Rio mayor braced for a 'good nightmare'

As Rio gears up to host a Papal visit in July, the football World Cup next year and the 2016 summer Olympics, the city's mayor Eduardo Paes might be forgiven if he was dreading the next few years. But instead the 43-year-old said the high-profile events were a "good nightmare" that he hopes will change the face of his beloved city and transform attitudes across Brazil about "how to set deadlines so things are done and delivered on time". In an exclusive interview with AFP, Paes denied that too heavy a burden was being placed on the city, with the World Cup the first to be held in the country since 1950 and South America having never hosted the summer Olympics before. "It is both a dream and a nightmare, but a good nightmare," he said. "It is like dreaming of running a four-year marathon and breaking a sweat on the finish line. Obviously it is a huge responsibility, but I think these events are complementary." Paes, who received the Olympic flag from London mayor Boris Johnson in August, said the quadrennial event posed the greatest challenge and luckily will be held last. "Rio is not going to turn into a paradise and all the problems won't be solved, but the city is going through a very intense process of change," he added. "Many things are still missing, but everything has been set in motion, within deadlines, which is the most important." The development of mass transit projects, the modernization of the city's port area and the construction of the Olympic village are all viewed as a source of concern, as the clock ticks down to the start of the sporting events. But the mayor, who was re-elected for another four-year term last October, said he was inspired by the example of the Spanish city of Barcelona, which staged the 1992 summer Olympics. "The Barcelona Games fundamentally transformed the city. Here, we are also going to change the quality of life for Cariocas (Rio residents)," he said. "Today, less than 20 percent of them have access to modern transportation. The others spend their lives in buses stuck in traffic jams. "Four years from now, more than 60 percent of Cariocas will have access to high-capacity mass transit (train, subway, express bus lanes)." Concern has also been expressed about Rio's hotel capacity and its ageing airport. "There is a problem of supply but we are working on it," acknowledged Paes. "We have an additional 16,000 beds, or double what we pledged to the International Olympic Committee. We will even use love motels," he quipped. The airport will also be privatized "but the most important is not the events. That can work for the 15 days of the Olympics or the month-long World Cup. My concern is what happens later, (when the Games are over)." Paes meanwhile played down concern about security during the events, pointing to a police drive launched five years ago to wrest control of most city favelas or shanty towns from notorious drug trafficking gangs. "Tourists should not fear strolling on Copacabana, Ipanema (beaches), in favelas of the southern district and some in the north... I would not have said that five years ago," he said. "But they should be cautious in the periphery where they may face attacks." Paes meanwhile dismissed criticism that the Rio's iconic Maracana stadium -- where a staggering 200,000 people watched the 1950 World Cup hosts lose the final to Uruguay -- has lost its soul since it has been thoroughly renovated. "I, too, love nostalgia, nostalgia for the Rio of the 1950s. I have attended games at Maracana all my life. But it (the stadium) did not have adequate security and comfort for spectators. We did preserve its main feature, the external structure." As both a Roman Catholic and a football fan, Paes said he looks forward to Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the city overlooked by the giant Christ the Redeemer statue in July and to Brazil lifting the World Cup trophy for the sixth time in 2014. "Brazil must absolutely win this (2014) Cup," he insisted. From AFP