Above: Children enjoying a walk in El Pueblo, Los Angeles. Photo credit: 8-80 Cities.

As a passionate advocate for cities, Gil Penalosa has been on my radar for a long time.  His work as commissioner of parks, sport and recreation in Bogota, Colombia, is legendary. And as a regular at Miami’s monthly Critical Mass bike ride, I am envious of cities that have adopted his Ciclovia model of declaring certain streets as “car-free” each Sunday, allowing cyclists, skaters and pedestrians to take over. RELATED LINK

“Forum convenes community leaders to move cities from talk to action” by Gil Penalosa on KnightBlog.org

Now, Gil does this work every day as the executive director of the nonprofit 8-80 Cities, and Knight Foundation is going to help with that outreach. Last year, Gil and I connected at the Adaptive Metropolis conference at University of California Berkeley. His compelling presentation on the need for 8-80 cities — cities that work for people from ages 8 to 80 — made me want to bring his message to Knight communities.

Fast forward to June this year in Chicago where 200 urban influentials, many from Knight communities, will gather to draft local blueprints for applying the principles of 8-80 Cities in their communities. Teams made up of city officials, nonprofit leaders, funders and business groups will spend three days learning from a stellar lineup of speakers and each other. They will also have an opportunity to experience open-air concerts and dancing in Chicago’s Millennium Park.

All 26 Knight Foundation communities have been invited to attend the “The Doable City” forum, and the response has been uniformly enthusiastic.

As Kim Walesh, director of economic development and chief strategist for the city of San Jose affirms, “We are thrilled to be invited to participate in this forum. The city of San Jose’s ‘Envision 2040’ plan hinges on creating a stronger urban fabric in San Jose; walkability, bikeability and public space are key elements of the city’s strategy moving forward. The opportunity to learn from international experts and peers from across the country is timely and will give us the chance to build a coalition of leaders committed to moving San Jose forward.”

I haven’t had an 8-year-old in a long time.  But I did have an 80-year-old mother until a few years ago.  I remember her deep frustration when she could no longer drive to her favorite coffee hangout each morning. Without a car, she could no longer enjoy an important source of neighborhood socializing. It wasn’t that far from her home. But she couldn’t cross the too-wide, too-busy street with the too-short pedestrian signal that separated her from the coffee shop. 

How tragic it is that we’ve built our cities on the assumption that all of us will drive or be driven everywhere, even to the neighborhood coffee shop. 

8-80 Cities offers a very different vision for our cities. And as Gil Penalosa has shown us in Bogota and now in cities across the world, that vision is very much within reach. We just need to begin.

Carol Coletta, vice president of community and national initiatives at Knight Foundation