{"id":12851,"date":"2013-12-20T14:00:39","date_gmt":"2013-12-20T17:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=12851"},"modified":"2017-02-05T12:24:33","modified_gmt":"2017-02-05T15:24:33","slug":"vila-autodromo-peoples-plan-wins-deutsche-bank-urban-age-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=12851","title":{"rendered":"Vila Aut\u00f3dromo People’s Plan Wins Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cReceiving this international prize honors and rewards us in our struggle for the right to the city<\/a>,\u201d stated Luiz Cl\u00e1udio da Silva, a 19-year resident of Vila Aut\u00f3dromo<\/a>, upon hearing the news that the Vila Aut\u00f3dromo People’s Plan<\/a> to upgrade the community had won the prestigious Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award<\/a>, chosen from among 170 Rio de Janeiro-based community projects. The award, in addition to granting a much-needed monetary investment of $80,000, recognizes and validates Vila Aut\u00f3dromo\u2019s ongoing struggle to remain in the face of mounting pressure from the City.<\/p>\n

\"Vila<\/a><\/p>\n

Within a tense political climate, the international jury issued a symbolic critique of the Olympic project and the way it is utilized to justify removals<\/a>. One jury member, Paola Berenstein Jacques, an architect and urbanist at the Federal University of Bahia, put it simply: It was a decision \u201cin favor of resistance and against the removals taking place in Rio de Janeiro.\u201d Carlos Vainer, an urbanist at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) who helped coordinate the project, called this victory for Vila Aut\u00f3dromo \u201ca defeat to the elitist Olympic project of the Rio de Janeiro government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award was created in partnership with the London School of Economics, \u201cto encourage people to take responsibility for their cities\u201d and is given to projects that \u201cimprove the physical conditions of their communities and the lives of their residents.\u201d Although the award ceremony was originally scheduled to coincide with the LSE Cities Urban Age conference<\/a> in late October, the announcement of the winner was postponed suspiciously and without explanation.<\/p>\n

Rumors circulated that the short-listed Vila Aut\u00f3dromo People’s Plan had won, and that the Mayor had cancelled the ceremony rather than present the award to the community, a gesture that would have effectively legitimized Vila Aut\u00f3dromo\u2019s struggle to remain. \u201cWe understood it that the Mayor cancelled the award ceremony because we were the winners,\u201d Inalva Mendes Brito, another longtime Vila Aut\u00f3dromo resident and activist explained. \u201cIf it was another community, it wouldn\u2019t have been delayed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Deutsche<\/a><\/p>\n

Finally, on the evening of Tuesday, December 3, the Vila Aut\u00f3dromo People’s Plan\u00a0was officially presented with this international honor at the Institute of Brazilian Architects. During the cocktail party and live music, Luiz Cl\u00e1udio described an emotional experience: \u201cIt is hard to describe in words that feeling when it seems like your heart wants to jump out of your chest. It was and is still, exciting for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Urban Age Award includes a prize of $80,000 to begin implementation of the upgrading plan. When asked about how the money will be directed, Luiz Cl\u00e1udio responded: \u201cOf course our priorities are numerous, having been abandoned by the government for decades.\u201d He continued, \u201cWe have not changed our old dream of establishing a daycare center in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis award raised our self-esteem by recognizing our struggle for the right to housing and to the city,\u201d Inalva Mendes Brito explained. The recognition \u201creaffirmed our honor and dignity as citizens with rights,\u201d adding that these rights that have often been disrespected and ignored by the City and the local media.<\/p>\n

One jury member, L\u00edvia Flores, an artist and professor at the Rio de Janeiro Federal University’s School of Communication, expressed concern for the community’s future, given not only the recent blocking of free information about the award, but also because of “the aggressive policy of the state and the magnitude of economic interests involved.” She and other jury members expressed hope that the award would bring recognition of the community\u2019s rights and “help support a pioneering experience of self-management and resistance to an exclusionary policy of removals.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jury\u2019s Decision<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"Planning<\/a><\/p>\n

A jury of urban experts\u2014hailing from Brazilian and international academic and cultural institutions\u2014considered 170 Rio de Janeiro-based projects for the prestigious award. One jury member, Paola Berenstein Jacques, was explicit about the symbolic and political possibilities of the award: within the context of massive transformations underway in Rio de Janeiro–including the \u201cviolent urban processes\u201d of real estate speculation<\/a>, forced removals<\/a>, and gentrification<\/a>–she and other jury members understood the award as an opportunity to \u201cencourage projects of resistance that are critical of these processes of segregation.\u201d She continued that the jury decided to support projects and people working to \u201cproblematize the issues of spectacularization, commodification, and privatization of cities and urban services,\u201d themes which manifested in protests<\/a> this year throughout the country.<\/p>\n

