A City for the Wealthy

In 1960, Brazil’s capital was moved from Rio de Janeiro to Brasília, a city that was one hundred percent built from scratch and was supposed to be a model of socially just urban planning. When I visited my Spanish friend Raquel, whose apartment was located in the originally planned city layout, the so-called plano piloto, I noticed nothing of the once touted social diversity. In fact, millions of poor people now live in the satellite towns originally intended for construction workers. All street vendors and other informal sector workers consequently have to travel into the city every day to hard-earn a living for their families. This man siting on the roadside selling possibly lottery tickets seemed to reveal the cracks in the idealistic goals of this urban experiment, reflecting the contrast between the classes within Brasilia.

Brasília (Brazil), March 2009