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Twenty-first century

The city began the 21st century with important changes in its urban space and public transport, looking to plan demographic and economic growth, that would position it as a strategic hub for international business in Latin America. Some of the main interventions initiated looked to develop projects contained in the Plan of Territorial Ordering (POT), which aims to guide the development of the city for the next two centuries.

One of the most important interventions in the city was in its transportation system. In 1967, there were 2,679 urban buses in Bogotá that transported, on average, 1,630,000 passengers per day. The city had about 1 million inhabitants and 80 km of area, the service was relatively reasonable. But as the city grew and reached more than five million and an area greater than 300 km, not only did the car fleet increase substantially to more than 20,000 vehicles, but traffic complexity increased, as well as pollution and the inefficiency of the only existing transportation system.

By the end of the 20th century, the situation was difficult. There was no real urban public transport system that would serve as an alternative to the private vehicle – which further incentivized its use – and the city had low levels of competitiveness in Latin America, as well as an unsatisfactory quality of life for the vast majority of its inhabitants. The administrations of mayors Andrés Pastrana (1988–90) and Jaime Castro (1992–94), in addition to the first of Antanas Mockus (1995–97), formulated proposals to solve the problem of public transport, with limited results. It was during the mayoralty of the latter when there was talk about the possibility of establishing a mass transportation system that would help remedy the problem of mobility.

Under the second administration of Antanas Mockus, Bogotá opened a 'zone of tolerancia' which legalized prostitution in a large swath of the center of the city in the Santa Fe neighborhood.

Mayor Enrique Peñalosa (whose first term was 1998–2000) included in his program as a priority a solution to public transport. Consequently, in the execution of the development plan "For the Bogotá we Want" in terms of mobility and in a mass transportation system project, the construction of special infrastructure exclusively for its operation was determined. This system would include specialized bus corridors, equipped with single-use lanes, stations, bridges, bike paths and special pedestrian access platforms, designed to facilitate the user's experience in the system. However, Peñalosa became infamous for his campaign against the poor, saying he would rather see robbers on the streets, than people selling candies. Peñalosa served a second term (2016–19).

After getting elected in 2011, Gustavo Petro, clashed with the conservative political establishment after remunicipalization of the city's garbage collection system. The inspector general, Alejandro Ordoñez deposed Petro for alleged constitutional overreach when he tried to replace the city's private trash collectors. Petro was reinstated weeks later after a Bogotá court ruled that Ordoñez had overstepped his authority.

Although the proposal for biarticulated diesel buses called "Transmilenio" was in its early stages a success, due in part to the small numbers of passengers it transported, in the long term it became an inefficient and contaminating system, saturated for a metro population of almost ten million, guilty of environmental deterioration and air pollution.

For its part, the cultural equipment plan of Bogotá has yielded significant results, including the construction of three large public libraries in different sectors. These libraries have not only expanded access to existing library resources but also serve as some of the 150 hubs for BibloRed - Bogotá's Public Libraries Network, including the Bogota Digital Library The new libraries were located in sectors that allow a wide coverage, have easy access by public transport and bike paths; and their projects were commissioned to distinguished architects of the city. They are those of El Tunal, in the south, projected by the architect Suely Vargas; of El Tintal, in the west, the work of the architect Daniel Bermúdez; and the Virgilio Barco Vargas library, located in the Simón Bolívar park in the central area, work of the architect Rogelio Salmona. Out of the city's 150 libraries, these three, with their outstanding architecture, provide public and open-access spaces for the educational and cultural development of the citizens of Bogotá.

As for 2019, the city's distribution is composed of nine main business centers (Av. El Dorado Business Corridor, Centro Internacional, Parque de la 93, El Lago, North Point, Calle 100, Santa Barbara Business Center, Zona Industrial Montevideo & Parque Industrial Zona Franca). Grittier sides sit south and southwest, where working-class barrios continue to battle their reputations for drugs and crime. In the ritzier north you'll find boutique hotels, corporate offices and well-heeled locals piling into chic entertainment districts such as the Zona Rosa and Zona G.

Protests against police brutality started in Bogotá following the death of Javier Ordóñez while in police custody on 9 September 2020. As of 12 September 2020, 13 people have died and over 400 have been injured as part of the protests.