Tuesday 15 January 2013

Out of the frying pan, into the fire...

Emailed in by SG. From the BBC:

Armed drug lords were seen as one of the worst threats to residents of Rio de Janeiro's shanty-towns or favelas.

However, Rio's recent security policy, aimed at establishing permanent police bases in favelas, has succeeded in expelling drug groups from the area. As violence has decreased, property prices have soared...


I saw a lovely documentary recently about town planning, they said that because these slums had no proper layout and no proper roads, the only viable form of public transport was cable cars from hilltop to hilltop. Those plots in the vicinity of the stops had gone up in value by 200% or £20,000 or whatever the figure was. Lucky for some.

3 comments:

Pablo said...

That was the 1st in the "Supersized Earth" trilogy from the Beeb. I remeber having exactly the same thoughts and intended to contact Dallas Campbell - the presenter, but never got round to it.

Mark Wadsworth said...

P, thanks, yes, that was the one. I tried to Tivo the series but it went wrong.

Old BE said...

As soon as I saw your mention of Rio I thought "I bet MW would have loved that programme about Rio's cable cars!".

Policing and transport infrastructure improves desirability and land values? Who have guessed??

BE