2007 World Planning Keynote

Carolina Barco Isakson

By Joe MacDonald
APA Program Development Senior Associate

The "Miracle of Bogota" was the focus of APA's 2007 World Planning Keynote Address as Carolina Barco Isakson, current ambassador to the United States from Colombia, described how that Colombian city was lifted from violence and dysfunction to the world capital status it enjoys today.

Isakson explained how the Bogota Project restructured administration and finance, and engaged citizens to help the city rise from its low point in the 1980s to the titles of America's Cultural Capital and World Book Capital of 2007.

Also participating was Jim Claydon, current president of the Royal Town Planning Institute, who gave the response to the address and offered a brief perspective on planning in the U.K.

Click here for photos from the World Planning Keynote

A native of Bogota, Carolina Isakson studied social sciences at Wellesley College, followed by graduate study at Harvard University where she earned master's degrees in urban planning and business administration. She served as director of planning for Bogota between 1997 and 2002, at which time she entered foreign ministry.

The greatest period of change, Isakson said, took place over the tenure of four different mayors between 1992 and 2007. The "new model" for Bogota transformed the city from a concentration of immigrants from all over Colombia to a remarkably strong social fabric of civic pride and ownership in the fifth largest city in Latin America. The "new model" focused on four distinct goals during the period: strengthen and restructure local government, improve security and reduce violence, increase mobility, and advance public services.

The first mayoral initiative (1992-1995) focused on reorganization of finances and municipal administration. During the first phase of the "new model," the mayor helped the people of Bogota understand the necessity of taxes to support public services. In particular, the city government introduced a system of property taxation where none previously existed and allowed the individual property owners to assess themselves. The government of Bogota stressed the benefits of tax revenue to the citizens by providing concrete results in the way of public improvements. Witnessing the fruition of their contribution prompted an additional 66,000 Bogota residents to offer an additional 10 percent property tax to further a public service of their choice.

The second mayoral initiative (1995-1998) focused on reducing the violence and internal terrorism that rocked Bogota in the previous decade. The second mayor during the "new model" period was a philosopher and strongly urged a citizen culture promoting the sanctity of life and the personal responsibility of all citizens to improve themselves for a better community. Initiatives to force the city to think about the death culture among male residents and its causes (alcohol, access to weapons, anger, nighttime social activities) included asking men to write themselves permission slips to go out at night and isolation of men and women in terms of who could be on city streets on certain nights. The result was a reduction in homicide among men from 80 per 100,000 at the start of the citizen culture initiative to 18 per 100,000 today. As another example, road rage was addressed by a program promoting the use of "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" cards to express driver emotion, versus honks, yells, and obscene gestures.

The third mayoral initiative (1998-2001) focused on infrastructure improvements (education, transportation, water & sewer availability, parks, public spaces, and libraries). This period of the "new model" was more technical than social, as planners and architects developed new ideas about integrating parks and public libraries, moving cars off sidewalks to restore safety and dignity for the pedestrian and simultaneously limiting the presence of private automobiles on the roadways while improving public transportation. Some of the more innovative policies implemented related to security of crosswalk space for pedestrians, including black stars where pedestrians had been killed and mimes who "pushed" cars back from the crosswalk with the use of polite gestures.

The fourth mayoral initiative (2001-present) focuses on more specific social programs for the poor, such as feeding Bogota's hungry, Isakson explained. The fourth mayor had considered cuts of some of the city's largest social programs, but the achievements of the first three mayors of the "new model" empowered residents and raised their expectations about not only their city, but themselves. The residents successfully convinced city government to retain the threatened programs.

The "new model" for Bogota can thus be summarized by two important themes:

• The city fostered a strong sense of belonging and responsibility among residents. People of Bogota no longer referred to their hometowns as the places they left to move to Bogota, but instead were proud to call Bogota home.

• The four mayoral periods of the "new model" maintained strong continuity, each successive mayor building on the previous mayor's accomplishments, all the while making the necessary adjustments to improve civic life for the city's people and helping the people gain the confidence to improve themselves.

In his response, Jim Claydon, current president of the Royal Town Planning Institute praised the example of Bogota, quoting from Disney that because they believed in themselves, they could begin to manifest positive change. Claydon presented a brief perspective of town planning in the United Kingdom, illustrating five major issues that exemplified the mantra of planning's centrality to government policy:

• Sustainability: both existing and new communities
• Stern Report: the economic impacts of climate change
• Barker Report: the relationship between planning and the economy (achieve national infrastructure planning through the development tax)
• Planning & Climate Change: developing resiliency and decentralizing energy
• Planning & Energy: greater efficiency, targets, innovative technology

This article was produced by APA staff or a member of APA. It was not written by the individuals who prepared these sessions. Send an e-mail to WebsiteEditor@planning.org for permission to reprint this article.