PLACES
LONDON
PHOENIX
RIO DE JANEIRO
STATEMENTS
Cities now serve as living space and home for more than half of all
mankind. But what is it really like to live in a large city? What challenges are urban dwellers facing today in order to ensure a healthy life
tomorrow? What is the ongoing relationship of cities with their natural
environment? What kind of dynamic drives urban communities forwards, and what fascination do cities exert on their citizens? According to what rules do they continuously transform themselves?
Guided by these questions, D/A 18 explores life in three cities with
a photographic essay, showing crops of panoramic photographs of
London, Phoenix and Rio de Janeiro taken by artist Robert Polidori in
the spring of 2012.
The photo essay is accompanied by a selection of statements on
the three cities. Mayors and citizens, architects and their clients,
economists and health experts, scientists and political activists from
London, Phoenix and Rio all provide their viewpoints. Their statements illustrate that every city evolves out of its own traditions and
social conventions, the surrounding climate and the resources it has
access to − but also that every city is the result of countless individual
initiatives and ideals that have been put into practice. And yet certain
challenges recur in many different cities – from accommodating rapid
urban expansion to ensuring the health and well-being of all citizens,
regardless of income, age or social status. Similarly, the hopes and
aspirations of citizens all over the world also resemble each other: they
are all concerned about health and justice, clean water and fresh air,
a vital urban society and quality of life for current as well as future
generations.
These shared concerns and values are vital to achieving the spirit
of co-creation we need in order to sustainably transform the world’s
cities. If the transformation that we all long for can rely on the intrinsic
motivation and deeply-felt convictions of as many citizens as possible,
it stands a good chance of being successful.
CITY STATEMENTS
PLACES
36
D&A  AUTUMN 2012  Issue 18
RIO DE JANEIRO
STATEMENTS
37
Bruno Carvalho
My relationship with Rio de Janeiro has
little in common with most other Cariocas. I have lived elsewhere for much of
my life, and yet it is still the place where I
have spent the most time. For professional and personal reasons, I return often.
All of this says more about the nomadic
predicament that modern circumstances
sometimes impose on our lives than it
does about Rio itself. But these back-andforths can make a city’s peculiarities and
transformations seem more acute.
In the last decade, Rio de Janeiro’s
car fleet has increased by almost a third.
This pace, far higher than the population
growth of around 7% during the same
period, remains unabated. By 2020, the
number of cars is expected to double. It
certainly shows: Rio has never been as
loud, polluted, and congested. The city
has probably also never been as unaffordable: few discuss transport alternatives,
but complaints about rising real estate
and rental prices have become a staple
of everyday life.
Although they reflect a growing economy, these circumstances are largely
the consequence of myopic policies and
changing cultural norms. Over the past
few decades, the city has largely invested
in an unsustainable model of expansion:
car-dependent, and characterised by
private, gated condominiums located in
38
D&A  AUTUMN 2012  Issue 18
“In the last decade, Rio de Janeiro’s car
fleet has increased by almost a third.
This pace, far higher than the population
growth of around 7% during the same
period, remains unabated. By 2020, the
number of cars is expected to double.
It certainly shows: Rio has never been as
loud, polluted, and congested. The city
has probably also never been as unaffordable: few discuss transport alternatives,
but complaints about rising real estate
and rental prices have become a staple of
­everyday life.”
the peripheral West Zone. The flip side of
the coin is that the city’s favelas have also
grown disproportionately. While the former attracts the upper classes, demanding
very high per capita infrastructural investments, the latter concentrates the urban
poor in extremely dense environments.
At the same time, several of Rio de
Janeiro’s older neighbourhoods were
systematically neglected by administrators, politicians and the developers that
frequently fund their campaigns, many
of whom benefited greatly from these
developments. Traditional middle-class
areas suffered with declining infrastructure and surging crime. The exceptions,
predictably, have been the increasingly
expensive beachfront neighbourhoods.
Rio earned its moniker as the Cidade
Maravilhosa − the Wonderful City − not
just because of its exuberant nature, as
commonly thought today. The expression, coined in the early 20th century, also
referred to the results of an ambitious
set of urban reforms inspired by Haussmann’s in Paris. For much of the century,
spatially segregating the city remained
a central aim of Rio de Janeiro’s urbanism. The city was considered “wonderful”
when the poor were not around.
