The socio-environmental recovery of urban valley bottoms in the city of São Paulo, between transformation and permanence

Abstract

The article deals with the lack of integration among the public policies concerning valley bottom urbanization in the city of São Paulo, focusing on the implementation of linear parks and sanitation infrastructure, and also on slum urbanization. It shows that the progress in the practices of the agencies involved is not sufficient to give adequate answers to the socio-environmental issues that emerge with the treatment of these areas, and that a gap remains between discourse and practice in addressing urban-environmental issues, mainly due to the lack of intersectoral and territorial coordination. Therefore, interventions are incomplete and unequal: sanitation is restricted to consolidated areas, socio-environmental liabilities remain in slum urbanization, and the establishment of intra-urban green areas continues to disregard the first two questions.