|
Enrique
Peñalosa
"Towards
a More Socially and Environmentally
Sustainable Third World City"
April 8,
2002
|
BIOGRAPHY
Enrique
Peñalosa is currently a Visiting Scholar
at New York University. He is researching and writing
a book on a new urban-development model for the
Third World, which covers fields such as transportation,
land use and housing for the poor, pollution abatement
and public space. Mr. Peñalosa is an accomplished
public official, economist and administrator who
completed a term as Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia last
December 31, 2000. He holds a bachelor's degree
in Economics and History from Duke University and
Masters and Doctorate degrees in Management and
Public Administration from the Institut International
D'Administration Publique and the University of
Paris II in Paris. He is fluent in English and
French.
As
Mayor of the capital of Colombia, Enrique Peñalosa was the political and administrative
head of a city of 6.5 million inhabitants. During
his tenure (1998-2001) Mr. Peñalosa was responsible
for accomplishments, many of them related to the
promotion of a more sustainable development. As mayor
Enrique Peñalosa:
-
Led
a massive effort to improve Bogotá's marginal
neighborhoods infrastructure and promoting
high citizen involvement.
-
Created a successful Urban Land
Reform institution.
-
Created a new highly successful
bus-based transit system: TransMilenio.
-
Spearheaded large improvements
to the city center including the recuperation
of plazas, creation of a large park in an area
previously totally taken over by crime and drugs;
turned one of the main downtown avenues under
severe deterioration into a dynamic pedestrian
pubic space.
-
Built more than a hundred nurseries
for children under 5 and assured resources for
their operation.
-
Increased children's enrollment
in public schools by more than 200,000, a 34%
increase in four years; did major improvements
to more than 150 school buildings and built 50
new schools. With a very innovative scheme, turned
29 very poor neighborhood new schools' administration
over to some of the best private schools in the
country.
-
Put in place a network of 14,000
computers in all public schools connected to
the Internet and built a network of 3 large new
libraries and several smaller ones.
-
Led the transformation of a city's
attitude from one of negativist hopelessness
to one of pride and hope.
-
Planted more than 100,000 trees.
-
Promoted a city model giving
priority to children and public spaces, restricting
private car use; built hundreds of kilometers
of sidewalks; built more than 300 kilometers
of bicycle paths, pedestrian streets (one of
which is more than 17 kilometers long and 15
meters wide, through some of the poorest neighborhoods)
and greenways along creeks, for which there were
also formidable decontamination efforts; more
than 1,200 parks were built or totally reconstructed;
a car-free day was promoted and received massive
popular support, an idea which received the Stockholm
Challenge Award; through a referendum, people
adopted a yearly car-free day and decided that
from the year 2015 onwards, there would be no
cars during rush hours, from 6 AM to 9 AM and
from 4:30 PM to 7:30 PM.
Hence,
Bogotá is setting a transportation
model that is changing the face of the city and providing
a new model for organizing transport in many world
cities. Previous positions include Managing Director,
Arthur D. Little Consulting, Colombian Office; President,
Colombian Institute of Mortgage Banks (ICAV); Economic
Secretary to the Colombian President; Dean of the
Business Administration Faculty at Externado de Colombia
University; Commercial and Administrative Vice-president
of the Bogotá Water and Sewage Company, among others.
He was elected to the House of the Representatives
of the Colombian Congress and to the Bogotá City
Council. He has been awarded the Eisenhower Fellowship,
National Colombian Architecture Prize, National Simon
Bolivar Prize for Journalism; Prize of the Society
of Economists of Bogotá and Cundinamarca; selected
in 1986 as one of the Best Young Colombian Leaders
by the Cámara Junior and was awarded a full Soccer
Scholarship to Duke University. Mr. Peñalosa has
published numerous articles in newspapers and magazines
as well as two books: Capitalism: The Best Option and Democracy
and Capitalism: Challenges of the Coming Century.
A book of a long interview with him by Angel Becassino
was also published under the title: Peñalosa and
a City 2,600 meters closer to the stars.
|
| |
|
|
