A oferta de equipamentos urbanos e a percepção da qualidade de vida urbana: o estudo do bairro Santa Mônica no município de Uberlândia - MG.

Abstract

Since the second half of the XX century, an intense urbanization process has taken place in Brazilian cities, mainly triggered by the advance of capitalism and the technical-scientific revolution that lingered to set in this country. The most visible outcome of this phenomenon is the inordinate growth of cities and, consequently, their population, which is accentuated by rural exodus that was set up by industrialization and agricultural modernization. Therefore, following such expansions, many intensely studied and easily recognized consequences have showed up, such as: environmental, social and urbanistic problems, which are thought to drastically affect the quality of life of urban populations. Trying to understand how these phenomena were related to the perception of quality of life by the population, this dissertation focuses in a comparative analysis of two areas from Santa Mônica neighborhood, in Uberlândia-MG/Brazil. The methodology combined different tools and tried to highlight physical and territorial aspects – through the application of technics established in previous studies – and cross its results with application of questionnaires to the dwellers, in which they were asked about their perception on the urban quality of life. Thereby, this study was built on the intercept of data acquired from the technical aspect assessment, supported by referential marks, with data from the hearing of population. Thus, we aimed at studying if and how urbanistic indicators relate to the perception of quality of life by citizens. Among urbanistic aspects, tools evaluated three themes: I) Transportation quality, II) Equipment, Commerce and Services Offering and III) Pedestrian Circulation Network, together with the perception of dwellers on these themes. Although indicators did not show satisfactory results, mainly at Equipments, Commerce and Services Offering, and major problems appointed in the questionnaires, specially related to accessibility of sidewalks and public transport frequency, overall dwellers were still satisfied with the urban quality of life in Santa Mônica neighborhood. One possible explanation may be related to the higher average income in Santa Mônica when compared to peripheral neighborhood, allowing its population to rely less on the State’s attributions such as public transport, health and education, which are thus acquired from private sector. Furthermore, since Santa Mônica is an old and well established neighborhood, the feeling of belonging and esteem may have led to a positive assessment by dwellers, even when evidence reveals the existence of many problems. Finally, we hope this study contribute to the thematic of urban quality of life, to those which qualifies urban insertion and also to allow public managers and planners to incorporate the dimensions of quality of life in our cities.