Villages grow into towns and eventually cities. Along this path of growth are the events of inadvertence and foresight that make these communities either successes or failures, either enjoyable places to live or hell-holes to escape. So it’s crucially important we understand the factors that determine these two courses.

North Island communities such as Campbell River and Courtenay are perfect examples of new cities evolving into the shape of their futures. If they are to escalate in complexity yet remain pleasant communities that preserve their liveability, then we need to understand the dynamics that make this happen.

Strangely enough, the key to creating successful cities is not economics but a magical mix of psychology, sociology and philosophy. And much of it is optimism, says Ricardo Montezuma, an urbanist at the University of Colombia. “Why is this important? Because... a city is really just the sum of what people think about it. The city is a subjective thing” (“From living hell to living well”, Globe & Mail, June 29/07).

If we think of cities as just roads and buildings, then optimism seems like a surprising and unhelpful insight. So an explanation is required. And this explanation comes from an unlikely source: Bogota, Colombia, and an unorthodox mayor named Enrique Peñalosa.

Peñalosa subscribes to an economic philosophy called hedonics, which focuses on human happiness rather than economic growth. (See Happiness: Lessons from a New Science by London School of Economics professor Richard Layard.) As Charles Mongomery’s Globe & Mail feature explains, “Feelings of well-being are determined as much by status and social connectedness as by income. Richer people are happier than poor people, but societies with wider income gaps are less happy on the whole. People who interact more with friends, family and neighbours are happier than those who don’t.” Or, in Peñalosa’s words, “You need to fulfil your potential as a human being. You need to walk. You need to be with other people. Most of all, you need to not feel inferior.”

So Peñalosa set about to change Bogota from the “living hell” of a hectic, car dominated metropolis — un infierno — to a liveable city. Instead of allocating billions to freeways in an attempt to solve the city’s traffic congestion, he spent the money on parks, schools, libraries, bike routes, bus systems and “pedestrian freeways”. Then he declared car-free days. By doing so, people on foot and bicycle were granted the same respect as those in cars. This simple exercising of the “principle of equity” was a way of “handing road space over to public transit and pedestrian[s] — a way of making private space public again.” In other words, Peñalosa changed the psychological structure of the city by increasing people’s respect for themselves.

This is precisely what sea-walks and fishing wharfs do, as do all shapes and sizes of parks. Everyone who walks or cycles — anyone who is not contained in the private space created by a car — becomes an equal. Regardless of wealth or status, everyone has the same right to use a park, to stroll a sidewalk or to sit on a bench. This experience of egalitarianism soothes social tensions, makes people happier and fosters safer communities. The effect in Bogota was astounding. In three years, the murder rate fell 40 percent, with dramatically lower rates in other crimes and traffic fatalities. The city’s mood shifted from predominantly pessimism to optimism.

Professor Emeritus John Helliwell of the University of British Columbia explains the effects this way: “When you get data on people’s life satisfaction, and you try to explain the differences, the variables that jump right out relate to the trustworthiness of the environment that people are living in. How much can they trust strangers? How well can they trust people in the neighbourhood? How trustworthy are the police? The more positive answers people give on these questions, the happier they are.”

“So what do you need to do to establish these higher levels of trust?” Helliwell asks. “It turns out that frequency of positive interaction is the key.” People need to be with people and they need accessible public spaces where they can interact in congenial activity. This requires urban parks, plazas and greenways integrated into a tight and compact relationship with businesses and high-density residences. People feel safe and secure in crowds; it’s the empty spaces that are threatening.

Cities are also made liveable by participatory government, by civic processes that consult, involve and respect public opinion. This doesn’t mean that everyone will agree. But engagement empowers people, makes them feel important and dignified, equalizes them and gives everyone a feeling of investment, ownership and pride in their city. “We did this” instead of “they did this” is a way of bridging the differences between rich and poor, between the engaged and the indifferent, between the optimist and the pessimist. It’s a way of making cities happier places.

Civic politicians would be wise to remember that cities are really people places, organic environments where humans can grow and flourish. So the goal of all planning is not to accommodate more cars or businesses or wealth, but to maximize the happiness of the people living there. If dynamic economies made great cities, Peñalosa reminds us, then Atlanta, Phoenix, Miami or Los Angeles would be the most liveable in the world. They’re not.

Mayors and councillors of growing communities everywhere should know that their present decisions are constructing the intangible foundations of the future, are creating the psychological and sociological conditions that will determine the success or failure of their cities. As hedonics and its principles of liveability suggest, these foundations are not primarily brick, concrete or asphalt. Instead, they are strangely subjective things measured in the happiness of people.