Saga Cityt, Our communities facing climate change
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0:46 - 0:50This is Mrs. Walker. She’s the mayor here in Labangan,
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0:50 - 0:53and lately, her job has been getting more challenging.
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0:53 - 0:56One day, she decided it was time for a change…
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0:56 - 0:59… to get to the bottom of things, to find long-term solutions.
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1:00 - 1:02But where should she start?
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1:03 - 1:07She first needed to know if the population shared her point of view.
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1:07 - 1:14Well, I didn’t go, but my mother was there. So many people showed up! Apparently, Mrs. Walker had hit a nerve.
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1:14 - 1:19The issues brought up by the citizens were the same ones that were bothering the mayor.
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1:25 - 1:27And that’s when the mayor realized
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1:27 - 1:31that our city’s problems were much more serious than she'd previously thought.
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1:31 - 1:35She quickly saw that Labangan was far from being exemplary,
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1:35 - 1:38that the citizens didn’t have the quality of life they were seeking.
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1:43 - 1:47To sum it up, she had a lot of work to do and she needed help.
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1:48 - 1:50Business people, architects, urban planners…
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1:50 - 1:53Many specialists were called upon to find solutions.
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1:53 - 1:55And as if we didn’t have enough things to do,
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1:55 - 1:59Colvert had just received its greenhouse gases emission report.
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1:59 - 2:01A very bad report, to say the least!
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2:01 - 2:04We obviously had to solve that problem as well.
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2:04 - 2:08We were starting to have a lot to do at the same time.
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2:08 - 2:11The mayor and her collaborators got to work and after brainstorming,
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2:11 - 2:14they understood that by dealing with the greenhouse gases,
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2:14 - 2:18Labangan would also be taking care of its other problems.
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2:18 - 2:22That’s just what they did and that’s the story I’ll tell you now.
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2:23 - 2:30It all started in the 1950s. Up until then, Labangan was… a close-knit community.
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2:37 - 2:40Then, after a few years, almost everyone could afford a car.
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2:40 - 2:43Since it became easier to move around quickly,
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2:43 - 2:45people left the older neighbourhoods to settle in the country.
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2:46 - 2:49One street after the other, one house after the next,
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2:49 - 2:52… the city started spreading, spreading and spreading.
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2:53 - 2:55Today, almost everyone has their own house.
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2:56 - 2:56We do.
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2:56 - 3:00
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3:00 - 3:04Our neighbourhood is calm, clean, and safe and most importantly close to nature.
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3:04 - 3:06Well, that’s how it was, at first.
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3:06 - 3:12We were proud of our new-found quality of life, forgetting that we were building a city dependent on cars and oil.
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3:12 - 3:15Cars encourage urban sprawl, making it necessary to buy a car.
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3:15 - 3:18And the farther you live, the more you need a car.
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3:19 - 3:21I need one a little more than most.
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3:21 - 3:25Plus, by thinking it was making the city cleaner and more efficient, we separated the activities.
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3:25 - 3:28We used the zoning to avoid industries from polluting houses.
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3:28 - 3:30Nice thought!
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3:30 - 3:32But by pushing our logic to the extreme,
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3:32 - 3:37we made it so that nowadays, our houses, jobs, activities, public services and businesses
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3:37 - 3:41are so far from one another that we can’t do anything by foot anymore.
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3:41 - 3:43Having a car has become a must.
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3:43 - 3:45We use it to do everything.
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3:45 - 3:49
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3:49 - 3:52
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3:54 - 3:55
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3:56 - 4:00
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4:00 - 4:01
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4:01 - 4:03I’m not the only one to live like that.
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4:03 - 4:09Many families even have two or three cars! And boy do we cover a lot of kilometres in one day!
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4:13 - 4:19With so many cars, there’s obviously traffic. Tell me about it!
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4:19 - 4:22We tried to solve the problem by creating a large boulevard that went around the city centre.
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4:22 - 4:25But in the end, it made things worse.
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4:25 - 4:27New residential neighbourhoods were created on each end.
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4:27 - 4:32And with each new development, businesses started popping up which attracted even more cars.
