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Laura Belik | Parsons – The New School

Cities: to whom, by whom? The Minhocão elevated case study in São Paulo/ Brazil

São Paulo in the 20th century was a city built for cars. The Plan ruled how the city would grow, and consequently, how its population would live. Amongst other consequences, the city slowly lost access to public spaces and to a more humanised scale. Nowadays this situation has been facing some changes: people started to clamour for new uses of the built environment engaging with concepts of spatial democracy. This paper will explore one case study within São Paulo (Brazil): The Minhocão, a soon-to-be deactivated elevated highway, and the debates involving a range of actors over the future of the structure.

When taking into consideration urban land as a commodity, especially when it comes to its system, it is difficult to separate the uses of any space without understanding them as a repercussion of the power of capital or governing influences. The main challenge is to understand how to make public spaces and cities more democratic, and, in this sense, how to recognise the potential city spaces can have. A city that was once ruled by automotive planning is repurposing itself today through popular demands. But the palimpsest of an era will prevail in its landscape.

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Laura Belik Cities: to whom, by whom? The Minhocão elevated highway case study in São Paulo/ Brazil

Figure 1. Minhocão from the top during the weekend. Photo by Laura Belik

Introduction: Overview The São Paulo of the 20th century was a city built for cars. Its urban landscape was a repercussion of the power of capital and governing influences, mostly pushed by the auto- industry. The Avenue Plan ruled how the city would grow, and consequently, how its population would live. By the turn of the century, this reality started to change: the palimpsest of an era prevails, but its uses have shifted. Today, cities and urban spaces come to life through their use and every-day practices. The population that was once limited by the forms imposed on them has started dictating their needs over the land. Further, people who once focused on claiming their spaces are, consequently, fighting for Urban Democracy.

To illustrate my point of view, I will give an overview of Sao Paulo’s Urban History and road formations, and more specifically, I will examine one case-study of the Minhocão Elevated Highway and the discussions this piece of infrastructure brings regarding its uses as a road as well as a public space for leisure.

The Minhocao is targeted as a site around which debates over democracy, rights and the urban public space are ongoing. Built in the 1970’s in São Paulo’s city center, this

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Laura Belik Cities: to whom, by whom? The Minhocão elevated highway case study in São Paulo/ Brazil

expressway cuts through the city’s dense landscape, producing an incarnation of the modernist view of progress: individual auto mobility offered through ground infrastructure. While still used by about eighty-nine thousand commuters daily (in private vehicles or public transportation) during rush hour1, the Minhocão is unpopular among neighbors who suffer from its noise, pollution and lack of privacy. The structure is also seen as the main catalyst for the degradation of the area that it traverses and for the drastic drop in the real estate value of surrounding properties. It is relevant to return to this now because of the recent announcement of the permanent deactivation of the Minhocão over the course of the next fifteen years, as part of São Paulo’s new Strategic Plan2.

The announcement regarding the Minhocão’s future was a direct result of growing popular demands for alternative uses of the highway space. Regardless of the outcomes expected for the structure and the current debate over whether it should be demolished or transformed into a linear park, the victory of popular demand and the initiative of a deliberative approach to a public matter in order to start this conversation are the focal points to be highlighted in this research. Civic participation and demands towards public decisions are growing in Brazil, as we can see with nation-wide protests in the past few years3.

This research uses the Minhocão Elevated Highway case study to investigate the claims on the use of infrastructure as public space, and whether such claims can be a possible mechanism towards urban democracy. Another important aspect I will analyse is the shift in people’s opinions, and the consideration of the multiple voices and viewpoints about the highway: An element of infrastructure that now is also seen as a common, thus, with attendant claims of use- rights4.

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW SÃO PAULO’S SPRAWLING São Paulo’s growth is directly connected to its industrial history. The first significant and successful industrialisation period happened in the early 1900’s, attracting waves of (mostly) European immigrants. The initial great investment in the industrial sector came from an Italian immigrant in the beginning of the 20th century: Francisco Matarazzo started with a mill in São Paulo to produce wheat flour, and in just a few years managed to raise the largest industrial complex in Latin America5.

