São Paulo: The city of intolerance or urbanism “Brazilian style”

Abstract

While observing the city of Sao Paulo, it is easy to perceive that it has come to a real collapse. A dramatic inequality dominates, what makes that, at least, the third part of its population live in shameful conditions. At the same time, its economic power leverages an uninterrupted growth that paradoxically deepens its problems: pollution, floods, insecurity, precarious public transportation, and traffic jams are some of the "wounds" that characterize this city. What are the causes of this urban tragedy? They rely on the logic of the Patrimonialistic State, on a society that has never managed to overcome its slavery heritage, and on a state order that permanently consolidates the conservative modernization. And what could be the path to its solution? It demands a radical change in the logic of the city functioning, in the dynamics of the Patrimonialistic State which, in its turn, depends on profound and necessary individual changes.