Curitiba, Brazil: Advantages vs. Disadvantages

Pro: Recycling initiatives both educate and increase participation in recycling. One incentive for recycling provides fresh produce in exchange for recyclables. Overall, the city recycles 22% of is solid waste.

Con: There is no tradition of participation. Recycling is proselytized to the middle class but is kept alive by carrinheiros (cart people), who are paid for collecting garbage. Is it ethical to use the poor for such purposes? There is only one landfill, and it will be exhausted by the end of next year.

Curitiba, Brazil: Advantages vs. Disadvantages

Pro: Lerner converted roads into pedestrian pathways, which improved business for shop owners and provided public space for inhabitants.

Con: Despite its development as a city for public transportation, Curitiba is said to have more cars per capita than any other city in Brazil.

Curitiba, Brazil: Advantages vs. Disadvantages

Pro: Curitiba's rapid-transit buses can move 36,000 passengers an hour, a cheap alternative to a subway system. Bus run on dedicated lanes along five arterial roads in the city.

Con: Many Curitibanos view public transport as noisy, crowded and unsafe. Because cars are status symbols, attempts to discourage people from buying them are probably futile.

Curitiba, Brazil: Advantages and Disadvantages

Pro: Jaime Lerner, who was Mayor of Curitiba for three terms between 1971 and 1992, as well as an architect and planner, initiated Curitiba's eco transformation.

Con: Some argue that Curitiba's environmentalism was possible because of Brazil's military dictatorship that ended in 1979. Many worry that current and future leaders will not be visionary enough.

Curitiba, Brazil: Advantages vs. Disadvantages

Pro: Parks, woods, gardens, and public areas represent an important and sizable portion of the city. The strict tree initiatives prohibit the cutting down trees without a permit and require that, for every tree that is cut down, two be planted.

Con: In part a victim of its own success, Curitiba has attracted thousands of squatters to shantytowns. Squatters often occupy land by rivers, both to obtain a water source and because, by law, the riverbanks can't be developed. Raw sewage from these settlements flows directly into the rivers.

Ecocity thematic chronology: organizations and policies

• Sierra Club founded in 1892 by John Muir. Frederick Law Olmsted was on the board of directors of Sierra Club.
• Regional Planning Association of America formed in 1923. Clarence Stein, Benton MacKaye, Lewis Mumford, Alexander Bing, and Henry Wright were the essential backbone of RPAA. RPAA promoted the idea of wilderness areas advanced earlier by John Muir and George Perkins Marsh.
• Green belt policy was pioneered in the U.K. in the 1930s.
• The New Deal of 1933 and 1934-1936
• In December 1983, amidst growing concern over declining ecological trends and the seeming incompatibility of economic and environmental perspectives, the UN Secretary-General responded to a UN General Assembly resolution by appointing Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway as Chair of an independent World Commission on Environment and Development.
• In April 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development released its report,Our Common Future. The Commission's embrace of sustainable development as an underlying principle gave political credibility to a concept many others had worked on over the previous decade. The Commission defined sustainable development as meeting "the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) Our Common Future. Oxford University Press, New York).
• OECD's Environmental Policies for Cities in the 1990s (OECD, 1990).
• Agenda 21 emerged from the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the 'Earth Summit' held in 1992 in Brazil) as a sustainable development action plan for the 21st century (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (1993). The Local Agenda 21 Initiative: ICLEI Guidelines for Local and National Local Agenda 21 Campaigns. ICLEI, Toronto).

Ecocity thematic chronology: contemporary notable people and events

• Richard Register forms Urban Ecology non-profit organization in 1975 ( Urban Ecology 'Mission Statement’, http://www.urbanecology.org/mission.htm).
• In 1985, Urban Ecology worked with Berkeley residents to create a plan for the Milvia “slow street,” which led to a redesign of the road to slow cars and create safer spaces for bicyclists, pedestrians, and residents.
• Richard Register writes Eco-city Berkeley in 1987 (Register, R. (1987). Eco-city Berkeley: Building Cities for a Healthy Future. North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, CA).
• Urban Ecology publishes two newsletters, The Sustainable Activist and The Urban Ecologist, along with Urban Ecology magazine.
• First International Eco-city Conference held in Berkeley in 1990, followed by other such conferences all over the world (Urban Ecology, Eco-city Conference 1990 Report (1990) Urban Ecology, Berkeley, CA).
• David Engwicht published Towards an Eco-City, later reissued in North America asReclaiming Our Cities and Towns (Engwicht, D. (1993). Reclaiming Our Cities and Towns: Better Living With Less Traffic. New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, BC.)
• With a focus on urban green space and biodiversity, planning Professor Rutherford B. Platt, with assistance from U.S. Man and Biosphere Program, the Chicago Academy of Sciences, US EPA, US Forest Service and National Park Service convened a sustainable cities symposium that was later compiled and edited into a book, The Ecological City (Platt, Rowntree, and Muick (eds.) The Ecological City: Preserving and Restoring Urban Biodiversity. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1994).
• Sim van der Ryn and Stuart Cowan published Ecological Design in 1995.
• In 1996, Urban Ecology published the Blueprint for a Sustainable Bay Area—a comprehensive publication that examines sustainability on multiple levels and offers specific recommendations for action.
• Patrick Condon promotes sustainable urban design through charrettes, lectures, and publications, such as «Design Charrettes for Sustainable Communities”. He established Smart Growth on the Ground charrettes with Smart Growth BC and is currently focused on the Sustainability by Design project, a vision for a sustainable region of 4 million.

