This picture is from my metro card when I spent a year abroad in Paris in college in the mid-'90s. My friend says I look like a French anarchist --
Ova slika je s moje kartice za metro tijekom godine studiranja u Parizu sredinom 90-ih. Prijatelj kaže da izgledam kao francuski anarhist --
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
But this is still what I see when I look in the mirror in the morning. Within a month of living in Paris, I'd lost 15 pounds and I was in the best shape of my life because I was eating fresh food and I was walking wherever I went.
No to je još uvijek ono što vidim svako jutro u ogledalu. U mjesec dana života u Parizu, izgubio sam osam kilograma i bio sam u najboljoj formi u životu jer sam jeo svježu hranu i hodao sam gdje god sam išao.
Having grown up in suburban Atlanta, a region built largely by highways and automobiles and with a reputation as a poster child for sprawl, Paris fundamentally changed the way I understood the construction of the world around me, and I got obsessed with the role of infrastructure -- that it's not just the way to move people from point A to point B, it's not just the way to convey water or sewage or energy, but it's the foundation for our economy. It's the foundation for our social life and for our culture, and it really matters to the way that we live.
Odrastajući u predgrađu Atlante, regiji izgrađenoj većinom autocestama i za automobile s reputacijom primjera za rast, Pariz je temeljno promijenio način na koji shvaćam gradnju svijeta oko sebe. Postao sam opsjednut ulogom infrastrukture -- to nije samo način da se ljudi kreću od točke A do točke B, nije samo način da se sprovede voda, kanalizacija ili energija, nego je temelj naše ekonomije. Temelj našeg društvenog života i naše kulture, i stvarno je važna za način na koji živimo.
When I came home, I was instantly frustrated, stuck in traffic as I crossed the top end of our perimeter highway. Not only was I not moving a muscle, I had no social interaction with the hundreds of thousands of people that were hurtling past me, like me, with their eyes faced forward and their music blaring. I wondered if this was an inevitable outcome, or could we do something about it. Was it possible to transform this condition in Atlanta into the kind of place that I wanted to live in?
Kada sam se vratio kući, bio sam trenutačno frustriran, zapevši u prometu dok sam vozio autocestom. Ne samo da nisam micao niti jedan mišić, nego nisam imao ni društvo među stotinama tisuća ljudi koji su prolazili pored mene, poput mene, s očima prema naprijed i glazbom koja trešti. Pitao sam se je li ovo neizbježan ishod, ili možemo napraviti nešto u vezi toga. Je li moguće pretvoriti ovo stanje u Atlanti u mjesto u kojemu stvarno želim živjeti?
I went back to grad school in architecture and city planning, developed this interest in infrastructure, and in 1999 came up with an idea for my thesis project: the adaptation of an obsolete loop of old railroad circling downtown as a new infrastructure for urban revitalization. It was just an idea. I never thought we would actually build it. But I went to work at an architecture firm, and eventually talked to my coworkers about it, and they loved the idea. And as we started talking to more people about it, more people wanted to hear about it.
Vratio sam se na fakultet arhitekture i urbanog planiranja, razvio interes za infrastrukturu i 1999. osmislio ideju za moj završni rad: prilagodba zastarjele željezničke petlje koja kruži centrom kao nove infrastrukture za urbanu revitalizaciju. Bila je to samo ideja. Nikad nisam mislio da ćemo ju stvarno i izgraditi. No išao sam na posao u arhitektonsko poduzeće i razgovarao s kolegama o toj ideji. Svidjela im se. Počeli smo razgovarati o njoj s više ljudi i sve više ljudi je htjelo čuti za nju.
In the summer of 2001, we connected with Cathy Woolard, who was soon elected city council president. And we built a citywide vision around this idea: the Atlanta BeltLine, a 22-mile loop of transit and trails and transformation. I was doing two and three meetings a week for two and a half years, and so was Cathy and her staff and a handful of volunteers. Together, we built this amazing movement of people and ideas. It included community advocates who were used to fighting against things, but found the Atlanta BeltLine as something that they could fight for; developers who saw the opportunity to take advantage of a lot of new growth in the city; and dozens of nonprofit partners who saw their mission at least partly accomplished by the shared vision.
