01 Oct Atlanta Streets Alive Making Our City More People Friendly
This article by Maria Saporta was originally published in the SaportaReport.
Before the start of the bicycle parade and the official opening of Atlanta Streets Alive on Sunday afternoon, Atlanta City Council President Ceasar Mitchell declared: “We should do this every week in every corner of Atlanta.”
Little did he know, that’s exactly what the godfather of the “open streets” movement said cities should aspire to do.
Gil Penalosa, the former commissioner of parks in Bogota, Colombia, knows how to launch an “open streets” movement. In 1995, the city would close off nine miles of city streets to cars with several thousand participants.