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Laura Belik Cities: to whom, by whom? The Minhocão elevated highway case study in São Paulo/ Brazil

From there, the city started to grow at a fast pace. Brazil’s massive industrial investment from the 1950’s onwards specifically affected the Paulista capital as the main location of the automobile industry, which constituted the core economic activity for the city during that period. This industry also guided the way the city would be planned, according to the logic of the vehicles that would cross it.

With its strong industrial base, São Paulo attracted the attention of investors from the U.S. In the 1950’s for example, the municipal Program of Public Improvements was coordinated by City planner , whose contract was negotiated by Nelson Rockefeller6. During that time, Moses’ team reviewed former road plans for São Paulo as defined in the Prestes Maia’s Plan (1930’s)7 and proposed an updated system of infrastructure, introducing the “urban Highways” along Pinheiros and Tiete rivers. His idea was to accommodate the pressure of the growing volume in the existing avenues, creating expressways that would be independent from the urban fabric.

Even though the Prestes Maia Plan already incorporated the ideas of creating a network of avenues, serving as a traffic solution as well as an aesthetic intervention to São Paulo which collected the flux of vehicles before they reached the city centre, its plan still allowed local traffic of cars within the large avenues, which, for Moses, meant inefficiency. The expressways were an answer to this “problem”, maintaining a high-speed status of the . With that, it also created a less penetrable city for the pedestrians.

São Paulo’s automobile industrial complex was the main pole of attraction for workers from other states, and this flow of people represented Brazil’s major internal migratory wave in the 1950’s. The subsequent decades represented the fastest the city ever grew. In the 1960’s and 1970’s the city experienced an increase of 55% in its population.8 “As expected, industrial growth was associated with intense urbanisation”.9 With this rapid population growth came the need for new spatial models and organisation methods of urban space. The São Paulo government continued to privatise transportation and with that, roads contributed to an uncontrolled urban sprawl reflecting extensively on land speculation, causing a drastic expansion of the urbanised area.10 These interventions in the city influenced a series of other road works implemented between 1960 and 1970, among them the Minhocão elevated expressway.11

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Laura Belik Cities: to whom, by whom? The Minhocão elevated highway case study in São Paulo/ Brazil

The physical expansion of the city was unfolded through a fragmented process that would emphasise private interests in land speculation. Land and resources were not just commons shared by the community, but resources for developing businesses.12 As Maria Ruth Amaral de Sampaio argues, São Paulo’s uneven growth is a result of the public bus-line routes formation and their relationship to land speculation.13 As the population grew, (especially the ratio of blue- collar workers) so did the city in order to support this new housing demand. But the newcomers would only live where there was easy access to the city’s facilities and their work place. The demand for land was attached to the demand of accessibility. Since the same people who owned the bus lines were the ones who established the bus routes, they would buy the land according to the new routes they were establishing, therefore making their land as well as the demand for their own transportation system more valuable. Similar situations would also happen in other global cases.

This ultimately led to an uneven territorial expansion and sectorisation of the city, as well as, of course, uneven wealth distribution. According to Sampaio, the spatial distribution of the population within the city space reinforced the inequality that resulted from the industrialisation process.14 Not only the land and the roads would be commodified, having their access and use restricted to certain industrial plants, for example, but access to water and energy was rapidly incorporated to industrial areas as well. Certain industries would soon control those resources, creating a private monopoly.

After the 1970’s the industrial sector started to slowly move out of São Paulo city, replacing their plants in the city to other areas in Greater São Paulo (see table below). São Paulo city then became a city of services, an informational complex, as is indicated:

Area 1970 1975 1980 1987

City of São Paulo 48.2% 44.0% 34.8% 31.1% Other Municipalities 26.5% 25.4% 28.1% 28.9% Rest of state 25.3% 30.6% 37.1% 40.0% Table1. Distribution of manufacturing industry in State of São Paulo, 1970-1987 Source: Industrial censuses for 1970, 1975 and 1980; Fundação SEADE/ Estado de São Paulo, 1992, vol. 3: 190

This shift of industry to other cities not only represented new poles of attraction for workers, and new economical strategies within the capital, but also, physically, left traces of its past behind; it

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Laura Belik Cities: to whom, by whom? The Minhocão elevated highway case study in São Paulo/ Brazil

created an urban palimpsest around which the population had to adapt their lives. Industrial plants, access roads, highways, , and most importantly, a city scaled and designed for its cars would forever be the reality of the space that does not necessarily function this way anymore. In this sense, the discussions around the future and current uses of those spaces are of great importance.

