A recent column in the LA Times discusses a visit from influential city planning guru Jaime Lerner, former mayor of Curitiba, Brazil. Lerner is credited with instituting many urban planning innovations that helped to make Curitiba one of the first and most impressive sustainable cities in the world. He mentioned the idea of urban acupunture with the Los Angeles planning board.

The idea of urban acupuncture is to focus on urban “pressure points” to create positive ripple effects that affect the entire community. Lerner discussed the installation well-designed buildings, features or streetscapes in blighted areas to make everything around it look better.

Lerner also promotes the use of bus rapid transit to improve the quality of life, with the philosophy that transportation should be more pleasant and sustainable.

Curitiba has achieved an urban design that does not separate the places that residents live, work, play and shop. To learn more about what makes Curitiba impressive, visit this post on My Wonderful World Blog.

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