{"id":19598,"date":"2014-12-27T12:35:49","date_gmt":"2014-12-27T15:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=19598"},"modified":"2015-12-09T01:32:18","modified_gmt":"2015-12-09T04:32:18","slug":"change-in-brt-transolimpica-route-announced-in-vila-uniao-de-curicica-good-news-or-a-trojan-horse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=19598","title":{"rendered":"Change in BRT TransOl\u00edmpica Route Announced in Vila Uni\u00e3o de Curicica: Good News or Trojan Horse?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Hundreds of residents from Vila Uni\u00e3o de Curicica<\/a> filled the local Parque Uni\u00e3o de Curicica samba school on the night of Monday December 22 to learn of the proposed change to the TransOlimpica Bus Rapid Transit line<\/a>\u00a0route. The West Zone neighborhood\u00a0stands about\u00a01km from the future Olympic site and was being threatened with\u00a0<\/span>one of the largest evictions<\/a>\u00a0yet announced for the 2016\u00a0<\/span>Olympics<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rumors of the new route had been circulating through the neighborhood over the past week but nothing official had been announced yet. The crowd was addressed by State Senator-elect Tiago Mohamed, Deputy Mayor Alex Costa, Congressman-elect Pedro Paulo Carvalho and a coordinator of the BRT project, <\/span>Eduardo Fagundes,<\/span>\u00a0from the Municipal\u00a0Works Secretariat. The Olympic logos featured prominently in the presentation, accompanied by songs by Coldplay.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

The new plan, unveiled via Powerpoint presentation, cuts through the favela and then runs along its northern edge. Under the previous plan, 881 families were to be removed from their homes, whereas the new plan only necessitates 191 removals within the community with an additional 50 ‘formal’ properties nearby, and promises upgrading and improving public works in the community. The new plan was met with relief\u00a0by\u00a0residents hoping to remain in their homes, but many of those who had accepted\u00a0relocation to public housing units\u00a0in Col\u00f4nia Juliano Moreira through the federal housing program Minha Casa Minha Vida (MCMV)<\/a> were extremely upset as authorities implied no longer being in the path of the road project would\u00a0be used to disqualify them for a unit.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

The announcement made no mention of the demonstrations and mobilization<\/a> of those fighting to stay in Vila Uni\u00e3o but was certainly understood as an achievement by\u00a0the group, which will now focus on holding the City government to their word regarding their upgrading\u00a0promises.<\/p>\n

“We disturbed\u00a0the government and now the City is responding, but the mobilization will continue, stronger every day,” said Robson da Silva Soares, a member of the\u00a0resistance.<\/p>\n

The announcement pit people who wanted federal housing against those who wanted to stay. Each rallied behind different residents who had a chance at\u00a0the microphone. Some questioned whether this was the actual motivation of the authorities: to cause disruption that would lead to community infighting which would then facilitate removals.\u00a0<\/span>Unfortunately this ‘divide and conquer’ strategy is an all too familiar one, and also worked against\u00a0the fight to stay<\/a> in nearby Vila Aut\u00f3dromo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Adding to the complexity, a sub-group of those wishing to stay\u00a0are\u00a0those who’d prefer fair compensation for their homes instead of an apartment. These are people who have invested large amounts of time, money and labor into their homes. Pedro Paulo also acknowledged that offers to date have been very low and that the Deputy Mayor’s office\u00a0will continue to meet with these people on an individual basis.<\/p>\n

Before the project diagrams were unveiled each official present took time to address the community. An about-turn on previous blaming of residents<\/a>, Tiago Mohamed explained the reason for the previous shift in offer\u00a0from public housing to a\u00a0social rent allowance\u00a0was because this public housing\u00a0financing was now to be handled\u00a0through Banco do Brasil rather than Caixa Econ\u00f4mica and required much more paperwork. Mohamed and Paulo both stated\u00a0this new plan is more costly for the city, adding an additional R$100 million to the project’s total outlay, also claiming\u00a0they have constantly been seeking alternatives to relocate as few residents as possible, in what sounded like an election\u00a0speech.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pedro Paulo, whom Mayor Eduardo Paes<\/a> recently indicated as a successor<\/span><\/a>, did \u00a0most\u00a0of the speaking. He argued\u00a0that with previous projects, modifications were easier because the investment was entirely public, but that because the BRT TransOl\u00edmpica is a Public-Private Partnership, with 30% of the financing being private, the modification process was more difficult. Though briefly, Paulo indicated that the community will\u00a0now receive land titling, urbanization and upgrading projects–which had been originally promised in 2012<\/a>\u00a0under the City’s defunct Morar Carioca program. Should his word be kept, this\u00a0level of certainty will allow residents who have\u00a0stopped improving their homes for fear of eviction to resume projects and construction, and vital improvements will be made that allow residents to stay and flourish.<\/span><\/p>\n

Paulo finished his speech by framing the\u00a0change in the plan as a huge favor the City is doing for Vila Uni\u00e3o, joking that it was an early Christmas present they had brought to the community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas Hundreds of residents from Vila Uni\u00e3o de Curicica filled the local Parque Uni\u00e3o de Curicica samba school on the night of Monday December 22 to learn of the proposed change to […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":19705,"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":[1293,1288],"tags":[9,225,756,581,1496,1607,11,65,25,1259,157,592,21],"writer":[1416],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-evictionswatch","8":"category-highlight","9":"tag-9","10":"tag-barra-da-tijuca","11":"tag-community-organizing","12":"tag-curicica","13":"tag-eviction-tactics-divide-and-conquer","14":"tag-eviction-tactics-trojan-horse","15":"tag-forced-evictions","16":"tag-gentrification","17":"tag-human-rights","18":"tag-mega-events","19":"tag-minha-casa-minha-vida","20":"tag-vila-uniao-de-curicica","21":"tag-west-zone","22":"writer-ian-waldron"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19598","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\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19598"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=19598"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=19598"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=19598"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=19598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}