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The Bogotá Surprise

1/26/2011

8 Comments

 
PictureView of the center from on the cable car to Monserrate above the city,
Announcements of trips to Colombia, and Bogotá its capital, are generally followed by quizzical glances, questions about safety (and sanity), and repetitions of well-worn cliches about the drug trade.  People are skeptical about Colombia.  After more than three months of living here, I must say that Bogotá is one of the most misunderstood and underrated capitals in the world.  It has a dramatic setting high in the Andes, with a lush range of the mountains running right alongside.  It's a city of grand scale moving rapidly away from a past of violence and urban chaos into a period of greater safety and urban renewal.  And there's an infectious energy in the air that's hard not to succumb to.  

PictureThe Plaza de Toros de Santamaria, Bogota's bullfighting ring.
I came to Bogotá to consider it as a site for future projects with CitiNature and soon after arrival I was convinced that this was a place with which I wanted to engage and put down some roots.  In this blog posting I'll give a general overview of the city's allure to an urban greening activist.    

Three things sum up my excitement about Bogotá: 1) its positive trajectory; 2) an ideal climate; 
3) its expansive scale.    

PictureA bicycle path in Parque el Virrey very close to my apartment.
Bogotá is not an ancient colonial city (although it does have a beautiful historic center), but instead a modern city with an orientation towards the future.  In many parts you could easily mistake yourself for being in newer districts of a European city.  And the similarities are not skin deep.  Bogotá has one of the most extensive systems of bicycle paths in the world (over 300km of paths and growing), a rapidly expanding express bus system (almost like a metro) called the Transmilenio, a government  intent on improving the infrastructure for pedestrians (there are carefully laid brick pedestrian pavements in many areas of the city now), and a cafe culture unlike I've seen anywhere else in the western hemisphere. It's not a city looking back.  

PictureThe Parque Nacional, a popular park of 283 hectares, sits right in the heart of the city.
The climate in Bogotá is reminiscent of a Scandinavian summer - and this climate is year-round, shifting only through periods of more or less rain.  Nights are quite cool, but the strong sun warms the city quickly in the mornings.  With abundant rainfall and mild temperatures, Bogotá should be a mecca for gardeners.  This is a city of lush green lawns, blossoming flowers, and hundreds of parks.  Gardening in the nicer parts of town tends to be done by professional gardeners and they do beautiful work with an incredible range of plants that this permanently temperate climate allows.  

PictureA sidewalk in an elegant neighborhood a few minutes walk from my apartment.
For people in search of a project, Bogotá is a city of enticing opportunities.  As might be expected in the 4th largest city in Latin America, Bogotá boasts vast areas of impressive wealth shadowed by neighborhoods less opulent, and large areas of real and relative poverty.  Some 30% of the population officially live below the poverty line.  The city epitomizes the global correlation between wealth and "green."  The wealthier neighborhoods of Bogotá are generously supplied with parks and the streets lined with trees and bushes.  They are wrapped in green, from gardens spilling over high-rise terraces to meticulously manicured landscapes.  The rich in Bogotá know what they've got: the perfect climate for exuberant vegetation.  And it is stunningly beautiful.  

PictureA typically treeless street in a poorer part of the city.
Move a bit to the west from the wealth along the base of the mountains (or south from the newer districts in the north), however, and things start to change, sometimes abruptly.  Areas that previously were solidly middle class or wealthy have obviously been in decline for some time, I imagine due to the violence this city experienced in the not too distant past.  Single homes are much harder to protect than high-rises with doormen and the population with money may have largely migrated to new areas of high density.    Once charming neighborhoods are slowly crumbling through benign neglect, and previously elegant parks and streets are losing their trees and bushes.  Few seem to care about maintaining them.  Some streets have entirely lost their trees.  In the poorer neighborhoods there may never have been trees in the first place.  

