A resident of Curitiba receives produce as part of the Green Exchange program.
			Back from Brazil, Students Present Ideas Today for Ecological City Development in Oberlin by Sue Kropp
	The four students participating in the trip to Curitiba--Kronick, Williams, Bratman, and Pickett--met with Jaime Lerner (second from right). PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF CASEY PICKETT   "Environmental Studies Sends Students to Brazil" (Story from Oberlin Review of February 16, 2001)		FEBRUARY 20, 2001--Think one person can change the world? Or the town of Oberlin? Four students do, and they spent Winter Term in Brazil learning how to initiate change in Oberlin. They will share their observations of green development in a presentation today at 5:00 P.M. in the Adam Joseph Lewis Center's Hallock Auditorium. Eve Bratman, a senior from Chicago; Sandi Kronick, a senior from Merrick, New York; Casey Pickett, a senior from Post Mills, Vermont; and Morgan Williams, a senior from New Orleans, traveled to Curitiba, Brazil, to observe the town's innovative methods of urban planning, city management, and environmental design. Curitiba, located in the state of Parana, is known as the ecological capital of Brazil. "We went to Brazil to experience the city programs for ourselves and to gather information to present to Oberlin City Council," says Kronick. "Visiting Curitiba reinforced our belief that the best solutions for city development come from within a city and are sensitive to the city's people and their needs." During the 1960s, a group of radical Brazilian architects approached the then-mayor of Curitiba, demanding city development that would preserve the environment and meet basic human needs. The mayor sponsored a contest for a city-wide plan, and the winner--Jaime Lerner--began to implement his changes. A decade later, Lerner was elected mayor of Curitiba. One of Lerner's most popular programs, the Green Exchange, buys recycled materials from residents and gives them produce from local farms in exchange. "Lerner began this program when he realized that city garbage trucks were unable to reach outlying areas of Curitiba because the roads were in such bad shape," says Kronick. "He calculated the cost of new roads, then decided that encouraging residents to participate in neighborhood recycling efforts in exchange for fresh produce was a solution that would not only provide food for needy families, but would also boost the local economy and preserve open land from development." Another innovation, the Free University of the Environment, provides free mini-courses those unable to attend school on a long-term basis. The university offers courses on ecology, providing residents of Curitiba with information about enhancing and preserving their city's environment. Bratman, Kronick, Pickett, and Williams are part of a private reading, the Oberlin Design Initiative, sponsored by David Orr, professor of environmental studies. The private reading fostered looking at ways to facilitate communication between the city of Oberlin and Oberlin College on city-development issues. "We really hope to create a dialogue between the city and the College that explores alternative ways of city management," says Kronick. "The two need to work together because their futures are interdependent." Or, as Lerner says, "There is no endeavor more noble than the attempt to achieve a collective dream. When a city accepts as a mandate its quality of life . . . and the people share the responsibility for that mandate, this shared cause is a way to achieve that collective dream."
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