a tale of three Cities – Tirana, London, Milan
Politecnico di Milano
September 2020
Anuela Ristani
Shirley Rodrigues
Maria Chiara Pastore
Deputy Mayor Foreign Relations, Tirana
Deputy Mayor Environment and Energy, London
Scientific Director Forestami, Milano
Tirana The vision of becoming a sustainable city requires a mind-shift, one where we omit carbon-saturated means of living and opt for more sustainable solutions. The initiatives that the capital has enforced moul a younger generation that will grow up healthy and active, respecting the natural environment. The Mayor of Tirana himself, Erion Veliaj, has said ‘don’t underestimate the power of children. A city for our kids is a city for all’.
Anuela Ristani We are part of a network of cities that are committed to being child friendly through the Urban 95 concept. It entails how the city looks like from the perspective of a healthy three-year-old who is typically ninety-five centimetres tall. In the last fifty years, Tirana and almost all megacities in the world have been built to serve the active working adult; alwayswe developed the strategy for a polycentric Tirana, where services and shops can be better distributed. This strategy aims to increase walkability and cycling – thus, enabling the creation of a . Therefore, in addition to improving public transportation and infrastructure – by developing clean and electric public transport with our first Green Line of a one-hundred percent electric bus fleet – we are developing the Minimum Bike Gridwhich is about ninety kilometres. Our efforts go to the education of citizens, children, and youth for the development of a proper biking culture. The notion that there can’t be unlimited growth on a finite planet is becoming more real to us, some suggest that nature provides enough for everyone on this planet but the distribution is uneven. Others disagree and suggest that our options are limited and that we should change the system completely if we want to survive. I think that there truth in both these statements: in order to change something, you need to understand it first and I am not sure everyone understands the implications of their actions onto the environment and onto their own health. We can become more responsible consumers or entrepreneurs with constant education and awareness – that way, it becomes a matter of culture. The rise of the pandemic has led to a plummet in carbon dioxide emissions; which is the largest yearly change recorded in worldwide emissions. Although, knowing human nature, one might think that things will go back to normal like before, I don’t think that is entirely true. I say this because I see myself how the green agenda has been put into focus by policy-makers all over the world. We saw cities investing in health infrastructure, biking lanes, public parks and allocating more money to rebuild greener cities. The thing about globalization is that each day you learn about what cities, businesses and communities from the farthest corners of the world are doing and that can influence your way of thinking.
