{"id":22384,"date":"2015-06-10T15:09:33","date_gmt":"2015-06-10T18:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=22384"},"modified":"2015-06-10T15:29:05","modified_gmt":"2015-06-10T18:29:05","slug":"city-bulldozer-damages-residents-house-in-vila-autodromo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=22384","title":{"rendered":"City Bulldozer Damages Home and Puts Residents at Risk in Vila Aut\u00f3dromo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMy name is Pedro. Today is May 20, 2015. The City, with this bulldozer\u00a0here, knocked down part of my house.\u201d Pedro Henrique Berto arrived home to Vila Aut\u00f3dromo<\/a>\u00a0from work one Wednesday to an unexpected surprise: the City\u2019s bulldozers smashed a hole into his house, snapping a crucial beam supporting the structure and leaving the house in a precarious state. Despite the immediate and obvious danger posed to him and anyone inside the house, the City workers\u2019 first reaction was to dismiss the damage and deny\u00a0any responsibility.<\/p>\n

Prior to this incident, Pedro and his family, like many of the other 150 or so remaining families\u00a0in Vila Aut\u00f3dromo in Rio\u2019s West Zone<\/a>, had been reluctantly negotiating\u00a0with the City to sell their house. Due to the community\u2019s strategic location next to the future Olympic park<\/a>, it has faced an intense campaign of demolitions\u00a0and evictions<\/a>, culminating in violent clashes with the police<\/a> on Wednesday June 3. As it stands,\u00a0590 of the 760 properties<\/a> in the community listed by the City have now been vacated.<\/p>\n

The City\u2019s declaration on March 20\u00a0of eminent domain<\/a>, the power reserved by the City to expropriate private property for public use, listed 58 houses<\/a> for demolition. This \u201cexpropriation via decree<\/a>\u201d trumped Mayor Eduardo Paes\u2019 own previous approach, which he later labeled as \u201cabsurd and unacceptable<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0of paying residents market rate compensation in order to leave their properties. The change in strategy stalled Pedro\u2019s negotiations and left him and his family in an uncertain situation.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThe negotiations stopped because of this decree,” Pedro said. “This decree applied to my mother\u2019s house and others that did not get to a realistic agreement. But other people received R$1.7 million (US$550,000). What were the criteria? I still have not worked it out. There was another house with just a cement floor and they got R$700,000 (US$225,000). This is a hateful attitude from the City.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even before the declaration of eminent domain to seize the property, negotiations had been fruitless.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe house belongs to my mom; she has an [Afro-Brazilian<\/a>] spiritual center here. So it is a delicate situation because of the spiritual center. But they only pay in terms of the house. I think this is the wrong attitude because the spiritual center is cultural. We are followers of Candombl\u00e9<\/a>, and we can’t build a house anywhere with the money they are offering,” he explained. Candombl\u00e9<\/a> tradition requires that spiritual centers be on ground level with direct exposure to the outdoors and natural elements like soil, something that cannot be replicated\u00a0in public housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso because of the lagoon here. We use it for various things. Where else are we going to get a house with a garden on the lagoon? I believe the money they are going to pay won\u2019t be enough to buy a house on the lagoon, don\u2019t you agree?\u201d<\/p>\n

Pedro says\u00a0\u201cit has gotten to a point where the City has begun to terrorize the residents here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Despite over a decade in the community, the systematic dismantling of Vila Aut\u00f3dromo has taken a\u00a0toll on Pedro and his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like it a lot here. If I could, I would live here forever.\u201d However, he says that the City is \u201cmaking our lives a lot worse, to the point that it’s getting unbearable to live here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pedro still lives in the house that was damaged by the bulldozer but he recently decided\u00a0to move his mother and sister to another community. He explained that Vila Aut\u00f3dromo has always been a peaceful community.\u00a0\u201cBefore, there was nothing, there was no drug trafficking,\u201d he said. However the demolitions have left the community \u201creally deserted\u201d and Pedro fears for the safety of his family. “It is very dangerous here at night, really dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tadilmarco, a former resident of Vila Aut\u00f3dromo, echoed such fears before he and his family were evicted from the community in\u00a0April<\/a>. \u201cLiving here has now become very difficult because you are left very isolated,” he told RioOnWatch<\/em>. “It is very silent at night and we don\u2019t have security like we used to. I feel scared for me and my family, because we have been left alone here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pedro remains\u00a0at his house in Vila Aut\u00f3dromo as the \u201cguinea pig,\u201d to try to prevent further damage to the house or demolition until he and his family can reach an agreement with the City to sell their home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cMy name is Pedro. Today is May 20, 2015. The City, with this bulldozer\u00a0here, knocked down part of my house.\u201d Pedro Henrique Berto arrived home to Vila Aut\u00f3dromo\u00a0from work one Wednesday to an unexpected surprise: […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":22532,"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":[1293,1736,1284,336,1329],"tags":[9,225,1500,272,179,11,65,282,26,869,1513,1259,414,5,10,4,21],"writer":[1564],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22384","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-evictionswatch","8":"category-1736","9":"category-interviews-profiles","10":"category-violations","11":"category-by-international-observers","12":"tag-9","13":"tag-barra-da-tijuca","14":"tag-candomble","15":"tag-mayor-eduardo-paes","16":"tag-evictee-profile","17":"tag-forced-evictions","18":"tag-gentrification","19":"tag-housing","20":"tag-housing-rights","21":"tag-lives-cannot-be-replaced-in-public-housing","22":"tag-market-rate-compensation","23":"tag-mega-events","24":"tag-negotiations","25":"tag-olympics","26":"tag-real-estate-speculation","27":"tag-vila-autodromo","28":"tag-west-zone","29":"writer-brooke-parkin"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22384","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\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22384"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=22384"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=22384"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=22384"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=22384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}