Archive for September, 2012
A History of Favela Upgrades Part I: 1897-1988
Sep 27th
In favelas where the government steps in to do 'urbanization,' or upgrading projects, such as Morro da Providência, these works are joined by the creative improvements that residents have made to their homes over decades.
This is Part 1 of a three-part series on the History of Favela Upgrades in Rio. Click for Part 2 and Part 3.
Housing rights activists today defend the practice of on-site upgrading of informal communities—as opposed to evicting them—on the basis of historic preservation, low-quality compensation housing, residents’ location-based employment, and squatter legislation. In practice, what has caused favela upgrading to come to pass over the years in Rio de Janeiro More >
My House, My Debt?*
Sep 26th
View original article in Portuguese here. Article by Raquel Rolnik, Special Rapporteur to the UN on Adequate Housing.
Researchers from IPEA, the Institute for Applied Economic Research, recently published a study that suggests that the Brazilian real estate market might be something of a bubble. The authors of the study, Mário Jorge Mendonça and Adolfo Sachsida, calculated that despite house prices increasing some 165% between January 2008 and February of this year, the rate of inflation in Rio was 25%. According to the study, this sort of increase in prices – brought on by federal government programs and incentives that increased access to credit in More >
The Story of Dona Rita
Sep 24th
For 12 years, Dona Rita Maria Barbosa, 56, kept an organic garden supplying her local community in Colônia Juliano Moreira (in Jacarepaguá, West Zone) with fresh fruit and vegetables and teaching schoolchildren about agroecology. Last month she was evicted from her home and the garden destroyed to make way for a garbage collection point. Over coffee in her new house, where the walls are unstable and there is no garden space for her to plant, she tells her story:
How long have you lived in Colônia?
I’ve lived in Colônia since November 1st, 1990. I came from a hill in Praça Seca More >
Letter from Residents of Morro da Providência to the People of Rio
Sep 23rd
Click here for original article in Portuguese.
S.O.S. PROVIDÊNCIA
Did you know the oldest favela in Brazil is being destroyed?
Since 2009, Rio’s Port Region has been transformed into a massive construction site by the contractors OAS, Carioca, and Odebrecht. Together these companies have invaded the region with three projects: First, the “Marvellous Port” project – a ‘revitalization’ project coordinated by the Company for Port District Urban Development (CDURP), and financed by public money (FGTS) and by the sale of public land in the region, where 70% of the land is public; Second is the “Morar Carioca” upgrading project in Morro da Providência, which More >
Asset Mapping Pica-Pau
Sep 21st
Click here to see Pica-Pau on the EcoCitizen World Map!
Equipped with a GPS, voice recorder, and pair of cameras, my partner Ana Puhač and I entered Pica-Pau, Cordovil looking to compose a profile of the social, economic, and ecological dimensions that color life in the North Zone favela. Over two months, Irenaldo Honorio da Silva, president of the community’s Neighborhood Association, led us through its alleys and inclines, his quick voice detailing the problems that have festered in the long absence of government services, and the efforts that have emerged from both residents and municipal government to turn the tide.
We now present our More >
