A cronology of Cracolândia: fossilized disputes below the asphalt

Abstract

For at least two centuries, public policies have been put into practice in the Luz region that target the socially unprotected people who make up the territory. The mobilization of the police, the so-called public security forces, the gentrifying policies of urban "revitalization" and health services are the repeatedly attempted answers to the questions, in the Luz region, throughout history, especially in Cracolândia today. This occurs, not by chance, given that the hegemonic explanatory discourse on drugs, prohibitionist, maintains that Cracolândia is a problem of "public security", of urban aesthetics or, less worse, but still reductionist, of "public health". The objective was to narrate the history of fossilized disputes in the layers below the asphalt of Cracolândia, from the beginning of the occupation, to the present day. The method is a narrative survey, which supports a chronology of public policies and illustrative facts that mark the process of territorial dispute, in three categories: a) public security, b) gentrifying urban reform and c) public health. The purpose is to spark a debate referenced in the historical process. It is justified by the need to qualify the analysis of the Cracolândia phenomenon as the largest, and perhaps oldest, open scene of crack use in São Paulo.