A DISPERSÃO RESIDENCIAL DE ALTA RENDA EM MARINGÁ-PR: IMPACTOS NO TERRITÓRIO E NA MOBILIDADE URBANA

Abstract

One of the most frequent hallmarks in current urban space is constituted by gated communities, along with other types of “fortified enclaves” characterized by intermural space reserved for a selected population and featuring the denial of diversity and public space, with a broadening of social and spatial segregation. Current paper discusses the impacts on real estate and urban mobility of gated communities in Maringá, Brazil, based on documents retrieved from the city´s townhall. Analyses and mapping prepared from Google Earth Pro software and Google Maps are also provided. Several gated communities for high-income residents have been detected in Maringá between 1990 and 2010. The law on estate splitting of the period favored the entrepreneurship, with impacts on the breaking-up of street and road networks, privatization of public space, with unattractive and dangerous areas for pedestrians. In spite of progress brought about by the 2011 Estate Splitting Law, the permission for gated communities within the municipality´s rural space was a step backward due to impacts on the environment and tension within urban space triggering a dispersion and fragmentation increase.