Ryan Gravel: How an old loop of railroads is changing the face of a city
Ryan Gravel: Cómo un viejo circuito de vías de tren está cambiando la cara de una ciudad
Ryan Gravel is an architect and urban planner who played a key role in developing the Atlanta BeltLine. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
in college in the mid-'90s.
en la universidad a mediados de los 90's.
like a French anarchist --
un anarquista francés.
I'd lost 15 pounds
había perdido 7 kilos
el suburbio de Atlanta,
by highways and automobiles
por carreteras y automóviles
as a poster child for sprawl,
de la expansión urbana,
the way I understood
el modo que entendía
a mi alrededor,
of infrastructure --
de la infraestructura,
from point A to point B,
gente del punto A al punto B,
or sewage or energy,
agua, drenaje o energía,
and for our culture,
y para nuestra cultura,
to the way that we live.
a la manera en que vivimos.
I was instantly frustrated,
me frustré instantáneamente,
the top end of our perimeter highway.
el final de nuestra carretera perimetral.
no movía ni un músculo,
that were hurtling past me,
que pasaban a mi lado,
and their music blaring.
y su música rugiendo.
an inevitable outcome,
un resultado inevitable,
algo al respecto.
this condition in Atlanta
esta condición en Atlanta
that I wanted to live in?
en la que yo quería vivir?
arquitectura y planificación de ciudad,
in architecture and city planning,
en infraestructura,
of old railroad circling downtown
la vieja vía férrea que rodea el centro
for urban revitalization.
para la revitalización urbana.
we would actually build it.
at an architecture firm,
a una empresa de arquitectura,
to my coworkers about it,
to more people about it,
a más gente de esto,
Cathy Woolard,
del consejo ciudadano.
city council president.
la ciudad basada en esta idea:
around this idea:
un circuito de 35 kilómetros
for two and a half years,
por semana por dos años y medio,
and a handful of volunteers.
y un grupo de voluntarios.
of people and ideas.
movimiento de personas e ideas.
who were used to fighting against things,
quienes solían pelear contra cosas,
algo por lo que podían luchar,
as something that they could fight for;
of new growth in the city;
crecimiento en la ciudad;
who saw their mission
que vieron su misión
by the shared vision.
por la visión compartida.
aren't at the same table
no están de un mismo lado
and it was kind of weird,
fell in love with a vision
se enamoró con una visión
through their car windshields,
a través de sus parabrisas,
be building it otherwise.
hubiéramos construido de otra manera.
our coalition was diverse.
nuestra coalición fue diversa.
were part of our story.
fueron parte de nuestra historia.
of the economic spectrum loved it, too.
del espectro económico lo amaron también.
they weren't going to be able to be there
capaces de estar allí
que serían dejados de lado.
that they'd be priced out.
that kind of story before, right?
este tipo de historias antes, ¿verdad?
the Atlanta BeltLine would be different,
BeltLine sería diferente,
than anything we ever imagined
que hubiéramos imaginado
subsidies for housing,
significativos para vivienda,
a list that continues to grow.
una lista que continua creciendo.
that were required to make it happen.
que eran requeridas para hacerlo realidad.
of implementation, and it's working.
implementación, y está funcionando.
of trail was opened in 2012,
de la ruta fue abierta en 2012,
over three billion dollars
3 mil millones de dolares
la forma física de la ciudad,
the physical form of the city,
we think about the city,
que pensamos de la ciudad,
for living there.
to the grocery store
conmigo a la tienda,
to get in the car.
how ridiculous that is,
es eso,
that their expectations for Atlanta
expectativas para Atlanta
is exactly like sprawl
es exactamente como la expansión
in highways and automobiles
en carretera y automóviles
la vida estadounidense.
within it, of course.
dentro de ella, por supuesto.
tomando millones de decisiones
making millions of decisions
not only the way that we build cities,
no solo el modo de construir ciudades,
for urban sprawl.
para la expansión urbana.
en aquel tiempo.
and strip malls and cul-de-sacs we wanted.
comerciales y carreteras que quisimos.
por un impulso cultural.
of the places we live
de los lugares que vivimos
are happening at that time.
pasando en ese momento.
was breaking down barriers,
fue rompiendo barreras,
empezó su marcha
began its march
of our nation's promise.
de nuestra nación.
business -- everything was changing,
viajes, negocios; todo estaba cambiando,
and private sectors were colluding
privados y público, conspiraron
before there were highways.
antes de que hubiera carreteras.
