Ryan Gravel: How an old loop of railroads is changing the face of a city
Ryan Gravel: Jak stara linia kolejowa zmienia miasto
Ryan Gravel is an architect and urban planner who played a key role in developing the Atlanta BeltLine. Full bio
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in college in the mid-'90s.
kiedy studiowałem rok w Paryżu.
like a French anarchist --
jak francuski anarchista.
I'd lost 15 pounds
zrzuciłem prawie 7 kg
by highways and automobiles
z autostrad i samochodów,
as a poster child for sprawl,
skupisk miejskich w akcjach społecznych.
the way I understood
of infrastructure --
roli infrastruktury:
from point A to point B,
jak dostać się z punktu A do punktu B,
or sewage or energy,
ściekami czy dostawą energii,
and for our culture,
życia społecznego i kultury
to the way that we live.
I was instantly frustrated,
od razu poczułem frustrację.
the top end of our perimeter highway.
przekroczenia obwodnicy.
that were hurtling past me,
mknących obok mnie ludzi,
and their music blaring.
i wsłuchanych w głośną muzykę.
an inevitable outcome,
this condition in Atlanta
that I wanted to live in?
in architecture and city planning,
z architektury i urbanistyki,
of old railroad circling downtown
okrążającej centrum miasta
for urban revitalization.
służącą rewitalizacji miasta.
we would actually build it.
że naprawdę to zbudujemy.
at an architecture firm,
w firmie architektonicznej
to my coworkers about it,
ten pomysł współpracownikom,
to more people about it,
city council president.
around this idea:
opartą na tym oto pomyśle:
czyli długą na około 35 km pętlę,
i dróg komunikacyjnych.
for two and a half years,
chodziłem na dwa czy trzy spotkania,
and a handful of volunteers.
oraz garstka wolontariuszy.
of people and ideas.
ten niesamowity ruch ludzi i pomysłów.
przyzwyczajeni do walki przeciw czemuś.
who were used to fighting against things,
as something that they could fight for;
że mogą walczyć również o coś.
of new growth in the city;
wykorzystania rozwoju miasta,
who saw their mission
non profit, których misję
by the shared vision.
ten wspólny projekt.
aren't at the same table
nie zasiadają do jednego stołu
and it was kind of weird,
fell in love with a vision
through their car windshields,
co widzieli zza okien samochodów.
be building it otherwise.
że inaczej by się to nie udało.
our coalition was diverse.
byliśmy zróżnicowaną grupą.
were part of our story.
of the economic spectrum loved it, too.
osobom o niższym statusie ekonomicznym.
they weren't going to be able to be there
że kiedy pętla zostanie zbudowana,
that they'd be priced out.
that kind of story before, right?
the Atlanta BeltLine would be different,
że z Atlanta BeltLine będzie inaczej.
than anything we ever imagined
co przeszło nasze oczekiwania,
subsidies for housing,
a list that continues to grow.
zasadzono drzewa... i wiele więcej.
that were required to make it happen.
of implementation, and it's working.
wdrażania i pomysł się sprawdza.
of trail was opened in 2012,
otwarto w 2012 roku
over three billion dollars
ponad trzy miliardy dolarów
the physical form of the city,
we think about the city,
w jaki je postrzegamy,
for living there.
co do życia w mieście.
to the grocery store
to get in the car.
do sklepu spożywczego".
how ridiculous that is,
that their expectations for Atlanta
że spodziewają się po Atlancie
is exactly like sprawl
in highways and automobiles
within it, of course.
making millions of decisions
not only the way that we build cities,
jak budujemy miasta,
for urban sprawl.
and strip malls and cul-de-sacs we wanted.
i ślepe uliczki, których pragnęliśmy.
of the places we live
w których żyjemy,
are happening at that time.
które wtedy się działy.
was breaking down barriers,
began its march
obywatelskich w USA,
of our nation's promise.
obietnice naszego narodu.
business -- everything was changing,
biznes - zmieniało się wszystko.
and private sectors were colluding
działały razem,
before there were highways.
to understand and acknowledge
aby zrozumieć i przyznać,
to some groups of people
in wonder and disgust, maybe,
być może ze zdziwieniem i niesmakiem,
of that inequity?
w dziedzictwie tej nierówności?
traffic hellscape?
w dystopicznym piekle ulicznym?
urban displacement,
powodowanym gentryfikacją,
and permanent outcomes?
i tak już będzie zawsze?
of our collective cultural decisions
from our experience in Atlanta
are playing out everywhere,
not only old railroads,
nie tylko stare tory kolejowe,
and obsolete roadways,
miejskie kanały czy przestarzałe drogi
are reclaiming and reinventing
przejmuje się i przekształca
of all catalyst infrastructure projects,
który dał potem początek kolejnym,
for which similarly started
który też początkowo
of being transformed
przekształcania tego terenu
infrastructure again,
and fishing and boating
miejscami dla wędkarzy i łodzi.
and flood control.
kontroli jakości i poziomu wody.
the lives of people.
poprawia ludziom życie.
the rest of us think about Los Angeles.
nasz sposób myślenia o Los Angeles.
local food, urban agriculture,
lokalnych produktów, miejskie uprawy,
kulturę "zrób to sam",
early indicators of a really radical shift
zwiastunów radykalnej zmiany
with these catalyst projects today,
z tych pionierskich projektów
don't usually benefit everyone.
nie działają na korzyść wszystkich.
by this cultural momentum
uwolnionych przez rozwój kultury
prices and rents.
podatków, cen i czynszów.
to not improve communities.
and transit and grocery stores.
czy komunikacji miejskiej.
to hold communities down
tłumienie inicjatyw społecznych,
and address the financial realities
i odpowiedzieć na rzeczywistość finansową,
happen on its own.
to this goal in Atlanta,
Ja działam na rzecz Atlanty.
who made it possible in the first place.
którzy zapoczątkowali ten ruch.
commitments to all those years
działałem przez te lata,
as my graduate thesis
with thousands of people
the BeltLine is being built for
dla kogo budowana jest pętla BeltLine,
as whether it's built at all.
czy w ogóle powstanie.
whose lives we are changing,
których życie zmieniamy.
we just need to speak up.
comes on our terms.
na naszych warunkach.
in the process of shaping change.
w procesie kształtowania się zmian.
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