The City in the 21st Century: Celebrating the Reflective Practitioner

“An advanced city is not one where the poor own a car,” writes Enrique Peñalosa “but one where the rich use public transport.” Former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, Penalosa sees city design as projects that define human happiness, dignity, and equality. He worked to achieve that goal during his two terms (1998-2001 and 2016-2019) when he implemented the Transmilenio bike system and the city’s mass transit and bus rapid transit (BRT) systems, along with several other infrastructure projects including hospitals and public schools.

Join the Penn Institute for Urban Research and Penn Press in welcoming Peñalosa to campus on January 23 at 12:00pm for a talk on his book, Equality and the City: Urban Innovations for All Citizens. The book talk will be followed by with a panel discussion of reflective practitioners—urban leaders reflecting on and sharing their experiences. Panelists will include:

· Judith Rodin, former president of the University of Pennsylvania and author of The University and Urban Revival: Out of the Ivory Tower and Into the Streets

· Manny Diaz, former mayor of Miami and author of Miami Transformed: Rebuilding America One Neighborhood, One City at a Time

· Richard Freeland, former president of Northeastern, and author of Transforming the Urban University: Northeastern, 1996-2006.

· Eleanor Sharpe, urban planner and former Executive Director of Philadelphia City Planning Commission

This event celebrates Penn IUR’s 20th anniversary and its City in the 21st Century book series published with Penn Press. This interdisciplinary series of books addresses both topical and long-range issues confronting the world’s cities, from disaster response to cultural coexistence, from civic engagement to urban revitalization. Learn more here.

Lunch included.