The morning session delved deeper into the ongoing threats of the PIU Arco Jurubatuba and the rampant real estate speculation affecting São Paulo’s South Periphery. Panel participants included public defender Taissa Pinheiro, popular lawyer Vitor Iglesias, Vila Andrade’s community leader Tereza Arrais, and professors Kazuo Nakano and María Arquero. The conversation delved deeper into community mobilization tactics since 2018 to ensure housing provision for favela and occupation dwellers in ZEIS, providing key facts and resources for continued mobilization.
After the panel, community leaders and residents from the region shared their own struggles and the importance of organizing and collective action. Residents from communities in Grajaú shared similar stories of uncertainty and dispossession regarding the municipal plans to implement linear parks in the Billings Reservoir. In all cases, participants underscored the need for more frequent, smaller working meetings to decrease knowledge gaps, amplify community voices, and challenge the flawed participatory process set by the municipal government.