Throughout its history, the city’s street
life and popular culture proved to be resilient, and recent signs of improvement
RIO DE JANEIRO STATEMENTS
point towards the possibility of a better
future. Some favelas are being ridded of
the armed drug traffic, and several have
benefited from improvements seeking to
integrate them into the rest of the urban
fabric. Revitalised squares like the Praça
Tiradentes are once again becoming vibrant public spaces. And there have been
incipient attempts to devise a more efficient bus system.
But if the city is to become “wonderful” for all of its residents, these measures need to be far more comprehensive.
Instead of more roads to outer suburbs,
the city must prioritise its timid Metro
system, and once again invest in the traditional neighbourhoods of the North
Zone. May the Olympics and World Cup
not-to-be-missed opportunities. The
shift away from the North American suburban growth model, at any rate, needs to
be aggressive. As someone who neither
owns property nor knows how to drive,
it would certainly make the city more
“maravilhosa”, at least to me.
Bruno Carvalho is Assistant Professor in LusoBrazilian studies at Princeton University. His
research interests focus on some of the intersections between urban development and culture. Currently, he is completing a book tentatively entitled
Porous City, a cultural history of Rio de Janeiro
from 1808 to 1945.
39
Daniela Engel Aduan
Javoski
According to the 2010 Census, Rio de Janeiro had 763 slums, which housed some
20% of the population of the city. Part of
the landscape of Rio, these spontaneous
settlements are irregular both in terms
of shape and legal situation. Most favelas
in Rio de Janeiro have masonry buildings
and many already have, in a precarious
way, water networks, sewers and street
lighting. But these are not installed in an
effective way that meets the basic needs
of residents. Built outside public control,
the brick houses are packed in dense and
irregular environments. The dwellings
are generally poorly lit and ventilated,
not very functional and lacking in safety.
Favela-upgrading programmes should,
therefore, not be limited to urban infrastructure, but also include interventions
in the houses themselves. New slumupgrading programmes in Rio already
include state financing for improvements
to the housing stock. But these funds are
usually applied to painting walls and
similar measures that enhance the urban
environment but do not solve the main
problems of housing.
Installing windows that can be opened,
waterproofing floor slabs and walls, the
replacement of electrical wiring, as well
as sanitary improvements and structural
checks are essential to the good quality of
40
“Favela-upgrading programmes should,
therefore, not be limited to urban infrastructure, but also include interventions
in the houses themselves. New slumupgrading programmes in Rio already
include state financing for improvements
to the housing stock. But these funds
are usually applied to painting walls and
similar measures that enhance the urban
environment but do not solve the main
problems of housing.”
buildings. The participation of residents
in the definition and implementation of
these interventions is critical to project
success.
Interventions should be specific and
precise, not ample and generic. Rather
than tearing down the slums and rebuilding them in a more ‘formal’ way,
they should reinforce the efforts of residents who have built and invested in their
homes for years. Providing interactivity
and diversity are key qualities of a good
urban space.
Furthermore, it will be necessary to
modify the building norms and laws for
Brazilian homes. These should respect
the structures, shapes and building methods of the slums, while continuing to promote aspects related to health, comfort,
functionality and sustainability. Currently, for example, the building regulations of
Rio de Janeiro require minimum clearances of 2.5 metres between neighbouring homes. In the favelas, a home usually
occupies the entire lot that it stands on,
with no distance between houses. Thus
these homes cannot be regularised (i.e.
made legal) and integrated into the formal market, unless they are demolished
and entirely rebuilt.
If the shape of the existing construction permits the lighting and ventilation
of the rooms in a healthy way, this regulation should therefore not be applied.
Rather, political action is needed in order to improve the existing buildings, and
even remove some buildings in the right
places to solve ventilation problems.
Daniela Engel Aduan Javoski is a founder of Arquitraço, an architectural practice that has developed urban, landscaping and housing projects
for 16 slums in Rio de Janeiro since its foundation
in 1994. This included the urbanisation of iconic
slums in Rio, such as Rocinha and Jacarezinho.
