Ryan Gravel: How an old loop of railroads is changing the face of a city
Ryan Gravel: Como uma velha rota de uma rede ferroviária está mudando a cara de uma cidade
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.
em Paris, em meados da década de 1990.
like a French anarchist --
parecendo um anarquista francês,
I'd lost 15 pounds
by highways and automobiles
por estradas e automóveis,
as a poster child for sprawl,
the way I understood
a forma como eu entendia
of infrastructure --
pelo papel da infraestrutura,
from point A to point B,
pessoas do ponto A para o B.
or sewage or energy,
ou esgoto ou energia,
and for our culture,
e de nossa cultura,
to the way that we live.
para a forma como vivemos.
fiquei imediatamente frustrado,
I was instantly frustrated,
the top end of our perimeter highway.
na nossa via expressa.
that were hurtling past me,
que passavam voando por mim,
and their music blaring.
e a música bombando.
an inevitable outcome,
seria uma consequência inevitável
this condition in Atlanta
essa situação em Atlanta
that I wanted to live in?
em arquitetura e planejamento urbano,
in architecture and city planning,
para o projeto da minha tese:
of old railroad circling downtown
da velha ferrovia que circulava no centro
for urban revitalization.
para revitalização urbana.
we would actually build it.
colocá-la em prática.
at an architecture firm,
numa firma de arquitetura
to my coworkers about it,
to more people about it,
foi eleita presidente da Câmara municipal,
city council president.
around this idea:
em torno desta ideia:
uma malha de 35 km
for two and a half years,
de duas a três reuniões por semana,
and a handful of volunteers.
e um punhado de voluntários.
of people and ideas.
impressionante de pessoas e ideias.
who were used to fighting against things,
acostumados a lutar contra coisas,
as something that they could fight for;
algo pelo qual valia a pena lutar;
of new growth in the city;
novo crescimento da cidade;
who saw their mission
sem fins lucrativos que viram sua missão
by the shared vision.
por essa visão compartilhada.
aren't at the same table
não se sentam à mesma mesa
and it was kind of weird,
fell in love with a vision
se apaixonou por uma visão
through their car windshields,
pelos para-brisas de seus carros,
be building it otherwise.
não fosse, não teríamos conseguido.
our coalition was diverse.
nossa aliança foi diversificada.
were part of our story.
fizeram parte da nossa história.
of the economic spectrum loved it, too.
do leque econômico adoraram também.
they weren't going to be able to be there
o receio de ficarem de fora
de que fossem excluídas.
that they'd be priced out.
that kind of story before, right?
esse tipo de história antes, certo?
the Atlanta BeltLine would be different,
de Atlanta seria diferente,
than anything we ever imagined
que conseguimos imaginar no começo,
subsidies for housing,
subsídios para moradia,
a list that continues to grow.
uma lista de coisas que só aumenta.
that were required to make it happen.
necessários para fazer isso acontecer.
of implementation, and it's working.
da implementação, e está funcionando.
of trail was opened in 2012,
foi aberta em 2012
over three billion dollars
the physical form of the city,
de mudar a forma física da cidade,
we think about the city,
pensamos sobre a cidade,
for living there.
sobre a vida lá.
to the grocery store
comigo para o supermercado,
to get in the car.
how ridiculous that is,
that their expectations for Atlanta
que suas expectativas para Atlanta
is exactly like sprawl
é exatamente como a expansão
in highways and automobiles
em estradas e automóveis
within it, of course.
making millions of decisions
tomando milhões de decisões
not only the way that we build cities,
a forma como construímos cidades,
para nossa vida.
for urban sprawl.
a base para a expansão urbana.
de expansão, mas de "o futuro".
centros comerciais
and strip malls and cul-de-sacs we wanted.
a construção física do lugar que vivemos
of the places we live
are happening at that time.
acontecendo na mesma época.
e nos levando até a Lua,
was breaking down barriers,
estava quebrando barreiras,
began its march
iniciou sua marcha
of our nation's promise.
do compromisso da nossa nação.
business -- everything was changing,
negócios, estava tudo mudando,
and private sectors were colluding
quanto o privado se uniram
de rodovias, por exemplo,
before there were highways.
to understand and acknowledge
entender e saber
to some groups of people
grupos de pessoas, e não para outros.
in wonder and disgust, maybe,
com maravilhamento, e desgosto talvez,
das metrópoles diante de nós,
of that inequity?
daquela desigualdade?
traffic hellscape?
infernal distópico?
urban displacement,
urbano desenfreado,
and permanent outcomes?
é inevitável e permanente?
of our collective cultural decisions
coletivas que nós mesmos tomamos?
from our experience in Atlanta
em Atlanta não é uma anomalia.
em todos os lugares
are playing out everywhere,
not only old railroads,
não apenas velhas ferrovias,
and obsolete roadways,
degradadas e estradas obsoletas,
a infraestrutura em suas vidas.
are reclaiming and reinventing
estão reivindicando e reinventando
of all catalyst infrastructure projects,
catalisadores de infraestrutura,
for which similarly started
que começou de forma semelhante,
e se tornou uma onda cultural,
of being transformed
de ser transformado
infrastructure again,
de afirmação de vida novamente,
and fishing and boating
parques, pesca, barcos,
and flood control.
da água e das inundações.
the lives of people.
the rest of us think about Los Angeles.
como pensamos sobre Los Angeles.
novas vidas para nós mesmos.
local food, urban agriculture,
comida local, agricultura urbana,
early indicators of a really radical shift
de uma mudança realmente radical
with these catalyst projects today,
com esses projetos catalisadores hoje,
don't usually benefit everyone.
normalmente não beneficiam todos.
by this cultural momentum
por esse impulso cultural
o aparentemente desenfreado
prices and rents.
de impostos, preços e aluguéis.
uma atitude e nos manifestar.
to not improve communities.
não melhorar comunidades.
parques, rotas e mercados.
and transit and grocery stores.
to hold communities down
oprimir as comunidades
and address the financial realities
a realidade financeira que enfrentamos.
happen on its own.
vai acontecer por si só.
com esse objetivo em Atlanta
to this goal in Atlanta,
who made it possible in the first place.
isso possível antes de mais nada.
um sucesso sem eles.
commitments to all those years
me comprometi todos esses anos
com minha tese de pós-gradução,
as my graduate thesis
with thousands of people
com milhares de pessoas
the BeltLine is being built for
para quem o BeltLine foi construído
as whether it's built at all.
quanto a sua própria construção.
whose lives we are changing,
cujas vidas estamos mudando,
das quais estamos falando.
não são irremediáveis
we just need to speak up.
temos de dar o grito.
comes on our terms.
venha do nosso jeito.
in the process of shaping change.
no processo de moldar a mudança.
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