{"id":31048,"date":"2016-07-27T17:47:17","date_gmt":"2016-07-27T20:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=31048"},"modified":"2016-07-27T17:47:17","modified_gmt":"2016-07-27T20:47:17","slug":"wheres-the-investment-a-geographical-analysis-of-rios-olympic-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=31048","title":{"rendered":"Where\u2019s the Investment? A Geographical Analysis of Rio\u2019s Olympic Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

In a recent interview with The Guardian<\/em><\/a>, Eduardo Paes, mayor of Rio de Janeiro, refuted allegations that Olympics investments have been concentrated only in rich parts of the city. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy to say there is no investment in poor areas,\u201d he said. \u201cIf people say this, they don\u2019t know the geography [of the city].\u201d He went on to say that \u201cthere has never been so much transformation for poor people [in Rio].\u201d<\/p>\n

If the question is about the geography of the city in relation to Olympics<\/a> investments, let\u2019s go back to the basics of geography studies and look at some maps and statistics.<\/p>\n

The city of Rio is divided\u00a0into geographical and administrative areas which assist the management and public policy administration of the city. Listed in order of size from smallest to largest, the areas are: Neighborhoods, Administrative Regions, Planning Regions and Planning Areas.<\/p>\n

\"2014<\/a>
2014 map showing the 16 different Planning Regions and the 158 neighborhoods within them<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"2014<\/a>
2014 map showing the five different Planning Areas, which are formed of 34 Administrative Regions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Social Indicators<\/h3>\n

Maps like these provide us with interesting characteristics regarding the distribution of Rio\u2019s inhabitants, looking at factors like skin color, income, housing type and population density:<\/p>\n

\"2000<\/a>
2000 map showing the average monthly household income for each neighborhood in Rio. In the lightest green neighborhoods the average monthly salary is up to 4.9 times the minimum wage. In the darkest green neighborhoods the average monthly salary is over 20 times the minimum wage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Looking at the income map, we can see that the highest concentration of wealth is in Planning Areas 2 and 4; in other words, the coastal neighborhoods, as well as Grande Tijuca (comprised of the neighborhoods Tijuca<\/a>, Maracan\u00e3<\/a>, Andara\u00ed, Vila Isabel and Graja\u00fa). When we look at where those areas are compared with some of the Olympic investment projects<\/a>, we can see that the\u00a0criticisms that Olympic investment are\u00a0only in\u00a0rich areas are backed up by geography:<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The locations of the sports centers for the 2016 Olympic Games.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A key piece of marketing\u00a0from Rio’s mayor\u00a0was the concept of a \u201cbike friendly\u201d city. It was announced that 450km of cycle paths<\/a> would be built by 2016. The 450km target has not been met, but the important thing is to note where the cycle paths have been built<\/a>. Let\u2019s check the map:<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The location of cycle paths in Rio de Janeiro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the cycle path map, we see again there has been a lot of investment in Planning Areas 2 and 4, with a few other paths in the Planning Area with the most disperse population of the city: Planning Area 5, the West Zone<\/a>. But how much of this cycle path provision actually serves the population of Rio de Janeiro? Let\u2019s have a look at Rio\u2019s population density:<\/p>\n

\"2011<\/a>
2011 map showing population density by neighborhood, the darkest colored areas being the most densely populated neighborhoods.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We can see that the cycle path policy does not reach the most densely populated low-income parts of the city.<\/p>\n

\"2000<\/a>
2000 map showing proportion of Rio’s population living in “Subnormal Agglomerations,” or favelas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nor did the cycle paths serve the \u201cSubnormal Agglomerations<\/a>,\u201d which is how the Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute (IGBE) refers to favelas. On this map we can see a large concentration of such \u201cSubnormal Agglomerations\u201d in Planning Area 3, the North Zone<\/a>, which is where a large proportion of Rio\u2019s residents live. Planning Area 3 has twice the number of inhabitants as Planning Area 2 (South Zone<\/a>), and more than double the number of residents of\u00a0Planning Area 4 (Barra da Tijuca<\/a> and Jacarepagu\u00e1<\/a>), which is the area where the \u201cOlympic Legacy<\/a>\u201d is concentrated.<\/p>\n

