Cities and how we approach their challenges

On Thursday, November 17, 2022, Ciudad Emergente convened an entertaining and interesting day to get together to discuss the "Shortcuts and Recipes to revitalize cities" and face the challenges in a rapid and coordinated manner to the multiple climate, health, economic and social.

Image 1: First discussion panel "Shortcuts and Recipes"

A meeting around ideas, food, conversation and experiences. Dozens of people attended the Ciudad Emergente home-office to share a variety of activities beginning with the premiere of our documentary La Mesa Latina. A project carried out in 2019 and 2020 in Colombia, Peru and Chile. The audiovisual piece shows the work applied in the three countries, the different experiences that were lived and the stories of migration who were part of the project. In this regard, Rebeca Cenalmor Rejas, Head of the UNHCR national office in Chile, points out that: "As UNHCR we are very pleased to have been invited to participate in the La Mesa Latina initiative and it gives us tremendous pride to see how this community experience was also reflected in a documentary. We believe that the main value of this piece is that it perfectly reflects how relevant host communities are in the processes of local integration of refugees and migrants. In general, human mobility is discussed from the perspective of those who move, but we forget that the host communities play a key role in this process and that they must be taken into account from the planning of public policies on human mobility from now on.”

Image 2: Documentary premiere La Mesa Latina

You can check the link of our documentary about La Mesa Latina made in conjunction with El Plan Producciones here: https://vimeo.com/442123423

The conversations dealt with two large and interesting topics: "Sustainable Investment and Safe Neighborhoods" and "Urban and territorial responses to the climate emergency" where various actors from the public and private sectors, civil society and academia participated. Here are some of his conclusions and main ideas.

First panel: "Sustainable Investment and Safe Neighborhoods".

Blanca Velasco - Founder of the Santiago Innova Corporation.
Mirko Salfate - Technical Advisor of the Association of Real Estate Developers (ADI)
Francisca Astaburuaga - Executive Director of the Center for Innovation in Cities UDD
Manuel Gonzalez - Head of the Department of Urban Works of the Ministry of Housing and Urbanism.

From this first conversation, the main ideas and reflections revolved around the look towards neighborhoods and cities, in people and in the needs that are arising such as mobility, walkability, the gender approach. In addition to thinking about a plan for the design of each commune having mettle and courage so that the neighborhoods are revitalized. Conviction, vision, empathy, a necessary mix today because many times the greatest complexity is articulation. Cities are reflections of society and its moments and somehow Santiago is regressing in quality of life. Greater attention and agility, a recipe for public-private collaboration and an institutional framework that gives air to long-term projects. It was also discussed that in the future what is local will have more value and collaboration, which is not always innate, must be strongly promoted.

Second Panel: "Urban and territorial responses to the climate emergency"

Felipe Ajenjo - Governance and Territory Coordinator, United Nations Development Program in Chile (UNDP).

Elizabeth Muñoz - Social Capital Director, Angloamerican Foundation.
Gonzalo Santolaya (DEISA)
Macarena Olivares - Director of the Environment Municipality of Renca.
Manuel Gonzalez - Head of the Department of Urban Works of the Ministry of Housing and Urbanism.

In this second discussion, the importance of the territorial aspect and of strengthening alliances to achieve the objectives of sustainable development was highlighted. Cities are part of the problem linked to the high generation of greenhouse gases, and what is most required are clean construction processes. Also the need to reconstruct the mining identity that the country has and pilot issues as important as water in that industry. Regarding housing and the real estate sector, the efforts that can be made from there are essential to generate processes such as certifications in B companies, gray water recycling in the industry. Also the public gaze and how from the municipalities there are enormous installed capacities where each one imprints its stamp. The pilots in this case have an immediate action.

Image 3: Second panel “Shortcuts and Recipes to revitalize cities”.

After the conversations and a break, it was time for the “Cocina+Colectiva” an Ciudad Emergente tactic that is based on the Anthropology of Food and Collective Intelligence, food and cooking as an element of meeting and relaxed and relaxed exchange that It allows a collective to cooperate in a discussion process on a topic relevant to the group. In this case focused on the themes of what are their recipes to revitalize cities.

To end this meeting we ended up at a party enjoying a refreshing sangria and delicious food that was contributed by neighboring businesses to Ciudad Emergente who were asked days in advance to save certain foods for us that for them can be turned into discard but that for us they became essential elements to be able to make the different preparations.

Not wasting food is a theme that Ciudad Emergente has strongly incorporated in recent times and the foods from the “Cocina+Colectiva” tactic were also rescued so that the participants could make the different preparations.

We hope that this meeting will serve, as a shortcut, as a route to find spaces for mutual collaboration, and as a recipe, as a note of what should not be missing in the revitalization of our cities: spaces to meet face to face, and think collectively how to achieve fairer, more innovative and sustainable cities.