A cidade média e suas centralidades: o exemplo de Montes Claros no norte de Minas Gerais

Abstract

This work has as it aim to analyze the new centralizations in the middle size City of Montes Claros / MG , that were created after the sub-centers constitutions in that city. Montes Claros is the only one middle size city in the north region of Minas Gerais, with more than 350 thousands inhabitants and shows alterations in its intra-urban space, like: population growth, enhancement and activity of its retail and services sectors, and its need to fulfill the market demands, among other reasons that revamped the installation of new commercial centers in areas outside the central nucleus of the city. However, it still is the main economic area of the city, due to the concentration of the immediate and secondary consumer activities, and functional specialization. Such a place holds retail and services as well as old houses that shows the city origins, like residential, commercial and mixed buildings. From the broad economic, political and social changes that took place in Montes Claros after the second half of the XX century, there are new ways of trade and consumption that set place in the so called peripheral areas. Those commercial spaces start new centralizations that allow district development and at the same time improve the market value of real state, as well as better services to its population. The sub-centers Major Prates and Esplanada are vivid examples of such centralizations. This work has three parts. The first one analyses the Brazilian urbanization process and the emerging of middle size cities as important spaces in the country economy and subject of study for some researchers after the 1970 by means of the II Plano Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social, called II PND, and the Programa Nacional de Apoio às Capitais e Cidades de Porte Médio, called PNCCPM (belonged to the II PND). Hence, we identified and questioned Montes Claros situation as a middle city through the study of some demographic characteristics, services, urban infrastructure, PIBm, and IDH. The second part analyses the urban grow of Montes Claros from the central nucleus associated to the process of decentralization. Thus, the central nucleus looses its uniqueness and production and reproduction monopolizing space in the fulfillment of the population demands. The third and last part deals with the instauration of new commercial nucleus, it means, new centralizations by the means of the configuration of the Major Prates and Esplanada sub centers, two particular economic spaces that polarized the South and Northeast city regions, respectively, producing new environments in the intra-urban space of Montes Claros.