Ecocity thematic chronology: the "Founding fathers"

Here I would like to list some of the "Founding Fathers" of ecocity concept.

• Frederick Law Olmsted and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. had an influence on most of the people and events below.
• Ebenezer Howard's «Garden city» (1902) influenced other «Founding Fathers», Patrick Geddes and Lewis Mumford, John Nolen's Plan of Venice, Florida, Peter Calthorpe's Regional City, and most of the later visionaries and events.
• Le Corbusier’s Plan Voisin (1929)
• Frank Lloyd Wright presents the Broadacre City idea (1932)
• McHarg, I (1969) Design With Nature. Natural History Press, New York.
• Alexander, C et al (1977). A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. Oxford University Press, New York.
• Spirn, A W (1984) The Granite Garden: Urban Nature and Human Design. Basic Books, New York.

Treasure Island, California

Treasure Island, CA is a man-made island that was built in 1939. It was a naval base from WWII to 1990s. After the Naval Station closed in 1997, Treasure Island was opened to residential and other uses, but according to the US EPA and the State Department of Toxic Substances Control, the groundwater and air are contaminated with asbestos, plutonium, radium and other substances which are known to cause cancer and other illnesses. Treasure Island was declared as a Superfund site.

In 2005, one of the largest developers in the United States proposed to build a self-sustaining city on Treasure Island. The proposal has 5,500 units of housing in several lowrise buildings, restaurants and a ferry terminal facing San Francisco. The plan also contains several midrise towers, four 40-story towers and one 60-story tower called the Sun Tower.

The proposal is designed to be as car-independent as possible, with the ferry terminal and basic goods within a 10-minute walk of the residences. A toll of $5 has been proposed to deter non-residents from driving onto the island. Streets will be angled in order to maximize solar energy for heating, cooling and lighting and protect residents from the wind. Every single building built on the island will have LEED Gold certification.

About half of the island's 400 acres will be set aside for open spaces, including an urban farm to supply organic local food to the residents, constructed wetlands to purify storm water runoff, and a restored natural forest ecosystem. All food scraps and grass clippings produced on the island will be composted for use by the farm. Electricity will come from a combination of solar (drawn from solar panels on the island's buildings), wind and biogas, and possibly also tidal energy.

Arcosanti, Arizona

Arcosanti was founded by Paolo Soleri in 1970. It is the first thoroughly integrated eco-city effort, which Santi called Arcology (mix of architecture and ecology). The arcology concept proposes a highly integrated and compact three-dimensional urban form that is the opposite of urban sprawl. Arcosanti is planned to be car-free, solar powered and largely food-self-sufficient by intent, though it is only a small fraction of the way toward completion. Today, the population of Arcosanti varies between 50-150 people, based on the number of students and volunteers on the site, but ultimately the town is intended to hold 5000 people. Currently there are 13 major structures on the site, of at most several stories in height, but the master plan envisions a massive complex, called Arcosanti 5000, that would dwarf the current buildings.

Many features are particular to the design and construction of Arcosanti, for example the use of tilt-up concrete panels that are cast in a bed of silt acquired from the surrounding area, which gives the concrete a unique texture and color and helps it blend in with the landscape. Most of the buildings are oriented toward the south to capture the sun's light and heat, but with roof designs that admit the maximum amount of sun in the winter and a minimal amount during the summer.

Arcosanti has succeeded more as an educational project. It has hosted over 6,000 participants over what has been almost 40 years.

Ecocity roots

Here I would like to list some of the important people that influenced the formation of ecocity concept. All of them agreed that filling in non-developed areas should be avoided. Also, all of them put emphasis on a sound knowledge of local ecological conditions.

Ebenezer Howard (1898)

The Garden Cities of Tomorrow around the turn of the 19th to 20th century were a self-conscious attempt at cities more harmonious with nature, probably marking the earliest modern eco-city efforts. Howard integrated advantages of cities and the countryside into the Garden City. The key to good living was seen as a provision of good housing and the rational organization of space. Industries designed to be located on the outskirts.