D&A  AUTUMN 2012  Issue 18
José Marcelo Zacchi
Throughout recent decades, the main
challenge for urban policy in Rio has been
to overcome the social and economic exclusion that has always existed between
the favelas and the rest of the city. However, until quite recently, the improvement
of housing conditions has not been part of
this effort. There were other, more urgent
issues: first and foremost, the pacification
of the favelas, which had been ravaged by
three decades of armed conflicts between
rival gangs of drug dealers. And secondly,
the installation or improvement of basic
infrastructure and public services such
as energy, water, sanitation and maintenance, as well as education, health services and programmes that tackle poverty.
The focus on housing in public policy is
growing, though. For the first time in two
decades, Rio de Janeiro in particular and
Brazil as a whole now have programmes
for public housing that aim to create affordable, conveniently located homes
for the poorer parts of the population
on a significant scale. This national programme, called Minha Casa, Minha Vida
(My house, my life), is being implemented
in Rio as part of the city's Morar Carioca
programme for infrastructural improvement. As a first step, new housing is being
built, mainly for people in geological risk
areas in the mountains, where landslides
are frequent, as well as for people who had
to be relocated due to the construction
of new roads or public (e.g. educational)
facilities. In the long term, Morar Carioca
aims to create decent housing for large
numbers of poor families right across the
city. One challenge will be to build these
houses where there is a current demand,
where there is a labour market and access
to mass transport, rather than in some
remote areas of the city where land may
happen to be cheap.
Some first experience is being made,
albeit to a much lesser extent, with incentive programmes for people to renovate
their existing homes. Refurbishment
will definitely become increasingly important in the next few years, and I hope
it will be possible to raise more awareness
of it once other more urgent issues (such
as pacification and the improvement of
public infrastructure and services) are
gradually resolved. So far, however, there
is no significant awareness and commitment to home refurbishment either from
the city administration or from the private individuals who inhabit the buildings. Brazil is undergoing very positive
economic development at the moment,
with large gains in income even among
the poorer parts of society. Yet people
tend to invest this extra income much
RIO DE JANEIRO STATEMENTS
more in the amenities of everyday life inside the house rather than into upgrading
the house itself. Even in the favelas you
will find houses that, although definitely
not good or safe in terms of construction,
have the full range of domestic equipment like freezer, air-conditioning, DVD,
satellite TV, personal computer and so
on. Any incentive programme targeted
at these homeowners will, naturally, have
to take into account their willingness and
their possibilities to invest in their homes.
After all, we are dealing with people's private realm here, where the government
surely cannot intrude and force the residents to act.
In the years to come, the housing question in Rio will remain embedded in the
context of large-scale challenges that
need to be overcome. The upgrading of
sanitation and basic urban infrastructure
needs to continue. There is massive need
for investment in public transportation
(large projects are already under way but
more need to be built); and many older
residential areas in the city, north of the
city centre, that are now under-occupied
and decaying are in dire need of refurbishment. In my opinion, in addition to
the housing strategy already in place,
two things will be crucial for progress
here: firstly, the establishment of formal
property titles for home-owners (which
in the favelas hardly exist), and long-term
incentive programmes for the refurbishment of homes.
José Marcelo Zacchi is a Research Associate
at Instituto de Estudos do Trabalho e Sociedade
(IETS), the Institute for the Research of Labour
and Society, in Rio de Janeiro. Until March 2012,
he was director of special projects at the Pereira
Passos Institute in Rio's City Government, where
he coordinated various programmes targeted at
improving the social and urban integration of favelas with the rest of Rio de Janeiro.
41
Claudio Frischtak,
Benjamin Mandel
Rio is in a state of flux. Upcoming major
events have led to a boom in the residential
housing market, accelerating a westward
expansion into territories with limited infrastructure. Meanwhile, important initiatives by city and state governments to
improve the quality of living in the city are
underway. On balance, Rio is becoming a
better place to live, with enhancements
to city-wide mobility through improved
transport systems, and investments in
older sections of the city – as in the case
of Rio’s port – to revive their centrality for
residences, offices and services. For the
first time in decades, concerted, coordinated actions at all levels of government
are directed at removing the stigma (and
violence) that have characterised the
favelas − where youth unemployment
still stands at around 20% and a significant fraction of the population live in substandard, informal housing. These actions
involve community development and job
creation efforts, improvements in city services (such as regular garbage collection),
and novel infrastructure and equipment
to reduce spatial segregation. The use of
elevators and gondolas (as in Medellin)
has facilitated integration to the city of a
number of favelas that stand on hills.
