Urban design and development have always fascinated me, so much so that I nearly pursued my graduate degree in urban planning instead of development economics.

Enrique Peñalosa, former mayor of Bogotá, illustrates that the choice needn’t be so stark. The Times’ Deborah Solomon interviews the mayor in the Sunday Magazine:

Solomon: As a former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, who won wide praise for making the city a model of enlightened planning, you have lately been hired by officials intent on building world-class cities, especially in Asia and the developing world. What is the first thing you tell them?

Peñalosa: In developing-world cities, the majority of people don’t have cars, so I will say, when you construct a good sidewalk, you are constructing democracy. A sidewalk is a symbol of equality.

Solomon: I wouldn’t think that sidewalks are a top priority in developing countries.

Peñalosa: The last priority. Because the priority is to make highways and roads. We are designing cities for cars, cars, cars, cars, cars. Not for people. Cars are a very recent invention. The 20th century was a horrible detour in the evolution of the human habitat. We were building much more for cars’ mobility than children’s happiness.

Solomon: Even in countries where most people can’t afford to own cars?

Peñalosa: The upper-income people in developing countries never walk. They see the city as a threatening space, and they can go for months without walking one block.

I recommend the full interview.

The mayor is evidently influenced by the venerable Jane Jacobs. If you have not read the Death and Life of Great American Cities, you have missed out on one of the most influential books of the 20th century, and a personal favorite of mine.