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WHEN BARS IN Rio de Janeiro’s hottest nightlife districts throw open their doors these days, they don’t know who’ll walk in.
Paulo Sergio, who owns Bar do Serginho in the Brazilian city’s trendy Santa Teresa area, says he has been the target of a dozen assaults over the last year.
All of Rio is experiencing rising insecurity but the crime wave in Santa Teresa is especially bad — and it threatens to kill the city’s party spirit.
“Clients aren’t coming anymore. They’re scared,” Sergio says.
Brazil’s government has sent almost 10,000 troops to help the police in Rio de Janeiro state, which is nearly bankrupt after years of corruption and hosting last year’s Olympics.
However, that is not helping to maintain what had been a growing nightlife economy.
With its cobbled streets and quaint houses, Santa Teresa has become a magnet for music events, small hotels, restaurants and galleries. But now it’s also a magnet for brazen robberies.
“They arrive in groups of four, stop the car outside, then steal clients’ phones and watches and remove the cash register,” Sergio, who has run the bar for four decades, says.
“At night, you don’t see anyone in the streets. You’d think it is a ghost town,” he says. “People will use their car now just to go 400 or 500 meters.”
The owner of a restaurant called Espirito Santa, Natacha Fink, says there have even been clients who called ahead “to ask if the restaurant is safe”.
Home delivery
Businesses are responding to the crime wave as best they can. When taxis refuse to take passengers to Santa Teresa, one restaurant offers to pick them up and bring them home free of charge.
Sergio has had to start closing early because “the attacks start at about 8pm”.
Francisco Dantas, who runs Cafe do Alto, is among those who have started doing home deliveries. ”If people won’t come out, then I have to go them,” he says.
“The number of clients coming into the restaurant has fallen 30 to 40% since November. It’s the first time that my revenue has fallen in 15 years.”
Banding together two months ago in a neighborhood association called Amosanta, locals hope to improve the area’s image and pressure the authorities into doing more about their safety.
“It’s better. There are already more police, but it’s still not like before,” Fink says.
Not so hot
Rio’s hottest nightlife area, Lapa, is also feeling the chill.
Valter Gabriel said visits to his bar Arco Iris have dropped a third since last year’s Olympics, and that customers leave earlier.
“I’m afraid of getting robbed,” he says. “People don’t feel safe in the streets.”
Ricardo Rabelo, from the culture website Bafafa, says Lapa is Rio’s “thermometer” and that the diagnosis is not good. Rio’s residents, called Cariocas, “aren’t afraid of crowds — it’s empty spaces they are afraid of”.
The city’s cultural life is actually growing, he says, with about 70 events typically scheduled on any given weekend.
“The difference is that Cariocas are going to the ones that take place in daytime.”
Annual “festas juninas”, or June festival street parties, once ended much later. “Now at 8pm they’re finished,” Rabelo says.
“The police don’t have enough cars, bullets or even food,” he adds.
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Nothing says I love you more than a McFuneral.
When someone dies, there are always people around, at the wake, funeral and burial, the believers, the non believers, the atheists, the humanists. ……….How many of you will visit the bereaved family months after their bereavement?
This is the time they need your help and support.
@Andi Black: bull shit
The reason we are born is to die
It’s about time people excepted death and stop being so mournful about it .
@John Kennedy: dont be insensitive John, the death of a loved one is an emotional shock for those left behind, its natural to mourn, those who dont usually dont do well and they eventually break down, we’re all aware that its an inevitable journey feared by many welcomed by few sso the taut that ur leaving ur loved ones behind is hard, speaking for myself, well, ill hang about as long as I can.
I doubt the dead really care how they’re dispatched to be honest. Once they’re finished harvesting my organs they can turn what’s left over into shepard’s pie if they like…
@Ryan: I’m not saying you wouldn’t be delicious and chock full of goodness Ryan, but wouldn’t you be Cottage Pie?
“You have reached your destination” will scare the daylights out of a few infirm mourners.
For mourners who do not want to come to a dead stop!
Ya want ‘Fry’s’ with that?
Anyone see Stacey Dooley Japan doc last night? Japan is seriously f##ked up with what she exposed
@Stan: The irony of the BBC caring about young people being at risk!
@TravellingTheWorld: Acting like they didn’t know or help Jimmy among many other presenters.
What?
Ashes to Ashes dust to ,let’s burn the F ****r and get back on the bus.
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