Jaime Lerner Cities Quotations

A city is like a family portrait - you don't tear it up if you don't like your uncle's nose.

Every city has to deal with the problem of cars and public transport.

The design of a city is like a strange archeology.

I have realized after all these years that a city that has a good quality of life attracts jobs. People don't want to invest in places if there is no quality of life.

Curitiba is not a paradise. We have all the problems that most Latin American cities have. We have slums. We have the same difficulties, but the big difference is the respect given by people due to the quality of the services which are provided.

Brazil will change when its cities change.

After working in cities for nearly 40 years, I am telling you that every city can improve its quality of life in less than three years, no matter the scale or the financial conditions.

The city is not the problem; the city is the solution,

Every city in the world can be improved in less than three years.

There is little in the architecture of a city that is more beautifully designed than a tree.

Cities are not problems. They are solutions.

A city grows like an organism. It is a structure of living and working together a mix of functions.

The lack of resources is no longer an excuse not to act. The idea that action should only be taken after all the answers and the resources have been found is a sure recipe for paralysis. The planning of a city is a process that allows for corrections; it is supremely arrogant to believe that planning can be done only after every possible variable has been controlled.

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, when it respects the people who live in it, when it respects the environment, when it prepares for future generations, the people share the responsibility for that mandate. This shared cause is the only way to achieve that collective dream.

Many cities end up putting off things because they want to understand everything. They don't understand that innovating is about starting. Taking care of a city is a process that you start, and then give the population space to respond.

The secret to the city is integration. Every area of the city should combine work, leisure and culture. Separate these functions and parts of the city die.