The first question in regards to many of the things we learned about Curitiba's innovation was, "how was this possible?" and the answer, frequently, began with mention of the visionary leadership of Jaime Lerner. Lerner is an architect and urban planner who was mayor of the City in the 1970s, and later governor of the state, under the military government of the 1970s and 80s. He not only saw problems in a multi-disciplinary way, but had the power to implement creative solutions quickly. The video above details some of the general approach. Most memorable are lines like "creativity begins when you take a 0 off your budget," his insistence that you have to work fast, and his focus on simple solutions. In the more democratic and process-based planning of the United States and of Brazil today, some of these solutions simply wouldn't be possible. We cannot, for example, decide on a Friday to close a major downtown street, repave it over the weekend, and have it open as a pedestrian mall, closed to vehicles forever, on Monday morning. But many of the challenges of slim budgets and the need for creative, simple and elegant solutions are familiar today. While I don't think anyone wants a military government, we can appreciate letting the experts do their job. As a result of his leadership and significant changes, Curitiba today has an astoundingly consistent rate of public approval of quality of life in the City, and a strong sense of pride in their government and place.
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