Streets of Bogota – From Dystopia to Hope
With a wide variety of vendors, street artists, “músico ambulante” and mime artists, indigenous Indians, emerald dealers, beggars, thieves and the sound of salsa music, the streets of Bogota are alive and vibrant in a city once regarded as the most dangerous in the world.
In the 90’s the streets of Bogota were choked with traffic and pollution while murders, muggings and bomb explosions were frequent facts. Many of people living on the streets are rural migrants who were escaping the violence of armed guerrilla groups. They had come to the capital seeking security and work but many ended up on the streets with neither.
Colombia’s history provides many illustrations of the structural forces underlying the dystopian Bogota: a history of complicity between the dominant political parties, an abdication of responsibility to the governed leading to a failure to institute social and political reforms and hence a long history of violent civil wars that repeatedly broke down the social order.
In 1998, the new elected mayor Enrique Penalosa, has begun the fundamental transformation the city from a city of fear into a global model of sustainability. His so-called “Bogotá experiment” involved a range of strategies to create a more walkable and loveable built environment. He is known for having created a network of bicycle paths, projects for the upgrading of slums, parks and pedestrian areas in the poorest sectors of the city and the Trans Milenio (Bus Rapid Transit Network). This simple but radical approach fundamentally changed the trajectory of the city’s development.
Streets of Bogota – From Dystopia to Hope
With a wide variety of vendors, street artists, “músico ambulante” and mime artists, indigenous Indians, emerald dealers, beggars, thieves and the sound of salsa music, the streets of Bogota are alive and vibrant in a city once regarded as the most dangerous in the world.
In the 90’s the streets of Bogota were choked with traffic and pollution while murders, muggings and bomb explosions were frequent facts. Many of people living on the streets are rural migrants who were escaping the violence of armed guerrilla groups. They had come to the capital seeking security and work but many ended up on the streets with neither.
Colombia’s history provides many illustrations of the structural forces underlying the dystopian Bogota: a history of complicity between the dominant political parties, an abdication of responsibility to the governed leading to a failure to institute social and political reforms and hence a long history of violent civil wars that repeatedly broke down the social order.
In 1998, the new elected mayor Enrique Penalosa, has begun the fundamental transformation the city from a city of fear into a global model of sustainability. His so-called “Bogotá experiment” involved a range of strategies to create a more walkable and loveable built environment. He is known for having created a network of bicycle paths, projects for the upgrading of slums, parks and pedestrian areas in the poorest sectors of the city and the Trans Milenio (Bus Rapid Transit Network). This simple but radical approach fundamentally changed the trajectory of the city’s development.
