#GentrificationWatch

Sewers and Symbols in a Pacified Rocinha

By official count, 102,000 residents animate the streets of Rocinha, Brazil’s most populous single favela community. 10,000 mototaxis buzz up and down the uneven landscape. But what called my attention this past Friday was the […]

#EvictionsWatch

Losing Providence

Brazil’s first favela, Morro da Providência (Providence Hill), was built by veterans of the Canudos War. Thousands of soldiers flocked to Rio when the war ended in 1897, because the government had offered them housing in […]

by International Observers

Favela da Rocinha Braces for Change

November 11, 2011–Things are changing in Rocinha. The South Zone community is now effectively transitioning from being run by the notorious drug faction Amigos Dos Amigos (ADA) to a Pacifying Police Unit (UPP) force as […]