to understand and acknowledge
de entender y reconocer
en ciertos grupos de personas
to some groups of people
in wonder and disgust, maybe,
asombro y disgusto, tal vez,
antes de nosotros,
si estamos atrapados.
de la falta de equidad?
of that inequity?
traffic hellscape?
distópico del infierno?
urban displacement,
urbano desenfrenado,
aislamiento social
and permanent outcomes?
inevitables y permanentes?
nuestras decisiones culturales colectivas
of our collective cultural decisions
para nosotros?
from our experience in Atlanta
de nuestra experiencia en Atlanta
are playing out everywhere,
suceden en varios lugares,
not only old railroads,
no sólo viejas vías férreas,
and obsolete roadways,
degradados y calzadas obsoletas,
are reclaiming and reinventing
mundo están reclamando y reinventando
of all catalyst infrastructure projects,
catalizadores de infraestructura,
for which similarly started
que empezó similarmente
en un impulso cultural,
of being transformed
de ser transformado
infrastructure again,
que reafirma la vida,
and fishing and boating
pesca, paseo en barco
and flood control.
y control de inundación.
the lives of people.
la vida de los personas.
the rest of us think about Los Angeles.
de nosotros piensa de Los Angeles.
para nosotros mismos.
local food, urban agriculture,
local, agricultura urbana,
la cultura del hacedor,
early indicators of a really radical shift
de un cambio muy radical
with these catalyst projects today,
con estos proyectos catalizadores hoy día,
don't usually benefit everyone.
normalmente no benefician a todos.
by this cultural momentum
por este impulso cultural
aparentemente imparable
prices and rents.
y alquileres en alza
to not improve communities.
no mejorar las comunidades.
and transit and grocery stores.
parques, tránsito y tiendas.
to hold communities down
oprimir las comunidades
and address the financial realities
las realidades financieras
happen on its own.
y no sucederá por sí solo.
to this goal in Atlanta,
con esta meta en Atlanta,
who made it possible in the first place.
que hicieron esto posible en primer lugar.
commitments to all those years
comprometí todos estos años
as my graduate thesis
como mi tesis de graduación
with thousands of people
con miles de personas
the BeltLine is being built for
el BeltLine está siendo construido
as whether it's built at all.
como la construcción en si misma.
whose lives we are changing,
cuyas vidas están cambiando,
son inevitables.
necesitamos hablar.
we just need to speak up.
cambio venga en nuestros términos.
comes on our terms.
in the process of shaping change.
en el proceso de darle forma al cambio.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Ryan Gravel - Urban planner, designer, authorRyan Gravel is an architect and urban planner who played a key role in developing the Atlanta BeltLine.
Why you should listen
Ryan Gravel is an urban planner, designer and author working on site design, infrastructure, concept development and public policy as the founding principal at Sixpitch. His Master's thesis in 1999 was the original vision for the Atlanta Beltline, a 22-mile transit greenway that, with fifteen years of progress, is changing both the physical form of his city and the decisions people make about living there. Now a $4 billion public-private investment in the early stages of implementation, the project's health and economic benefits are already evident through record-breaking use of its first section of mainline trail and $3.1 billion of private-sector investment since 2005.
Alongside project work at Sixpitch and research on similar "catalyst infrastructure" projects around the world, Gravel's new book makes a compelling case about what these unexpected assets mean for our lives and why they matter. In Where We Want to Live – Reclaiming Infrastructure for a New Generation of Cities (St. Martin's Press, 2016), he summons the streets of Paris, the spirit of Detroit, the unruly Los Angeles River and dozens of other examples to illustrate how a new cultural momentum is illuminating a brighter path forward for cities. Through insightful narrative, Gravel articulates how projects like the Atlantas Beltline, New York's High Line and Houston's Buffalo Bayou are part of this movement and how they will ultimately transform our way of life with the same magnitude that automobiles and highways did in the last century. More than discrete projects, he argues, they represent a shared vision for our future that will require us to forget tired arguments about traffic, pollution, blight and sprawl -- and instead leverage those conditions as assets in the creation of something far more interesting than anything we’ve seen so far.
Gravel's early work as a volunteer and later across the nonprofit, public and private sectors has brought his long-term commitment to sustainable city building full circle -- from vision, to advocacy, to planning, design and implementation. He speaks internationally and has received numerous awards for his work on the project.
Gravel's latest pipedream is a nonprofit idea studio called Generator, to be funded in part by a bar. While juggling two kids, amazing projects like the Atlanta City Design and requests for help navigating impacts from the Atlanta Beltline, he's also taking time to look up and enjoy the city he wants to live in.
Ryan Gravel | Speaker | TED.com