Review of today’s talks- a truly rich Friday of dialogue and connection with individuals in Barcelona, Kharagpur, Warsaw, Santiago and New Delhi!
It was wonderful to start the day’s talks with Aman Trehan, an urban planner based in New Delhi who will also be joining the Global Walkability Correspondents network at Pedestrian Space as the New Delhi correspondent. He shares that he has energy and interest to “grow this network in the smaller cities across the four corners of India–by creating bridges across academia, media and civil society stakeholders.” Look forward to more communication and network collaboration Aman!
Meeting Deputy Chief Architect of the City of Barcelona Silvia Casorran Martos was a treat- getting a snapshot understanding of current mobility in the city as well as work to reduce space for cars, enhance space and quality of life for residents and the multiple projects associated with this aim. I particularly loved Silvia’s reference to also helping to engage the minds of citizens and look forward to interviewing her further on this.
Rituparna Das is a research scholar with a background in Architecture and Urban Planning and is also joining the Walkability Correspondents network at Pedestrian Space from Kharagpur, India. She shared a range of current mobility issues with context, including the need to bring safety in public transit and walking into focus for it to be a viable, trusted form of mobility, particularly for women and children. Glad to have you in the network Ritu!
Alvaro Contente Montenegro is a Mechanical Engineer and walkability advocate from Chile and is also joining the Walkability Correspondents network as our Santiago Correspondent. We spoke about the great potential for advocacy via building connections and sharing experiences, his time living in NYC as well as local issues in Chilean cities that he acknowledges as needing great attention. Glad to have you in the network Alvaro!
Wojciech Kacperski works at the Bureau of Architecture and Urban Planning of Warsaw and our talk spanned a fascinating range of issues on culture, infrastructure, city space and history with regards to the culture of mobility in Warsaw today and the city’s work to become a more pedestrian-oriented city. He also had a wonderful photo presentation planned for me- look forward to live walks through the city with you Wojciech!
For all these chats we did city walkability ratings on video so stay tuned!
Friday greetings and here’s to a walkable weekend!
