Archive for December, 2012
UPP Brutality as Vidigal Fights to Save Only Recreational Space
Dec 29th
Like in a country town, the news in Vidigal at first travels in whispers. So it was with the information about the location of the UPP’s (Pacifying Police Unit) new base: “They are saying it will be in the square in Alto.” But it wasn’t until December 11th that the residents’ fears were confirmed: in a meeting at the Residents’ Association for the Village of Vidigal (AMVV), Captain Fabio and Lieutenant Dantas officially announced that the only recreational space in the community would be given up for a police base with an auditorium.
While they hurried to mobilize, contacting the appropriate authorities More >
Waiting for Santa Claus: Asa Branca and the Contradictions of Rio’s Urban Transformation
Dec 21st
December 15th–I had taken just a few steps down Rua Asa Branca when Bezerra’s familiar voice rang out. The Resident Association’s inimitable president was sitting in a barbershop, his face covered in shaving foam, being spruced up ahead of a landmark event in the community’s history. Over recent months this favela of about three and a half thousand people in Rio’s rapidly developing West Zone had received a range of urban upgrading works. It was the first meaningful act of state intervention since the community was established in 1986 and Mayor Eduardo Paes himself would be coming to inaugurate the works.
When More >
Discover Favela Design!
Dec 19th
The exhibition O Design da Favela (Favela Design) at the Centro Carioca de Design (Carioca Design Center) is currently showing 125 pieces by artists, artisans and inventors from 15 communities in Rio de Janeiro, with a few pieces of unknown origin. In this project, the favela is not associated with misery or scarcity, but is a place of abundance: abundant imagination, invention, study and practice.
Creativity
Irmã Fátima and the children of Tabajaras have learned to see disposable materials in different ways. Together they transform plastic bottles into toys. “This one looks like a fish,” says one of her students. “It’s magnificent the way children look More >
From Fishing Village to Trendy Favela
Dec 17th
Click here for original article in Portuguese.
The mansions that now line Niemeyer Avenue between Rio de Janeiro’s Leblon and São Conrado neighborhoods were built starting at the end of the 1950s. With the excuse that they were revitalizing the area, the company Melhoramentos do Brasil (Improvements of Brazil) removed the humble shacks that had been there, the homes of fishermen and descendants of slaves. The second wave of removals came in 1958. The third wave of removals, in 1977, was more violent and dangerous, with the participation of the military regime’s Secret Police. Displaced residents who didn’t want to move far More >
After Prepped for Morar Carioca, Vila União de Curicica May Face Complete Eviction
Dec 13th
Vila União de Curicica houses many young residents born there over the course of the community's 26-year history.
Residents of Vila União de Curicica, a Jacarepaguá community until 2011 targeted to receive public upgrading projects as part of the Morar Carioca program, now hope dialogue with the Rio de Janeiro city government can prevent their eviction.
In late 2011, representatives of the 26-year old community were asked to attend a public audience at Rio’s City Council where they were told that part of the community would be removed due to its location in the future path of the TransOlímpica highway and BRT More >
