V Winner post #20- Honorable Mention: Florianopolis

In the lists of cities with the best quality of life in Brazil, Florianópolis always appears in the first standings. Fine beaches, courteous people and low cost of living turned the capital of Santa Catarina in the "Island Magic." The fame of paradisiacal place grew, brought tourists and, lately, new residents. In five years, the population increase was 15%, a rate well above the national average. Scared with the boom, the city took a radical step. Since last month, the council has a new body with the task of filtering the arrival of outsiders and, if possible, to send some of them to go home. The screening is done in Maria Rita Road, and the strategy is simple. Interviewers host buses on arrival to the capital and apply a questionnaire to find out the reasons that bring those passengers to the city. Who comes without a destination receives a kit to take bath, guidance on the difficulties that will find in Florianopolis and, in some cases, passage back to the city of origin. In the first month of operation, more than half of those approached accepted the offer. Until today, it was an idea that the migrant who came to Florianopolis fit in the stereotype retiree-rich-tired-to-run-run - the-big-cities. In part, this is true. The population over 60 years in Florianopolis increased 55% in ten years. They are people with good cultural level and good income that help boost the local economy. This group is still very welcome to the city and will be received with pomp and red carpet. But the perception that the migration covers less desirable profiles of residents is growing. In a recent survey of the Secretary of Housing, it was found that 40% of street children under the council came from other states to live in the streets of Florianopolis. The remaining 60% live in slums in the region, and half of them belong to families that also came from other counties or states. In other words: the poverty that now runs the traffic lights in the capital of Santa Catarina (in a manner much more discreet than in other centers) came out. Alarmed with this situation, the city adopted the project to monitor the arrival of new residents.
The fact is that Florianopolis begins to feel the negative effects of their success. Twenty years ago, there were only five slums in the Greater Florianópolis. Now there are more than fifty scattered across hills of the island. Another facet of this growth disorderly is violence. Twenty years ago, the district had a rate of 4.9 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. It was an index comparable to the most developed cities in the world. But that number tripled, today is of 17.2 deaths, and continues to rise. Besides the problem, less advantaged families still coming to the city in search of a better life. Florianópolis really presents great social and economic indicators. For the discretion of the United Nations, the Magic Island is among the five cities of Brazil with better quality of life. This means that the council has indicators of income, education and quality of life of European standard. Allied to this framework, there is a cycle of economic development of the place. The construction is increasing the impressive 10% a year. They are buildings, shopping malls, hotels and convention centers, which are changing the local landscape. The experience of Florianopolis repeats, in part, other migratory flows of Brazilian history. In a country like Brazil, with no armed conflicts or popular uprisings, the contrasts were the main economic factor of population movements throughout the twentieth century. In the decades of 50 and 60, millions of people left the camp and were heading to cities. Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the best that time, inflated and suffered with the appearance of side effects of progress: slums, urban violence and chaos. Today, the major centers are saturated and there is a migration to cities of lesser size. Studies of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) show that the segment of the population that grows more in Brazil is concentrated in small and medium-sized cities. According to the survey, people want economic opportunities and quality of life. Florianopolis is the two characteristics, and, inevitably, will be a pole of migration in the coming years. From rich and poor - despite the efforts of the municipal selective.

- A. Jonathan Buhalis