How much is worth the Vale: the urban dynamics of reformation of the Vale do Anhnagabaú in face of the practice of street skating

Abstract

The Vale do Anhangabaú, historic space of downtown São Paulo, Brazil, has passed by one reformulation recently, started in 2019 and finished in 2021. This urban intervention started a lot of controversies. It caused the discussion of  the real necessity of such intervention, budgeted at approximately 100 million reais (R$100,000,000.00), in a city more and more segregated and unequal. Inside this urban context, a group  that occupy this space for more than 30 years raised up against the destruction of this space so loved by them: the street skaters. In this work, we build a panorama and an analysis of the street skaters occupation in Vale do Anhangabaú and a balance of the movement organized by them, “Salve o Vale” (“Save the Vale”), that modified the original reformulation project. Such analysis is done with important urban authors, such as David Harvey, Henri Lefebvre, Jane Jacobs, Heitor Frúgoli Jr., and others.