Jaime Lerner
Jaime Lerner (17 December 1937 – 27 May 2021) was a Brazilian politician. He was the governor of the state of Paraná, in southern Brazil. He is renowned as an architect and urban planner, having been mayor of Curitiba, capital of Paraná, three times (1971–1974, 1979–1983 and 1989–1992). In 1994, Lerner was elected governor of Paraná, and was re-elected in 1998. As an urban planner and architect, he was renowned in Brazil as he helped design most of the city walkways, roads, and public transportation of Curitiba such as the Rede Integrada de Transporte. In 1965, he helped create the Instituto de Pesquisa e Planejamento Urbano de Curitiba and designed the Curitiba Master Plan. Early life Lerner was born into a Jewish family, originally from Łódź, Poland, who emigrated to Curitiba. He graduated from the Escola de Arquitetura da Universidade Federal do Paraná; (Architecture School of the Federal University of Paraná) in 1964. In 1965, he helped create the Instituto de Pesquisa e Planejamento Urbano de Curitiba (Institute of Urban Planning and Research of Curitiba, also known as IPPUC) and participated in the design of the Curitiba Master Plan. Mayor of Curitiba In 1988, Jaime Lerner announced his candidacy for mayor of Curitiba with only 12 days remaining before the election. During his first term, Lerner implemented the Rede Integrada de Transporte (also called bus rapid transit), and continued to implement a host of social, ecological, and urban reforms during his ensuing terms as mayor. As mayor, Lerner employed unorthodox solutions to Curitiba's geographic challenges. Like many cities, Curitiba is bordered by floodplain. Wealthier cities in the United States, such as New Orleans and Sacramento, have built expensive and expensive-to-maintain levee systems on floodplain. In contrast, Curitiba purchased the floodplain and made parks. The city now ranks among the world leaders in per-capita park area. Curitiba had the problem of its status as a third-world city, unable to afford the tractors and petroleum to mow these parks. The innovative response was "municipal sheep" who keep the parks' vegetation under control and whose wool funds children's programs. When Lerner became mayor, Curitiba had some bairros impossible to service by municipal waste removal. The "streets" were too narrow. Rather than abandon these people or raze these slums, Lerner began a program that traded bags of groceries and transit passes for bags of trash. The slums got much cleaner. Similarly, Curitiba has a nearby bay that was a dumping ground that would be extremely costly to clean up. Lerner began a program that paid fishermen for any garbage they retrieved (by the pound). That way, they can make money even outside fishing season, supplementing their income. The savings to Curitiba are in the millions. Lerner instituted many innovative social and educational programs. Bairro kids can be apprenticed to city employees if they want to avoid going to school. Although his term as mayor is not without controversy, Curitiba does not have the gangs of much more populous cities such as Rio de Janeiro.