City limits

摘要

Snaking through the centre of Sao Paulo is an inf rastructural monstruosity, an elevated roadway that winds past third-story windows. The Minhocao ("Big worm") or the Via Elevada Presidente Joao Goulart as it is officially known, is a 2.8 km overpass that runs from the start of the West Zone through to the Centre going around and into the city centre, strangling it and deadening its streetscape. Though it exemplifies the anti-social thrust of the city's development over the past half century, it has, at the same time, come to represent recent attempts to reclaim urban space. In early 2018, a bill mandating the conversion of the Minhocào into a park was signed into law. Whilst many cities around the world are touting projects that are their answer to New York City's High Line, Sao Paulo's is one of the least probable, as well as the most necessary.