Monday, August 9, 2010

You know you are in Brazil when

You know you are in Brazil when a family decides to build their house (while the city is not paying attention) directly in the middle of the road.

Last month, after a long legal process involving four city departments plus Niterói’s attorney general, this two story house (nearly completed) in the coastal Niterói neighborhood of Piratininga was torn down.

To be fair, it was at the end of the street. But there was no residential lot at the end of the road, rather the open space was to provide access to the lagoon immediately beyond what was the end of the street.

In this case a family decided the paved road provided a ready-made foundation for their construction site. Plus they got a prime location with an unobstructed view of the lagoon!

I can just hear the neighbors growling: “What are they doing? Ah, oh well, what can we do about it anyways? Sigh.” The construction clearly went on for months and months to get to the point it was at before the family (likely smelling the city closing in on them) abandoned the project without a trace.

The fuzzy photo above is of the city’s bulldozer finally taking the house down and restoring the open space.

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