World Urban Forum

Carlos, thank you for your comments. Definitely the poor not even the poorest need to have access to the city.They constitute the majority particularly in the developing countries. Unfortunately, they are 'the neglected majority'. The focus on public transport could have helped but the supporting services to make public transport works are NOT just there in most cities in developing countries e.g roads, electricity etc. For example, the use of cable cars, need efficient supply of energy among others. What about the maintenance culture that is almost zero (nil).

Well, I have talked about it before but I think the discussion also fits here.

Totally agreed, Carlos. The cable car, in the picture you suggest is actually a very good idea. However, I'll give you an example of what is going on in a Slum in Rio.

There is a clear need to rethink the way slums and other poverty areas have been seen and treated by the Brazillian Government. The project of the Cable Car in the Complexo do Alemão (gondola at slum complex), inspired by the successful experience of the Metrocable in Medellín, Colombia is work of PAC (a brazillian program) in the amount of R$500 million and had no social diagnosis that took into consideration the views and participation of local people. Opened in July 2011, the Cable Car can carry forty-five thousand passengers per day, improving accessibility to the Complex. However, underutilized, carries only nine thousand passengers a day. By analyzing impacts of its instalattion, as the speculation surrounding the stations and resident’s opinions, we raise the question if the cable car is truly functional in terms of aid to the displacement of residents or it is just being used by visitors and curious. Moreover, had they been consulted, residents would have pointed to the issue of transportation as a priority for the slum? Recently, in a community council in the giant slum of Rocinha, the residents decided they did not want to install a cable car: they prefer to allocate the money from work to sanitation work for the whole favela.
So which is the greatest asset of the cable car system? If we have to choose just one, we say that, without a doubt, is the visibility it has brought to the slum complex. Today, the Complexo do Alemão is more likely to develop than before, and much of the reason for this is precisely the visibility that the cable car brings and the way he serves as a decoy for people outside the community.
Also, The tourist development of this equipment is a real potential and that, at some level, is already a reality. We can look at the "poverty tourism" paradoxically, because at the same time it humbles, it also raises awareness and attracts attention, which can - if worked well - be translated into more investment to the region. But it is essential that the tourism is done in a sustainable way, bringing direct and indirect returns to the people who live in the Complexo do Alemão.

What I'm trying to say is Public policies depend on an assessment of the situation which will focus on. In democratic contexts, the process of making a diagnosis requires the participation of the population. That is, we must not forget that the success of urban intervention programs depends on a delicate adjustment between the plan formulated by urban planners and longings of the people involved. We can approximate this process to the theory of "Right to the City" (Lefebvre - 1969) which is not simply a right of access to what exists. But the right to participate in the construction and reconstruction of the urban fabric in ways more consistent with the needs of the mass population.

*Pictures I have taken this year of the Cable Car at the Complexo do Alemão are attatched.

My understanding of one of the complex benefits of the Medellin cable car is that it has made slum conditions more visible in the city, and that householders and businesses have responded to being made more visible by feeling they are not forgotten (and so less marginalised), and by taking more pride in their environments. Of course, it is possible to capitalize on opportunist location near the cable car, and for the improved mobility and visibility to create unintended and inequitable windfall gains for people (property owners & renters) near the stations.

Thank you Thayna for sharing your experience from the favelas in Rio. Actually it is in deed necessary when doing this kind of investments to socialize the project within the community because at the end are those communities that will benefit from the investment. But talking again about Medellin, I think that more than bringing, as you say, poverty tourims, these people are really happy with their cable car because it is an integrated transport mean, so they take the cable car and with the same ticket they get the metro or the BRT, so taking these people from this very steepy and poor neighbors has really bring apportunities to this part of the city. You are right Gordon, the cable car in Medellin has help the slums to become much more visible in the city and they realize that they are being taken into account. I would also like to share another of the investements that has been recently open, and are the electric escalators in one of these slums. Since these are very steepy neighbros and many handicaped and elder people had to walk and almost climb to reach their houses, the municipality had the idea of creating these escalators, and let me tell you that they have also been a success. For instance when I had the opportunity to go in January, they were still working and they were teaching the children how to use them, it was really something amazing to see these children amusing with responsibility. And talking with the people of this neighbors, they received the escalators as something good and useful and once again, as Gordon said, they are not being forgotten.