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4:32 - 4:37In a few years, this meant that the bypass road also became very congested.
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4:37 - 4:41And since we’re not quick learners, we thought it would be best to build a highway.
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4:41 - 4:49We didn’t quite understand that building a faster road would make people want to drive even more and create even more traffic.
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4:49 - 4:52So in the end, it’s just a vicious cycle…
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4:53 - 4:55For those that don’t have a car, things aren’t any easier.
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4:55 - 4:58That’s my mother. Because of her age, she can’t drive anymore.
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4:58 - 5:00There are many people like her that don’t have a car.
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5:00 - 5:04They’re either too old, too young, too poor or they just don’t want one.
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5:04 - 5:07Modern cities are often hostile to these car-less people.
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5:15 - 5:17My mother has a great deal of trouble coming to see us.
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5:17 - 5:22And more often than not, to make it easier on her, I pick her up, by car.
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5:22 - 5:25Same thing when she needs to go anywhere else, like the hardware store.
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5:25 - 5:28Today, when we need to buy something,
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5:28 - 5:32it’s always a bit further away and we almost always take the car to get there.
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5:32 - 5:35So, all in all, the car is ever more present.
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5:37 - 5:40Roads, bridges, interchanges, viaducts and parking lots
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5:40 - 5:45are all infrastructures that we must build and maintain.
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5:45 - 5:46And it’s costly for everyone!
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5:46 - 5:49It’s become an asphalt jungle.
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5:49 - 5:53It gets really really hot here sometimes!
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5:55 - 5:58Well, we really made it happen!
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5:58 - 6:04We paved huge surfaces to create parking lots that created heat islands which increase the smog risks that can seriously affect our health.
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6:04 - 6:07
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6:07 - 6:11But instead of solving the problem at the source, we’d rather rely on technology to save us,
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6:11 - 6:15even if that often contributes to increasing our greenhouse gas emissions.
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6:18 - 6:20Truthfully, we’re all just trying to improve our lives.
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6:20 - 6:24For some, it means a bigger TV, a bigger house, a bigger yard, a pool, a spa…
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6:24 - 6:29We bought all of those things by thinking it was the best of worlds.
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6:29 - 6:31Well why not? We had the room and enough resources!
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6:31 - 6:34But now, we can finally see that there's a downside of having all those things !
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6:35 - 6:40We’d like to minimize our impact, but we find that doing small things, everyone by himself, is not enough…
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6:44 - 6:48And voilà! We had an ordinary city, with all sorts of problems
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6:48 - 6:50that were directly contributing to the climate change.
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6:56 - 7:01In Labangan, we decided to change things. I say “we” because the mayor wanted everyone to participate.
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7:01 - 7:04We agreed on a long-term vision.
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7:04 - 7:11Together, we would decrease our greenhouse gas emissions and transform Labangan into a cleaner, greener and a more prosperous city.
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7:11 - 7:16To do so, the first thing the mayor’s team did was to reduce the urban boundary.
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7:16 - 7:19There would be no construction beyond a certain limit!
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7:19 - 7:23If less land is available, developpers will hurry up and snatch up the remaining parcels.
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7:23 - 7:28With less and less available land, they’ll build more compact buildings, to house more people and make more money.
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7:29 - 7:34However, sacrificing my family’s well-being to go live in a chicken coop is completely out of the question!
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7:35 - 7:37But that’s not what we did.
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7:37 - 7:42By talking together, we understood that we could rebuild the city on itself,
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7:42 - 7:49reorganize it and create more compact neighbourhoods, without stepping on each other’s toes.
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7:49 - 7:52It’s pretty simple: here’s how we did it.
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7:55 - 8:00First, to have an animated and strong downtown, we asked two big employers to move there.
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8:00 - 8:07Apparently, it’s good for real estate and businesses. One thing’s for sure, big changes started to happen.
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8:07 - 8:11More people were around, more businesses and more services too.
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8:11 - 8:18Main Street came back to life and it’s now pleasurable place to live, work or walk around and meet people.
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8:18 - 8:21Well, at least my mother can’t stop talking about it!