Patrick Geddes (1915)

Patrick Geddes believed that urban planning needed to build from a knowledge of natural regions and their resources. He regarded the river basin as the natural unit for examining different activities associated with cities. Within this context, it would be possible for residents to link with nature and with their own past. He also foresaw the important influences on city size that would be exerted by new technologies such as electicity and motor vehicles. He foresaw that it would be important to bring nature back into the city. He proposed urban settelemnts in a star-like form, with axes of natural space intruding into the city.

Lewis Mumford (1961)

Lewis Mumford took elements of social cohesion and city size of Howard, as well as the river basin approach of Geddes, to create a more direct link between ecological areas and city region development. He proposed new Garden City-type, decentralized urban developemnt, located in river basin regions.

Le Corbusier (1929)

Le Corbisier emphasized higher-density living with considerable provision of open space and generous tree planting in his Plan Voisin.

Richard Register (1970's-present)

In 1975, Richard Register and a few friends formed Urban Ecology, a non-profit organization to " build cities in balance with nature." In 1987, he wrote a book Eco-city Berkley about how Berkley can be ecologically rebuilt over the next several decades. Urban Ecology started publishing The Urban Ecologist journal in 1990. The momentum accelerated when Urban Ecology organized the first International Eco-city conference in 1990 in Berkley. 8th International Eco-city Conference took place this year (December 13-15) in Istanbul, Turkey.

Ecocity dimensions according to Mark Roseland

The ecocities theme does not stand alone but is situated in a complex array of relevant variations. Below is a list of relevant variations.

HEALTHY COMMUNITIES -- public health has been among the traditional responsibilities of local gov’t. In the last two decades, a new, broader conception of public health has been recognized, that in addition to medical care includes peace, shelter, education, food, income, a stable eco-system, sustainable resources, social justice, and equity.

APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY -- the central tenet of AT is that technology should be designed to fit into and be compatible with its local setting. It should serve people instead of making them the servant of machines. The main goal of the AT movement is to enhance the self-reliance of people on a local level.

COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT -- is a process by which communities can initiate and generate their own solutions to their common economic problems and thereby build long-term community capacity and foster the integration of economic, social and environmental objectives. Basically, the general objective is to take some measure of control of the local economy back from the markets and the state.

SOCIAL ECOLOGY -- focuses its critique on domination and hierarchy per se: the struggle for the liberation of women, of workers, of blacks, of native peoples, of gays and lesbians, of nature, is ultimately all part of the struggle against domination and hierarchy. The primary social unit of a proposed ecological society is ecocommunity, a human-scale, sustainable settlement based on ecological balance, community self-reliance, and participatory democracy.

THE GREEN MOVEMENT -- The Greens believe in 4 pillars of ecology, social responsibility, grassroots democracy, and nonviolence. These pillars translate into principles of community self-reliance, improving the quality of life, harmony with nature, decentralization, and diversity.

BIOREGIONALISM -- is oriented toward resistance against the continuing destruction of natural systems, such as forests and rivers; and toward the renewal of natural systems based on thorough knowledge of how natural systems work and the development of techniques appropriate for specific sites.

NATIVE WORLD VIEW -- many argue that sustainable patterns of resource use and management have for centuries been reflected in the belief and behavior systems of indigenous cultures. These systems have been based on a view that does not separate humans from their environment.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT -- defined as meeting “the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” This simple vague definition was also the foundation for Agenda 21, the document that emerged from the UN Conference on Environment and Development as a sustainable development action plan for the 21st century.

Ecocity definitions and principles

So, what is an ecocity? There are multiple definitions of ecocity and its principles. There is no single definition because definition needs to come from a local perspective. But, if you wanted a some kind of short definition, ecocity has been defined as "an ecologically healthy city." Mark Roseland, one of the leaders of ecocity movement, wrote the following, “The eco-city vision links ecological sustainability with social justice and the pursuit of sustainable livelihoods. It is a vision that acknowledges the ecological limits of growth, promotes ecological and cultural diversity and a vibrant community life, and supports a community-based, sustainable economy that is directed toward fulfilling real human needs, rather than just simply expanding.” Eco-city is not an end point, more a direction, something which the notion of organic planning seeks to capture.

Paul Downton and Richard Register, another influential people in ecocity movement, have similar lists of ecocity principles. I compiled their lists into one:

1. Restore Degraded Land

2. Fit the Bioregion

3. Balance Development

4. Create Compact Cities/Halt urban sprawl

5. Optimize Energy Performance

6. Contribute to the Economy

7. Provide Health and Safety

8. Encourage Community

9. Promote Social Justice and Equity

10. Enrich History and Culture