SÃO PAULO’S PUBLIC SPACES Through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, São Paulo grew along its transportation routes. This fragmented process was directly connected to private interests in land speculation. This growth pattern not only changed its residential and commercial landscapes, but also affected the creation of open public spaces for the population. Sao Paulo’s city centre was conceptualised at first with a colonial mentality, and was highly influenced by the power of the church and the state. As in many other Portuguese colonies, São Paulo’s radial converged in largos (enlargements) or plazas, which housed the church and administrative buildings.15Despite this colonial formation, as the city expanded it lost the characteristics of its original design. Especially after the 1940’s with the implementation of Prestes Maia’s Avenue Plan and the emphasis on individual transportation, it ended up developing into a spread out city. The city centre slowly became more commercial, but still maintained its character as an attractive leisure space. It housed public libraries, gardens, shopping streets and restaurants. In the 1960’s this started to change. New poles of attraction, especially related to commercial activities, were formed outside the city center.

With the city’s fast paced sprawl following the real estate trends, investments in parks or open free areas were not as common. As mentioned before, although the city centre was built according to a colonial plan, the extended city had not followed the same (or any) ordering logic. São Paulo’s most famous and popular park, the Parque Ibirapuera was only built in 1954 on top of a former slum.16 Although located in a relatively central area, the park can only be accessed by car or bus. In order to reach the park’s entrances, the user has to cross large-scale avenues and viaducts of the city. Similar situations occur in other major parks throughout the city, often isolated from public transportation, or located on the city’s outskirts.

This difficulty of access to parks and open recreational areas lead to the formation and emphasis on other kinds of public spaces through the city. Some of them are private public spaces like sports clubs, shopping malls and private condominiums. But there are also

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Laura Belik Cities: to whom, by whom? The Minhocão elevated highway case study in São Paulo/ Brazil

commercial areas and public transportation nodes, where there is a constant high influx of people, which started to be re-interpreted, and re-designed accordingly, envisioned as public spaces as well. These open areas gained enlargements of their and pedestrian areas, being used no longer exclusively as a passageway, but also an area of leisure. This represented an interesting combination between transitional spaces and spaces of permanence.17

One iconic example of this mixture and new concept of public space is the “Praça Roosevelt”, located between the historical city center and the “new city center”. Inaugurated in 1971, this plaza was built on top of a big road axis “representing that periods vision on the functional use of public spaces”.18 The streets, thus, have been re-interpreted within their possible multiplicity of uses. Regular farmers’ markets and commercial activities would take place in the streets all over the city, as well as social gatherings and informal block parties. The nonexistence of a sufficient number of neighborhood plazas has organically been overcome by the use of the streets. 19 Those spaces, although used for public purposes by supplying a growing demand for this kind of activity, will always represent the tension between public and private interests. This becomes even clearer when it comes to commercial areas.

Nevertheless, we can see a growing organisation of people demanding more public spaces of usage focusing their demands exactly on this particular object: the high-speed, large-scale avenues and streets. In a city like São Paulo, the claim for public space is the claim for the uses of the streets. And due to its scale, this action demands a broader popular organisation. With this overview, we can better comprehend and place the Minhocão as a case study within its city’s context. It is important also to understand that popularly driven initiatives towards rethinking public spaces and the uses of São Paulo city are not a particularity of this structure per se, but are a growing demand within many other spaces though the city.