U ljeto 2001. povezali smo se s Cathy Woolard, koja je ubrzo izabrana za predsjednicu gradskog vijeća. Izgradili smo viziju cijelog grada oko moje ideje: Atlanta BeltLine, petlja od 35 kilometara prijelaza, staza i preobrazbi. Imao sam dva do tri sastanka tjedno tijekom dvije i pol godine, jednako kao i Cathy, njeno osoblje i nekolicina volontera. Zajedno smo izgradili čudesan pokret ljudi i ideja. Uključili smo zagovornike zajednice koji su se obično borili protiv promjena, no vidjeli su Atlanta BeltLine kao nešto za što se mogu boriti; Razvijatelji su uvidjeli priliku kako iskoristiti puno nove gradnje u gradu; deseci neprofitnih partnera koji su vidjeli svoju misiju barem djelomično ispunjenu zajedničkom vizijom.
Now, usually these groups of people aren't at the same table wanting the same outcome. But there we were, and it was kind of weird, but it was really, really powerful. The people of Atlanta fell in love with a vision that was better than what they saw through their car windshields, and the people of Atlanta made it happen, and I guarantee you we would not be building it otherwise.
Obično ove grupe ljudi nisu za istim stolom za kojim žele isti ishod. No bili smo tamo, i bilo je pomalo čudno no bilo je vrlo, vrlo moćno. Ljudi Atlante su se zaljubili u viziju koja je bila bolja od onoga što su vidjeli kroz vjetrobrane, i ljudi Atlante su ideju napravili mogućom i garantiram da ju inače ne bismo niti sagradili.
From the beginning, our coalition was diverse. People of all stripes were part of our story. People on the lower end of the economic spectrum loved it, too. They were just afraid they weren't going to be able to be there when it got built, that they'd be priced out. And we've all heard that kind of story before, right? But we promised that the Atlanta BeltLine would be different, and people took ownership of the idea, and they made it better than anything we ever imagined in the beginning, including significant subsidies for housing, new parks, art, an arboretum -- a list that continues to grow. And we put in place the organizations and agencies that were required to make it happen. And importantly, it is.
Naša koalicija je bila raznolika od početka. Ljudi svih oznaka su bili dio naše priče. Ljudima na dnu ekonomskog spektra se također svidjela ideja. Samo ih je bio strah da neće smjeti biti tamo kada se i izgradi, da će biti izgurani. Svi smo čuli te priče već, zar ne? No obećali smo da će Atlanta BeltLine biti drugačija, i ljudi su ideju uzeli pod svoje i napravili ju boljom nego što smo uopće mogli zamisliti na početku uključujući subvencije za kuće, nove parkove, umjetnost, arboretum -- popis koji nastavlja rasti. Dogovorili smo se s organizacijama i agencijama koje su bile nužne da se ovo dogodi. Najvažnije, događa se.
Now we're in the early stages of implementation, and it's working. The first mainline section of trail was opened in 2012, and it's already generated over three billion dollars of private-sector investment. But it's not only changing the physical form of the city, it's changing the way we think about the city, and what our expectations are for living there. About a month ago, I had to take my kids with me to the grocery store and they were complaining about it, because they didn't want to get in the car. They were saying, "Dad, if we have to go, can we at least ride our bikes?" And I said, "Of course we can. That's what people in Atlanta do. We ride our bikes to the grocery store."
U ranim smo fazama implementacije i funkcionira. Prvi dio staza je otvoren 2012. i već je generirao preko tri milijarde dolara ulaganja privatnog sektora. No ne mijenja se samo fizički izgled grada, već i način na koji razmišljamo o gradu, i naša očekivanja od života tamo. Prije mjesec dana, morao sam povesti svoje klince u trgovinu sa mnom i njima to nije bilo po volji, jer nisu htjeli ići autom. Rekli su: "Tata, ako već moramo ići, možemo li barem biciklima?" Rekao sam: "Naravno da možemo. To rade ljudi u Atlanti. Voze bicikl do trgovine."
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
Thank you, yeah.
Hvala vam, da.
Now, they don't know how ridiculous that is, but I do. And I also understand that their expectations for Atlanta are really powerful.
Oni ne znaju koliko je to suludo, no ja znam. Također razumijem da su njihova očekivanja od Atlante vrlo moćna.
This kind of transformation is exactly like sprawl in the last century, the movement where our investment in highways and automobiles fundamentally changed American life. That wasn't some grand conspiracy. There were conspiracies within it, of course. But it was a cultural momentum. It was millions of people making millions of decisions over an extended period of time, that fundamentally changed not only the way that we build cities, but it changed our expectations for our lives. These changes were the foundations for urban sprawl. We didn't call it sprawl at that time. We called it the future. And it was. And we got all the highways and strip malls and cul-de-sacs we wanted.
