One year from today, the city of Rio de Janeiro will kick off the 2016 Olympic Games, bringing tens of thousands of spectators to the city, and billions of dollars into Brazil. Traditionally, in the run-up to every Olympic Games, the host city makes a big show of highlighting the positive impact the Games will have on the city’s infrastructure, services, and economy.
In some cases, those promises bear fruit: Barcelona is widely recognized as a successful example of leveraging Olympics-sized spending for the greater good. Residents of many other Games host cities, however, have found the experience to be a mixed blessing at best. Starting today, we are taking a look at how Rio is preparing for the Games, and how these preparations will affect businesses and people across the city.
One aspect of the Olympics legacy touted by the municipal government is in urbanizing Rio’s favelas – the sprawling slums throughout the city. Widespread development and improvements in the favelas could usher in a huge economic boom for the Brazil’s construction industry – not to mention improving residents’ quality of life.
But the results to date haven’t lived up to expectations, and experts question if the program will achieve its goals.
“Soon after [it was launched], the program lost strength,” said Orlando Santos Junior, a professor at the Institute of Urban and Regional Research and Planning. “It ceased to be a priority to the municipal government, with no official explanation.”
