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1 August 2014

World Urban Forum 2014, Medellin – some reflections

 

Medellin 2014 informal barrio upgraded with improved transportation and art

Medellin 2014 informal barrio upgraded with improved transportation and art

I was asked to add some links to a posting I made at the end of the World Urban Forum (WUF)  in 2012 in Naples.  This was about an inspiring acceptance speech from the former mayor of Medellin, and my hope that the video would be available on YouTube.   Well it is (see the end of this post), and it also reminded me that neither had I updated the site nor commented on impressions from Medellin where the 2014 Urban Forum was held.

After some months the contents of individual presentations and sessions loose the paradigm changing impression that they leave you with at the time.  The impact of the snatched conversations, the bombardment of stalls, posters, videos, leaflets, books, DVDs and dongles fades.  The sessions of the development glitterati were interesting, but?  Apart from a refreshed network – what are you left with?

For me, the biggest impact was from the city itself and the transformations that had been achieved. To be left with inspiration rather than cynicism is a major plus.  The use of a high quality metro and bus rapid transit system linked by cable cars to informal areas on the surrounding hill sides is impressive.  The cleanliness of the system – platforms are dusted and polished – and the existence of a “metro culture” where users seem to use the facilities with respect gives food for thought.

 

The video that first impressed me?

 

The recent presentation in Medellin as part of  IHS alumni award ceremony:

 

More images of the transportation innovations linked to upgrading the informal areas of the city.   For further information, click the images:

 

For research on the impact of the Metrocables, see Dávila, Julio D. and Daste, D., 2011. Poverty, participation and aerial cable-cars: A case study of Medellín. In 12th Naerus Annual Conference, Madrid 2011. N-Aerus. Available at: https://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/dpu/metrocables/dissemination/Davila-Daste-Naerus-2011.pdf

 

Filed Under: Approaches, Events, Medellin, Places, Planning, transportation, Upgrading, urban transformation, WUF 6, WUF7 Medellin, Youtube Tagged With: , , , Leave a Comment
4 November 2012

City planning integration – relevance of a good husband?

Poster at city participation meeting, Tenali, Andhra Pradesh Poster at city participation meeting, Tenali, Andhra Pradesh with former Chief Minister

Integrated planning needs  leaders who are able  to think across sectors. What Tony Blair used to call “joined up thinking.”

This simple “common sense” skill is often trained/ educated out of professionals.  In the workplace  this process  is completed by the  silo culture of  sectoral organizations.

For me, an inspiration for how to think in an integrated way came when I was not expecting it, while  running a workshop on strategic planning for local government in Uttar Pradesh in India some years ago. The group included both officials and elected representatives from local governments, including new  female  mayors (a quota system was in place).

We got to the point in the workshop where we discussed how to think through a city vision. Most teams followed the advice of imagining they were in their city in five years time and imagining what they would like to see different – would the streets be clean? Would the town hall be efficient?
“.. a good husband”
One lady mayor came up with her own vision. She said that for her, the city should be like a good husband. What did she mean?
Working
She explained that the husband should work and be able to support his family – so the city should also work. Citizens should be able to efficiently produce goods and services and be able to trade and bring an income to the city.
Healthy
Then the husband should be healthy, otherwise he could not work. So the city should be healthy so people can work well and be happy. There should be good safe water supply, effective waste management, health education and good health services.
Well presented
Finally, the husband did not need to be handsome like a Bollywood film star, but should be presentable. The city should be neat, tidy and clean and welcoming to visitors.

An integrated vision.

Sometimes as professionals we lose the integrated view that comes with common sense.
For example, it is seldom seen as the job of the roads department to think that their work may increase land values. But it does, so it is very important that both leaders and  professionals, including city managers and planners, are able to see the big picture.  They then need to be able to integrate or connect the decisions that can give real benefits.  Strategic planning is a useful tool for this, but it does need an integrated vision in those using it, and it does need to produce results.

Do you have any examples to share of  an integrated vision that really helped lead to real benefits?

Filed Under: Approaches, Integrated planning, Strategic Urban Planning Tagged With: , , , , 2 Comments
21 October 2012

Integration of urban development in India: any answers?

