{"id":51057,"date":"2019-02-25T11:25:57","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T14:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=51057"},"modified":"2020-08-07T14:03:10","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T17:03:10","slug":"together-we-are-stronger-still-threatened-with-eviction-rio-das-pedras-commission-shifts-focus-offering-basic-services-to-thousands-where-city-fails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=51057","title":{"rendered":"Still Threatened With Eviction, Rio das Pedras Shifts Focus, Offering Basic Services Where City Fails"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

During a February 13 appearance<\/a> on TV Globo, Mayor Marcelo Crivella<\/a>\u00a0was prompted to discuss the situation in Rio das Pedras<\/a>, a\u00a0West Zone<\/a>\u00a0community that was among the many Rio de Janeiro neighborhoods hit by a devastating storm<\/a> the week prior. His thoughts for the community’s future spurred outrage among residents, reigniting fears of eviction that the community had mobilized to stop<\/a> in late 2017. The mayor’s remarks were not only offensive to many residents, but also misleading. In the televised interview, Crivella stated:<\/p>\n

“Rio das Pedras greatly concerns me. It was the first project that I took up in the era of President Temer. Sadly, there was a strong militia group there. I think that the population of Rio de Janeiro followed this. There was a reaction from this group, whose [members] I know are all in jail now, and we can continue the project. Rio das Pedras’ problem [is that] there are tens of thousands of people\u2014almost one hundred thousand people\u2014whose sewage drains into the Tijuca Lagoon every day. It’s a serious problem\u2014there’s no way we can remove the sewage normally because the ground is very fragile. Piping, which has been attempted many times, breaks. The elevating water pumps used to carry sewage to CEDAE [the State Water and Sewerage Utility]\u2026 don’t work.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Crivella continued to assess the public security situation in Rio das Pedras:<\/p>\n

“We already have a project to build around 11,000 houses that can resume now that the police have intervened<\/a>. Now that we have security\u2014now that we don’t have a militia group dominating the community, we can begin construction. Though they may not be completed under my administration, these public works will serve as a ‘redemption,’ so to speak, for many years of abandonment by the City of Rio de Janeiro.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rio das Pedras Commission members were outraged, seeing his comments as dismissive of their mobilization effort<\/a> that halted his project<\/a> in its tracks. The Commission had this to say on their group’s Facebook group:<\/p>\n

“It’s sad to see politicians’ endless repertoire of excuses to downplay the poor administration and apathetic governance of late. We have heard that it’s not possible to create or maintain a project because of a lack of funds. We have heard that it’s the fault of the previous administrations. However, what we saw today is the accusation [by Crivella] that good citizens, who have bravely fought to keep the little that they have, are militia members and are the ones who are responsible for the lack of public investment in the community. These same residents fought tooth and nail against the evictions sought by the mayor.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another resident was quick to point out that the militia’s presence in Rio das Pedras had not been eliminated, as suggested by Crivella. The resident wrote: “There’s no longer a militia presence in Rio das Pedras\u2014who knew? In the religious world of Crivella<\/a>, isn’t lying a sin?”<\/p>\n

A multitude of residents took offense at the mayor’s remarks\u2014in part because of his insistence on completing a project that had already been defeated, but also because of his willingness to appear before the public and make misleading and outright false statements about their community. While Crivella estimated the population at 100,000, according to the Rio das Pedras Commission, over 180,000 people live in the community. The mayor’s plan to construct 11,000 additional homes fails to contemplate the tens of thousands displaced by his plan for the community. Furthermore, citing technical difficulties with implementing a basic sanitation system in the community, Crivella was quick to dismiss the R$64.7 million (US$17 million)\u00a0infrastructure project<\/a>\u00a0carried out in Rio das Pedras by the State Secretary of Housing, constructed by over 200 technicians and workers over an eighteen-month period of planning and construction. Concluded in 2015, the project was supposed to provide over 30,000 people with basic sanitation and included paving a large section of the community’s roads to ease transportation needs. However, residents testify that the pumps have simply never been turned on. His comments on the inviability of infrastructure improvements beg the question: why would the mayor want to simply scrap millions of dollars in public spending projects that were completed less than a decade ago?<\/p>\n

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The interview focused heavily on flooding experienced by Rio das Pedras after heavy rains in early February. Located in a low-lying area, Rio das Pedras does, in fact, routinely suffer from flooding. However, the mayor also claimed that his old neighborhood Lagoa<\/a>, in Rio’s South Zone<\/a>, was hit hard by the rains. This touches on an important factor in the debate: flooding is a risk not only in Rio’s favelas but also in wealthy areas of the city<\/a> located in watershed areas. (Coincidentally, or perhaps not so, the mayor’s current residence is located directly across the small lake from Rio das Pedras.) In examining the city’s soil map, it is clear that Rio das Pedras’ soil is the exact same type as the soil in most of Barra da Tijuca and shares similar soil with locations like the Metropolitana Shopping Mall and the Pan-American Village<\/a> complex (used to host athletes during the mega-event and then sold as luxury apartments). An official\u00a0map<\/a>\u00a0from the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) shows the proximity between Rio das Pedras (black rectangle), Vila Pan (five-point star), and the Metropolitana Mall (four-point star); grey coloring denotes developed areas.<\/p>\n

