Medellín's Green Corridors

An initial cost of 16 million, and yearly maintenance of 600,000, for a city of 2.5 million? Per person, $5 initially and $0.25 per year.<p>That seems incredibly cheap for the benefits. Colombia looks to have a GDP per capita about 1&#x2F;10th of the US, so if we scale it up 10X...<p>I live in a relatively cold climate, and I would still be delighted to pay $2.50 a year for this kind of infrastructure development. Heck, even scaling it up 100X seems like it would be worth considering.<p>Maybe there&#x27;s a cost I&#x27;m missing here, but for a hot city, the AC savings alone seem like they would be worth it, not to mention the 40% reduction in respiratory infections through increased air quality.

Medellin is bursting with greenery! Everywhere I look, trees stand tall, and many of the newer buildings boast impressive vertical gardens. This not only creates a visually stunning cityscape but also sparks my imagination, making me dream of a future where other cities around the world embrace a similar level of environmental integration.

We were there in January. There are some amazing, modern, clean and green parts of the city. The botanic gardens (Jardín Botánico de Medellín) are beautiful and considerably cooler than the surrounding parts of town. The metro - with cable cars linking off to the hillside neighborhoods - is very clean, modern, and efficient.<p>We saw the city hall vertical garden - pretty neat.<p>An immense amount of effort has gone into revitalizing the city in recent years.<p>One thing that struck me though, is that the rising tide hasn&#x27;t quite lifted all boats - or people to be more precise. I saw a lot more beggars, people living on the streets, and homeless encampments than in Bogotá, or Cali or other cities. It feels like a disconnection from community and family that is still present in other places - especially smaller cities and towns. I hope they can figure out ways to help the bottom 1%. (Realizing that is a common refrain worldwide.)

I hate when writers describe plants as an ongoing carbon sink. They are a one-time carbon sink. So using &quot;cars&quot; as a comparison to carbon volumes is confusing, because cars will keep emitting after a plant is full grown and starts shedding leaves and wood that turn back into methane or carbon dioxide.<p>The key benefit of the plants is cooling the city without electricity, which is an ongoing effect.

While top in HN, in the local newspaper a warning about the bad air quality of the city.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.elcolombiano.com&#x2F;antioquia&#x2F;restricciones-por-mala-calidad-del-aire-en-medellin-AI23905126" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.elcolombiano.com&#x2F;antioquia&#x2F;restricciones-por-mal...</a>

Medellín is the most beautiful city I have ever been to. It&#x27;s very green and clean.

I&#x27;m really interested in the geotextile pavements that were mentioned at the end of the article. As someone who lives where it can get pretty rainy, having a cheap yet effective geotextile driveway would be great.

I love Medellin and lived there for many years, but the air quality is terrible and getting worse. You can talk with any locals and they say that the climate is noticeably different than it was in the past.<p>Medellin is surrounded by mountains and the contaminated air cannot escape. There didn&#x27;t used to be a lot of cars, but now there is financing so the number of cars is growing significantly.<p>The hills are steep and old busses spew black smoke.<p>Here is some more info on pollution in Medellin: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medellinguru.com&#x2F;medellin-pollution&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medellinguru.com&#x2F;medellin-pollution&#x2F;</a><p>Saying Medellin&#x27;s temp decreased by 2 degrees Celsius based on &quot;Mejorar el microclima hasta 2°C&quot; is a misinterpretation. I think this article is quite misleading.

Medellin is a fascinating city and over the years had leadership that really cared about how to most effectively help throe citizens and not being afraid to make radical chandes and big investments.<p>E. G. They build the metro cable essentially a &quot;ski lift&quot; public transport system up the steep slopes of the hills surrounding the city. It&#x27;s a great example how to transform communities by giving people access to transport and thus economic opportunities (the metro cable changed a 2h walk to the metro station at the base of the valley into a 15min gondola ride). It wrestled the slums from the control of the gangs and massively reduced crime in the areas.

Finally some good news!<p>I would love to see a city or building try this in the US

Very cool, in many senses of the word.<p>We certainly need more of this.<p>More importantly, this may also reduce the heat-soaking of the earth underneath the city as well as the surrounding countryside.

&gt; We built and built and built. There wasn’t a lot of thought about the impact on the climate. It became obvious that had to change.<p>That feels like a quote out of a novel or a Hollywood movie. Absolutely thrilled for Medellin to be able to enact this kind of change. It&#x27;s a huge struggle in the US and extremely dispiriting.

I wonder what the options are for cities in arid climates, which are only becoming more so due to climate change. The few trees in this area are already threatened by droughts, so it seems like planting more greenery would just increase the burden on a water system that&#x27;s already at breaking point.

This is a very interesting initiative, and fills me with hope. Not only better temperatures, but even better air (PM2.5 levels reduced!)<p>But I do wonder, what about insects? Are there more insects because there are more places for them to live?

Chicago has done something similar with rooftop gardens to reduce temperatures. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.epa.gov&#x2F;arc-x&#x2F;chicago-il-uses-green-infrastructure-reduce-extreme-heat" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.epa.gov&#x2F;arc-x&#x2F;chicago-il-uses-green-infrastructu...</a>

Any links to how to build these at home? Like a 10 to 15 foot version? It&#x27;d be really interesting to find out how to keep the plants&#x27; roots from clogging the water supply.

Melbourne has large “green belts” through the suburbs which are meant to be off limits to development.<p>However they are constantly being rezoned to residential housing through political corruption.

Brings a new and nicer meaning to the term <i>walled garden</i>

Looks beautiful. I assume our hockey stick temperature charts capture this urban heat island effect of between two and five degrees, right? Anybody know?