Vallesca Da SilvaMegacity Case Study- Sao Paulo

The Development of Sao Paulo

Sao Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the southern hemisphere and Americas. It’s located in South America, the southeast of Brazil about 42* N, and 2*W. The megacity is also home to the world’s seventh largest city by population. There are 22 million (September 2012) people living in Sao Paulo according to the Siemens. This shows that Sao Paulo’s population will continue to increase from here onwards. With Sao Paulo being among the 10 largest metropolitan areas on the planet, it’s home to some of the worlds largest traffic congestions in the world. Just like other megacities, Sao Paulo is facing high rates of crime, poverty and unemployment.

Urban Land Use

Sao Paulo is a more economically developed megacity, unlike other megacities around the world. With the mix of poor and elite in the city this allows conflicts to arise. Sao Paulo is an LEDC city and resembles the burgess model (model shown in Fig.3). Most upper class people live in the CBD of Sao Paulo, where as the middle class live in corticos and lower class people live in shanty towns (favelas). The rapid growth of Sao Paulo has led to more citizens moving in from different parts of Brazil and foreigners migrating to Brazil - Sao Paulo. Reasons for this is better opportunities for employment

and business development and opportunities. Advertisements in Sao Paulo ran in rural areas of Sao Paulo and other cities in Brazil around the 1950s and 1960’s to attract workers into the city.

In Fig.1 there is more of a cleaner and well-kept area where tall buildings are placed for local and international businesses to occur. People with wealth tend to live in CBD’s.

In Fig.2 the area where lower class citizens live, most housing is often self-built. Shanty towns are on the outskirts (known as Favela’s) of the city, but as for some shanty towns otherwise (known as Corticos) in Sao Paulo they are built in the CBD. This shows that not all shanty towns have to be in the outskirts of the city. Corticos in Sao Paulo are built CBDs in areas that have deteriorated near the city’s jobs and services.

Current Challenges and Issues

Crime

Figure.1 CBD Area of Sao PauloFigure.2 Shanty Town of Sao Paulo

Figure.3 Urban Land Use Model; The burgess model

Sao Paulo is one of the many Mega cities with the highest rate of armed robbery and homicides in the world. Due to low living standards and the result of social pathologies which include drugs and weapons have a huge impact on Sao Paulo in general. People who live in shanty towns and CBD’s live in constant fear. As an example Sao Paulo’s affluent elite have assembles the worlds largest felt of urban helicopters after New York and Tokyo. Sao Paulo’s rich use their helicopters to hop from rooftop to rooftop, to escape the squalor of the streets. Crimes in other LEDC cities are most common.

The police force in Sao Paulo is corrupted which doesn’t allow the secure safety of citizens in Sao Paulo. Street crime remains a problem for citizens and visitors in Sao Paulo. Traveling to rural areas in the evening leads to robberies and criminal abduction. There is always a great risk for visitors who visit Sao Paulo to enter into the shanty towns better known as favela’s. Entering favelas has been described as entering a soul where each individual is cell of the soul. Everyday a different mood is set which doesn’t secure safety neither visitors and citizens.

There are ways of helping Sao Paulo with its crime rate. The government of Sao Paulo has allowed them to better and expand their police force. Even though things are easier said then done, Sao Paulo’s crime rate has dropped. A map was released which recovered data reports shown that from 1980-2010 about Sao Paulo’s violence (Shown in Fig.4). The difference between 1980-2010 is that the homicide rate has dropped. This allows more of a better up bringing for the future generation. Even though many more municipalities whom didn’t register their deaths will always be unknown. Crime in Sao Paulo has a define range of crime.

There will always be room for improvements with the crime rate in Sao Paulo. With gathering more knowledge on the officers who are corrupt, with the innocent police officers the streets of Sao Paulo can be improved. This will always be a push and pull factor for local citizens to move into Sao Paulo or to stay on the outskirts of Brazil.