One facet of quality of life that city
and state governments have made great
42
“Rio is becoming a better place to live,
with enhancements to city-wide mobility through improved transport systems,
and investments in older sections of the
city – as in the case of Rio’s port – to revive
their centrality for residences, offices and
services.”
efforts to improve is the incidence of violenceandcrime. Inarecentresearchpaper
entitled Crime, House Prices, and Inequality: The Effect of UPPs in Rio (http://www.
newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/
sr542.html), we document the relationship between crime and house prices in
Rio. We study the housing market around
the time of a specific policy event tightly
linked to the objective of crime reduction:
the introduction of the Unidade Pacificadora da Policia (UPP), or Pacifying Police
Unit, programme in Rio in late 2008.
Over the past three decades, the city
has been plagued by conflicts with drug
gangs and militias in the favelas, with
many effectively being occupied and
governed by the drug gangs. In response,
since 2008 the UPP programme re-occupies specific favelas by force using elite police units, drives out the gangs and roots
out caches of weapons and drugs, and
then installs permanent police stations
staffed by highly-trained, well-paid, newly-recruited officers; by April 2012, twenty
such stations had been installed. The basic objective of re-occupation is renewed
assertion of the rule of law and order, and
abatement of gang-related crimes.
In our study, we find that house and
apartment prices for properties close to
a UPP increased by an average of 5 to 10%,
homicides fell by an average of 10 to 25%,
and robberies decreased by an average of
roughly 10 to 20%.
In the absence of the UPPs, the overall house-price index in Rio would have
grown by 15% less, according to our estimates. Furthermore, we estimate a
contribution by the UPPs of 14% of the
decline in homicides since their peak in
May 2009. This translates into about one
homicide per 100,000 people annually, or
roughly sixty lives saved in the municipality of Rio in 2011.
Finally, we find decreasing inequality of house prices over time, with UPPs
contributing nearly half the decline. The
distribution of property prices is closely
related to the distribution of wealth, since
residential home value constitutes a large
part of a household’s assets, particularly
for lower income families. Therefore, the
results suggest a novel and potentially
important channel by which policy that
reduces violence in poor neighbourhoods
can contribute to improvements in the
distribution of wealth in cities.
Claudio Frischtak is an economist and
head of Inter.B Consultoria Internacional de
Negócios, a Rio-based consulting company.
Benjamin R. Mandel is an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
D&A  AUTUMN 2012  Issue 18
Renato Cosentino
Rio de Janeiro, like other Brazilian cities,
is marked by a division between what has
come to be called the formal city, and a
large illegally-occupied area, favelas.
Such occupation intensified, starting
in the 1970s, with cities growing unsupported by public policies for the provision
of housing and access to urban infrastructure. This in turn led to self-built housing
in areas ignored by the real estate market,
or subject to environmental protection,
as a solution to the housing deficit. As a
result, urban spaces with a full offering
of public services exist alongside others
lacking the most basic sanitation, lighting
and public safety.
The favelas developed with an almost
total absence of government, which
doesn’t mean that they didn’t develop. Today, many of them boast well-built houses
of brick and mortar; although they often
sit on hillsides, most are safe.
Inevitably, it became necessary to
accept the occupation of these spaces.
Starting in the 1990s, a long-lived debate
about favela removal evolved into solutions for integrating them. Nevertheless,
two decades later it’s clear that the work
carried out wasn’t enough to change the
territorial structure of the city. With Brazil’s recent economic growth and its new
position on the world stage, what can be
“Broken cultural and neighbourhood ties
related to mega sporting events such as
the World Cup have proven disastrous
for those affected by development. This
has affected more than 7,000 families in
Rio. Many have been relocated far from
their communities, with precarious access to transport, health care and education. Increased living costs, another facet
of this process, are felt not only by favela
residents but the population as a whole,
which is spending ever-greater portions of
income to stay in the city.”
done to bring adequate living conditions
to the low-income population?
