São Paulo City Center Revitalization

With 19 million people living in its metropolitan area, São Paulo is among the largest cities in the world. Beginning in the mid-20th century, the expansion of automobile use, the appeal of spacious and exclusive suburbs, the rise of new business centers in outlying areas, and misguided public policies steadily contributed to disinvestment and decline in São Paulo’s historic center.

Significant drops were witnessed in the area’s population, available jobs, and property values, while homelessness, black market activity, and public space deterioration increased.  The multiplication of cars and the hub-and-spoke design of urban roadways brought terrible congestion to the center.

In the last couple decades, in view of the many success stories of urban revitalization that have sprung up worldwide, many São Paulo political elites and the downtown corporate leaders have realized the importance of saving the center from a continued cycle of deterioration and impoverishment. 

ITDP is working with city officials, business leaders, and local advocacy groups to develop a set of solutions geared at revitalizing São Paulo’s city center.  These measures include improving the condition of the pedestrian zones at the core of the historic districts, including the restructuring of the bus system according to a trunk-and-feeder pattern with high capacity, high quality buses. 

Public space restoration is underway in two major squares, Sé and Republica, and new, if scarce, resources have been allocated by the municipal government.  ITDP, in accord with Viva o Centro, an influential, private non-profit group dedicated to revitalizing the downtown area, is recommending the pragmatic use of private and corporate resources to fund better forms of urban redevelopment.

ITDP also plans to partner with U.S. Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and with Brazilian legal experts to explore the possibility of initiating in the center of São Paulo a kind of BID that could help with the task of managing street maintenance, safety, security, decoration and animation. 

Questions about this project can be directed to:

Jonas Hagen

Luc Nadal