For most Americans, Bogotá, Colombia is a city of crime, drug kingpins, and anarchy. The real Bogotá, however, is no such nightmare: it is a modern metropolis, dotted with parks, museums, and libraries. It is also becoming one of the safest cities in Latin America: its homicide rate has fallen by 70 percent in recent years. But the city’s infamous reputation for instability was once a reality—so who rescued Bogotá from its descent into chaos and made it a thriving capital city?

One answer is “Super-citizen,” a bearded man with orange and yellow spandex, an orange cape, and a bold “C” across his chest. He is the alter-ego of Antanas Mockus, the former mayor of Bogotá, who ran the city from 1995 to 1997 and from 2001 to 2003. Mockus, who favored education and social incentives over fines and punitive “zero tolerance” policies, established a “culture of citizenship” in Bogotá. By doing so, most say, he saved the city, and, as can be expected from a man who donned spandex, he did so through very eccentric policies.

To ease congestion and encourage compliance with traffic laws, Mockus hired hundreds of mimes to direct traffic in Bogotá’s busiest intersections. The mimes mocked drivers who stopped on crosswalks as well as pedestrians who jaywalked. Whether or not they were effective, by 2003, traffic-related accidents were down by 57 percent.

Mockus also tried to discourage general “bad behavior” by distributing 350,000 red-and-white cards to city residents. Andrés García, a student from Bogotá, told the Globalist that “the cards were a non-aggressive way to repress someone else’s bad behavior or to praise their good actions.” According to Garcia, “at first people took the cards as a joke, taking them out for everything, but then people started to take the feedback from others seriously.”

Mockus’ successor, Enrique Peñalosa, continued to improve the city, though his approach was less focused on citizenship than Mockus’. Peñalosa, who served as mayor from 1997 to 2000, emphasized improvements in the city’s physical infrastructure. Although he came from a different party, he continued and expanded most of Mockus’ reforms. Peñalosa developed a system of mass transit and made innovative traffic laws. He closed streets to cars and opened them to pedestrians and bikers, transforming them into colorful public plazas, walkways, and bicycle routes, none of which would have been successful without the culture of citizenship and civic respect that Mockus encouraged. Peñalosa hoped that “getting people out of their cars would be a means for social integration.”

Daniel Grillo, a student from Bogotá, told the Globalist, “Transmilenio and the other traffic policies formalized the transportation system in the city and gave order to it, creating a positive impact in a city where mobility is extremely frustrating.”

Riding on the success of these social policies, Peñalosa ran for mayor again in October 2007. His campaign was based on developing a competitive, highly mobile city where “people can live without fear.” Despite having broad popular support and the backing of the popular President Álvaro Uribe, Peñalosa lost the elections to the candidate of a leftist party that has governed the city for the last three years. Peñalosa’s loss suggests that Bogotá’s citizens are more concerned with poverty alleviation than traffic alleviation.

Nonetheless, Grillo believes that, “although it’s great that social aspects, such as the quality of education, are improving in the city, we need a balance between this and investment in infrastructure. For the last three years, Bogotá’s development has stagnated, its streets are deteriorating, and the work Peñalosa did to alleviate traffic is being reversed.”

As Peñalosa’s defeat demonstrated, most of Bogotá’s citizens disagree with Grillo: they want the mayor to improve the city’s infrastructure and invest in social issues. Moreno’s focus on workers’ conditions, health services, and education won out over Peñalosa’s theory of car-free social integration.

Nonetheless, Mockus and Peñalosa have been advising cities and organizations across the globe in their unique approaches to urban problems. Peñalosa, for example, has been helping Lima, Panama City, and Jakarta develop similarly efficient bus systems, bike paths, and car-free days. The “Bogotá phenomenon” demonstrates that cities can markedly improve by investing in civic culture, public spaces, and social integration.

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