Delhi metro

Delhi: rapid transport helps integrate some parts of the city

 

The workshop on integrated development in India was valuable, but it would be naïve to expect that one an a half days would give all the answers. It was good to get a range of experiences from India as well as International inputs from Cities Alliance, World Bank, (Capacity Development for Infrastructure in Asia (CDIA) and Metropolis.
For me, the significant points were:

  • 1) First that the conference took place and the Ministry took an active and leading role;
  • 2) the recognition of the  issue of limited capacity at the local level and the need for strong leadership from the local level, both political and technical;
  • 3) the openness to listen to experiences from South Africa, Nigeria, Philippines Korea, and to open up the thinking on the Indian situation;
  • 4) the highlighting of the  need for both statutory and strategic planning and for the relationship to be made more operational.

I talked about the need for real benefits from integration and  the concept of “smart connections” between plans. This is not very complicated.  It means that in the rules and during the process questions have to be addressed as to how the plan being worked on relates to other plans. How  conflicts are recognized and avoided, and perhaps more important, that synergies should be identified and  actively pursued.  This “common sense” approach does, however mean that some people, leaders, managers, planners need to actively pursue the goal of achieving better results.   The difficult task is to introduce this   approach in situations where local government is weak.

Lessons

  • The potential benefits of an integrated approach need to be clear to drive the process. This realization should be widely held, especially by leadership and not only by the technical staff involved.
  • As far as is possible, it is good to keep the initial sophistication at a basic level for smaller, weaker municipalities . A progressive development through incentives can be used to simulate stronger municipalities.
  • Examples from other countries showed that with will, initiative and creativity it is possible to make changes. However, this does not come easily, a strong integration of capacity development is vital.
  • The main focus was lessons to feed into the second phase of the the national programme JNNURM to support local integrated infrastructure development, but it was recognised that the City Development Plans (CDP) are a tool with much wider potential use.

Questions

Do you have comments or further examples?  You can post here.

I also posted a link to groups on LinkedIn (urban planning and IHS Alumni) and you can also follow some of the discussion there if you belong to those groups.

Filed Under: Integrated planning, Planning Tagged With: , , , , , , , , Leave a Comment
25 September 2012

Rotterdam Renewal: Mayor promotes co-creation

Co-creation

Rotterdam’s Mayor Ahmed Abu Taleb gave an inspiring talk at the graduation of the Urban Management and Development Masters programme at IHS, the Netherlands. The place was the Floating Pavilion, part of the city’s Climate Change Initiative. The participants of the course might have been focusing on getting their diploma’s, but the Mayor helped them on their way with some stimulating final lessons.
Co-creation is a popular concept in business management, but Abu Taleb promoted its use in city development. He spoke of his holding neighbourhood meetings where 9 out of 10 ideas typically come from local residents. He illustrated this with a story of two residents who had improved a run down house through a city scheme. In the scheme, a property in a difficult area is sold at a very low price on condition that it is thoroughly improved.
“I met two people who had an old house at a low price and had transformed it into a beautiful place. They turned their attention towards the public area. A piece of grass that was neglected by the community and government for a long time. They had an idea to transform that piece of land into a wonderful small park serving the neighbourhood. They used the opportunity of the presence of the Mayor to share ideas with me on the wall. I was really impressed ”
Having improved the property the residents used the Mayor’s visit to promote the transformation of an untended open space into an attractive and useable micro-park.

The Mayor simply said “please do it”, and offered €5,000 to get the work started .  He invited himself to a barbecue there in a years time. This, he said, would make sure that his service departments would also give support.
Why not offer to have his departments take over the project? It would take too long and loose the energy of the initiators.

Diversity to go

The second lesson, linked to the first, was on diversity.
In the Mayor’s words “I used to look for someone who fits in the team. Now I’m looking for people who are not fitting in the team, who ask different questions and have new ideas, other ideas. With this friction of ideas, new things are born. Don’t be afraid of diversity”.

A timely message in a city which has a very diverse population.
This is the second time I have been inspired by a mayor(or former mayor) in two weeks. The other was the former mayor of Medellin – see my post from the World Urban Forum in Naples.

Co-creation is a dynamic way to describe participation – with the emphasis on generating an outcome and not only on going through a process. A strong leadership from the mayor is very important in ensuring that local government is responsive and follows up on the energy that can be generated through participative planning. The alternative is letting the enthusiasm cool and turn to frustration.
Congratulations to the graduates of the IHS class of UMD 8. I hope they take these lessons home with them.

Filed Under: Rotterdam Tagged With: , , , , , 3 Comments
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