The French poet Charles Baudelaire develops the concept of modernity from the Parisian streets of the 19th century. He considered it a fusion between the eternal and the transitory, between the classic and the ephemeral. The speed of the railways, the perception of proximity between European capitals and the boulevards dug by Baron Haussmann, all this defines the Paris of modernity. It is then that the flâneur appears, the one who wanders through urban things with a wandering and curious gaze.
In contemporary times, this character is dead. In 21st-century São Paulo, anyone trying to get around must hide their cell phone from people in trouble, avoid potholes on the sidewalk, and escape sidewalk-swarming cyclists. It is not possible to wander, only to look carefully.
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And it’s not just the look that’s alert. It’s all senses. The people of São Paulo need daily resistance. The incessant noise, the crazy traffic, the crumbling sidewalks – none of it is natural or inevitable.
Why has this incredible metropolis of 22 million inhabitants collapsed into neglect? Is it because of the number of inhabitants? Tokyo, with almost 60% more inhabitants, is known for the silence of its long avenues. In the land of Honda and Suzuki, motorcycles don’t pass between cars – and everything works.
Misfortunes come from men, and reactions also come from us. I give examples:
1) The Brazilian Highway Code did not allow motorcycles to travel between cars. But FH lifted this ban, establishing sound hell. In addition to causing a sudden increase in accidents and motorcyclists with amputated limbs.
2) In New York, for many years, on every street corner there was a sign: “Horning is prohibited”. Mayor Michael Bloomberg civilized noise pollution — until a new representative abolished the rule and the city was thrown back into chaos.
3) Enrique Peñalosa, mayor of Bogotá for two terms, reduced the number of parking spaces on public roads, built hundreds of kilometers of bicycle paths and widened sidewalks. She implemented the BRT, today a global benchmark.
4) And the admirable Anne Hidalgo? The mayor of Paris is promoting an urban revolution in the metropolis which has one of the highest housing densities in Europe. Out of 80,000 outdoor parking spaces, 60,000 have been removed. He created hundreds of kilometers of cycle paths and adopted the concept of the quarter-hour city, where citizens can access any essential service within 15 minutes on foot or by bike. In addition to creating urban forests, by 2026, 170,000 trees will have been planted. In its policy, Hidalgo gives priority to pedestrians and not cars. The number of Parisians owning a car fell from 44% to 35%. The Seine is now safe for swimming.
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It is not size that defines the destiny of a city. These are the political choices of their leaders. Peñalosa and Hidalgo did not carry out their consistent urban improvements without facing protests and lobbies. The main reactions came from the upper classes. Despite this, they were elected twice. The conflict is not technical, it is social. It is then that the question arises: who is the city made for?
New York elected Zohran Mamdani, a 37-year-old politician, on a progressive platform considered radical in November. At rallies, he spoke about housing, daycare, public transportation. As in any contemporary campaign, he exaggerated his proposals. But it touched the raw nerves of New Yorkers: the quality of urban services, the number of homeless people on the streets and the amount of dirt on the corners.
Until recently, cities had never concentrated so many inhabitants simultaneously. Increasingly, metropolises are becoming huge – megacities. If urbanity has kept its promises of being a scene of education, health and sociability, it is today faced with problems aggravated by the lack of preparation of its politicians.
They are not the only ones responsible. It is the popular vote that chooses incompetent councilors and corrupt mayors – but this vote is shaped by a distorted electoral system. When people vote poorly, indifference to politics results in our urban ordeal, the implementation of measures that serve only a few interests – and neglect the majority of the population.
The search for solutions transforming urban areas into spaces of civility imagined by Baudelaire, then by Walter Benjamin, can be observed in several places. Urban degradation is not inevitable, it is a choice. The city is still a great idea of man, but, being a human invention, it is imbued with his genius and his demons.
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