According to the 2010 census, the population of Rio de Janeiro is distributed among the Planning Areas as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Planning Area 1<\/td>\n5%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Planning Area 2<\/td>\n16%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Planning Area 3<\/td>\n38%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Planning Area 4<\/td>\n14%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Planning Area 5<\/td>\n27%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Using 2013 figures from the Pereira Passos Institute<\/a>\u00a0(of urban planning), we can see how leisure areas built to serve the population are spread out among the Planning Areas in the following way:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Planning Area 1<\/td>\n8%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Planning Area 2<\/td>\n20%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Planning Area 3<\/td>\n12%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Planning Area 4<\/td>\n34%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Planning Area 5<\/td>\n26%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Despite the fact that Planning Area 3 (North Zone) has the largest number\u00a0of inhabitants and the largest population density, it is Planning Areas 2 (South Zone), 4 (Barra and Jacarepagu\u00e1) and 5 (West Zone)\u2013areas already served by the largest numbers of leisure spaces<\/a>\u2013which are those that have been earmarked to receive more leisure spaces<\/a> as part of the Olympic Legacy.<\/p>\n

Parque\u00a0Madureira<\/a>, launched\u00a0in 2012, has not resulted in an increase to the amount of leisure space in Planning Area 3, since other neighborhoods in the same Planning Area have had a reduction in their leisure space<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When Pra\u00e7a Mau\u00e1 in the Port Region<\/a> is completed, it will contribute to an increase in access to leisure areas in\u00a0Planning Area 1 (Central Rio<\/a>), thus all areas will have received\u00a0a bit more leisure space, with the exception of\u00a0Planning Area 3.\u00a0The government has sneakily tried to balance this out by implying the neighborhood of Deodoro is in the North Zone<\/a>,\u00a0part of Planning Area 3. This is despite the fact that Deodoro is part of the Realengo<\/a> administrative region, which is in the West Zone, in Planning Area 5. So now who\u2019s the one who doesn\u2019t know the geography of the city of Rio?<\/p>\n

Other indicators linked to geography, made available by the Pereira Passos Institute, show additional\u00a0geographical inequalities<\/a> in the the city. Take, for example, green space. This table shows the proportion of each Planning Area which is composed of green areas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Planning Area\u00a01<\/td>\n14,8%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Planning Area\u00a02<\/td>\n49,3%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Planning Area 3<\/td>\n7,7%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Planning Area 4<\/td>\n43,4%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Planning Area 5<\/td>\n31,9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

To sum up, Planning Area 3 (North Zone) has the most habitants<\/a>, is the most densely populated, has the largest number of favelas\u00a0and\u00a0is the area with the lowest amount of leisure or\u00a0green space, which are fundamental for health<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When we look at figures showing the use of land for housing, we see again how the population density of Rio is skewed, with Planning Area 3 being the area with the largest proportion of its land used for housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Planning Area 1<\/td>\n40,6%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Planning Area 2<\/td>\n33,6%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Planning Area 3<\/td>\n62,1%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Planning Area 4<\/td>\n25,9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Planning Area 5<\/td>\n26,7%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The Tijuca Forest<\/a>, beaches and the Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon form a large part of Planning Area 2.<\/p>\n

Apartheid?<\/h3>\n

If we compare the Planning Areas in the city, studied in this article, with the distribution of the black and mixed race population in the city<\/a>, we can reach the following interpretations:<\/p>\n

\"Map<\/a>
Map showing the concentration of \u201cSubnormal Agglomerations\u201d (which include favelas) in the city<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Map<\/a>
Map showing the proportion of white people in different regions of the city in relation to the proportion of white people in the population as a whole, the darker colored areas being the areas with the highest proportion of white residents.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Looking at this information, we might ask the mayor the following question: \u201chow does the geography of the ‘Olympic City’ look to you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hugo Costa, 41, has a degree in Geography from the Federal Fluminense University, is an aspiring blogger and lives in the neighborhood of Ramos in the North Zone of Rio.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas In a recent interview with The Guardian, Eduardo Paes, mayor of Rio de Janeiro, refuted allegations that Olympics investments have been concentrated only in rich parts of the city. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":31052,"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":[1736,1288,1328,1282,328],"tags":[1051,225,1685,1261,607,272,474,2151,1298,282,203,569,327,512,254,37,5,124,1402,156,21],"writer":[2136],"translator":[1401],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-31048","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-1736","8":"category-highlight","9":"category-by-community-contributors","10":"category-research-analysis","11":"category-understanding-rio","12":"tag-divided-city","13":"tag-barra-da-tijuca","14":"tag-bike-path","15":"tag-central-rio","16":"tag-deodoro","17":"tag-mayor-eduardo-paes","18":"tag-environment","19":"tag-geography","20":"tag-green-space","21":"tag-housing","22":"tag-inequality","23":"tag-jacarepagua","24":"tag-legacy-myth","25":"tag-leisure","26":"tag-mapping","27":"tag-north-zone","28":"tag-olympics","29":"tag-race","30":"tag-legacy","31":"tag-south-zone","32":"tag-west-zone","33":"writer-hugo-costa","34":"translator-sarah-jacobs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31048","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\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31048"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=31048"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=31048"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=31048"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=31048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}