Friday, May 20, 2011

Internationally renowned city adviser coming to the Comox Valley

Gil Peñalosa, former commissioner of parks, sport and recreation for the City of Bogotá, is coming to the Comox Valley on June 16 and 17. Internationally renowned as a livable city adviser and social marketing strategist, Peñalosa is passionate about vibrant and healthy communities that improve the quality of life for all residents. His talks are designed to re-energize local citizens and politicians: to interest and motivate them to create more people friendly cities — moving from talking about it, to doing it.

In his position in Bogotá, Peñalosa led the design and development of over 200 parks, created a 10-day summer festival, and initiated car-free Sundays. Now, as executive director of Canadian non-profit organization 8-80 Cities, Peñalosa’s commitment to fostering healthy communities remains front and centre.

I am hoping that many of our local politicians and civic and regional planning staff will be able to hear Peñalosa speak. In doing a web search, it is truly amazing to realise just how well respected he is in planning livable communities, whatever size they are.

I also hope that many of our local cyclists will be able to attend his presentation. As soon as I have more details, I will post them here.

1 comment:

Frank Gibbons said...

You can find out a bit more by visiting:

[ Gil Penalosa ]