What makes a city a great place to live – your commute, property prices or good conversation?
By Charles Montgomery
The Guardian, Friday 1 November 2013
Two bodyguards trotted behind Enrique Peñalosa,
their pistols jostling in holsters. There was nothing remarkable about
that, given his profession – and his locale. Peñalosa was a politician
on yet another campaign, and this was Bogotá, a city with a reputation
for kidnapping and assassination. What was unusual was this: Peñalosa
didn't climb into the armoured SUV. Instead, he hopped on a mountain
bike. His bodyguards and I pedalled madly behind, like a throng of
teenagers in the wake of a rock star.
A few years earlier, this ride would have been a radical and – in the
opinion of many Bogotáns – suicidal act. If you wanted to be assaulted,
asphyxiated by exhaust fumes or run over, the city's streets were the
place to be. But Peñalosa insisted that things had changed. "We're
living an experiment," he yelled back at me. "We might not be able to
fix the economy. But we can design the city to give people dignity, to
make them feel rich. The city can make them happier."
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