Photo: Eduardo-Paes
Interview: Eduardo Paes, Mayor of Rio de Janeiro
15 September 2014
by Richard Forster
Having hosted the final of the World Cup and become the first Chair of C40 Cities from the global south, 2014 has been an eventful year for Eduardo Paes, Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. William Thorpe talked to the mayor about the legacy of the World Cup, the city’s focus on better access to services for the favelas and his plans for expansion of C40
As a host city of the recent FIFA World Cup, do you think it will bring long-term benefits to Rio’s citizens?
Absolutely. We have just received the results of surveys conducted by the City of Rio in partnership with independent entities, such as the Brazilian universities UFF and ESPM. The numbers speak for themselves: we received 886,000 tourists between the opening ceremony and the final match. Approximately 1 million people usually visit Rio during Carnival, but this was different. The World Cup brought in around 471,000 international tourists and, according to the survey, 98.8 percent of them found the city had either fulfilled or exceeded their expectations. In addition, 98.3 percent would recommend a trip to Rio to a relative or a friend and 58 percent intend to return in two years time to watch the 2016 Olympics. In addition in terms of attracting a new kind of sports-oriented tourist to Rio, images of our city were broadcast to half of the world’s population. The image of Christ The Redeemer at sunset, shown during the final match at Maracanã, is one such example. That is an intangible legacy. And then there is the tangible legacy: tourists spent over R$4 billion (US$1.8 billion) within the city over a one month period.
In terms of constructing infrastructure for the World Cup and the Olympics of 2016 what transformations have or will take place in the city?
Although we are still two years away from the 2016 Olympic Games, the city of Rio already looks very different than it did in October 2009, when we were chosen as the host. The Marvellous Port project is busy renewing part of Downtown and two BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) lines, Transoeste and Transcarioca, have been launched and are already integrating the city’s high capacity transport system. Transcarioca, for instance, enabled thousands of journalists and visitors who entered the country via the international airport to arrive safely and comfortably to the subway, the key transport network linking the stadium and the city’s hotel hubs.
Since the start of the Olympic project, I wanted the Games to serve the city. More than simply carrying out works and organising the event itself, the goal was to make Rio de Janeiro a better place for its residents, with significant changes in transport, urban infrastructure, sustainability and social development. Therefore, the city has developed projects aimed at providing maximum benefit to our citizens.
BRT systems, for instance, are redefining the existing bus routes and promoting integration of all modes of transport (ferries, subways, buses and trains). Upon completion, the Marvellous Port will generate benefits far beyond the Games, ensuring that one of the gateways to the city becomes an area worthy of its past. In fact, the redevelopment of the Port area has already uncovered archaeological treasures such as the old pier and the Valongo Hanging Gardens. Downtown has a brand new cultural icon, the Art Museum of Rio (MAR), which was awarded the title of ‘Best Building’ of 2013 in the Museum category at the internationally renowned Architizer A + Awards.
In the North Zone, the redevelopment of the surrounding streets of the João Havelange Olympic Stadium (Engenhão) will bring significant improvements in urban mobility and leisure to the whole neighbourhood. The flood control project of the Tijuca area aims to end the chaos caused by heavy rains in the region. The system will be composed of five underground reservoirs: the one at Praça da Bandeira is completed and already in operation, and the other four are under construction, holding the surplus flow of the Trapicheiros, Joana, Maracanã and Jacó rivers.
To what extent has the city been able to consult with citizens on these developments?
During construction of the BRT lanes, which is coordinated by the Works Secretariat, we conducted a public hearing in order to present the project and its local representatives to the communities that would be directly impacted. At this meeting, presentations were made before the project began. In the case of Transolímpica, we developed an initiative called Transolímpica & Você (Transolímpica & You). Kiosks were installed at strategic points in the area to take residents’ queries. Moreover, the 1746 phone line remains effective for any inquiries relating to the works performed by us across the city.
For five years now the Prefeitura Itinerante (Mobilise City Hall) project has taken my team and I to the poorest parts of the city to listen to people and also present the Municipality’s plans for the areas. I have been working hard to share the management of the city with its citizens and have been testing different tools to allow people to have their say.
Since 2013, the website www.riomais.vc has enabled residents to suggest projects and initiatives in 12 fields, including citizenship, communities, and mobility and education. The best ideas will be chosen by popular jury and will potentially be implemented as permanent public policy. I intend to put into practice at least one project in each area. Another interesting initiative is the Hackathon competition, inspired by New York City’s 311 programme, whereby entrants are tasked with finding solutions to demands that Rio City Hall receives via its public service call centre, 1746. These requests range from public lighting and street maintenance to tree repair and irregular parking. I have also used the Google Hangout On Air platform to have live, online conversations with representatives of groups that are critical of my administration as well as journalists.
