Would you move from São Paulo if you could? – 01/23/2024 – Jorge Abrahão

Circus, bread, parks, shows, jobs, hospitals and universities. On the other hand, traffic, pollution, travel time, violence.

These are the sides of the coin for decision making. However, and there is always a however, it is not a game but about desires and needs. If, by magic, you could choose: would you change or not?

Year in and year out, six out of ten residents of São Paulo say that, if they could, they would change city.

Like this?

Would they leave the richest city in Latin America, which offers opportunities for work, study, knowledge and culture?

Everything suggests that, for the majority of the population, the city charges a disproportionate cost for what it offers. The average time spent in traffic, for example, is two and a half hours every day. The concentrated offer of services, employment, culture and leisure in the expanded center districts forces people to travel extensively to access them, generating enormous waste of time that could be dedicated to relationships of affection, education, knowledge or care. As a result, we lose quality of life. The city’s decentralization path, which would solve this problem, is not progressing in proportion to its importance.

The year comes and goes and the great distance that separates the population from politics remains: almost seven in ten people do not remember who they voted for as councilor in the last municipal election, 2020. There is very little time for so much forgetfulness. What does that mean? Do disinterest or disengagement explain collective amnesia?

A clue comes from other data from the Quality of Life survey, carried out by IPEC for Rede Nossa São Paulo and the Instituto Cidades Sustentáveis, launched on the occasion of the city’s anniversary. The City Council’s assessment is bad and terrible for half the population. Only 9%, approximately one in ten residents of the city, rate its performance as excellent and good. Why is the action of population representatives so poorly evaluated?

The mayor’s assessment showed an improvement: in 2023, 9% thought the management was excellent or good and now there are 17% — in other words, it has almost doubled. However, 38% still rate the city’s administration as bad or terrible.

The direct consequence of this negative assessment of politics is that almost seven out of ten residents have no desire to participate in the city’s political life. They prefer distance.

The policy’s difficulty in implementing the priorities highlighted by the population in the survey, such as job creation and reducing inequalities, has to do with the fact that the policy has long been appropriated by private interests. We are experiencing a kidnapping of democracy, which pays as a ransom the defense of private interests and certain groups, to the detriment of the public and common interest. How to get politicians to defend the public interest of the majority again is the challenge we face.

One piece of research data that could point to a structural change in this sense is what says that 8% of the population are very willing to participate in political decision-making spaces. This contingent represents approximately one million people in the city. What can the Chamber and the mayor do with this information? How can we harness the power contained in this desire for participation? This involves detachment, openness to dialogue and listening, and a willingness to share power. Society’s participation is key to creating the necessary changes. In 2024, we will have municipal elections — it will be a great opportunity to present proposals that address topics like this. What do candidates think about social participation? What are your proposals?

Elections come and go and we have not been able to change structurally. The necessary change goes far beyond seeking to activate voters’ memory and is closely related to the creation of mechanisms that bring the population’s perspective into politics.

The alternative to this is to continue in and out, out and in or in and out, in and out of years. Repeating what has been repeated.

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