I’ve been hearing reports from multiple sources that Colombia is quickly becoming a hotbed for innovation. Medellin, Colombia’s 2nd largest city after Bogota, seems to be leading the charge.
Medellin was recently named the 2013 City of the Year, beating out 200 contenders including New York and Tel Aviv, by the Wall Street Journal. The competition was run by the non-profit Urban Land Institute, who noted that “Medellin had seen one of the most remarkable urban turnarounds in modern history” (1).
Also in 2013, Medellín was “announced as the preferred corporate business destination in South America and won the Verónica Rudge Urbanism Award conferred by Harvard University to the Urban Development Enterprise” (2).
I thought this was an especially interesting comparable for Montreal, which shares a similar population size for its larger metropolitan area at around 3.5 million inhabitants.
When I decided to investigate further across multiple press articles, I discovered a much larger story about a complete revival of the social and economic fabric of the city.
Here are 5 key elements of Medellin’s transformation:
1. Social Agenda
The bravest but most essential piece of Medellin’s change has no doubt been the strong focus on the social development agenda. The city recognized that its future strength depended on the fate of its poorest.
The Urban Land Institute notes that the city’s urban redevelopment focus was “primarily on improving the city’s most neglected and more dangerous areas”. Whereas many other cities try to sweep the mess under the proverbial carpet, Medellin has embraced the challenge and placed it at the heart of its change plan.
Its planning for urban transformation has even been described as fundamentally rooted in “social urbanism”. (3)
First, the city built the necessary institutions to allow citizens to mobilize and organize. The WSJ notes that “community organizations, health centers, and youth groups have formed, empowering citizens to declare ownership of their neighborhoods.” (4)
Second, it made extra efforts to include citizens that had previously been left out of the conversation and decision making process: “If Medellin’s urban renewal programme was to succeed, it had to be inclusive. It had to connect all stakeholders around a common social development agenda in a very real sense. (…) It was important to the success of Medellin’s urban renewal programme that people previously excluded from participating in their city — typically those living in Medellin’s poorer and more inaccessible areas — were central to and included in the development and renewal of their neighbourhoods. (5)
2. Mobility
The most powerful way to include the city’s poorest was to connect them to the commercial part of the city by improving the transport system accessibility:
“Two decades ago, the city’s poorer areas — typically located high up on the hills that surround Medellin’s CBD away from the city’s transport system — had increasingly high levels of crime and unemployment. People living in these areas faced high barriers to participating socially and economically in their city and took little or no ownership in improving their city.” (6)
The centerpiece of the city’s transport system is the new cable car system. The stations are “conveniently located close to public facilities (like libraries) and commercial enterprises (like cafes and convenience stores) so that people can make use of these facilities and do their basic shopping”.
The city also installed electric escalators to facilitate vertical transport into poorer parts of the city, as well as footbridges to connect horizontally neighbouring communities in the city. For example, the innovative giant escalator climbs almost 1,260 feet and was built at a cost of $7M to transport its 16,000 daily commuters. (7)
In many cases, these new transport options have reduced travel time from hours to minutes, increased commuter safety and reduced the crime level during commuting hours. It is also reported that “the city is experiencing increases in foreign investment, commercial development and property prices in areas previously disconnected from the city’s public transport system. (8)”. Smart transport planning has thus been a driving factor of new economic opportunity.
3. Urban spaces
Another key factor in the city’s urban renewal has been the introduction of functional public spaces where citizens can meet, play and work. The city has built “new, modern schools and futuristic libraries, and new parks, complete with bike lanes and public squares” (9). Blogger Mike Wilter notes:
“These vibrant spaces fit into and uplift the neighbourhoods in which they are located. They have been created for and with the people who use them in mind. These spaces are well used and well maintained by the municipality and the people who use them”. (10)
Medellin seeked to build a physical environment that would transform the interactions of the people in the community and promote social equality. (11)
According to the City’s change plan (Plan de Desarrollo 2004–2007: Medellín, Compromiso de Toda la Ciudadanía), projects were defined using the following guidelines (12):
- “The indicators of human development and quality of life will guide the public investment, focusing on first serving the ones in the biggest need.
- Public space and infrastructure must become the framework where education and culture are cultivated in places of encounter and coexistence.
- Urban projects must simultaneously integrate physical, cultural and social components; improving not only places but also the life and interactions of people in the communities.
- The Integrated Metropolitan Transport System must be used as the organizing axis of mobility and projects in the city. All projects have to be directly linked to the main transport system.
- The decision to make Medellín an educated city. Education and culture as priorities that guide programs and projects”.
