The housing crisis in newspaper news: the demolitions during the Prestes Maias government in São Paulo City and the critical reception at Correio Paulistano of an urban problem

• Grant number: 20/09561-9
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): December 01, 2020
• Effective date (End): July 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning - Fundamentals of Architecture and Urbanism
• Principal researcher: Fernando Atique
• Grantee: Georgia de Proença dos Santos
• Home Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This proposal is part of a project under development at UNIFESP, EFLCH, fomented by FAPESP (Process 2018/15939-4) which investigates the impacts of the demolition and transformation process of urban spaces in the central area of São Paulo, according to the Avenues Plan, written by Prestes Maia and Ulhôa Cintra. The goal is to identify, by an early survey in the editions of the newspaper Correio Paulistano, how the press covered the mass demolitions carried by the Municipality, which contributed to intensifying a crisis caused by the lack of affordable housing and the enacted of the Tenant´s Law (1942). The constant demolitions carried out to enable the execution of several public works for the remodeling of the city, intensified a crisis, worsened by the increase of the value of rental and the forced moving of people to peripheral areas. The news raised to show us that the press was not only extolling the improvements commanded by Prestes Maia and his allies but was also exhibited the dynamism of the transformations, claiming the contradictions and complaints about the city's excessive and quickly changes. The time frame dates to 1937, as it is the year Mayor Fabio Prado determined the elaboration of an Improvement Plan for the capital. We end the investigation during the 1940s because we have to examine the publication, in 1945, report book "Melhoramentos de São Paulo", written by Prestes Maia as a potential trigger for memories or manifestations by recent demolitions in the area. We end the timeframe on 1949, considering the São Paulo press criticism as well concerning the crisis in São Paulo's urban housing, the date in which the denounce of the housing deficit abounded. (AU)