First, it’s necessary to invest in basic infrastructure. The deficit here affects not
only favelas, although they’re the most
needy in this regard, but also the homes
of the formal city. Due to a lack of investment and to urban sprawl, no less than
70% of greater Rio de Janeiro’s twelve
million population have inadequate sanitation. In a city that wants to be worldrenowned as green, the homework hasn’t
been done. Controversial public works,
such as the construction of walls around
favelas, contrast with the immediate
need to resolve the open-air flow of sewage that directly affects residents’ health
and pollutes the city’s rivers. Massive investment in sanitation is fundamental to
changing the situation but, at the current
rate, universal basic sanitation will be not
be available in Brazil until 2070.
Also needed is an urban development
and land-titling programme with a central focus on keeping families in or near
their original communities. Broken cultural and neighbourhood ties related to
mega sporting events such as the World
Cup have proven disastrous for those
affected by development. This has affected more than 7,000 families in Rio.
Many have been relocated far from their
RIO DE JANEIRO STATEMENTS
communities, with precarious access
to transport, health care and education.
Increased living costs, another facet of
this process, are felt not only by favela
residents but the population as a whole,
which is spending ever-greater portions
of income to stay in the city.
Thus the challenge of urban intervention in a context of growing investment
must include life quality improvements,
preventing the reproduction of social exclusion in new packaging. For this to occur,
the process must include society’s effective participation in decision-making and
the allocation of public resources. This
is not taking place in Rio, though the law
requires it. A sense of urgency regarding
urban development has reduced community participation, and economic growth
hasn’t been accompanied by a guarantee
of rights for the population as a whole.
This is happening, unfortunately, at a
crucial moment of great urban transformation in Rio de Janeiro in particular and
Brazil in general.
Renato Cosentino is a Master’s student in Urban
Policy and Planning at the Rio de Janeiro Federal
University; member of the Rio de Janeiro Popular World Cup and Olympics Committee and press
adviser for the Global Justice human rights group.
43
Theresa Williamson
Since 2007, Rio’s state and city governments have at last focused on the territorial integration of informal and formal
areas of the city, increasing public safety
and the provision of city services. One
would think this a long-overdue, healthy
approach.
But in practice, rather than integrating
these areas, Rio de Janeiro is doing just
the opposite, triggering an increase over
the past 18 months in the city’s already
pernicious inequality. Increased security
is placing new demands and pushing up
rents. At the same time, utilities such as
electricity, water and cable television
are beginning to charge for services that
were previously either free or low-cost,
increasing residents’ monthly expenditure. All of this is being done before the
government has spent a cent on providing job training or skills that support residents’ ability to pay for these increases;
and before it has taken any steps to improve health conditions through providing adequate sewerage or health centres;
and it has all been done with no resident
participation.
There is a widely held feeling in Rio
now that pacification is really about facilitating market entry and expelling the
lowest income residents. Ultimately, the
programme amounts to a public sector
44
“In other neighbourhoods across the
city we are witnessing a program of
‘de-densification.‘ The city is strategically
removing certain groups of residents,
gutting the cultural heart of a community
− up to 30% in the case of Rio’s oldest and
most historic Favela da Providência,
which should instead be relished as a
world h
­ eritage site. Providência is next
to the port area, which is being revitalised
for tourists, office buildings and new
housing.”
investment in gentrification masked as
“social policy” and “combating poverty.”
In some parts of the city, we see forced
evictions of favela residents from small
unheard-of communities in new prime
real estate areas, with them being relocated to public housing projects to begin
life anew. Relatively isolated apartment
life in poorly-built structures replaces the
organic architecture and lively communities they came from.
In other neighbourhoods across the
city we are witnessing a program of ‘dedensification.‘ The city is strategically
removing certain groups of residents,
gutting the cultural heart of a community − up to 30% in the case of Rio’s oldest
and most historic Favela da Providência,
which should instead be relished as a
world heritage site. Providência is next
to the port area, which is being revitalised for tourists, office buildings and new
housing.
I am not optimistic. So much of what
makes Rio unique is at stake as the city
whitewashes itself, further marginalising the working poor by pushing them−
along with crime − to the fringes. Since
the 1890s, Rio’s favela residents − 22%
of the city’s population − have developed
their own housing solutions. Originally
slums or squatter communities, favelas
today are characterised by an intermediate level of development. A recent survey
by think tank IETS and the state industrial federation, Firjan, found that 95% of
homes were made of brick and concrete,
75% had tile floors, and 44% boasted computers. In fact, a recent visit by a group of
Indian urban planners was made with the
intention of taking home lessons learned
in Brazil’s favelas to Mumbai.
