I’d never even heard of Jaime or Curitiba until getting Bill McKibben’s newsletter in my inbox today.

Revolutionary urban planning by Jaime—the city’s several-times Mayor and son of Polish immigrants from Lodz—turned the place into a poster child for making a city liveable: pedestrian malls (the first in Brazil!), functioning public transport, city parks, the whole shebang.

Please do read this fantastic article by Bill written back in 2005. It’s pretty inspiring.

The reason this gem popped up today was because Jaime Lerner died a few days ago, after dedicating his life since the late 60s to make Curitiba a better place to live.

“In a recent survey (from the 2005 article), 60 percent of New Yorkers wanted to leave their rich and cosmopolitan city; 99 percent of Curitibans told pollsters that they were happy with their town; and 70 percent of the residents of São Paulo said they thought life would be better in Curitiba.”

Dude.

A life to be proud of.