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8:24 - 8:30We have to admit that the city made a huge effort to make the streets, public squares and parks more enjoyable…
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8:30 - 8:32We even built new ones!
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8:32 - 8:34But wait! That’s not all!
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8:34 - 8:37On the other side of the river, there were old abandoned industrial buildings.
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8:37 - 8:42With the city’s help, the owners renovated them to house stores, businesses, and even housing.
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8:42 - 8:44All in one spot!
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8:45 - 8:49I never thought it would work, but there’s definitely a lot more life in the neighbourhood now.
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8:49 - 8:51And it’s a lot greener too!
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8:52 - 8:56South of the city, we transformed the train station into a bus terminal.
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8:56 - 8:59That also added exciting new uses.
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8:59 - 9:00But we didn’t stop there!
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9:00 - 9:04We created a neighbourhood which was friendlier to pedestrians and cyclists.
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9:05 - 9:09We didn’t hold back. And it works!
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9:12 - 9:15Nancy and I, we love to relax on the new pedestrian street.
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9:15 - 9:18It’s lively and there are all sorts of people there too!
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9:18 - 9:22Meanwhile, Megan plays with her friends on a shared street where cars aren’t banned,
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9:22 - 9:25but where they don’t have sole priority.
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9:26 - 9:32All in all, the street has become accessible again, and it’s also become safer and fun for everyone.
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9:32 - 9:34It’s no longer just a transit road for cars…
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9:34 - 9:36… even if Megan still finds the way to scare us.
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9:47 - 9:53On the other side of town, we gave the shopping centre a new life by making it the heart of a new neighbourhood.
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9:53 - 9:58There was a lot of space around the buildings, so we decided to use it better.
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10:03 - 10:08We built a multi-level parking lot in which there are more spots, in less space.
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10:08 - 10:12That’s how we took back the surface parking lots to build new buildings.
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10:12 - 10:19And in no time, that neighbourhood became almost as lively as downtown!
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10:19 - 10:21The remaining parking lots were resurfaced.
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10:21 - 10:28Instead of being directed into the river by the sewers, the rainwater infiltrates the soil or is drained towards a pond.
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10:29 - 10:33Specialists call it a landscaped retention pond.
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10:33 - 10:40With the trees we added, the heat islands almost disappeared. Everyone enjoys it much more.
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10:40 - 10:42Well, Megan does anyway!
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10:47 - 10:52Here’s the neighbourhood where Nathan’s best friend lives. We like to call it “Tangle Town”.
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10:52 - 10:59It’s the kind of suburb where there are bungalows, no services, and where the twists and turns make the way three times longer than a direct route.
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11:00 - 11:03The city wanted to make it into a more complete area.
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11:03 - 11:05So it built community centre in the heart of the neighbourhood.
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11:05 - 11:14Then, it changed its rules and suggested measures to increase the area’s density and make it possible for stores and businesses to settle.
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11:14 - 11:18Activity attracts more people, and more people attract more activity.
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11:19 - 11:22A few pedestrian shortcuts, between the badly connected streets,
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11:22 - 11:29and a new bike path make it possible today for the children to avoid detours… well, adults too, for that matter.
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11:29 - 11:34With more people living in the neighbourhood, the city was able to offer a good bus service on a reserved lane.
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11:34 - 11:37Today, things are good in Tangle Town.
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11:37 - 11:41Upstream, the city built a new neighbourhood near the old mill.
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11:41 - 11:43I moved there with my family.
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11:43 - 11:47From there, it’s easy to enjoy nature, and not impact it too much.
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11:47 - 11:51That was the goal when we decided to build an eco-friendly neighbourhood.
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11:55 - 11:57Colvert imposed stringent construction rules.
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11:57 - 12:00The neighbourhood is more compact and the housing is better planned.
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12:00 - 12:03For example, buildings are not exposed to the elements,
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12:03 - 12:06and they therefore use less energy and produce less greenhouse gas.
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12:07 - 12:10The density of the neighbourhood makes the infrastructures more efficient.
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12:10 - 12:13The more people are served per kilometre, the more bang for our buck.