What has led to the city’s abysmal
inequality is a deeply-rooted prejudice
against favelas, resulting in a lack of public sector investment in integrating these
communities with the formal city. What
we are seeing today is simply the continuation of this tradition. Only now is the
public sector investing: but not in these
communities. Government is investing in
these territories only to prime them for
property speculation. The residents who
occupied them will once again be on their
own.
Dr Theresa Williamson is a city planner, as well
as the founder and executive director of Catalytic
Communities, a Rio de Janeiro-based organisation that publishes the website RioOnWatch and
provides media and networking support to favela
communities.
D&A  AUTUMN 2012  Issue 18
Sergio Magalhaes
Providing public services in poor areas is
a question that is not sufficiently understood but that is vital to democracy. I am
very sceptical about public services, even
if the mayor, governor or the president
decrees that they must be provided. One
reason for this is the exaggerated expansion of the city. This has been encouraged
for decades and has very serious consequences for the city’s capacity to universalise its services. The city is spread out
and not very dense, and demands resources we don’t have. If we don’t have full
resources to guarantee well-distributed
services, there will be greater political
pressure from those with more money
or influence, and the city will focus on
solving this problem and leave the rest
even more abandoned. Public investment
is occurring in wealthier areas, a pattern
that will be followed by public services.
If you walk around the city you will see
this; the centre is run-down. If this were
an issue pertaining only to this moment,
I’d be more optimistic − but today we
are still building bases that will further
weaken certain areas because the city is
expanding more than necessary. Infrastructure is being built that increases this.
The Transoeste rapid-transit, articulated
bus corridor and highway will increase
access to the western district of Guaratiba
“Equal provision of city services is a prerequisite of democracy, and is necessary
for a sustainable city. It’s not just a question of the environment – it’s about having
quality reasonably distributed, such that
people can exercise their potential fully
and anywhere. And this isn’t possible,
because you have enormous areas of the
city where people don’t have the necessary
conditions, above all due to the absence of
public services.”
− that will reduce density. The same is happening with the concentration of investment in the western district of Barra da
Tijuca, which will be detrimental to the
rest of the city, especially the North Zone
. It isn’t a question of what’s being said, but
of what is actually happening.
Equal provision of city services is a prerequisite of democracy, and is necessary
for a sustainable city. It’s not just a question of the environment – it’s about having quality reasonably distributed, such
that people can exercise their potential
fully and anywhere. And this isn’t possible, because you have enormous areas
of the city where people don’t have the
necessary conditions, above all due to
the absence of public services.
This isn’t natural, it’s not fate. This has
to do with culture, a collective construct −
politics. It is possible to change the course
of events.
People from the new middle class who
have new demands on the city may aspire
to progress. But they may simultaneously
aspire to move away from where they live.
Because reality tells them that the place
isn’t going to improve. So you lose the best
talents, the better prepared people, more
ambitious people, and the place decays
even more. Any part of the city is susceptible to this. This can be a tragedy. Because
RIO DE JANEIRO STATEMENTS
a district’s decadence can contaminate
another part of the city.
Long-term strategy has to take into
consideration the recuperation of these
areas − for political, social, cultural, economic, urban and democratic reasons.
It will all depend on how the Olympic
preparations turn out , on the success of
the port revitalisation, on train services
continuing as they are or whether someone from the South Zone complains that
the trains to the North Zone and the bedroom cities are horrible − or whether no
one complains; it will depend on whether
people continue to talk about cars being
stuck in traffic, and whether we remember that people take two to two and a
half hours to get to work in 70% of the
metropolitan area. And it will depend
on whether people accept without complaint the fact that new trains, bought in
China, arrive here but are higher and narrower than the ones we have − and all the
Metro concession does about is to say it
will adapt the platforms. What will happen to the other trains that are wider and
lower – will they just be thrown out?
Sérgio Magalhães is an urban planner and architect, currently serving as president of the Rio de
Janeiro chapter of the Institute of Brazilian Architects (IAB).
45
“Without a public policy to preserve poorer
neighbourhoods, it is likely that favela
urbanisation, especially on hills with
stunning ocean views, will attract middle
class renters and owners and push out
original residents. Community participation in the formulation of public policy and
watchdog groups are new to this country,
where a military government ruled from
1964 to 1985.”
