Decentralized management of public squares in the city of São Paulo, Brazil: Implications for urban green spaces

Studies about squares contribute to public management and to urban sustainability, once they have an important social and environmental role. This paper aims to clear some aspects of the management of squares in the municipality of São Paulo as well as their role. A qualitative methodology was used in the present study with the main scope of describing, understanding and interpreting the data by means of interviews with public managers. The method of the Discourse of the Collective Subject was used to analyze the data. It was not possible to identify any model of management for the squares in São Paulo, in its 31 administrative regions (subprefectures). From one side, decentralized management of these public spaces is positive because it provides autonomy and agility for the subprefectures to implement their policies. On the other hand, it makes it more difficult, because they depend on the planning and controlling of resources coming from different municipal levels which are not directly connected. Other than this, managers highlight that the squares, in the city of São Paulo, have a main scope of playing a social role. Public managers disagree about the potential environmental role that squares could play and therefore contribute to enhance the urban green spaces of the city. According to the public managers, squares are spaces where there can or cannot be vegetation. Among the challenges for the management of squares there is the lack of an inventory list of squares either registered or not in the municipal records, lack of awareness of the population and very few maintenance teams to answer the demands.