The Minhocão The Minhocão was a controversial structure even before its idealization. Conceptualised and commissioned in the 1960’s, during the Brazilian military dictatorship period (1964-1985), the road opened in January 24th, 1970 by the former mayor Paulo Maluf (1969-1971). The Minhocão stretches for 3.4 km (2.2 miles) with extension roads connecting the city centre to the western part of the town,20 from Praça Roosevelt (city center) to the Largo Padre Péricles, in the Perdizes neighborhood. The road sits 5 metres (16 feet) above ground, and its distance from

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Laura Belik Cities: to whom, by whom? The Minhocão elevated highway case study in São Paulo/ Brazil

the surrounding buildings varies between 0.5 metres to 4.6 metres (1.6 to 15 feet). The Minhocão was the “largest structure of reinforced concrete of Latin America”21 by the time it was built. It used 300,000 bags of cement, 60,000 cubic meters (15850323 US Liquid gallon) of concrete and 2000 tons of steel cables.22

Although originally located in a middle-class neighbourhood, the Minhocão’s arrival negatively changed its population’s social status drastically. Nevertheless, the neighbourhoods around the structure were still wealthy or commercially important. Even though the Minhocão area was an “unwanted” space, it continued to be used as it was an unavoidable passageway. The potential of the region around the highway maintained a certain interest of the real estate market in the area:

Because of its strategic location near the city centre and the Paulista Avenue area, as well as other important – but saturated – neighborhoods, this region [around the Minhocão] has the potential of becoming very attractive to private investors again, even having the Minhocão in the middle of the way. 23

The negative reaction to the structure started before the Minhocão was even implemented. From the beginning, the media constantly criticised Maluf’s engineering attempts. The Minhocão’s role as an expressway was threatened and ridiculed after having a massive traffic jam on the day of its inauguration. Another major issue was related to the massive investment in the elevated highway, taking the focus away from the (then) growing subway system. Maluf would then refute those criticisms, arguing that the subway could not change the growing volume of automobile use and their impact on the city center. As for the Minhocão’s repercussion on its surrounding area, in less than a year almost all the apartments and commercial venues on the first floor of the buildings right near the structure were emptied out, as O Estado de São Paulo newspaper described:

“Selling this property: The selling signage does not make any sense anymore. Almost all the buildings are empty, abandoned. Who would like to live here?”24

The remaining inhabitants would represent the resistance. Suffering from noise, pollution and safety issues on a daily basis, they were the first ones who clamoured for improvements in the

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Laura Belik Cities: to whom, by whom? The Minhocão elevated highway case study in São Paulo/ Brazil

area, and who received, as a result from their demands, the hours of closure during the nighttime and the entire day on Sundays, which later expanded to Saturdays as well.

Gradually, the Minhocão gained adherents who started to use the space in a variety of ways. First, the neighbours themselves began to use the structure for sport activities and recreation, and eventually other people started to pay more attention to the potential the area had. A notable increase of users since the 2000’s was the starting point for some neighborhood associations and activist groups to be more organised and get involved with the Minhocão space, introducing social and artistic interventions, and demanding the structure be used more actively by the general public.

These interventions represented a great development towards a new perspective on the uses that the Minhocão structure could have - not only as a highway and infrastructural piece, but, ultimately as an urban common,25 a space for public access and a more diverse usage by the population. But a closer look at these interventions and the actions on the Minhocão space since the 2000’s reveals that those active participants claiming the space today are a different group of actors from the ones who initially organised and intervened to protest about the structure.

Present situation Amongst other actors, there are two major groups that are actively discussing the Minhocão’s future today:26 the ones claiming to transform the structure into a linear park, called “Associação Amigos do Parque Minhocão” (Friends of the Minhocão Park Association)27 and the ones that want the elevated highway to be demolished, called “Movimento Desmonte Minhocão” (Dissemble the Minhocão Movement).28 The ones advocating for a Park are more media savvy and politically influential. They are also constantly promoting events, press releases and activities related to the structure. They affirm that the “Park already exists when it comes to its uses”,29 and they count on the support of many leading actors that work or live in the Minhocão’s surroundings and/or correlate with the cause. The ones fighting for the structure to be taken down are a loose coalition, not as large or active, but are constantly present raising their voice in opposition to the linear park. They are mainly composed of residents who live directly by the structure.