How will Rio ensure the sustainability of the legacy infrastructure from the 2016 games?
The 2016 Olympics provides us with a unique opportunity to drive our sustainability agenda while making lasting changes for the city and its citizens. With the construction of the Olympic Park, the heart of the Games, 70 percent of the waste from demolition of the old facility will be reused. By 2030, the venues and facilities will also form a new residential neighbourhood, with new standards of energy efficiency, sustainability and accessibility. And before that, the handball arena, which will be built using the practice of nomadic architecture, will be dismantled and transformed into four public schools.
The Olympic Park project includes more than just the nine sports facilities that will host the best athletes on the planet. As part of the contractual obligations of the public-private partnership, the 73,000m2 area surrounding the Jacarepaguá Lagoon is being completely restored with native mangrove vegetation and restinga, a forest system unique to Brazil. The project began in December 2013 and will be concluded in the second half of 2015.
You are aiming for a target of over 60 percent of the city population taking high-capacity public transport like the BRT system by 2015. What measures is the city taking to achieve that target?
Our campaign to encourage the average Carioca citizen to use public transport began in 2010 when I implemented Bilhete Único Carioca (Single Ticket), which allows a traveller to take two bus trips over a span of two and a half hours, for the price of one ticket. Thus, it integrates bus, subway, train and ferry trips at cheaper costs. An increase in the number of cars on the roads has, unfortunately, caused traffic jams along the busiest avenues. To minimise the impact on neighbourhoods like Downtown and Copacabana, I created the Bus Rapid Service (BRS), which consists of exclusive corridors for buses and taxis.
In 2012, Transoeste, Rio’s first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor, was implemented. It serves 150,000 people daily, travelling to and from the West Zone, an area with very low integration and transport options. By 2016, it will be extended to reach the future subway line 4 in the Barra neighbourhood, and will carry an estimated 230,000 passengers per day. Last June, Transcarioca was the second BRT line to come into operation, and is serving 320,000 people travelling between the North and West zones every day. Transolímpica will be ready by the Olympic Games, and Transbrasil will follow soon after. Transbrasil will link with other modes of transport such as trains, subway, Light Rail Train (LRT), BRTs Transcarioca and Transolímpica, and the Rio-São Paulo and Rio-Juiz de Fora federal highways. We expect it to serve 820,000 passengers per day.
Another feature of this new era of mobility is the Light Rail Train (LRT), an urban train system powered by electricity that will circulate around Downtown by 2016. It is part of the Marvellous Port project, which aims to renew the harbour area and integrate the subway, train service, ferry station, BRT lines, conventional bus network, Providência cable car, and finally, Santos Dumont Airport. When all lines are in operation, the system capacity will reach 285,000 passengers per day. As you can see, more than simply creating new modes of transport, we have also created ways of integrating them to optimise, organise and add efficiency to the system as a whole.
The Morar Carioca programme to upgrade slum housing in the favelas and to introduce healthcare services and education has been praised for its attempt to integrate the city’s residents with the aim of full urbanisation by 2020. What
is the total budget for the programme and how will it be funded? How many
of the 1.2 million favela residents have benefitted so far from this programme?
The amount we have invested in housing and infrastructure has already reached R$2.1 billion (US$946 million), benefiting 70,000 households in 69 communities: that’s almost 280,000 people. By 2020, R$8.5 billion ($US3.8 billion) will have been invested in the redevelopment of all of Rio’s favelas and will reach over 250,000 households (1 million people). By the end of my mandate in 2016, we expect to have 600,000 people benefitting from Morar Carioca.
Approximately 50 percent of the funds come from the City Treasury and the rest is a Federal Government investment, via the Growth Acceleration Programme (PAC) and the Inter- American Development Bank.
In which areas have health, water and education projects been successfully achieved?
Since 2009, we have invested more than R$1.8 billion (US$811 million) in education, health, infrastructure, urbanisation, lighting and cleaning in 208 pacified communities through the UPP Social programme, created to produce information and monitor the improvement of public services while also expanding them. With regards to education, for example, 49 out of the 201 Child Development Spaces (EDI) constructed during my mandate thus far have been in pacified areas, which amounts to nearly 9,000 new students and 14,000 new jobs created within early childhood education. The Family Clinic coverage increased from 3 percent to 73 percent in pacified areas–and 12 areas that have Pacifying Police Units already have 100 percent coverage. The neighbourhoods of Caju, São Carlos and Mangueira are almost there, with more than 90 percent coverage. Note that the favelas are all over the city– from north to south zone, and from west to east zone–yet they have always been left “apart” from the City. UPP Social, which has a partnership with UN-Habitat and is run by Instituto Pereira Passos, has an important role in promoting social, urban and economic development in order to fully integrate the city.
