MIND THE STEP - TRANSFORMING STAIRCASES IN SÃO PAULO (BRAZIL) Gabriela Callejas, Ramiro Levy, Nathalie Prado, Mariana Wandarti, Rafaella Basile
ABSTRACT ‘Mind the Step’ is an award-winning initiative that raises awareness about the role of public staircases in São Paulo (Brazil) and challenges its uses through physical interventions codeveloped with local communities. Usually abandoned and degraded, stairways are key common spaces, but often unsafe and underused places in Brazilian cities. At the same time, the transformation of staircases and their reintegration into the pedestrian mobility and public spaces network can unlock multiple opportunities for people to meet, relax, play and exercise. The initiative sets a tactical urbanism framework to be used as a tool for change. It is based on methods developed and refined by Cidade Ativa during six actions that took place between 2014 and 2019. The framework proposes four steps to deliver a meaningful transformation of urban public spaces, grounded in a solid engagement and participatory process: (1) OVERVIEW, (2) CO-CREATE, (3) CO-PRODUCE and (4) EVALUATE. The text will expand on why this initiative is relevant, present the history and some specificities of these interventions, explore how this framework can be applied, present an overall impact assessment of the initiative along these years and finalise with lessons learned, the next steps for replicating this work and a briefly comment on the recent role that COVID-19 responses can play in common places like the staircases. KEYWORDS: public spaces, staircases, engagement, participatory, tactical urbanism
INTRODUCTION São Paulo has over 12 million inhabitants and it is the centre of a metropolitan region of over 22 million inhabitants, in southeast of Brazil. Despite being the great economic force of the country, the city has a huge socio spatial inequality, with at least 12% of the population living in subnormal conditions (IBGE, 2020), with poor access to public services, sanitation and mobility infrastructure. In some peripheral and lower income districts, daily trips made on foot represent over 50% of daily trips, whilst in more central neighborhoods this number can be below 10% of daily trips (Malatesta, 2008). In these areas, the average of people walking is much higher than in other parts of the city, largely due to lack of opportunities for other modes of transport, not because of the quality of its streets and staircases, but by the absence of alternatives. São Paulo’s urban structure was guided by a car-centric planning that undermined much of its environmental quality: a plan of avenue expansion placed highways over water bodies (Gouveia, 2016). This model brought in the need of connecting different city levels, which is usually done by stairways on the steepest places. Unfortunately, these spaces are mostly abandoned and degraded, and are known for being unsafe places. Women are disproportionately affected by fear of violence and harassment in these particular public spaces (Tandogan and Ilhan, 2016). The list of challenges found in staircases also include the unclear ownership and therefore responsibility for its maintenance, and often poor or nonexistent lighting or drainage infrastructures.