# Medellín wins 2016 Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2016-03-19

alex-feldman, architect-this-city, atc, athiscity, auckland, cable-car, cities, city-prize, columbia, connectivity, darren-davis, guest-post, lee-kuan-yew, medellin, metrocar, prize, public-transit, singapore, social-inclusion, sydney, toronto, transit, uncategorized, urban-connectivity, urban-transit, urbanism, vienna, world-city-prize

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![image](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/97d7e6a24f118219580fac9005b04a98.jpg)

Thanks to my friend [Darren Davis](https://twitter.com/DarrenDavis10), I just recently learned about something called [The Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize](http://www.leekuanyewworldcityprize.com.sg/about_prize.htm). Named after Singapore’s first Prime Minister, the prize is a biennial award that honors cities who have made, “outstanding achievements and contributions to the creation of liveable, vibrant and sustainable urban communities around the world.” Along with the prize comes $300,000 (Singapore Dollars), which is about $287,000 Canadian as of today. The [2016 Prize Laureate is Medellín, Colombia](http://www.leekuanyewworldcityprize.com.sg/laureate_medellin.htm). Over the past two decades, the city has transformed itself from one of the most dangerous cities in the world to one that has become a model for social inclusion and urban innovation. [Here is a video](https://vimeo.com/158880335) that talks about the transformation. It’s a bit cheesy, but it does provide a high-level overview of their urban initiatives. A lot of them will serve as a reminder about the importance of urban connectivity. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you may also remember that my good friend [Alex Feldman](https://twitter.com/alexpfeldman) (VP at U3 Advisors) wrote a guest post about Medellín after he visited the city for the World Urban Forum almost two years ago. That post was called, [What cities could learn from Medellín](http://brandondonnelly.com/post/83405074575/what-cities-could-learn-from-medellin). It’s worth mentioning that the runners-up for this year’s World City Prize were [Auckland](http://www.leekuanyewworldcityprize.com.sg/2016_mentions_Auckland.htm), [Sydney](http://www.leekuanyewworldcityprize.com.sg/2016_mentions_Sydney.htm), [Toronto](http://www.leekuanyewworldcityprize.com.sg/2016_mentions_Toronto.htm), and [Vienna](http://www.leekuanyewworldcityprize.com.sg/2016_mentions_Vienna.htm). In the case of Toronto, our “far-from-ideal transit” was specifically called out as a negative. Thankfully we are now [working on road pricing](http://brandondonnelly.com/post/141166245640/toronto-exploring-road-pricing-on-downtown), which will provide additional funding for transit. ;) _Image by_ [_Jorge Gobbi_](https://www.flickr.com/photos/morrissey/10965169976/)

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/medellin-wins-2016-lee-kuan-yew-world-city-prize)*