Rio Flashcards
4 main areas of Rio
- North Zone
- Centro
- West zone
- South zone
North zone
- Industrial
- Airport
- Low quality housing with poor services
Centro
- Oldest part- historic centre
- Imperial Palace and Cathedral
- Retail and tall office blocks dominate
- Large companies have HQs there
West zone
- Most modern
- Luxury apartments, shopping malls, tourist facilities
- Urban resurgence
South zone
- Economically and socially polarised
- South America’s largest favela overlooking main beaches, tourist facilities, high rise luxury apartments
- Fortress development
Cultural diversity
Rio has attracted migrants globally:
- E.g. Argentina + Bolivia
- South Korea and China recently
- Common language attracts people from Portugal
- Skilled workers from UK and USA
Economic inequality: unemployment
- Rates around 20%
- Informal sector dominates
- Poorest earn 13% of Rio’s income
Social segregation: wealth
60% of 1000 favelas located in suburbs and 25% in outer parts
Social segregation: ethnicity
- Intense concentration of affluent white population in affluent beachside South Zone
- Rio’s richest neighbourhood is 90% white while city’s profile as a whole is 50% black or mixed race
Social issues:
- Housing problems
- Corruption
Social: housing problems
- Arise from 100,000 migrants arriving each yr
- Resulted in many squatting on public or private land in favelas
Social: corruption
Widespread in some favelas controlled by criminal gangs involved in gun crime, drugs, robberies, kidnapping, murder
Strategies to manage social issues
- Favela-Bairro Project
- Community policing by Pacifying Police Units
Social management: Favela Bairro project
Integrated over 250,000 residents in over 140 neighbourhoods- provided with basic sanitation, plumbing, electricity, healthcare, leisure, education and secure hillsides
Social management: community policing
Introduced in 2008 and has restored control in almost 200 favelas
Economic issue
unemployment (same as economic inequality)
Economic management
- New economic activities
- Cable cars
Economic management: new economic activities
- Encouraged for example in ICT, public transport and through the strengthening of traditional industries
- Should boost employment in formal sector
Economic management: Cable cars
- Link otherwise inaccessible squatter settlements with the rest of the city
- Makes job opps more accessible
Environmental issue: congestion and air pollution
40% of Rio’s inhabitants live in the suburbs resulting in 4 million cars jamming the roads daily
Environmental management: laws
Tighter environmental laws and controls are reducing raw sewerage, industrial effluent, oil and landfill leachates in Guanabara Bay.
Environmental issue: dereliction
- Increased number of abandoned buildings in Rio
- Pacification schemes and promise to spend billions remodelling favelas has had unintended consequences: rent rising
Environmental management: squatting projects and renovation
- As the city’s homeless population has grown, squatting projects have become more organised in an attempt to secure abandoned houses as homes for the poor.
- The National Movement for Housing Struggle has worked to renovate existing buildings with the aim of building new houses for families living in inadequate housing in the city.
