Escarpments of death – 03/03/2023 – Demétrio Magnoli

Vila Sahy died of politics, not rain. It’s just that she shouldn’t be there in the first place.

São Sebastião is a polynuclear city. There is the center, spread out in front of the narrow part of the maritime channel, and the countless urban centers implanted in a coastal strip of about 60 kilometers.

The backdrop is the forested slopes of Serra do Mar, which sometimes reach the coastline and form dividers of river plains drained by rivers with their sources on the plateau. Caiçara villages were born in the narrow or wide sea plains, which were later absorbed by the current neighborhoods structured around tourism. Some of them, like Sahy and Juquehy, cover mangrove areas.

The original settlements, identifiable by the chapels erected between 1920 and 1960, were established at the mouth of the main or secondary rivers that named them. The wave of mass tourism began a decade behind the region of Caraguatatuba/Ubatuba, farther from the metropolis of São Paulo, due to the paving of the BR-101 between Bertioga and Toque-Toque, completed in 1985. Zero learning : in the new paradise open to business, the urban and environmental mistakes made before were reproduced on a larger scale.

Brazil, brazilwood: predatory colonization. The tourist urban centers spread out in lawless lands. Under lax rules, successive amnesties and regularizations ex post fact that, it was built extensively, including on the slopes and tops of hills, slopes of escarpments and river floodplains (such as the Estrada do Cascalho, in Boiçucanga). The highway marked a social frontier between beach condominiums, on the one hand, and popular centers, on the other. Democracy in illegality: mansions, inns, precarious houses and small businesses dot hills and slopes separated by the road.

Public Power? The rich City Hall of São Sebastião, fueled by oil royalties and rents from the port, allied itself with real estate speculation, authorizing or regulating illegal extensions of urbanized areas. In the fever of looting, public infrastructure and basic services were forgotten. There are no police stations or health centers in most neighborhoods/beaches. Sewage collection networks are limited to minimal areas: famous beaches such as Una, Sahy, Juquehy, Boiçucanga and Toque-Toque Grande are classified as unsuitable for swimming in 25% of the weeks.

In political circles in São Sebastião, the double project of verticalization of the neighborhoods/beaches and duplication of the highway is cherished. Speculation 2.0 would produce concrete walls facing the sea, extend the waterproofing of the soil and expel the local residents who still remain on the “noble” side of the road. The grotesque project ran into resistance from environmentalists – who, however, also refuse to evaluate the hypothesis of specific verticalizations intended for social housing, in low-rise buildings, outside the maritime esplanade.

The tragedy at Vila Sahy needs to mark a new beginning – or it will happen again. The federal and state governments joined in the rescue operation. Now, it’s up to them to create a regional reurbanization task force, with the help of geomorphologists, environmentalists, urban planners and engineers. Starting point: to establish in law a mosaic of conservation areas. In risk areas, nothing else should be built.

The past weighs on the present. The transfer of inhabitants from dangerous zones must respect the criterion of proximity to their communities. There is no single solution for the polynuclear city. Reurbanization calls for detailed zoning, with rules adapted to each location. One thing is certain: subordinating the region’s future to the interests of the municipal political elite is tantamount to contracting death and destruction.

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