Curitiba

How did the backwater town of Curitiba Brazil become a model for city planning? Much of it started with the vision and daring of its young architect mayor in the 1970's, Jaime Lerner.



When Curitiba's central street, Rua Quinze-was scheduled to be obliterated with an overpass, Lerner insisted instead that it should become a pedestrian mall, however there was no real way to convince the store-owners a pedestrian mall would be good for them. To prevent opposition, Lerner and his staff jackhammered the pavement, put down cobblestones, erected streetlights and kiosks, and put in tens of thousands of flowers over a single weekend. By that Monday, the same storeowners who had been threatening legal action were petitioning the mayor to extend the mall.



When offended automobile clubmembers threatened to "reclaim" the street by driving their cars down it, Lerner had city workers lay down strips of paper the length of the mall, so when the auto club arrived, its members found dozens of children sitting in the former street painting pictures.

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