Ovaj način preobrazbe je upravo kao širenje u prošlom stoljeću, pokret u kojemu je naše ulaganje u autoceste i aute temeljno promijenilo američki život. To nije bila neka velika urota. Bilo je urota unutar toga, naravno. No bio je kulturni momentum. Milijuni ljudi su donosili milijune odluka kroz duže vremensko razdoblje, koje su temeljno promijenile ne samo način na koji gradimo gradove, nego i naša očekivanja za naše živote. Ove promjene su temelji urbanog širenja. Nismo to tada tako zvali. Zvali smo to budućnošću. I bila je. Dobili smo sve autoceste i trgovačke centre i slijepe ulice koje smo htjeli.
It was a radical transformation, but it was built by a cultural momentum. So it's important to not separate the physical construction of the places we live from other things that are happening at that time. At that time, in the second half of the last century, science was curing disease and lifting us to the moon, and the sexual revolution was breaking down barriers, and the Civil Rights Movement began its march toward the fulfillment of our nation's promise. Television, entertainment, food, travel, business -- everything was changing, and both the public and private sectors were colluding to give us the lives we wanted. The Federal Highway Administration, for example, didn't exist before there were highways. Think about it.
Bila je to radikalna transformacija, no izgrađena je kulturnim momentumom. Važno je ne razdvajati fizičku konstrukciju mjesta u kojima živimo od drugih stvari koje se događaju u to vrijeme. U to vrijeme, u drugoj polovici zadnjeg stoljeća, znanost je liječila bolesti i dizala nas na mjesec, seksualna revolucija je rušila barijere, pokret za civilna prava je započeo svoj marš prema ispunjenju obećanja naše nacije. Televizija, zabava, hrana, putovanja, posao -- sve se mijenjalo, javni i privatni sektori su se spajali kako bi nam dali život kakav želimo. Federalna administracija autocesta, na primjer, nije postojala dok nismo imali autoceste. Razmislite o tome.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Of course, today it's important to understand and acknowledge that those benefits accrued to some groups of people and not to others. It was not an equitable cultural momentum. But when we look today in wonder and disgust, maybe, at the metropolis sprawl before us, we wonder if we're stuck. Are we stuck with the legacy of that inequity? Are we stuck with this dystopian traffic hellscape? Are we stuck with rampant urban displacement, with environmental degradation? Are we stuck with social isolation or political polarization? Are these the inevitable and permanent outcomes? Or are they the result of our collective cultural decisions that we've made for ourselves? And if they are, can't we change them?
Naravno, danas je važno priznati da su se te povlastice skupljale za neke grupe ljudi, no ne i za druge. Nije bio jednak kulturni momentum. No, danas kada gledamo u čudu i odbojno, možda, širenje metropola ispred nas, pitamo se jesmo li zapeli. Jesmo li zapeli u nasljeđu nejednakosti? Jesmo li zapeli u distopijskom prometnom paklu? Jesmo li zapeli s bujnim urbanim razmještanjem, s degradacijom prirode? Jesmo li zapeli u društvenoj izolaciji ili političkoj polarizaciji? Jesu li to neizbježni i trajni ishodi? Ili su rezultat naših kolektivnih društvenih odluka koje smo sami napravili? Ako jesu, možemo li ih promijeniti?
What I have learned from our experience in Atlanta is not an anomaly. Similar stories are playing out everywhere, where people are reclaiming not only old railroads, but also degraded urban waterways and obsolete roadways, reinventing all of the infrastructure in their lives. Whether here in New York or in Houston or Miami, Detroit, Philadelphia, Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, Toronto and Paris, cities big and small all over the world are reclaiming and reinventing this infrastructure for themselves, including the mother of all catalyst infrastructure projects, the Los Angeles River, the revitalization effort for which similarly started as a grassroots movement, has developed into a cultural momentum, and is now in the early stages of being transformed into some kind of life-affirming infrastructure again, this one with trails and parks and fishing and boating and community revitalization, and of course, water quality and flood control. It's already improving the lives of people. It's already changing the way the rest of us think about Los Angeles.
Što sam naučio iz iskustva u Atlanti nije anomalija. Slične priče se događaju posvuda, gdje ljudi ne preuzimaju natrag samo stare željeznice, već i ostavljene urbane vodene puteve i stare ceste, ponovno stvarajući cijelu infrastrukturu u svojim životima. Bilo ovdje u New Yorku ili u Houstonu ili Miamiju, Detroitu, Philadelphiji, Seoulu, Hong Kongu, Singapuru, Torontu i Parizu, veliki i mali gradovi po cijelom svijetu preuzimaju i ponovo grade ovu infrastrukturu za sebe, uključujući majku svih katalizatorskih projekata infrastrukture, rijeku u Los Angelesu, čija revitalizacija je počela slično kao mali pokret, i razvila se u kulturni momentum, i sada je u ranoj fazi preobrazbe u neku vrstu infrastrukture koja opet podržava život, ovaj put s putevima, parkovima, ribolovom, brodovima, revitalizacijom zajednice i naravno, kvalitetom vode i kontrolom poplava. Već sada poboljšava život ljudima. Već sada mijenja način na koji mi ostali mislimo o Los Angelesu.
