Jaime Lerner Quotes & Sayings

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. — Jaime Lerner

If you want creativity, take a zero off your budget. If you want sustainability, take off two zeros. — Jaime Lerner

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. — Jaime Lerner

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. — Jaime Lerner

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. — Jaime Lerner

I always run into these Ph.D.s. They write and write and write about sustainable development. Then these guys ask me, 'But, how do you do it?' They are scared to death to do anything. — Jaime Lerner

Garbage removal is a citizen responsibility. — Jaime Lerner

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

A system of bus rapid transit is not only dedicated lanes. You have to have really good boarding conditions - that means paying before entering the bus and boarding at the same level. And at the same time having a good schedule and frequency. — Jaime Lerner

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. — Jaime Lerner

Creativity starts when you cut a zero from your budget. — Jaime Lerner

The car is the cigarette of the future — Jaime Lerner

I always try to say, 'If you want to help the environment, try to do just two things. One, use less of your car. Second, separate your garbage.' — Jaime Lerner

We have to change from 'ego-architecture' to 'eco-architecture.' — Jaime Lerner

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. — Jaime Lerner

If you provide good alternatives for public transport, you won't have traffic problems. — Jaime Lerner

We can't have landfills forever, and we can't ask others to accept our trash. — Jaime Lerner

Cities are not problems. They are solutions. — Jaime Lerner

The city is not the problem; the city is the solution, — Jaime Lerner

A car is like a mother-in-law - if you let it, it will rule your life. — Jaime Lerner

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

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

There are three major issues now that are becoming important, not only for cities, but for all mankind: Mobility, sustainability - which is linked to mobility - and social diversity. — Jaime Lerner

A lot of people assume that the expensive ideas are the most effective ones, but that is simply not true. — Jaime Lerner

Brazil will change when its cities change. — Jaime Lerner

Bureaucracy is like a fungus that contaminates everything. — Jaime Lerner

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. — Jaime Lerner

The design of a city is like a strange archeology. — Jaime Lerner

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

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

Sometimes the media gives us the impression that we are terminal patients, because of problems of global warmth or the ozone layer. And the people, they don't understand that they can could change this situation for the better if they could act locally in a city. — Jaime Lerner

There is no place in a city that can't be better. There is no toad that can't be a princess, no frog that can't become a prince. — Jaime Lerner