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SPECIAL SECTION : Brazil
Brazil: another view of the
two cities
Districts have same powers, but face radically different challenges
By Fernando Rezende
It may seem at first glance that Altamira – in the Amazon basin - has a bad deal in comparison to urban Diadema, but the actual situation is not quite as simple as that.
The economic problems that Altamira faces – environmental barriers that keep it from exploiting its natural resources and a lack of jobs – are beyond the scope of the local administrators’ responsibilities. Altamira’s problems will not be solved by lifting the ban on dividing large rural municipalities.
On the other hand, Diadema benefited from the dispersion of the manufacturing industry around different parts of the São Paulo Metropolitan area. Getting a share of industrial plants helped to boost its finances and therefore to improve living conditions in the city.
The finances of large rural municipalities and small metropolitan ones respond to very different factors. Rural municipalities depend heavily on federal transfers and small cities depend on their share of their states’ value added tax.
Would Altamira be better off if its urban core could secede from the vast rural hinterland? In my opinion, no.
The suggestion by Altamira administrators that “the obvious solution is to split into several smaller municipalities” simply exports Altamira’s problem from the city centre to rural areas, which could end up worse off than before.
What Altamira really needs is a better coordination of federal, state and local policies to increase its prospects for development. 
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