During initial discussions, the People’s Plan was thought to be ineligible because one of the criteria was to have already started implementation. L\u00edvia Flores explained that she and other jurists knew the history of the community\u2019s struggle and challenged that resisting removal by proposing an alternative plan was evidence of \u201cimplementation,\u201d even without physical construction.<\/p>\n

After extensive deliberation including on-site visits to the projects in late September, the jury selected the Vila Aut\u00f3dromo People’s Plan based on assessments of \u201cthe viability of its implementation and urbanistic considerations\u201d as well as \u201cthe symbolic significance of the award within the political context of the city,\u201d according to L\u00edvia Flores.<\/p>\n

\"Vila<\/a><\/p>\n

Ms. Flores cited several key characteristics of the Plan that influenced her decision as a member of the jury: \u201cSelf-management capacity, seeking partnerships and improved living conditions, claiming the right to the city and to citizenship, maintaining ties and community memory, resistance to the City\u2019s removal policy […] affirming the right to the territory based on documentation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Plan<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Vila Aut\u00f3dromo People’s Plan<\/a>–calling for the urban, economic, and cultural development of this long-neglected community–represents one of many efforts to resist “an unjust, unjustifiable, and illegal removal attempt.” Through a collaborative and participatory process that brought together the community, Neighborhood Association, and the technical planning team from two public universities (UFF and UFRJ), the Plan stands as a cost-effective and dignified alternative to forced removal. Professor Jacques described the \u201cbeautiful partnership\u201d between the community and two public universities as a model that \u201cshould be welcomed and encouraged throughout the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe residents show a new way of constructing a democratic city,\u201d reads the People’s Plan in its opening pages. \u201cThis time, the politicians, businessmen, public-private partnerships, or the City technocrats are not the ones to determine the community\u2019s destiny. Instead, the population, that lives with the day-to-day realities and difficulties, determines what is necessary and how it should be done.\u201d The project defines priorities and proposes solutions related to housing, sanitation and urban infrastructure, public transport, education, and cultural programs.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Vila Aut\u00f3dromo People’s Plan has become, in Paola Berenstein Jacques\u2019 words, \u201cthe icon of resistance to the Olympic project in Rio de Janeiro.\u201d The implications of this prestigious international recognition extend beyond the financial support of the prize or the frustration with the politicized postponement of the ceremony.<\/p>\n

The victory of the Plan represents a challenge to what Paola Berenstein Jacques calls \u201chegemonic urbanism,\u201d a series of urban planning practices (including mega-event staging) that increasingly favor the \u201ccorporate, spectacular, flexible, and neo-liberal.\u201d She argues that this \u201chegemonic urbanism\u201d is created by \u201cfalse consensus\u201d and designed to avoid conflict. \u201cIn direct response, we begin to see clear forms of resistance emerge,\u201d she said, citing the historic demonstrations in June and the surge of rebellions that brought people to the streets. These examples of \u201cconflictual urbanism\u201d reflect a broader struggle for the right to the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not just a victory for the community of Vila Aut\u00f3dromo,\u201d Luiz Cl\u00e1udio concluded. \u201cIt is a victory for all communities living in similar situations and all those engaged in the struggle for citizenship and social justice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas \u201cReceiving this international prize honors and rewards us in our struggle for the right to the city,\u201d stated Luiz Cl\u00e1udio da Silva, a 19-year resident of Vila Aut\u00f3dromo, upon hearing the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":12853,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1736,1290,335,329,336,1329],"tags":[756,258,11,1259,5,1292,152,1866,529,10,270,1008,206,4],"writer":[1770],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12851","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-1736","8":"category-civilsociety","9":"category-policies","10":"category-solutions","11":"category-violations","12":"category-by-international-observers","13":"tag-community-organizing","14":"tag-community-solution","15":"tag-forced-evictions","16":"tag-mega-events","17":"tag-olympics","18":"tag-organizing","19":"tag-participation","20":"tag-peoples-plan","21":"tag-public-works","22":"tag-real-estate-speculation","23":"tag-resistance","24":"tag-right-to-the-city","25":"tag-upgrading","26":"tag-vila-autodromo","27":"writer-kate-steiker-ginzberg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12851"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=12851"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=12851"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=12851"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=12851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}