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12:14 - 12:19People, a bustling city, a reliable bus service… I get it, now!
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12:19 - 12:20Speaking of buses,
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12:20 - 12:26while we were creating neighbourhood centres, we had to think about linking them with a good collective transportation system.
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12:26 - 12:33The old mill links to Tangle Town, the train station to the shopping centre and they all connect through downtown.
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12:33 - 12:35What’s good about those transit lines is that they’re reliable.
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12:35 - 12:40The bus shelters are comfortable; and there are benches and time tables indicating when the next bus will come.
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12:40 - 12:44And since it’s efficient, more people want to use it and move closer by.
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12:45 - 12:49It’s so popular that the city’s thinking about increasing the service!
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12:50 - 12:52Our daily trips are a lot less stressful now.
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12:52 - 12:56Nancy works in the neighbourhood and I work on the newspaper’s presses, downtown.
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12:56 - 12:58I even take the bus to get there!
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12:58 - 13:05At the same time, the city has decreased the number of parking spots downtown and allocated a few to car-sharing services.
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13:05 - 13:09Apparently, one shared car can replace 8 individual cars!
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13:09 - 13:17And, there’s also the self-serve bike service. I haven’t tried it yet, but I hear it’s really useful because there are stations everywhere.
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13:17 - 13:21Now, we can travel around the city without using our car.
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13:22 - 13:25Thanks to all that, Colvert is starting to feel a lot better.
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13:25 - 13:28But we’re far from being done. We have many other projects to tackle.
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13:28 - 13:32First of all, we need to make the bypass road friendlier for all.
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13:33 - 13:39Then, we will replace the most popular bus lines with a light rail system.
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13:39 - 13:45Finally, as an alternative to the highway, we’ll connect Colvert to neighbouring cities by putting the train back on track.
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13:48 - 13:51That’s how, with smaller and more important decisions,
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13:51 - 13:54Colvert got the best greenhouse gas emissions grade in the country
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13:55 - 13:58and contributed in its fight against climate change.
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14:00 - 14:06We used this challenge to completely review the way we developed and organized our city.
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14:08 - 14:11Today, we’re happy to say that we live in Colvert:
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14:11 - 14:14it’s not only a nice, clean and prosperous city…
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14:14 - 14:17but it’s a model city as well!
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14:25 - 14:28For the mayor, things are better than ever.
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14:28 - 14:34She exceeded the populations’ expectations and I think she’ll be in office for a while.
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14:35 - 14:39You may think this was just a fairy tale, where everything just magically happened.
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14:39 - 14:41But, that’s not the case.
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14:42 - 14:43We didn’t all agree at first.
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14:44 - 14:48We were afraid of making sacrifices by changing the way we lived.
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14:48 - 14:53But the biggest step we had to take was changing our way of seeing things.
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14:54 - 14:58In the end, we really lucked out.
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14:58 - 15:03And, me, a little more than most! And I’m really proud to say that…
- Title:
- Saga Cityt, Our communities facing climate change
- Description:
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! Learn more at www.sagacitymovie.org !
Urban planning has great effects on collective choices that contribute to climate change. By defining the shape of a community, urban planning determines part of its energy consumption, and thus, the quantity of greenhouse gases released by dwellers. Nevertheless, it remains largely out of the general debate on this issue. SAGA CITY invites you to learn more about these stakes through to story of the city of Colvert. - Video Language:
- English
- Duration:
- 16:25
Jhasith Guloy edited English subtitles for Saga Cityt, Our communities facing climate change | ||
Jhasith Guloy edited English subtitles for Saga Cityt, Our communities facing climate change | ||
pierre-yves.chopin edited English subtitles for Saga Cityt, Our communities facing climate change | ||
pierre-yves.chopin edited English subtitles for Saga Cityt, Our communities facing climate change | ||
pierre-yves.chopin edited English subtitles for Saga Cityt, Our communities facing climate change | ||
pierre-yves.chopin edited English subtitles for Saga Cityt, Our communities facing climate change | ||
pierre-yves.chopin edited English subtitles for Saga Cityt, Our communities facing climate change | ||
pierre-yves.chopin added a translation |