Medellin municipal officials also led many public housing projects in poorer neighbourhoods and played an active role redeveloping areas to allow urban reorganization. Relocation of the displaced inhabitants was “preferably done inside the same neighbourhood to prevent a rupture of the social fabric and to keep the sense of community”. (13)
4. Private-Public Partnerships
It is interesting to note that Medellin’s transformation was led by an “independent commercial entity established by the municipality”, rather than the city itself directly.
Private enterprise was present at many levels, working hand in hand with municipal leaders: “Transportation projects are financed through public-private partnerships; engineering firms have designed public buildings for free; and in 2006, nine of the city’s largest firms funded a science museum”. (14)
This story seems to echo the larger story of public-private partnerships present in Colombia currently. My Harvard classmate Elana Berkowitz wrote the following about Colombia’s Productive Transformation Program (PTP) for Mckinsey’s public sector practice:
“It is an innovative public–private partnership that aims to expand the country’s economy beyond traditional commodities, such as coal, coffee, fresh-cut flowers, and petroleum. In this effort, the government steers a middle course between actively investing in sectors or standing aside and letting the market work: it provides support for some traditional management functions (such as strategic planning and training) and streamlines access, without taking ownership or actually running the show. After the PTP’s creation, in 2007, a contest determined which sectors would participate in it first. The government announced that the winners wouldn’t receive subsidies or protection but promised to work with them to train workers, improve the regulatory environment, develop foreign markets, and build infrastructure”. (15)
The stance of the Colombian’s government, like that of the Medellin municipal officials, seems to be very much pro-market, with the private sector forces taking the lead to suggest requirements and the public sector seeing how it can contribute to the dialogue. The aim is not to subsidize, but to collaborate.
5. Leadership and Participatory Change
Perhaps the most striking aspect of the transformation is the way it has been led: almost exactly as you would expect change to happen. Medellin has strong leaders following a participatory change process.
On the leadership front, the current mayor of Medellin, Anibal Gaviria, can be praised for picking up where his predecessor Sergio Fajardo, had started in 2004 (16). Too often, governor-elects shelve in-progress projects to push their own agenda. Changes takes time, and continuity is a critical success factor.
It is interesting to note that change was initiated at the municipal level by the mayors directly. This seems consistent with a worldwide trend in large cities where mayors and municipal officials, who represent the closest level of government to the people, are increasingly playing an elevated role — both in leading major urban change initiatives like the one in Medellin and also collaborating on wide-reaching public issues such as pandemics, climate change, immigration and terrorism. (17)
The change process in Medellin has also been radically transparent and participatory, including citizens and decision makers at every stage:
“It was also important that all stakeholders supported and valued the city’s urban renewal programme. This required all relevant stakeholders — including community members, local specialists, civil society and government — to take ownership not only of the programme outcomes but also of the process followed in reaching those outcomes. A comprehensive process of consultation, co-ordination and communication between all stakeholders was therefore followed at all stages of the programme. This process went a long way in helping all stakeholders to understand and define what role they could play in building safer and better integrated neighbourhoods.” (18)
Furthermore, even the budgeting was participatory. Medellín is “one of the largest cities to successfully implement participatory budgeting, which allows citizens to define priorities and allocate a portion of the municipal budget”. (19)
Finally, the ultimate sign of a participatory change is actually participating into the implementation of the planned change. To this effect, decision makers made “efforts to use local labour wherever possible”. Further, “skills development and training opportunities were also made available to people wanting to improve their skill sets and, in turn, their employability. Steps that further enhanced the inclusive nature of the programme. (20)
A Transformed City
It is impressive to consider the progress that Medellin has made since the days where it was considered one of the most violent cities in the world under the rule of Pablo Escobar and the Medellin drug cartels in the late 1980s.
Mayor Fajardo, who was the main instigator of this change a decade ago, proudly notes: “We managed to transform a brand that was associated with drug trafficking into a brand of innovation, which means that we know how to solve problems, we dare to change”. (21).
Medellin’s transformation gives hope to other cities suffering from the plight of violence, poverty and corruption. In its tribute to Medellin, the Urban Land Institute reminds us of what cities can be:
“At their best, cities generate wealth and employment, promote cultural exchange and inclusion, foster creativity and ideas, provide access to recreation, education, and infrastructure, and facilitate participation and citizenship in public and private life. The most innovative cities spark visions, remove barriers, and cultivate collaboration to improve the quality of life for residents”. (22).
Congrats to Medellin, city of the year 2013!
Many cities will now follow your lead.