CITIES

An international Libertarian organisation is behind proposals to privatise Brazilian cities, creating vast luxury condominiums for the most wealthy, and removing democratic rights from their citizens. Brazil's federal government has been quietly exploring...

The following speech was given by Brasil Wire editor Brian Mier on a World Social Forum webinar entitled: The Right to the City: Towards Social and Ecological Justice, which was hosted...

Curitiba is known around the world for innovative urban planning and European heritage. During a speech at the World Social Forum, however, Carol Dartora accused the city government of hiding its...

"We view the state of Parana as a laboratory for all of Bolsonaro’s worst ideas," says Dartora, who is the first Afro-Brazilian woman elected in the 327 year history of the...

Rio de Janeiro hasn’t elected a progressive mayor since the 1980s but this year progressives are celebrating anyway, as center right candidate and former Mayor Eduardo Paes beat a man widely...

As the PT and Brazilian left made modest gains, the Bolsonaro coalition imploded By Brian Mier On Sunday, November 15, over 147 million Brazilians went to the polls in the largest round of...

Sunday’s elections promise to provide solid, but not breathtaking advances for the Brazilian left. On the other hand, all signs show that it will be a day of huge losses...

Bolsonaro ally Governor Wilson Witzel's Military Police are now killing 5 people a day. Most victims are Afro-Brazilian youth. Many are being killed execution style with gunshots at close range to...

Rio De Janeiro Governor Wilson Witzel orders use of helicopter snipers in poor communities and police break 20 year record for killing civilians. On Sunday, May 5, a video appeared on...

Brasil's Education crisis is not a crisis, it is a project. - Darcy Ribeiro. Across the political spectrum Brazilians will tell you that the principal problem in the country is education, yet...

The action lasted over 14 hours, leaving one dead, dozens of injured and thousands of angry citizens. As Rio de Janeiro's military occupation reaches the 6 month mark, all analysis points...

Deaths in massacres have increased while arms apprehensions have dropped, according to data from the Candido Mendes University Center for Security and Citizenship Studies' (CESeC) Military Intervention Observatory. Five months after the...

Thousands march against increase in violence, mass evictions and criminalization of social movement leaders On June 5, bus caravans arrived in Brasilia from across the country, carrying members of the nation's largest...

City, State and Federal Governments abandon victims of Paysandu fire and building collapse By Benedito Barbosa On May 1, a former federal police building that was occupied by squatters caught fire and collapsed...

By Brian Mier. In the early morning of May 1, a 24 story building on Paysandu square in central São Paulo caught fire and collapsed. There are three confirmed deaths and 36...

Although squatters are frequently treated as criminals in the national and international media, according to article 5 of the 1988 Brazilian Constitution, any citizen who does not own property has the...

According to the Brazilian Constitution of 1988, land banking is a crime. Unlike in, for example, the United States, it is illegal for a landlord to hold a building empty for...

The Guardian kicked off a week of coverage about São Paulo today, as part of its Rockefeller Foundation sponsored “Cities” Series.  Although part of this content appears to be generated with...

The Rise, Success and Decline of the PT Party's Virtuous Cycle Model of Urban Governance. By Brian Mier. In 1964, the US helped overthrow democratically elected, center-left president Jango Goulart and install a...

Original version of article at COHA. Reproduced with permission. This interview was originally conducted in Portuguese, and translated by the author. Erminia Maricato is one of Brazil’s most renowned urban planners. In addition...

Brasil has had some of the world's most progressive city governments over the past 3 decades. For all the news on corruption spread by the international media leading up to last...

In October São Paulo voters went to the polls and threw out one of the World's most progressive big city governments in favor of João Doria, from the conservative PSDB party....

During 2012-2013 Brian Mier conducted a study of changes in Rio de Janeiro's municipal laws related to the World Cup and Olympics. The study was commissioned by the Ford Foundation and...

On June 6, the São Paulo Mayor's Office announced that it hired a group of homeless people for one year to conduct qualitative research on homeless issues and policies. This is...

SESC Pompeia is a cultural centre in the east zone of São Paulo, designed by the architect Lina Bo Bardi, and opened in 1982. The site is one of the world's great...

The Olympics are arriving in a year and it is only a matter of time before thousands of journalists parachute into Rio as they did last year during the months before...

The centre of São Paulo is mainly comprised of commercial, office and abandoned buildings. Most of those who work there cannot afford the rent of the flats downtown, so they must...

São Paulo is the most populous city in the Americas, and with almost 12m inhabitants & over 20m in the Metropolitan area, it is also the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere. It...

Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho, known simply as Oscar Niemeyer was born December 15 1907. Niemeyer's work dominated Brasil's 20th Century architecture and still casts a long shadow over...

A new film 'O que e Nosso - Reclaiming the Jungle" (Jezmo Clode, Murilo Yamanaka, Allyson Alapont), takes on documenting a unique amorphous movement, still a long way from fully understood, which...