As well as providing better access to sanitation, housing and healthcare, what is the city government doing to bring favela residents into formal employment and access to financial services?
In 2010, we launched a programme to help formalise small enterprises, called Empresa Bacana (Cool Company). In 2012, it was absorbed by Sebrae, a private non-profit present in all Brazilian states that provides support to small and micro entrepreneurs.
Between 2010-2012, we formalised 2,161 enterprises in the city–1,761 of them in pacified communities–through Empresa Bacana. The special measures created to support the regularisation of those companies were based on the new law for the individual micro entrepreneur, which gives federal tax exemption and reduced rates to those with no more than R$36,000 (US$16,000) of profit per year and a maximum of one employee.
The State government also has interesting initiatives concerning access to financial services through AGERIO.
You became C40 Chair in 2014 and one of your first actions was to call for an urban goal in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be debated at the UN Summit in September. Why do you think such a goal is necessary? Do you think cities need more influence at the uN and how can this be achieved?
As of today, 45 C40 cities support the concept of the SDGs as a global–rather than just a ‘developing world’–agenda. We believe that the creation of this goal could open up additional support to our cities and empower all urban actors through practical problem solving to create resilient and sustainable cities. And I am delighted that the UN General Assembly’s Open Working Group on SDGs concluded its final session in July of this year by adopting an 11th goal to ‘make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’. This proposal will be submitted to the UN General Assembly for consideration and appropriate action at its 68th session.
The biggest challenge of our time is the challenge of cooperation.Successful urban policies have been replicated and improved through knowledge sharing within and beyond the C40. One of the core strategic pillars of my chairmanship at C40 is to engage in city diplomacy by delivering concrete results and building leadership. And I believe there is still an enormous opportunity to enhance collaboration. We are just taking the first steps on this journey.
However, we cannot address global challenges alone, without cooperation with the UN and national governments. As Cristiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, mentioned during the last C40 Summit in Johannesburg: “I need you, and you need me.” C40 is here to do its part. I am committed to participating and influencing international climate negotiations to ensure that the world, both cities and nations in concert, are responding to the threat climate change poses to our global sustainable future.
As the Chair of C40, what are your aims for the organisation particularly in terms of development across global south cities?
As a global organisation, we need a balanced representation in all regions of the world. Urbanisation is most rapidly increasing across cities from the global south [Latin America, Africa and Asia].
As a mayor from the global south, one of the strategic aims of my chairmanship is to strengthen participation among cities from the global south.
In fact, one of the most impressive results of the Climate Action in Megacities Report Volume 2.0 (CAM 2.0), released by C40 at the beginning of this year, is that there has been a significant transfer of knowledge from south to north, BRT schemes being a very good example. Therefore, I am extremely confident that cities from the global south can and will contribute to the success of C40, bringing original, local solutions to address climate change at a global scale.
Shenzhen and Wuhan have just joined C40 in China: what other countries and cities do you expect to join the network in the next 12 months?
The increased participation of Chinese cities is important given their unique experience in promoting sustainable and resilient low-carbon development.
In addition to Shenzhen and Wuhan, during the first six months of my chairmanship, four other new cities have joined C40: Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, Cape Town and Boston, which shows our strong focus on expansion in cities in the developing world.
What are the biggest challenges to private sector companies investing in cities and how do we overcome the deficit of company funding and technical assistance which cities need?
Something that hinders private investment is the lack of predictability in the regulatory and tax system, meaning increased costs for new operations that adversely affect new business. Because of that, we have been working on simplifying and improving the business environment, specially regarding permits and licenses, speeding up lengthy, bureaucratic processes.
Our efforts to improve basic education is bringing up a new generation, one more prepared and able to answer the complex needs and issues that the industrial and service sectors require.
Our continued attraction of innovative technology-based companies strengthens homegrown talent involved in these projects, helping integrate our market on a more competitive basis by promoting knowledge transfer, commitment with quality and greater efficiency.
Rio must be proud to be host of the World Cup Final 2014 and Olympics in 2016 and you will be unique as a mayor to have presided over both. Will this stand as your biggest achievement?
It can only be considered a big achievement if Rio and its residents benefit from the events, which is why the 2016 Olympic Games are intended to leave the biggest legacy of all time, with current investments fully renovating and transforming the city. To stand beside former Barcelona Mayor Pasqual Maragall, a mayor who used the Olympics to create a new and better city, will surely be one of the biggest achievements of my life.