Traffic

Figure.4 Homicide Rate in Sao Paulo from 1980-2010

Traffic in LEDC cities can be a huge problem, especially megacities. Traffic in Sao Paulo can extend in the city for a total of 180km on a Friday night. According to BBC local traffic engineers range the traffic to be as long as 295km on a bad day. This is a challenge for most LEDC cities. In Sao Paulo this can also lead to crime. With standing still traffic, this allows citizens on foot to rob people in their cars and take off. In the mornings for local citizens to go to work, it can take them more than two hours back and forward. In Fig. 5 is shows one local citizens daily routine 5 times a week. Driving for more then 10 hours each week to go to work and return back home.

There have been different methods of improving the traffic congestions in Sao Paulo. One of them has been used for about 7 years and still continues today. The local radios have managed to set up a station dedicated to allow drivers to listen to up and coming traffic conditions and alternative routes this radio station run 24/7. This improves not only the traffic congestions in Sao Paulo but it also allows citizens to plan their daily routines. The radio stations also allow listeners and motorist to vent their frustrations or update them of the current conditions on the road.

Air Pollution

In Sao Paulo and other LEDC cities air pollution is a problem. This mostly has to do with traffic as mentioned before. Traffic in Sao Paulo can lead to the range of 295km a day. According to Population Reference Bureau, Sao Paulo is ranked among the world’s worst of air pollution in teams of outdoor air pollution. Increase of respiratory and cardiovascular illness and death have been linked to air pollution in Sao Paulo and other megacities.

Methods have been ensured to decrease air pollution. According to the Disease Control Priorities Project “megacities have made significant strides in reducing air pollution levels.” Even though it does take a significant amount of time to decrease air pollution in a megacity. This gives opportunities for megacities to develop a better city and to improve air quality.

For the last 20 years the levels of primary air pollutants have decreased, according by the state environmental agency, Companhia de

Figure.5 A local citizen living in Sao Paulo’s routine to work.

Technologia de Saneamento Ambiental (CETESB). Since the last 5 years the ozone layer has become the most problematic pollutant. With research being conducted almost every day. This helps the citizens and the government to ensure that their megacity is safe.

Unemployment

The unemployment rate in Sao Paulo has decreased over the years. The amount of people who are jobless has allowed more of diversity for others who are in the work force. The government conducted a survey shown in Fig.6

The unemployment rate causes decrease only if the citizens in Sao Paulo want to take action. Newer generations who live in the CBD have stepped up by going to school, and completing their University degrees. This allows them to have jobs inside and outside of Sao Paulo, allowing only a better income for their families.

It’s the government’s job to push families into telling their kids to get a better education for the long run in their lives. This can result to a better employment rate rather then having an unemployment rate, which doesn’t satisfy the cities needs.

Poverty

Poverty in Sao Paulo only hits the shanty towns and sometimes even the

Figure.6 The unemployment rate in Sao Paulo from 2003-2012

Figure.7 A favela in Sao Paulo’s CBD

streets in the CBD. All LEDC cities face this problem of poverty. The metropolitan area in Sao Paulo is surrounded by a diverse culture of the rich and poor (as shown in Fig.7). Sao Paulo has the largest slum population in South America. The urban poverty is concentrated in two types of housing Favela’s and Corticos (small rented rooms in old buildings). Unlike Rio de Janeiro favelas in Sao Paulo have developed recently their rapid growth dates back to the 1980’s. The share of the population has grown from 5.2% to 19.8%. Natural change and Rural-urban migration have fallen specifically under the housing problem in Sao Paulo. People who live in Favela’s and Corticos do not like to be referred by these terms. Fearing predacious in job application and other aspects of like. The problem of slum housing is mostly concentrated in LEDC cities.

There have been attempts to attack the problem of poverty such as non-profit organizations, and government organizations. This has helped somewhat with the mass poverty in Sao Paulo. Poverty has fallen in Brazil alone, according to the federal government. The number of Brazilians below the poverty line fell dramatically between 1990 and 2005. Since 2004 the declining trend has been continued as a result of government interventions.