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Laura Belik Cities: to whom, by whom? The Minhocão elevated highway case study in São Paulo/ Brazil

Because of the high cost of the structure’s demolition, estimated in R$ 80 million (around US$30 million), different mayors throughout the years leaned towards different ideas and outcomes for the structure’s future, but none were actually implemented: “In the past three decades different proposals were done [to the Minhocão]. In 1986, the architect Pitanga do Amparo proposed a park that would substitute the expressway, which, by that time had caught the attention of the then Mayor Janio Quadros (1986- 1989). Other former mayors such as Luiza Erundina (1989-1993) brought the very first proposal to demolish the structure, an initiative that was also defended later on by Marta Suplicy (2001-2005). In 2006 Jose Serra opened a contest of ideas for the space30, and his successor, Gilberto Kassab (2006-2013) later promised to, again, tear the structure down”.31

Today this discussion is still open ended, but with the current mayor’s announcement of the Minhocão’s deactivation, there is a greater expectation of coming to a consensus.

Conclusion The gradual change of people’s mindsets over the use of the Minhocão as a public space instead of a high-speed road is the result of a collective ideal being incarnated and also represents a lively city that is always reinventing itself. But to change the space’s purpose officially reveals an influential shift. In this case, once created in favour of the auto industry and to inspire a certain modern image of São Paulo, today the highway’s use must attend to a new ordering logic: the claims and needs of the citizenry. This shift, from a top-down tabula-rasa approach to the city’s design, to a bottom-up perspective over the usage of the city’s already imposed form, represents a gain towards Urban Democracy, but also presents its own internal challenges and contradictions.

In this sense, while we have the Minhocão as an example of a spatial aperture for these multiple conversations, the greater paradox we face today is that even though we can celebrate urban spaces as an apparatus for democratic action, these public spaces continue to be recognised as a reflection of the power of influence and private interests around them, prioritising certain groups over others. Nevertheless, by considering the plurality of voices and having the space to expose them in the first place, there is already an inclusionary opportunity, admitting new democratic possibilities.

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Laura Belik Cities: to whom, by whom? The Minhocão elevated highway case study in São Paulo/ Brazil

1 Por que o Minhocão pode ser fechado e nao precisa de alternativa rodoviaria, Diario da Mobilidade, last modified December 22, 2015. https://diariodamobilidade.wordpress.com/2015/06/03/por-que-o-minhocao- pode-ser-fechado-e-nao-precisa-de-alternativa-rodoviaria/ 2 Plano Diretor Estratégico da Cidade de São Paulo, Prefeitura de São Paulo, last modified December 22, 2015. http://www.prefeitura.sp.gov.br/cidade/secretarias/desenvolvimento_urbano/legislacao/plano_diretor/inde x.php 3 Some other important civic engagement activities that happened in Brazil include the series of protests of 2014 in São Paulo regarding public transportation, followed by the nation-wide protests against national investment in the World Cup as well as generalized political dissatisfaction. 4 This in itself is already a very contradictory attitude. If we consider an Urban Common something that is neither public nor private (Blackmar, 2006), the idea of claiming it adds value to it, therefore, is a “service for privatization” (Federici, 2011), and not anymore a “common”. 5 Abrindo os trilhos para a locomotiva, Prefeitura de São Paulo, last modified December 22, 2015. http://www.prefeitura.sp.gov.br/portal/a_cidade/historia/index.php?p=4827 6 Siwi, Marcio. Urban Renewal North and South: . PhD Candidate. New York University- Research report for the Rockefeller Archive Center. Last modified Dec 22, 2015. http://www.rockarch.org/publications/resrep/rronlinesub.php 7 For more information on the prestes Maia Avenue Plan, see the Enciclopedia Itau Cultural, (Prestes Maia, Enciclopedia Itau Cultural, last modified December 22, 2015. http://enciclopedia.itaucultural.org.br/en/pessoa4511/prestes-maia 8 Population growth in major capitals (per decade). Skyscraper city. last modified December 22, 2015. http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=638799 9 Caldeira, Teresa Pires do Rio. City of Walls: crime, segregation and citizenship (São Paulo: University of California Press, 2001) P. 41 10Barbosa, Eliana Rosa de Queiroz. Minhocão Multiples Interpretations. Last modified Dec 22, 2015. http://www.vitruvius.com.br/revistas/read/arquitextos/13.147/4455/en 11 Rolnik, Raquel and Klintowitz ,Danielle. (Im)Mobility in the city of São Paulo. Last modified December 22, 2015. http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0103-40142011000100007&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en 12 Authors translation. P. F. C. Camargo et alli, 975, crescimento e Pobreza (São Paulo Loyola, 1976) P. 25. 13 Sampaio, Maria Ruth Amaral de. O papel da iniciativa privada na formação da periferia paulistana. (Espaço e Debates, nº 37, ano XIV, 1994) P.23 14 Sampaio, Maria Ruth Amaral de; Pereira, Paulo Cesar Xavier. Habitação em São Paulo. Last modified December 22, 2015. http://www.revistas.usp.br/eav/article/viewFile/9929/11501 15 Author’s translation. Caldeira, Junia Marques. A Praca colonial brasileira. Univ. Arquitetura e Comunicacao Social, Brasilia, v.7, n. 1, p.19-39, Jan/Jun. 2010. Last modified December 22, 2015. http://www.publicacoesacademicas.uniceub.br/index.php/arqcom/article/download/1113/959 .