Julia Michaels
When I first moved to Rio de Janeiro in
1995, the city was starting to look very
North American. People were moving out
from central areas to the suburbs. “Smile,
you’re in Barra”, said a welcoming sign as
you emerged from a tunnel in Barra da
Tijuca. But appearances can be deceiving — and the smiles were short-lived. In
fact, the 'suburbs' were the swampy West
Zone of Rio, quickly filling up with cardependent gated communities, shopping
malls and apartment buildings — produced with minimal urban planning.
From 1980 to 2007, the city’s identity
became so disfigured that when I told
my children I was going 'downtown'
they immediately assumed I was going
to a mall by that name, rather than Rio’s
actual downtown area. The new West
Zone residents who shopped at that mall
were fleeing the increasing violence of
the city’s North and South Zones, dotted with favelas (informal settlements)
where drugs gangs were taking control.
And of course, what followed the exiles
were more favelas, built and populated
by those who had built the gated communities, malls and apartments, and now
served them. Everybody’s sewage went
untreated into the lagoons and mangrove
swamps. To keep order in the new favelas, paramilitary gangs sprang up, moving
46
into city council politics and the provision of a gamut of missing services, such
as bottled gas and public transport. The
traffic became horrendous.
In 2009, smiles returned, not only to
the faces of West Zone residents but to all
Rio natives, with the Olympic Committee’s decision to award our city the 2016
Games. The decision added momentum
to a turnaround begun two years earlier
as the three levels of government began
to come into unprecedented alignment,
and the state started to implement what
is turning out to be a successful 'pacification' policy of retaking the territories
ceded earlier to criminal gangs. Additional positive factors have been the 2014
World Cup, oil revenues, Brazil’s recent
economic boom and the emergence of a
new middle class.
At last, the West Zone — where most
of the Olympic Games will take place — is
getting mass transit, with the extension of
the metro and the construction of dedicated articulated bus lanes. Sewage is being collected and treated. While pacification focuses elsewhere, police and courts
are cracking down on the paramilitary
gangs. Across the city, urban infrastructure is receiving significant investment
and the private sector is investing in retrofits, remodelling and, where possible,
D&A  AUTUMN 2012  Issue 18
new construction. The city has begun its
Morar Carioca programme, which aims
to bring favela housing up to standard by
2020. City schools and health facilities
are also improving. We have yet to feel
the effect of the ongoing revitalisation of
the port area, which will include housing
and office properties, museums and a VLT
trolley system.
How much of this is equitable? The
biggest threat to a widely shared positive
experience is gentrification. Without a
public policy to preserve poorer neighbourhoods, it is likely that favela urbanisation, especially on hills with stunning
ocean views, will attract middle class
renters and owners and push out original residents. Community participation
in the formulation of public policy and
watchdog groups are new to this country,
where a military government ruled from
1964 to 1985.
How much of it will last and be maintained is also a question many of us ask.
Until now, politicians have easily changed
course at each new election. But increased
access to technology and information
could contribute to continuity, as voters become more informed and demand
greater accountability from politicians.
With a significantly lower crime rate,
many of us are discovering our own city
RIO DE JANEIRO STATEMENTS
and can appreciate its unique juxtaposition of nature and urban life. Residents
will often start a workday with a bicycle
ride, some surfing or a hike in the mountains — then take the metro downtown
to work, and later grab a beer nearby
outdoors while listening to local music
among renovated early twentieth-century buildings. As many favelas and nearby
neighbourhoods have become safer, the
city has become more integrated, more
accessible.
When I move around Rio de Janeiro
these days, it feels like I’m in one of those
dreams where the location is familiar, yet
strange. No longer must we stay safe in
our comfort zones, or move away and
build a new downtown. Now, the city
is expanding — not westward, north or
south — but in our mental map of it.
Julia Michaels was born and brought up in Boston, Massachusetts. She moved to Brazil over thirty
years ago and tracks the transformation of Rio in
her RioRealblog (www.riorealblog.com).
