The Luz region as a “new” urban frontier

Notes on the PPP Habitacional SP Lote 1 S/A incidence in São Paulo downtown

Abstract

This article approaches the incidence of public-private housing partnerships on the Luz region, São Paulo downtown, focusing on the overlapping of housing developments to the territorial fixation perimeter of the Cracolândia. Established as a “decayed” space, the Luz region was scrutinized by a succession of plans and urban projects that began in the 1970s. However, it is especially since 2005 that its promise of urban renewal becomes linked to the Cracolândia and engender specific forms of localized state action. With the PPP Habitacional SP Lote 1 S/A incidence from 2015, we aim to grasp how the Cracolândia becomes related to the legal-financial modeling that underlies the partnership between concessionaire and grantor. The coincidences between the expropriations and concession of public land and the gradual dismantling of the social assistance infrastructure, between the developments occupation license and the transformation of the policing dynamics lead us to inquire about the current sense of Luz region as a “new” urban frontier and the announcement of security forms of control and normalization of everyday life in this fraction of downtown.