O modelo de desenvolvimento urbano de São Paulo precisa ser revertido

Abstract

This article aims to point out some of the main changes needed in São Paulo's development model, according to the goals defined in the city's Strategic Master Plan, in force since 2003. The continuance of the model that has guided urban policies in the city for decades - based on the unlimited expansion of the urban footprint, on the primacy of the automobile, on increasing soil imperviousness, on the depopulation of consolidated regions, on ingrained but outmoded processes of real estate development, and on the creation of outlying peripheries lacking infrastructure, services and jobs - will lead the city to an unsustainable situation, aggravating its already existing chaotic conditions. The text shows that consistent alternatives do exist, but that their implementation would require increased participatory planning and societal mobilization, because changing a deeply ingrained model runs counter to well-entrenched vested interests.