PictureA couple of typical brick houses in Bogota...with no trees in sight.
But as security has increased, the possibilities for urban renewal are endless.  There are a surprising number of streets lined with architecture that might be right at home in the hearts of European cities.  Older neighborhoods surrounding parks seem only to need the right spark for rejuvenation efforts to begin.  I'm of the opinion that this is the time to be in Bogotá and be one of those sparks that brings this city closer to reaching its potential as the most lovely and livable in South America.  And as an urban greening advocate, the low-hanging fruit are in abundance.  Streets and parks that have lost their trees could rapidly be replanted.  As the climate is so benign here, with ample rainfall, the typical losses associated with urban tree planting would be minimized.  A green revolution is in the offing, and I want to be a part of it. 

Below are a few more pictures of the characteristic brick architecture in neglected areas of Bogotá, something I hadn't expected to find in South America.  
This initial snapshot of Bogotá wouldn't be complete without a few pictures of the beautiful historic center, which follow below.  
In the following weeks and months I will be reporting more on Bogotá and CitiNature's plans here.  I recommend to anyone who hasn't been to Colombia to consider putting it on your agenda.  It is a rare jewel of a country generally uncrowded by tourists.   
8 Comments
Patrick Fensham
2/26/2011 05:39:13 pm

Hello
I am interested in travelling to Bogota to study some of the examples of government or local council sponsored or facilitated urban renewal. It has been difficult to establish a contact with my limited Spanish.
can you assist?
cheers Pat

Reply
Mark Brown link
2/28/2011 12:29:01 pm

Hello, Pat. Thank you for your note. I have some contacts here, and would be happy to help you. Please send an email, with your email address, to mbrown@citinature.org

Best regards,

Mark

Reply
Martin Londoño
3/1/2011 08:40:40 pm

Mark, buen articulo, felicitaciones por la iniciativa.

Reply
Mark Brown link
3/2/2011 03:30:52 am

Muchas gracias, Martin. Hablamos.

Reply
Mako
5/18/2011 07:20:30 am

Mark - great article with great pictures. They are absolutely beautiful! You made me want to come to Bogota for sure....

Reply
James link
9/8/2011 07:07:14 pm

Keep up the great work. Bogota and Colombia can use your help! Be sure to visit Medellin, it appears a bit greener.

I agree, and i think that with security getting better the city can now focus on improving its appearance with more plants.

Reply
osmar link
12/30/2011 12:33:20 am

hola marcos y christina como estan espero que bien..!! les mando una feliz navidad atrasada y un venturoso año nuevo de su amigo osmar.. :D me despido con un fuerte abraso y mucha suerte ..!!! bye :D

Reply
Sebastian Wittingham
1/31/2022 09:01:24 pm

Hello!
I would like to make some clarifications regarding some deductions you made about the neighborhoods of Bogota.
1) The city was never a bastion of drug traffickers. The fact that Bogota is the capital of a cocaine-exporting country does not mean that the city was a security hell.
In Bogota there has never been internal migration from one neighborhood to another due to the alleged violence that you say.
The fact that a neighborhood does not have sidewalks and streets in good condition depends more on the lack of commitment on the part of the district government to maintain them. The neighborhoods of English houses are emptied of population because people today no longer want to live in a residence of 500-800 m2. It is expensive to maintain.
Urban renewal in Bogota does not occur as a consequence of a safer environment. Urban renewal in Bogota occurs in this way: a neighborhood is somewhat uninhabited because families grow and children leave; the streets stop receiving government maintenance and the neighborhoods deteriorate. A neighborhood that is aesthetically deteriorated does not necessarily imply that it is an impoverished neighborhood.
This supposed insecure past of Bogota is very ambiguous. What do you mean with that. Because except for the car bombs detonated by the Medellin cartel between 1987 and 1993, the city did not experience widespread and generalized violence. In fact, many Bogotans can tell you that 20 or 30 years ago the city was calmer and safer.
That's why when you mention that Bogota is recovering from a supposedly violent past "not so long ago", it leaves me thinking like: WTF, where do they get that speech from. That speech "drugged" the only thing that carries are biases.

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    After nearly two decades of corporate duty, I decided to follow my heart and do what I love: make cities greener and healthier places.  Over the coming years I will be traveling to cities all over the world, reporting on what I see and learning about how even resource-poor places can improve urban lives through urban greening and greener lifestyles.  I've started the CitiNature project to channel my energies and drive initiatives supporting equal access to green amenities for everyone.
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