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Sérgio Besserman Vianna
48
Rio de Janeiro is like a brand, directly
associated with sustainability in billions
of people’s minds. We have three large
rainforests, two bays, a long seacoast and
enormous lagoons. We enjoy a unique
combination of natural and man-made
environments. Maybe this is why people
all around the world have heard of the
neighbourhood called Copacabana. How
many people can name a neighbourhood
in Stockholm?
This is not the Caribbean or the Indian
Ocean, however. Rio de Janeiro proper is
a megalopolis of 6.3 million people and
double this number in the metropolitan region. The city represents the planet’s own
most important challenges. Can we clean
up Guanabara Bay, institute a full-blown
recycling program, and prepare for the rising seas of global warming? These are just
some of the issues the city is working on.
Our natural habitat allows us some advantages. We have a great deal of fresh air
thanks to ocean breezes, though there are
pockets of polluted air. Because we have
plentiful hydro energy, we leave a light
ecological footprint. We also use some
nuclear energy coming from plants on
the coast of Rio de Janeiro state, south
of the capital. Our worst problem is basic
sanitation. The situation has improved in
the last twenty years, but overall this is
the failure of a succession of governments.
Even now, our goals aren’t very ambitious.
We face the pollution of Guanabara
Bay, which requires us to organise ourselves together with other cities located
on it; and of the Jacarepaguá lagoons,
in the West Zone. Until now, sanitation
was the responsibility of the state government, but the city will soon be taking
over the entire West Zone’s sanitation
needs. What is missing in the sanitation
concepts, of course, are the favelas.
The state water and sewage company
has seen great improvement in management and its reach has grown, but we lack
an integrated effort among state and city
government, and the private sector. A
petrochemicals complex is being built
in the interior of the state. What if they
build thirty or forty thousand new houses
around these factories, with no sewage
collection and treatment? No one is looking at the overall picture.
We did close the Gramacho landfill, on
the shores of the bay, this year. The new
Seropédica sanitary landfill is state of the
art, and will continue to modernise. Recycling is taking place at a very low rate
at the moment, but it’s growing and as a
consequence we’re on the cusp of a quality
leap. We have a project with the National
Development Bank (BNDES) and trash-
pickers, where we’re testing a new model
that’s likely to work. We plan to increase
recycled trash from two to five per cent of
all trash in five years, and gradually make
our way to half, then 60% and 70%, perhaps by 2020.
We’re also on the eve of a revolution
in the area of transportation. The highcapacity Bus Rapid Transit system of new
dedicated lanes for articulated buses now
being implemented means fewer cars.
And bus engines will be modernised as
time goes by to electric or ethanol energy.
We have also installed dedicated lanes for
ordinary buses in parts of the city, which
has reduced travel time, the use of automobiles and traffic congestion in general.
With 270 kilometres of cycle paths, to be
expanded to 300 km by the end of this year,
Rio is among the top eighteen cities in the
world for bicycles. The culture is changing.
Investment is lacking in mass transit
to and from bedroom suburbs, where a
metro-like system would be best, but
existing trains are being replaced with
newer models. By 2016, we should be
able to offer good mobility for Olympic
visitors. Rio de Janeiro was the first megacity to determine its sustainability using
the Global Reporting Initiative. The city
currently is at the C+ level, and we expect
to get achieve the B level soon. We have
good environmental statistics and we are
also working on a plan to adapt to climate
changes. We must address, on an ongoing
basis, rising sea levels, greater incidence
of heavy rains, and housing in risky locations. The revitalisation of the port area
and plans for the Olympics take this into
consideration; we’re doing major drainage of the Jacarepaguá basin.
Rio finds itself on the eve of many revolutions, in a position to be envied by cities
all around the world. It’s a city moving in
the direction of sustainable development,
a place of paradox and challenge. The
United Nations’ Rio + 20 Conference
for Sustainable Development raised
consciousness among residents about
the environment and their city. We were
bombarded intellectually and emotionally. Just after the conference, UNESCO declared Rio de Janeiro’s natural landscapes
a World Heritage Site. More than ever, we
are a city that must work to consolidate
itself as a brand, and this means we must
perform well.
Sérgio Besserman Vianna is an economist and
currently serves as President of the Rio de Janeiro Municipal Committee for Sustainable Development. He was also President of the Municipal
Working Group for the Rio + 20 conference, held
in June 2012.
D&A  AUTUMN 2012  Issue 18
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