Profile: Eduardo PaesAgent ofchangeAs Mayor of Rio de Janeiro,Eduardo Paes is overseeingthe preparations for the2016 Olympic Games. Thestraight-talking politician saysthat, while the city faces veryreal challenges, the Gamesare also an opportunity totransform Rio’s fortunes.words Richard MurphyEduardo Paes has high hopes for 2016 andbeyond. Rio de Janeiro’s mayor — combative,persuasive and bursting with energy — saysthe Olympic Games will transform the cityof 6.4 million people both physically andin spirit. He says Rio has found hope and ambition, aperspective on the future absent since Rio lost its statusas Brazil’s capital in 1960.“The success of Rio is [that it has] managed to reinventitself,” Paes says. “We are using the Olympics to do manythings, much less than the Olympics is using us to dothings. The Olympic Games helps you to call attention tothe city — to its qualities and its defects. Which is not abad thing in either case.”Along with staging the main event, Rio is undertaking27 legacy projects designed to improve areas such astransportation, education and infrastructure. Responsibilityis split between city, state and federal governments, andmany projects will be ready next year.Some of the biggest changes will be felt in the upmarketwestern suburbs around Barra da Tijuca, where theOlympic Park and Olympic Village are being built beside alagoon. Seventy-six miles of new bus rapid transit (BRT)lanes alongside 10 miles of new metro will connect to thesewestern areas, a real estate hotspot whose populationhas rocketed in recent years as Rio spreads west.While this has sparked criticism from some urbanspecialists, who say the big Olympics winners are propertydevelopers likely to benefit from these new transportationlinks, Paes says these projects have cut hours off the traveltime of those who live in poorer, more distant suburbsand work in Barra’s big commercial centers. The BRT lines54
Did you know?Rio de Janeiro will be the firstcity in South America to hostthe Olympic Games.Photography TDemotix/Corbis / Andre Vieira / Rio Mayor’s officealso link northern andwestern suburbs previouslyaccessible only by bus orovercrowded train. “It isa big employment hub. Itis very important to havetransport there,” he says.In central Rio, whatwas for decades anabandoned port area isbeing completely renovatedthrough a public–privatepartnership (PPP). A newVLT, or light rail system, will link the Porto Maravilha —“Wonderful Port” — to the center and the domestic airport.New businesses, hotels and housing will bring more jobsand income. “You take a degraded area of 5 million m 2[nearly 2 square miles] and transform it into a place of bigcommercial and residential enterprises,” Paes says.“It is a change in the urban logic of Rio.”The mayor admits the city faces a hard task inovercoming some of its historical challenges, such assecurity, inequality and education. “Brazil has a defect:people are always coming up with an excuse to not dothings,” he says. “But nobody is perfect. London hadproblems. Any city, any country, has problems.” For Paes, itis time for Brazil to stop making excuses and get on with it.Tackling crimeCrime has long been one of Rio’s biggestchallenges. In 2008, a year before the citywon its Olympic bid, Rio’s state governmentbegan pacifying some of the many gang-runfavelas (slums) by installing armed policebases called UPPs.After this, Rio’s homicide rate of 31.6 per100,000 inhabitants in 2009 fell to 21.5by 2012, the last year for which full figuresare available, according to the Violence Mapproduced annually by the Latin AmericanFaculty of Social Sciences using governmentfigures. In contrast, Brazilian state capitalsas a whole saw a slight increase in thesame period.Initially, the change in Rio was dramatic.Pacified favelas nearest to tourist areas andOlympic sites were no longer no-go areas.Some have even seen real estateThe Main Press Center andInternational BroadcastingCenter, currently taking shapeat Rio’s Olympic Park, will housethe world’s mediaduring the Olympic Games.Joining the pantheon of smart citiesUnder Eduardo Paes’ leadership, Riohas made strides to embrace smarttechnology and sustainability. Astate-of-the-art operations center setup in 2010 with IBM technology allowsthe monitoring of weather, traffic andemergencies via hundreds of cameras.It helped Rio win the World Smart CityAward in 2013.That same year, Paes took over fromformer New York mayor Michael Bloombergas the chair of C40 Cities, a global networkworking together to fight climate change.“We live in the century of the city,” he says.Paes has good relationships with othercurrent and former mayors like Bloomberg.“We exchange experiences,” he says. “Theproblems repeat themselves, in differentproportions and dimensions.”He also sought advice early in theOlympics tender process from PasqualMaragall, who was mayor of Barcelonaduring the 1992 Games that transformedthe city and its relationship with the restof Europe. “He was a very inspiringsubject for me, because he had lived theexperience,” Paes says.It is a message he takes every opportunityto repeat. “The reason Rio won the Olympicswas this opportunity to transform our cityand make the necessary changes,” he said ata recent event in Rio. “The Olympics is muchmore than just a sports event. The Olympicsis a geopolitical opportunity.”<strong>Exceptional</strong> July–December 201555
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