Commentary––

An Inside Peek Into The Future

By William A. Collins

Foreign travel,

How we yearn;

There to find,

We’ve much to learn.

Not so many tourists visit Curitiba, Brazil. No oceans surge here. No mountains loom. The 1.6 million Curitibans don’t even celebrate Carnaval, reserving it instead for kids. Nonetheless, a few oddball Americans do visit from time to time, in order to savor some very special charms. Curitiba, you see, is alleged to be the most progressively managed city in the world.

The clearest manifestation of this claim is its bus system, since copied profitably by Bogota. The main routes are served by reticulated monsters holding 279 riders each, traveling in exclusive lanes. One mounts through an elevated tubular station, paying a flat fee at the turnstile. Much like a subway. When the bus arrives, multiple doors open, gangplanks fall, and riders whisk on and off in a flash. Not a moment wasted. The fare is 50 cents.

In the newer parts of town the impact of this system is instructive. Tall apartment buildings and dense retail nodes are sprouting near the main stops. Who needs to fight the traffic into town when you can get there quicker by bus, for 50 cents? It’s like a city planning exercise played out with real people.

Curitiba has conjured up a few other wrinkles too. Although more than an hour by car from the sea, the city boasts over 20 real lighthouses, somewhat startling to stumble upon. Each marks a neighborhood center with free computer education and Internet access for those who cannot afford their own.

The same principle holds for meals and lodging for the indigent. As a rich community, the city is a magnet for impoverished migrants from the nation’s bitterly poor North. These folks, however, are not left outdoors to stew in their own juice. Good meals are available for 35 cents, and a small room is offered for free until they get on their feet. For the drug addicts, that can be a long time.

Not surprisingly, such a city is heavy on arts and parks. Citizens enjoy more open space per capita than urban dwellers anywhere, and have one park entirely devoted to arts and crafts. Another leads children through the woods on the trail of Hanzel and Gretel. Galleries and performance venues abound, and the opera house is a tube and glass version of the Crystal Palace.

Even the municipal budgeting system is novel. A certain portion of government revenue is assigned to each neighborhood for its services and improvements. Priorities within these neighborhoods are then set at a series of public forums, much like Connecticut town meetings. As an autocratic old mayor I’m not sure how I’d cotton to that.

Such services do not come cheap, of course. And Curitiba is not simply a rich suburb. Rather it is a whole metropolitan area, taking in all walks of life. As it was explained to us, in general there is more government money available for services in Brazil because the nation does not do wars. Its only military monuments honor a skirmish with Paraguay in the 19th Century. Indeed the new president has just cancelled a contract for Pratt & Whitney-powered American fighter jets, advising that the money is more needed for the poor. But the nation does have an overwhelming financial burden, as do all Latin countries, owed to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (US).

Despite these expenses, living in Curitiba is cheap by our standards. A new two-bedroom, two-bath condo runs about $35,000, and a fine meal for two, $25. But you will be expected to do some heavy recycling. This was one of the first places in the world where that concept took hold. Thus the typical family’s weekly garbage output is down to a couple of tiny bags, and overall the city is refreshingly clean.

For those of us accustomed to believing that America leads the world in everything, Curitiba is an eye-opener.

(Columnist William A. Collins is a former state representative and a former mayor of Norwalk.)