16 History of the Parque Ibirapuera. More information at http://www.parqueibirapuera.org/parque- ibirapuera/historia-mais-completa/ 17 Idem, P. 10. 18 Idem, P. 11.

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Laura Belik Cities: to whom, by whom? The Minhocão elevated highway case study in São Paulo/ Brazil

19 This characteristic situation of ephemeral uses of the city spaces and repurposing of them accordingly to the users needs is recurrent. A detailed description of a similar situation can be seen through William H Whyte work “The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces”. (1980) 20 More information and pictures of the Minhocão implementation: Acervo Estadao. Last Modified December 22, 2015. http://acervo.estadao.com.br/ 21 “[...]Será a maior obra em concreto armado de toda América Latina”, famous phrase by mayor Paulo when announcing the Minhocão’s construction, in 1969. See video of the announcement at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j44cTNnDHps 22 Commolatti, Athos, Poser, Paulo Von and Levy, Wilson. Cidade e democracia : Um estudo de caso da Associação Parque Minhocão. (São Paulo: Minha cidade/ Vitruvius, 2014) last modified December 22, 2015. http://www.vitruvius.com.br/revistas/read/minhacidade/14.163/5051 23 Idem. 24 Author’s translation. Elevado: O triste futuro da Avenida. Acervo Estadão. Last modified December 22, 2015. http://acervo.estadao.com.br/pagina/#!/19701201-29342-nac-23-999-23-not/busca/Minhocãoo 25 Considering Elisabeth Blackmar (2006) explanation of the “commons” as properties that are neither public nor private, that implies open access and shared participation, thus being a space for the community. 26 More about the debate over the two main groups claiming the Minhocão space can be found at: Futuro do Minhocao opoe morador a ativista. Folha de São Paulo. Last modified: December 22, 2015. http://m.folha.uol.com.br/cotidiano/2015/05/1632817-futuro-do-minhocao-opoe-morador-a- ativista.shtml?mobile 27 Minhocão Association. Last modified December 22, 2015. http://minhocao.org 28 Movimento Desmonte Minhocão. Last modified December 22, 2015. http://www.minhocao.net.br/?p=1562 29 Minhocão Association. Last modified December 22, 2015. http://minhocao.org 30 It is important to mention Mayor Jose Serra’s contest of ideas for the Minhocão launched in 2006. The contest “Prestes Maia de Urbanismo” intended to get the attention of architects and engineers to create proposals for the space. The City Hall’s intention from the beginning was not to put the ideas in practice, but just to foment the discussion around the structure. By that time, the mayor was actually in favor of the demolition of the Elevated highway. More information can be found at Prefeitura de SP lanca concurso do Minhocão. Last modified December 22, 2015. http://brasil.estadao.com.br/noticias/geral,prefeitura-de-sp- lanca-concurso-do-minhocao,20060202p24880 31 Veja como o parque no Minhocao ficaria se o projeto saisse do papel. Folha.uol.com.br .Last Modified December 22, 2015. http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/saopaulo/2013/08/1326012-em-ny-viaduto-velho- virou-grande-jardim-suspenso-por-que-nao-no-minhocao.shtml

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