TEXTO:
Bigger yet Better
On ‘magic island,’ a virtuous cycle began with a ban on heavy industry
One of the sad truths of the developing
world is that an urban population boom has
so often been bad news. From Jakarta to Rio
de Janeiro, more people have typically meant
[5] more ghettoes, more crime, and less economic
life. That’s one reason urbanites in big cities are
moving to places like Florianópolis, an island city 700
kilometers south of São Paulo, where bigger doesn’t
always mean worse.
[10] Between 1970 and 2004, Florianópolis’s
population tripled. So did the number of slums. But
the local economy grew fivefold, and incomes grew
in step. Opportunity seekers, urban and rural, white
collar and blue, arrived in large groups. With a hundred or so
[15] beaches lining the “magic island,” tourism is thriving.
And while many Brazilian cities are struggling to
graduate from smokestacks to services, Florianópolis
is succeeding. Thanks in part to a federal rule that for
decades barred heavy industry on the island, town
[20] officials promoted cleaner public works, and now it
has a network of public and private universities that
make this one of the most scholarly cities in Brazil.
To tend to the demanding academic crowd, the city
invested heavily in everything from roads to schools,
[25] and now Florianópolis ranks high on every development
measure, from literacy (97%) to electrification (near
100%). By the late 1990s, private companies were
flocking to the island, or emerging from a technology
“incubator” at the federal university. (Among its
[30] innovations: the computerized voting machines that
have made Brazilian elections fraud-free and efficient.)
Local officials now say their goal is to be the Silicon
Valley of Brazil, with beaches. Don’t count them out.
MARGOLIS, Mac. Newsweek, New York, p. 56July 3/10 s.d Adaptado.
“Between 1970 and 2004, Florianópolis’s population tripled. So did the number of slums. (l. 10-11)
This sentence means that Florianópolis’s population