Project wants to show the center of SP beyond Cracolândia – 04/14/2024 – Daily Life

Walking in the center of the capital of São Paulo is safer and more pleasant than the news about Cracolândia, the crisis of the homeless population and robberies and cell phone thefts make it seem, sometimes repeated businesspeople and public managers who spoke with the Sheet last Wednesday (10) during a meeting in a reserved area of ​​the São Paulo Municipal Market.

Representing projects installed in 16 historic buildings in the central region and surrounding areas, the group responded to the call of Market SP, the concessionaire managing Mercadão, to launch an initiative with the intention of using urban heritage as an attraction for tourists.

Part of the proposal for the Catedral da Sé circuit, Pateo do Collegio, Martinelli building, the Catavento, Portuguese Language, Sacred Art, Bolsa do Brasil, Football and Immigration museums. Added to these are the Caixa and Banco do Brasil cultural centers, Theatro Municipal, Light shopping mall, Café Girondino, Council of Architecture and Urbanism, in addition to Mercadão.

The celebratory presentation for around 30 people proposed the creation of a type of tourist itinerary in which each member will promote the other participants, in addition to exchanging experiences in managing businesses in historic properties.

Around the table where coffee and rolls with slices of mortadella were served, however, participants expressed concern about the emptying of the center after the pandemic. The charge was for initiatives to improve the region’s image among the public, in comments interspersed with criticism of press coverage of crime.

“People from other cities and states are surprised when they arrive at the center and realize that it is different from what they see in the media”, commented Claudio Mattos, manager of the Banco do Brasil Cultural Center in São Paulo.

Data released in February by the Public Security Secretariat of the State of São Paulo show that the incidence of robberies and thefts can vary significantly between the central districts of the capital of São Paulo.

Among the police stations that serve the center, Sé and Campos Elíseos showed a drop in incidents. In Bom Retiro, however, there was a 42% increase in the monthly number of robberies, with 112 cases, and a 39% increase in thefts, with 390 records, in the comparison between January this year and the same month last year.

Difficulties in relation to costs and bureaucracy for approving projects involving restoration and activities in listed buildings were also on the meeting’s agenda. Present, representatives of municipal (Conpresp) and state (Condephaat) heritage protection bodies promised dialogue.

The Mercadão manager is one of the institutions most interested in the recovery of the center to obtain a return on the million-dollar investment in the 91-year-old building, the deadline for completing the restoration, defined in the concession contract, ends in November.

The estimated expenditure is R$210 million, of which R$112 million will go towards obtaining a license to explore the site for 30 years and R$90 million will go towards works. “The operation is a surplus, without considering the investment in infrastructure”, says Aldo Bonametti, president of Market SP.

To deliver the expected return, however, it is in the company’s business plan to also welcome visitors and events at night.

In around two months, Bonametti wants to complete the project of opening Mercadão’s doors to tourists and consumers 24 hours a day. Currently the establishment only operates at night to serve wholesalers.

It is precisely the nighttime activity for the wholesale sale of fruits and vegetables that is an obstacle to Mercadão 24 Horas’ plans. The informal street market that surrounds the building during the early hours of the morning for around three decades makes access to parking difficult, in addition to producing a large volume of rubbish daily, says Bonametti.

The regularization and transfer of the fair, initially scheduled for February, was postponed again last Thursday (11).

In a statement, the Ricardo Nunes administration informed that it seeks to “establish a dialogue to find the best way to transfer traders to the existing and functioning structure of the Pátio do Pari Supply Center”, stated the joint statement from the Executive Secretariat for Food Security and Nutritional and Supply and the Sé Subprefecture.

The change, according to the city hall, will allow for the regularization of stallholders and truck drivers and the transfer of the activity to a location with infrastructure, such as parking, lighting, bathrooms and security.

The big change expected for the surrounding area, however, is the implementation of the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) that will allow the commercial exploitation of the Dom Pedro 2º park for 30 years, at a contract cost estimated at more than R$2 billion, in addition to investments of approximately R$700 million, according to information on the page of the city hall’s Executive Secretariat for Privatization and Partnerships.

Project superintendent of the Museu Catavento, urban planner Ricardo Pisanelli points out that the requalification of the region is essential so that the thousands of monthly visitors to the museum are encouraged to take the ten-minute walk along Avenida Mercúrio to Mercadão.

The next meeting of the group of managers is scheduled for April 29, at Palácio das Indústrias, the centenary date of the building that houses Catavento.

Successive revitalization plans for the central region have been put on the table by the public sector for at least three decades. Currently, the Nunes and Tarcísio administrations have initiatives underway that range from incentives for the recovery of old buildings to the transfer of the government headquarters from São Paulo do Morumbi (west zone) to Campos Elíseos.