Urban Happiness with Enrique Peñalosa!

[Note: This is an event not to be missed!]

Urban Happiness with Enrique Peñalosa! Hosted by LivableStreets Alliance
What happens when you give street space back to people?
Thursday, February 5, 6:30 pm
@ Boston Public Library, Copley Square, Rabb Lecture Hall

This event is free and open to the public. Enrique Peñalosa is a special guest speaker in the StreetTalk lecture series hosted by LivableStreets Alliance.

An accomplished public official, economist and administrator, Enrique Peñalosa completed his three-year term as Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia on December 31, 2000. While mayor, Peñalosa was responsible for numerous radical improvements to the city and its citizens. He promoted a city model giving priority to children and public spaces and restricting private car use, building hundreds of kilometers of sidewalks, bicycle paths, pedestrian streets, greenways, and parks. He received the Stockholm Challenge Award for organizing a Car-Free Day in 2000 and a referendum vote then endorsed it annually. As part of the pico y plata license plate restriction program, he removed 40% of cars during peak hours. Peñalosa also led efforts to improve Bogotá's marginal neighborhoods through citizen involvement; planted more than 100,000 trees; created a new, highly successful bus-based transit system; and turned a deteriorated downtown avenue into a dynamic pedestrian public space. He helped transform the city's attitude from one of negative hopelessness to one of pride and hope, developing a model for urban improvement based on the equal rights of all people to transportation, education, and public spaces.

This event is part of a 4-day series of events hosted by LivableStreets Alliance and sponsored by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, in collaboration with WalkBoston, Institute for Human Centered Design, Bikes Not Bombs, Charles River Conservancy, and MassBike.

For more information, check out www.livablestreets.info or contact Jackie Douglas at (617) 621-1746, jackie@livablestreets.info.


For a flyer about the event, check out http://www.livablestreets.info/files/Penalosa_5feb09_BPL.pdf