Urban Brazil: Visions, Afflictions, and Governance Lessons By Iva ...

Whereas it is clear that Brazil’s largest city has the human capital and financial means to address urban problems, the city has long been victim of ill-conceived policies. Jorge Wilheim, a renowned urban planner with deep knowledge of São Paulo, attributes its urban decay to the “suicidal sclerosis” of successive municipal administrations. In 1965, Wilheim had asserted that, “in a moment when everybody is calling attention to the importance of the city for the civilization’s future, and to the necessity of adapting cities to the lives of millions of citizens, we witness in São Paulo the sleepy practice of laissez-faire that already granted to our city the title of one in the world where life is the worst.”

Yet São Paulo, which has been described by urban experts as “a laboratory of urban planning missteps,”¹⁸ was until the early 1960s a city that had fascinated foreigners by its diversity, growth, energy, and wealth. It embodied Brazilian dreams of modernity and development. At the beginning of the 20th century, the French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss compared São Paulo with Chicago and other great American cities for its ability to reinvent itself.¹⁹ Yet it grew arbitrarily, without a consistent urban strategy, and has been governed by groups that have not been able or willing to formulate a coherent response to urban growth. The impact of this neglect on city residents is evident. As put forth by Gilberto Dimenstein “the self-esteem of Paulistanos is so low, that we believe that we’re destined to an irreversible urban collapse.”²⁰