Centro de Escalada Urbana: Connecting and Inspiring Rocinha’s Youth

Once, climbing among the granite crags of Utah’s Little Cottonwood Canyon, I met a Brazilian climber who described climbing in Continue reading →

Bolsonaro and Rocinha

If you’ve followed politics in the Western Hemisphere over the past two years, you are pretty familiar with the pattern Continue reading →

Marielle and Hope that Moves

I’m not particularly prone to sentimentality—in terms of emotional depth, I think it’s safe to say that I’m at the Continue reading →

Chicken, Waffles, Harvey, and the Urban Family Portrait

Soon after moving to Houston, one of the few things I’d learned was that local cuisine included fried chicken and Continue reading →

Lessons on the Margins of UN Habitat III

When I asked Dr George Handley for permission to share his story from UN Habitat III, he was reluctant at Continue reading →

At Election Time- What about Favelas?

The most recent poll I could find, says Marcelo Freixo is trailing the other Mercelo Crivella in Rio’s mayoral election Continue reading →

The New Vistas Controversy, The Cost of the Status Quo

GUEST POST by Ralph Spencer Steenblik NewVistas is a holistic masterplanned community designed by the foundation bearing the same name, and Continue reading →

Planning Failure, Ecological Failure

  The opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics are quickly approaching. The years since Rio was awarded the 2016 Summer Continue reading →