Uploaded on 2015-06-02 by faugusto8

This simple photo has a background that fits perfectly with the lesson. This is the main square of Caetanópolis, a small city on the hinterland of Minas Gerais state, Brazil. This place used to be a plaza with a church and about 40 threes, all of them very big and old (some were more than 80 years old). As is typical in tropical cities, there used to be benches under the threes of this plaza, where the small local population enjoyed the shadows to hang out at lunch, jog, play with kids, etc. This was the only decent public place in town. Two years ago, the prefecture decided to wipe out all the grass and threes in order to build a courtyard (that you can see by the photo) to receive local events, like concerts and fairs. But they did it without the population’s consent. Even though the great majority was against the modifications and there was no environmental licensing permission, the work was made, probably for political reasons. After the work was finished, this is what happened. As a place to receive events, the plaza actually works well. But this events happen like 3 times per year. Before, the population used this public space EVERY DAY, which is now impossible because no one wants to stand in a concrete slab under the unbearably hot Brazilian sun. This shows us two important invisible information. First is that poorly thought out public spaces don’t attract people. And the second, and probably most important, is that modifications in urban scale MUST HAPPEN WITH PARTICIPATION OF THE CITIZENS. This is a lesson that the prefecture of Caetanópolis will probably never forget. Today, after some protests of the revolted dwellers, they are planting grass and threes again in some parts of the plaza, but it will take many decades for it to become once again what it was before, and many of the citizens won’t even live enough to see it happening. A very sad situation. *Under this text, I am posting more photos of the new building site, showing the attempting to restore the plaza. ![enter image description here][2] ![enter image description here][3] ![enter image description here][4] ![enter image description here][5] [1]: http://i.imgur.com/ffJhiQ5.jpg [2]: http://i.imgur.com/NSKBWm3.jpg [3]: http://i.imgur.com/dCEroeX.jpg [4]: http://i.imgur.com/eW7bAIt.jpg [5]: http://i.imgur.com/OSAVgh5.jpg