Between the recovery of historical heritage and the housing issue: urban renewal projects to downtown Santos

Abstract The study case is the city of Santos, specifically the municipal public administration, concerning urban policies. Due to the large increase in Santos land value in the last fifteen years, and to the public management marked by both patrimonialism as the growing attention to the interests of large private capital, which is organized through associations and representations of class, there were two very clear processes in the city: a) the expulsion of part of Santos population, including the lower middle class, mainly to other cities of the region; and b) the commodification of urban and architectural heritage which has been preserved, since it did not interfere with the real estate market interests. The work has as main objective the description, analysis and evaluation of Santos urban policies, regarding their set of values, its operating logic, and the attendance of interests inside and outside the city.