of driving on sidewalks.

"In my country, we are just learning that sidewalks are relatives of parks-not passing lanes for cars," Peñalosa said, earning laughs among the some 200 people who crowded into the Doe Library for his presentation titled "Towards a More Socially and Environmentally Sustainable Third World City" on April 8. Peñalosa enthusiastically described his efforts to inspire more pedestrians in this city of nearly seven million perched high atop the Andes. "God made us walking animals," he said, as part of the "Colombia 2002" series sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies. "We need to walk to be happy."

Keeping Bogotá's sidewalks clear of traffic is just one part of Peñalosa's ambitious vision for a new kind of Third World metropolis. This vision could well propel him to candidacy in Colombia's next presidential election-a possibility that he will neither confirm nor deny. But whether his talk at Berkeley previewed future campaign promises or not, the tall, silver-haired Peñalosa articulated his ideas with the grace of a skilled politician.

While serving as Bogotá's mayor from 1998 until December 2000 Peñalosa spearheaded a dramatic makeover for one of the world's more dangerous cities. He ordered the construction of over 70 miles of bicycle paths, more than 1,000 parks, restricted car use during rush hours, and modernized the bus system. He brought electricity, water and schools to the city's poorest neighborhoods, and planted more than 100,000 trees.

And he did not stop at mere physical improvements. Among the many accomplishments listed on his curriculum vitae, Peñalosa said he: "Led the transformation of a city's attitude from one of negativist hopelessness to one of pride and hope."

At times during the talk, Peñalosa came across as a municipal Robin Hood, contesting traditional notions of land use. Take, for example, the exclusive country club in one of Bogotá's tonier neighborhoods that Peñalosa sought to convert into an open access park. Or the public bicycle paths he wants to run through the gardens of the rich. He called these proposals "urban land reform," and the controversy they provoke "the ideological debate of our time."

As is the case all over the developing world, Bogotá has grown dramatically in recent years as job-hungry peasants stream in from the countryside. High-density expansion is Peñalosa's antidote to U.S.-style suburban sprawl. In Bogotá, which would be 20 times as large as Atlanta if it had the same number of people per hectare, restricting car use is a question of survival, Peñalosa said. He imagines a city of wide promenades, where the classes can mingle peacefully on foot as they go about their business-a place where money does not determine the quality of life. "If we define our value by income alone, we are condemning ourselves to be losers for the next 500 years," he said. "Happiness is what it should be all about."

Although Peñalosa belongs to the Liberal party and leans to the left on issues of public space, he advocates a strong central government, and stricter law enforcement. Part of Colombia's violence is due, he believes, to the public's lax attitude towards rules.

Peñalosa's critics accuse him of authoritarianism-a label he challenges. The orderly, green urban environment he envisions will promote democracy and protect the poorest people, he said. Law-abiding places like Denmark and Sweden are his inspiration, but in order to reach their level of sophistication, he said, the Colombian government must first gain legitimacy in the eyes of its people.

When asked about his strategy for coping with the estimated two million people displaced by the war, Peñalosa called those numbers "exaggerated." He said most of the rural migrants flood to cities like Bogotá in search of economic opportunity, not because they are fleeing violence. Peñalosa also did not address the issue of rural poverty. While he admitted that internal refugees are a problem, he did not mention specific plans to help them. "We have to treat all displaced people in the same way," he said.

Ultimately, it is the city-not the countryside-that lies at the heart of Peñalosa's plan to rebuild Colombia. A city where people are no longer afraid or resentful of their neighbors, and where class differences are minimized by generous public space and eco-friendly transportation.

Peñalosa is determined to remain upbeat about his country's future. "Urban reform is the most urgent -and the easiest to make happen," he said. "There is nothing more important than building schools, roads and parks."