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\nGeographers from the Fluminense Federal University<\/a> (UFF) note that flood risks have been exacerbated across the city<\/a> due to poor management over the decades, such as the implementation of strategies like channeling rather than long-term urban resilience strategies. This is particularly concerning as Rio is projected to be the city worst affected by climate change in Latin America<\/a>. The UFF geographers report: “These poorly planned construction projects are representative of a lack of adequate urban planning that takes into consideration the topographical conditions of the terrain as well as an efficient urban drainage system. Despite in theory having a rainwater management plan,\u00a0in practice, the City of Rio de Janeiro applies very few flood prevention measures.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\nThe area surrounding the Rio das Pedras River was routinely subject to canalization projects implemented as early as the 19th century when this was a coffee growing region. In the 1950s, the National Department of Construction and Sanitation carried out major projects in the area such as digging the main canal in the community in an effort to drain and maximize usable land. According to the UFF geographers, this project did not take into consideration the maximum floodwater level that the canal could handle or the impermeability of the region’s soil. However, contrary to the mayor’s claim that the community is situated in an “at-risk” area<\/a>, in environmental risk assessments conducted under the administration of former mayor Eduardo Paes in 2013, only fifty houses\u2014all of which lie on the edge of Vila Pinheiro near the hills\u2014were found to be at-risk to the point of needing to be removed<\/a>. Instead of recommending removal, the assessments<\/a> concluded that land titling, limiting certain developments, defining zoning areas, and creating a transportation plan for the community should be prioritized.<\/p>\n

Deconstructing the Narrative<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Rio das Pedras Commission has a vastly different view of the community and their future than that advanced by the mayor. Working to mobilize the community during their anti-eviction struggle<\/a> in 2017 brought the group together and put them in touch with thousands of community members. They experienced firsthand the difficulties facing residents, but also the remarkable and inspiring stories brought to life by community members. Commission member\u00a0Andr\u00e9ia Ferreira recalled that journalists and politicians rarely visit Rio das Pedras and when they do, it’s to report on the negative aspects of the community, much like Crivella did in his televised comments. Ferreira reflected:<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s as though there are only bad things in favelas, when exactly the opposite is true. When there is drug trafficking in a community, the media gives the impression that there are only<\/em> drug traffickers there. It\u2019s not like that\u2014they are the minority\u2014and yet [the media] makes it seem like they’re a majority. People fight against it, fight to be good people\u2014and yet they’re beaten down every day. The community should be praised in the news on a daily basis because these people are trying to overcome the injustices imposed upon the poor. These are people who have the odds stacked against them and are still amazing people.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Despite the unfounded negative mainstream media narrative<\/a>\u00a0surrounding Rio das Pedras, by the end of the community’s struggle against eviction in 2017, the Rio das Pedras Commission had gained a huge following: a Facebook group<\/a> with over 17,000 members and an even larger fan base within Rio das Pedras itself. Two of the group’s most vocal members, Lorena Carvalho and Andr\u00e9ia Ferreira, realized they had changed the fabric of the community through their year-long mobilization efforts. Barely able to get through a day without being sought for assistance, they decided to use their reach for good.<\/p>\n

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Ferreira reflects:<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the years, we realized that when election time came, politicians would appear, do a ‘makeover,’ and disappear. Other than this, no one ever shows up here in the community. Today, Rio das Pedras is abandoned, as it always has been. We saw that together\u2014never alone\u2014we were able to solve some problems. Here in Rio das Pedras, there are people who go hungry. Who helps these people? No one. So we realized that if we didn\u2019t roll up our sleeves and work to address these issues, these children were going to die. Of course, things should be different\u2014but unfortunately, they’re not. So in addition to paying our taxes, we have to work to do what the government fails to do.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In 2018, the Commission officially shifted its focus to address the community’s\u00a0needs more broadly. Using the hashtag #TogetherWeAreStronger (#JuntosSomosMaisForte), widely used throughout their 2017 resistance effort, the group\u2014spearheaded by Ferreira and Carvalho\u2014works to provide for the basic needs of the community and to provide a safety net where the government has neglected to do so. In the words of Carvalho, \u201cWe feel good when people are doing well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Projects<\/strong><\/h3>\n

After seeing the Commission’s enormous impact on the Rio das Pedras community, the Residents’ Association decided to open up a space in its building for the group to work and asked for them to take over their two existing projects: academic tutoring and ballet classes. The tutoring program aims to provide additional educational support for kids who are struggling\u2014a much needed and utilized project given the\u00a0history of public neglect<\/a>\u00a0in Rio das Pedras’ schools.<\/p>\n

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With the help of other community members, Ferreira and Carvalho have been hard at work trying to provide as much as they can for the residents of Rio das Pedras. Several major projects have taken off, many additional classes have been launched, and community-wide events have attracted thousands. The following is a list of social activities and projects organized by the Commission in 2018:<\/p>\n