How To Get Things Done: Gil Penalosa Style
In his TEDxCarlton talk, Gil Penalosa, the Executive Director of the Canadian non-profit organization 8-80 Cities: Walk & Bike, Parks & Streets for All, walks us through the reverse engineering needed to create public places for people 8-80, meaning as young as 8 and as seasoned as 80.
Gil is a non-preachy straight shooter who gets to the root of the problem by stating, ”We’re thinking and talking, but not doing enough. How can we move from talking to doing?”
His visionary leadership style shines crystal clear when he asks, what if everything that we did in our public places had to be fantastic for everyone from age 8 to 80? His sense of inclusive community, fun for all, and better living environments is contagious. Although it’s not an emotion-heavy talk, he wears his heart on his sleeve when it comes to sharing his optimism; he acknowledges that change is hard, but he also soundly puts a positive spin on challenges by affirming that change also offers wonderful opportunities.
Gil doesn’t just nudge the viewer to move from talking to doing; he lays out the plan required to create 8-80 cities in the following five steps:
1. SENSE OF URGENCY
No matter what city you live in, time is of the essence, as can be seen by:
- traffic congestion
- climate change
- obesity crisis
- economic crisis
- population growth
The world population is going to grow by 3 billion people. We have to improve cities for those of us alive now, and for the 3 billion people who will eventually populate the planet.
If we design our cities around cars, we will see more cars. If we design our cities around people, we get healthier people.
2. POLITICAL WILL
Gil asks a key question: “Are we building streets for cars or for people?” In one of the images from his presentation he shows what 93 cars vs. 50,000 people look like. The power of pedestrians is not to be overlooked even on shopping value alone. The economic growth brought to an area by 93 cars is nothing compared to what 50,000+ shoppers does for stores. You can almost hear him pound a gentle mallet when he says, “Pedestrians and transit should come first.” Another poignant tale he tells is the one about how the New York City’s Commissioner of Transportation and the Commissioner of Planning were able to transform 9th avenue in 30 days. It wasn’t about money, it was about vision and guts.
3. LEADERSHIP
When it comes to leaders, he shoos away the usual suspects and lauds Ms. Ann Fenton, a phys ed teacher in Orangeville, Ontario, who noticed that very few kids walked to school. When she looked into it, she learned that the kids and their families were scared of all the traffic. Her response? She dressed up like up a pilot, closed the parking lot and created 5 drop-off zones. Almost overnight, kids started walking and biking to school. “We need thousands of Ann Fentons,” says Gil about this brave woman.
4. DOERS
Between 1995 and 2001, while Gil was the Commissioner of Parks, Sports and Recreation for the City of Bogota, Colombia, he spearheaded the design and development of over 200 parks! Not only that, a 280 km separated bicycle path network was put in, which resulted in an amazing cycling boom, growing from 28,000 daily riders to 350,000+. Plus, the world-famous ‘Ciclovía‘ [pedestrian focused weekly event] was born. Every single Sunday the roads get closed to cars; and not one penny was needed on infrastructure because the roads already existed. The community-building power of Ciclovía has been revolutionary – young and old, rich and poor are active together, not just some people. The weekly numbers are at 1.3 million people every Sunday! Not surprisingly, many cities around the world have successfully adopted the idea, including Los Angeles.
“Pedestrians, cyclists, then cars,” says Gil again. It’s a paradigm he will obviously champion to the death.
5. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
When you ask the community, people come with wonderful ideas. When in Sudbury for a town hall, Gil asked for ideas about getting people out walking and how to make them safe. One woman said that the street lights were all pointing towards the road, as opposed to pointing down to the sidewalk. This simple, low-cost idea was key to changing people’s transportation choices.
If there’s anything you take away from Gil’s TEDx talk, it’s this: We need to think outside the box. The solution to sustainability is not about money, it’s about the individual citizen’s political will.
