Reimagining in the Re-Vision of the City of Bogota - Report Example

Reimagining your neighborhood Sustainability is an essential feature that all cities and towns all over the world should exhibit. The concept refers to the ability of a city or town to accommodate the increasing number of residents without experiencing system failures that result in either environmental degradation or cultural conflicts. City planners must therefore consider particular features of their designs in order to capture all the intricate features of the urban settlement. This way, they develop a city with minimal conflicts as the populations of the city increases. Population increase is one fundamental feature that every town and urban center must consider in order to achieve the sustainability. With time, the number of people moving into towns is likely to increase. The increase in the population of the city increases pressure on most of the social amenities in the city thereby resulting in the progressive degradation of the city. A city planer must capture fundamental features that will ensure that as the city grows, it maintains its glamour and sustainability as portrayed in the re-vision of the city of Bogota in the essay bellow. Bogota is the capital and the largest city of Colombia. With a population of about eight million people, the city is the most populated city in the country. The city of Bogota has a population density of four thousands eight hundred per square kilometer and therefore one of the most populated city in the world. Among the factors that have led to the high population in the country is the fact that the city doubles up as the economic capital of Colombia. The city is a home to the country’s leading companies and the promise of a job and a better life continues to attract new city residents annually. Everyone within the city of Bogota should be fairly placed to coexist with others. There should be no favoritism of any kind. Derricotte’s book, The black Notebook, has relevance to the vision for Bogota. Being a multicultural society, Bogota is bound to experience social inequalities. These would be similar to the kind of social injustice that Derricote highlights in her book when she moved to a white neighborhood with her husband. In the book she says that since she had a lighter skin than her husband, she was the one who went to real estate firms looking for their house because earlier attempts with him made them be directed to black neighborhoods (Derricotte 13). Despite being black, her lighter skin made her a bit different from the other blacks. What she vouches for is a just society where everyone embraces what she likens as ‘self-perception’. This would be a welcomed idea for the Bogota in the future. Cultural sensibility is a fundamental social fabric for a successful society. Since the city is Columbia’s capital, it is a multicultural society. Historically, the city had indigenous people who then were colonized by the Spanish. However, modernity means that the social structure of the society is multiracial. For the fairness of the society of Bogota, the city should adopt the views presented by Derricotte in that despite the racial or social differences amongst the people of the city, they should embrace one another. In doing so, the society would be fair to all. The foundation of a successful society is equality. The author goes on to assert that self-hating is a destructive trait (Derricotte 14). If everyone living in Bogota gets to know some of the reasons fronted by Derriccotte for a socially just society, then the city is likely to witness a transformation. In fact, it might attract more people as well as expatriates who would work for the betterment of the society in view of the great vision that the city has. Worster in Nature, Liberty, and Equality categorically states that the responsibility of safeguarding nature cuts across the planet, whether it’s in Brazil or even Zimbabwe (Lewis 263). He even highlights the concept of ahimsa in Buddhism which essentially propagates for care towards every living creature (Lewis 263). In view of the developments that are in the re-vision for the city of Bogota, there must be a deliberate move aimed at conserving some of the existing natural as well as cultural resources in the area. This is very important if the balance between nature and human development is to be maintained. Sustainability is a concept which must be included in every modern development. The city of Bogota has modern infrastructure such as railway lines as well as planned out buildings. However, there is some irregularity in the way the planning has been done in the upscale areas when compared to the low end neighborhoods. Recreational facilities such as parks which have indigenous vegetation should be part of the city’s grand plans. This would go a long way in helping regulate the balance between the gases emitted in the industrial park with the natural concentration of gases in the air. Carbon emission should be reduced to near zero. This is possible f careful planning is included in the designing of the industrial machines. Basically, this would involve having mechanisms for recycling the gases. Despite the high population, the city still manages to retain some of its cultural glamour owing to the iconic buildings that exhibit cultural undertones. The city has several skyscrapers some of which have succeeded in positioning the city in the global map. Some of the features of the city including buildings and sculpture portray the Spanish cultures while others retain the cultural features of the people of Columbia. The cosmopolitan society portrays the diversity of the people of Colombia, which it strives to achieve through the numerous social amenities that capture the cultural diversity. The city has several parks and museums among many others special interest areas that capture the cultural manifestation of the city’s population. In the 1990s, Bogota was one of the most violent cities in the world with the number of criminal gangs rising in the city. The soaring crime rate was a social vice that manifested the city planners’ failure to consider the effects of high population in an urban center. The high population increased pressure on the merger resources thereby resulting in the high crime rates as everyone strived to survive. Additionally, the high population resulted in environmental degradation through the development of slums in the neighborhoods of the city as the people strived to settle. Slums are realistic manifestation of the failures of the city planners in capturing the future of a city. The increase of slum areas in the outskirts of the city of Bogota did not only increased the rate of environmental degradation but also resulted in the development of criminal territories as gangs took over such informal settlements thereby terrorizing the city’s residence. Redesign of Bogota Traffic is yet another feature of the city that does not only result in environmental degradation but also the loss of productive man-hours as people sot in traffic. The new plan of the city will provide for features that will eliminate the vice. Key among the features is the development of a large highway out of the city in order to facilitate the movement of cargo without necessarily passing through the city. Additionally, the roads network will provide for large exists out of the city most of which will be strategically closer to the industrial areas thereby providing the manufacturers with efficient transit of their products without their trucks piling pressure on the city’s traffic. The new plan will also encourage the use of public means of transport in order to curb the current pollution arising from the high number of smaller cars on the road. The elimination of the private cars will significantly reduce the traffic congestion thereby saving some of the productive time the people of Bogota lose in traffic. In addressing this, the new plan will provide an elaborate plan for the development of train and bus stations in strategic parts of the city in order to facilitate the movement of people. Train is one of the most efficient mode of city transport. The new plan will provide for the development of aesthetic and strategic development of efficient train service throughout the city in order to increase both the reputation and the efficiency of the public transport in order to increase the use of such services thereby reducing pollution. In a summary, the new city of Bogota must achieve an aesthetic appeal by portraying the cultural diversity of the people while maintaining a degree of cleanliness and orderliness required of a contemporary urban center. The new plan for the city will provide for the strategic development of stadiums, parks and museums throughout the city in order to capture some of the cultural features of the people. Additionally, the plan will encourage the development of appropriate structures including buildings and sculptures throughout the city in order to capture the cultural diversity of the people of Bogota. Works cited Derricotte, Toi. The Black Notebooks: An Interior Journey. New York: W.W. Norton, 1999. Print. http://www.amazon.com/The-Black-Notebooks-Interior-Journey/dp/0393319016 Lewis, Michael L. American Wilderness: A New History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. Internet resource. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=mqaKToSQHL4C&pg=PA263&lpg=PA263&dq=nature,+liberty+and+equality+by+Worster&source=bl&ots=kDYEv_Jpbw&sig=0eN-5rxApccWoo69X5RjKnPfbjM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=744MU6jND8Xb7AaP3oHAAg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=nature%2C%20liberty%20and%20equality%20by%20Worster&f=false Read More