Planificación y política en Bogotá: La vida de Jorge Gaitán Cortés (Planning and politics in Bogotá: The life of Jorge Gaitán Cortés)

THIS BOOK IS an exploration of the recent history of Colombia’s capital city through the eyes of one of its most important planners and politicians. Jorge Gaitán Cortés, an architect and urban planner, was also active in politics in the 1950s and 1960s until his untimely death in 1968. He used his extraordinary energy and intellect to study the city’s development in great depth and to create a solid range of institutions and physical foundations for future growth. His efforts and his vision as a city councillor and, later, as mayor for five years (1961-1966) were crucial at a time in the city’s development when physical and population growth were at their peak. This biographical account of one of Colombia’s most important urban planners explores the origins of his ideals and the roots of his professional and political commitment to a more socially just city, at a time when speculative development and haphazard growth from the pressure of rapid migration seemed to thwart any possibility of positive state intervention. The search for a more democratic city and the use of the city council as a channel for genuine political representation, coupled with an all too rare selflessness in public office were ideals espoused by a generation of young professionals from élite families at a time of transition from a brief period of military rule in the 1950s to the subsequent restoration of democratically elected governments. Through a large number of interviews with key members of Cortés’s generation, and painstaking archival research, the book is not merely a biography but also a critical examination of the contribution that planning and good public management can make to urban development.