The World Bank suggested that Brazil’s reduction in income in-equalities is attributable to five factors:

(1) ”Declining inflation and a more stable macroenomic environment: extensive studies link high inflation with increasing income inequality, as the poor typically suffer more directly from price increase than the rich, who may actually benefit from inflation.”(2) ”A sharp decline in returns on education: inequality in Brazil is less determined by educational attainments than previously, as more people are achieving a basic education, though returns on tertiary education are rising.”(3) “The pronounced rural-urban income convergence: regional inequality has become less significant today as extreme differences in living standards among rural and urban residents have diminished.(4) ”The significant increase in social assistance through transfer to the poor, more efficiently targeted and widespread: Social security income has clearly been directly responsible for higher household incomes among the poor.”(5) ”A decline in racial inequality, which previously explained between 11 and 13 percent of the national inequality according to decomposition analysis. Racial discrimination may be declining as Afrodescendant-Brazilians and other marginalized people are assisted out of absolute poverty, but statistical decomposition of multiple social issues identifies race as a persistent and contentious issue in Brazil”. (Sao Paulo: A tale of two cities, pg.8 )

These five factors listed has improved not only Sao Paulo but also Brazil with the challenges of poverty that the megacity and the country faces.

Housing

The poor quality of housing in Sao Paulo is a considerable hazard to the safety of residence. This leads to a result of crime, which is stated above. The variations in the quality of life in Sao Paulo are extreme and unequal from the cities’ riches districts like Moema to Sao Paulo’s poorest district Marsilac. Slum housing affects every continent but is heavily concentrated in LEDC cities like Sao Paulo. Favelas are mainly located and strongly linked to the cities’ physical and environmental situation like gullies, food planes, river banks, rail way road, beside main railway roads, and adjacent to industrial areas. Corticos on the other hand are located in CBD’s. In the areas that are deteriorated but near cities jobs and services stated above.

There are different ways of attack the housing problem in Sao Paulo. For the housing problem in Sao Paulo a range of attempts have been made these include:

• “A federal bank (BNH) which funded urban housing projects and low-interest loans to lower and middle-income homebuyers.”

• “A state-level cooperatives institute (INCOOP), which helped, build housing for state workers such as teachers.

• A state-level development company (CODESPAULO) for housing for low-income families and financing of slum upgrading projects.”

• “A collaborative private sector/state company scheme (COHAB) to develop housing for limited-income families”

• A municipally managed COHAB for public housing construction, which also funded self-help projects (“mutiroes”) to upgrade substandard housing.” (geo cases)

Conclusion

The transition made from being predominantly being a industrial region to being a major commercial, financial and service center, this transformation reflects border trends at the national level, and indeed, also a world capitalism. Within the next 50 years Sao Paulo will grow into one of the worlds biggest megacities. With future plans that the government has set up, Sao Paulo will be the urban and economic center of the world. Plans have

already been under way for the steps Sao Paulo and Brazil. Three of them including the Olympic games in 2016, the World Cup in 2014 and Probable Sao Paulo World Expo bid for 2020. This will not only economically boost Sao Paulo’s economy but also for all major industrial, commercial and financial sectors. Sao Paulo was easily ranked within the 30 top cities in the world. Today it is the 10th wealthiest city by the total GDP. According to Forbes, its concentrated wealth is indicated by it entering the top 10 for the number of billionaires resident in Sao Paulo.

Sao Paulo is always looking for rooms to improve. With the issues and challenges that they face now things will only start to get better from here. Companies like Siemens have invested billions of dollars into Sao Paulo in creating a better infrastructure and mastering the infrastructure challenges. Siemens has worked with Brazil and Sao Paulo for over 150 years. In areas like medical facilities, public transportation, water treatment, traffic management, housing, green factor, recycling and many more areas that help better Sao Paulo and Brazil. They hope to make Sao Paulo a green and self-sufficient city that will be able to control its destiny and serves the needs of its inhabitants while promoting their well being and providing clean rivers and clean air. Sao Paulo is taking concrete steps on its own initiative to help preserve our planate.

With steps like this Sao Paulo is on the right track in improving their city challenges and issues. Within the next 50 years Sao Paulo will continue to grow into the southern hemispheres megacity.