Catalina Gomez, Curitiba Community Manager
URB.IM is pleased to introduce Curitiba as one of the new cities covered by the platform. Curitiba, located in Brazil’s southern region, is the capital of the state of Paraná. The city has 1.7 million residents, making it the eighth largest in the country. The city is also the epicenter of the Curitiba Metropolitan Region, which is a conglomerate of 26 municipalities of approximately 3.2 million residents (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estadística-IBGE).
Curitiba has the tenth highest Human Development Index ranking in Brazil (0.82), clearly standing out among the country’s 5565 municipalities. Given the excellent quality of life and the adequate social indicators, URB.IM will be periodically presenting some of Curitiba’s highlights on urban and social development to better understand some of the factors behind its successes.
One of the main reasons for Curitiba’s reputation as a model city is that it heavily relies on the culture of urban planning. The city is known to have adopted a planning culture since the ’60s, when it created Curitiba’s Research and Urban Planning Institute, known as the Instituto de Pesquisa e Planejamento Urbano de Curitiba (IPPUC), in an effort to adequately plan its sustainable development. The IPPUC is a government institution, but it is heavily technical and aims to support the planning, design, and further implementation of the city’s main infrastructure and development programs. It participates in the formulation of the city’s Master Plan as well as in other sectoral plans, ensuring they are properly interrelated and coordinated.
The IPPUC, along with other local government institutions, has been leading the planning of a city fit for all its residents. Its approach to urbanism in low-income neighborhoods is innovative in that it is highly focused on integrating these communities into the formal city through better infrastructure and services. This means that the urban, social, economic, and environmental needs of low-income areas are taken into account in the overall city planning, rather than in isolated initiatives separate from the formal planning process. An example of this integrated approach is the well-known bus-based rapid transit system, which was planned out by the IPPUC in the late 1970s, and which became one of the pioneering transportation systems of its kind. Indeed, it has been replicated successfully in various Latin American cities such as Bogotá and Mexico City, and in many others throughout the world. One of the main highlights of the system is that it was designed to be within the reach of even the poorest neighborhoods, enabling their physical integration with the city. The innovative design of the buses and stations, plus their adaptation for people with disabilities, and the system’s integrative function in serving most areas of the city has been recognized internationally.
Beyond the well-known urban transportation system, Curitiba is also known for its excellent urban services, which are accessible even to low-income residents. Worth highlighting are the Ruas da Cidadania (or “Citizen Streets”), a series of public offices spread around the city. They gather decentralized public administrative offices, where city residents can issue basic documentation, access government information on social programs, and pay for public services. The Ruas da Cidadania are meant to concentrate all services, saving time and costs. In addition, all the “Ruas” are located close to the main transportation system stations in an effort to facilitate access to social and urban services for all residents.
Photo credit: URBS Curitiba