After 3 weeks abroad, I’m now back in my favorite city in the world. The nice thing about traveling is that it makes you notice the small things that you take for granted. Of course you also notice what you might be missing back home as well. While these things might typically be clean water, good beer, or salads, the same theories apply to one’s experience of cities as well. What follow is a short essay on what we should be grateful for, and some ideas that urban designers might want to import.
I spent time in many cities of differing sizes, but the specific ones I wanted to mention are Arequipa, Cuzco and Lima, Peru, and Quito, Ecuador. Of course the first thing you notice is that most cities above a particular size have the same basic language. Once you can reliably figure out what direction you’re facing and have a basic knowledge of the grid, you’re all set. The first city I landed in was Arequipa, which is dominated by a several 19,000′ volcanoes, in case you ever lose North. The first impression I had was that the streets and sidewalks were all very narrow by US standards. This not so subtle code was an easy way of saying that pedestrians were meant to stay along the main plazas and arcades. Combine that with the prevalence of cheap taxis, and you have a town that has been overrun by car use.
Cusco was ruled by it’s topography, and it’s more than 500 year old history. The Incas designed the urban core it in the shape of a Puma, so there’s a long legacy of planning and symbolism. Again the tourists were mainly confined to the historic Plaza de Armas and pedestrian malls as the taxis whizzed around. Similar to San Francisco, most of the grid goes over the hills instead of around, and it was fairly easy to navigate. The busses, as in Arequipa, were along no set routes, making taxis the only real option. The city is also served by one rail line, even if service is rather limited. The main problem was the streets too steep for cars were generally cobblestones stairs, and generally impossible when new to the 11000′ elevation.
I was only in Lima for a few hours, so my experience was very limited. I walked through the main downtown area, El Centro, and along the waterfront. The basic summary is that it’s a lot like LA – historic center, massive sprawl, desert climate & dry riverbed. As was typical, the main plazas and pedestrian areas were very heavily used, but the other streets were rather barren. The waterfront (mostly dry creekbed) had some interesting new development, including an archeological theme park, and new public housing. Then even had a beautiful pedestrian bridge crossing the river and highway. Because of my admittedly low expectations, I was pleasantly surprised with the city, perhaps exactly because I didn’t get that far outside the center.
Quito also has a rather interesting history of urban design. Because of the surrounding mountains, the layout is essentially 5 miles wide, and 30 miles long. The benefit of this is that the 3 BRT lines all ran parallel N-S routes and were always packed. The Old Town, as its affectionately called, is the colonial center. Much better preserved than the rest of the Latin America, I found it very interesting that the historical section is very much still a vital part. Commerce, residences and industry were throughout. The new town, named Le Mariscal (created by white flight in the 50s), is now overrun by tourists and yuppies. The saving grace of the town is the overwhelming natural beauty. Many volcanoes and other hills encompass the region, and Quito contains many parks to take advantage of the topography and rivers.
The one organizing factor that stands out most upon visiting each city is their plazas. Impressive public areas anchored the main areas for commerce, recreation, religion, and employment. These plazas were always bustling with activity, and always seemed safe, both because of design and usage. Their shape might vary from linear, to the traditional square + fountain, but they were omnipresent. They also often linked to large pedestrian malls with bustling shopping zones. San Francisco contains many plazas, almost all of them underused by locals; Union Square, Justin Hermann, Civic Center, Embarcadero Plaza, Portsmouth Square. In my experience our plazas are only used for mid-week lunch breaks, and then everyone heads to the parks in the rest of the city on the weekends. Perhaps our wide sidewalks have become our versions of mini-plazas, where we covet a small portion of exterior public space.
The last comment I’ll make, is that even though we complain about Muni all the time, it’s better than 90% of the public transit services in the world. Most of the transit available in Peru and Ecuador was very shady at best, so I often resorted to taxis. Because of the overall pedestrian unfriendliness of many cities, very few people would walk any distance. Muni’s grid typically gets people where they want to go, whereas the ‘collectivos’ were a very haphazard method of mass transit. The BRT in Quito was nice, but the lines were filled to capacity at all times – which generally means it’s time for light rail. Of course most cities could benefit from much more urban planning, but these are the things you notice when traveling with an injured friend. Sometimes walking just isn’t appropriate!
This is the end of my diversion into foreign affairs. Tomorrow I’ll try to return to my regularly scheduled programming.
Comments
Leave a Reply
Chris on 07.30.2009
I tend to complain about Muni because I compare it to systems in other rich countries. I don’t think that comparing things like transit works very well when you’re talking about countries of such vastly different income levels. For the amount that we spend on Muni, it is woefully bad compared to systems in other developed countries receiving similar amounts of money (especially regarding its management of capital projects).
South America on 07.30.2009
Very informative post. There were many upcoming civilizations that sprung up like the Canaris, the Norte Chico, Amazon, Cara Supe, Chavin, Moche of which Inca also called the land of the four regions was the significantly urbane.To get matters adequately sorted out, the Treaty Of Tordesil has was signed in 1494. Lima founded in 1535 as the capital of Peru was the epicentre for all the findings and conquests.The Spanish colonies managed to gain independence close to 18th century. Around 1814, Venezuela, Argentina and eventually Brazil declared independence by 1822. For more details refer http://www.journeyidea.com/guide-to-south-america/