This is more than just infrastructure. We're building new lives for ourselves. It's a movement that includes local food, urban agriculture, craft beer, the maker movement, tech and design -- all of these things, early indicators of a really radical shift in the way we build cities. We're taking places like this and transforming them into this. And soon this.
Ovo je više od same infrastrukture. Gradimo novi život za sebe. To je pokret koji uključuje lokalnu hranu, urbanu poljoprivredu, domaće pivo, pokret stvaratelja, tehnologija i dizajn -- sve ove stvari koje su rani pokazatelji radikalne promjene u načinu na koji gradimo gradove Uzimamo ovakva mjesta i pretvaramo ih u ovakva mjesta. I uskoro u ovakva mjesta.
And this is all exciting and good. We're changing the world for the better. Good for us! And it is awesome -- I mean that. But our history of sprawl, and from what we can already see with these catalyst projects today, we know and must remember that big changes like this don't usually benefit everyone. The market forces unleashed by this cultural momentum often include the seemingly unstoppable and inevitable cycle of rising taxes, prices and rents.
Ovo je sve uzbudljivo i dobro. Mijenjamo svijet na bolje. Super za nas! I odlično je -- stvarno to mislim. No povijest našeg širenja, i ono što možemo vidjeti s današnjim projektima, znamo i moramo zapamtiti da velike promjene poput ove obično ne idu u korist svima. Tržišne snage oslobođene kulturnim momentumom često uključuju nezaustavljive i neizbježne cikluse podizanja poreza, cijena i najama.
This is urgent. If we care, we have to stand up and speak out. This should be a call to action, because the answer can't be to not improve communities. The answer can't be to not build parks and transit and grocery stores. The answer can't be to hold communities down just to keep them affordable. But we do have to follow through and address the financial realities that we're facing. This is hard, and it won't happen on its own. We can do it, and I'm committed to this goal in Atlanta, to sticking up again for people who made it possible in the first place. We can't call it a success without them. I certainly can't, because the people I made commitments to all those years weren't abstract populations. They're my friends and neighbors. They're people that I love.
Ovo je hitno. Ako nas je briga, moramo ustati i progovoriti. Ovo bi morao biti poziv na akciju, jer odgovor ne može biti u tome da ne unapređujemo zajednice. Odgovor ne može biti da ne gradimo parkove, prijelaze i trgovine. Odgovor ne može biti da zadržavamo zajednice samo zato da bi bile dostupne. No moramo nastaviti ovim putem i obratiti se financijskoj stvarnosti s kojom smo suočeni. Ovo je teško i znam da se neće dogoditi samo od sebe. Možemo to napraviti, predan sam ovom cilju u Atlanti, ustati za ljude koji su ovo i omogućili. Ne možemo to nazvati uspjehom bez njih. Ja sigurno ne mogu, jer ljudi kojima sam bio predan sve ove godine nisu apstraktna populacija. Oni su moji prijatelji i susjedi. Ljudi koje volim.
So even though it started as my graduate thesis and I'm working hard for 16 years with thousands of people to help make this thing come to life, I know and believe that who the BeltLine is being built for is just as important as whether it's built at all. Not just in Atlanta, but locally and globally, we have to understand this accountability to the people whose lives we are changing, because this is us. We are the lives we're talking about. These places aren't inevitable. The places we live aren't inevitable, and if we want something different, we just need to speak up. We have to ensure that change comes on our terms. And to do that, we have to participate actively in the process of shaping change.
Dakle, iako je počelo kao moj završni rad i to radim 16 godina s tisućama ljudi da bih pomogao da se ovo ostvari, znam i vjerujem da je to za koga se gradi BeltLine jednako važno kao i gradi li se uopće. Ne samo u Atlanti, nego lokalno i globalno, moramo razumjeti odgovornost za ljude čije živote mijenjamo jer smo to mi. Govorimo o našim životima. Ta mjesta nisu neizbježna. Mjesta u kojima živimo nisu neizbježna, i ako želimo nešto drugačije, moramo se izboriti za to. Moramo osigurati da promjena dolazi po našim uvjetima. I kako bi to napravili, moramo sudjelovati aktivno u procesu oblikovanja promjene.
Thank you.
Hvala.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)