{"id":278941847,"date":"2013-11-03T11:50:47","date_gmt":"2013-11-03T11:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=278941847"},"modified":"2013-11-03T11:50:47","modified_gmt":"2013-11-03T11:50:47","slug":"the-secrets-of-the-worlds-happiest-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=278941847","title":{"rendered":"The secrets of the world’s happiest cities"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Charles Montgomery, The Guardian
\n…
\nPe\u00f1alosa insisted that, like most cities, Bogot\u00e1 had been left deeply wounded by the 20th century’s dual urban legacy: first, the city had been gradually reoriented around cars. Second, public spaces and resources had largely been privatised. This reorganisation was both unfair \u2013 only one in five families even owned a car \u2013 and cruel: urban residents had been denied the opportunity to enjoy the city’s simplest daily pleasures: walking on convivial streets, sitting around in public. And playing: children had largely disappeared from Bogot\u00e1’s streets, not because of the fear of gunfire or abduction, but because the streets had been rendered dangerous by sheer speed. Pe\u00f1alosa’s first and most defining act as mayor was to declare war: not on crime or drugs or poverty, but on cars.
\nHe threw out the ambitious highway expansion plan and instead poured his budget into hundreds of miles of cycle paths; a vast new chain of parks and pedestrian plazas; and the city’s first rapid transit system (the TransMilenio), using buses instead of trains. He banned drivers from commuting by car more than three times a week. This programme redesigned the experience of city living for millions of people, and it was an utter rejection of the philosophies that have guided city planners around the world for more than half a century.
\nIn the third year of his term, Pe\u00f1alosa challenged Bogot\u00e1ns to participate in an experiment. As of dawn on 24 February 2000, cars were banned from streets for the day. It was the first day in four years that nobody was killed in traffic. Hospital admissions fell by almost a third. The toxic haze over the city thinned. People told pollsters that they were more optimistic about city life than they had been in years.
\n…
\nIs urban design really powerful enough to make or break happiness? The question deserves consideration, because the happy city message is taking root around the world….
\n…
\nhttps:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/2013\/nov\/01\/secrets-worlds-happiest-cities-commute-property-prices<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Charles Montgomery, The Guardian … Pe\u00f1alosa insisted that, like most cities, Bogot\u00e1 had been left deeply wounded by the 20th century’s dual urban legacy: first, the city had been gradually reoriented around cars. Second, public spaces and resources had largely been privatised. This reorganisation was both unfair \u2013 only one in five families even … <\/p>\n

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