FW: RICH BRAZILIANS RISE ABOVE RUSH-HOUR JAMS - The New York Times

["Cordell, Arthur: #ECOM - COMÉ"]

Signs of the times.  Or this is one outcome of a two tier society.
 ----------
From: Sid Shniad
Subject: RICH BRAZILIANS RISE ABOVE RUSH-HOUR JAMS - The New York Times
Date: Tuesday, February 15, 2000 2:28PM

The New York Times                              15 February 2000

RICH BRAZILIANS RISE ABOVE RUSH-HOUR JAMS

        By Simon Romero

SÃO PAULO, Brazil, Feb. 14 -- At night the skyline in this city of
16 million is a dazzling display of lights that can easily remind
visitors of Manhattan.
        But something is different. Many of the lights are moving.
        The skies of São Paulo, Latin America+s financial capital and
the richest big city in the developing world, are filled with
helicopters.
        Like a fleet of airborne limousines, the helicopters are
increasingly used by privileged Paulistanos to commute, attend
meetings, even run errands and go to church. Helicopter landing
pads are now standard features of many of São Paulo+s guarded
residential compounds and high-rise roofs.
        Illustrating what may be a Blade Runner-esque glimpse of the
future in metropolises where rich and poor are crammed together,
helicopters are the vehicle of choice for more than just their
convenience. Many of the roads here are hopelessly clogged with
traffic. Carjackings, kidnappings of executives and roadside
robberies have become a part of the risks of daily life for anyone
perceived to have money.
        So the demand for private helicopters in São Paulo has turned
the city into one of the most vibrant markets for helicopter dealers.
        For pilots, navigating the city by air is like flying through an
endless concrete maze. -My favorite time to fly is at night, because
the sensation is equaled only in movies or in dreams,- said Moacir
da Silva, the president of the São Paulo Helicopter Pilots
Association. -The lights are everywhere, as if I were flying within a
Christmas tree.-
        At 400 and growing, the total fleet of private helicopters in São
Paulo is the biggest of any city in the developing world. Although
the fleets in New York and Tokyo are larger, the helicopters in
those cities are owned mostly by corporations, not rich individuals.
        Moreover, the growth of the São Paulo fleet has quickened in
recent years, even with the slowdown in Brazil+s economy after the
currency devaluation crisis a year ago.
        While Brazil+s economy grew less than 1 percent in 1999, the
nation+s helicopter fleet rose more than 7 percent, to nearly 800.
Most of that growth was here.
        -São Paulo commands the most favorable characteristics of any
city in the world for the civil helicopter industry,- said Fabrice
Cagnat, the president of the Brazilian subsidiary of Eurocopter, a
venture between DaimlerChrysler and Aérospatiale of France.
        The most favorable is the traffic, a byproduct of São Paulo+s
haphazard expansion in recent decades as millions of migrants from
poorer parts of Brazil moved here in search of work. Roads were
never sufficiently expanded to accommodate the swelling
population. Subway lines can barely handle a fraction of the
residents, and an efficient freeway system remains a distant dream.
        With the city+s crazy-quilt layout that is part Los Angeles,
because of sheer horizontal breadth, and part Manhattan, because
skyscrapers are so numerous, navigating by car is daunting.
        -Money is time, and the time lost in traffic is substantial,- said
Marco Antônio Audi, the Brazil representative for Robinson
Helicopters, which is based in Torrance, Calif.
        The use of helicopters to avoid traffic has grown to the point
where some people use their choppers to commute daily to work or
to retreat to their country estates or beach homes every few days.
        -One member of my congregation regularly comes to Sabbath
service by helicopter to escape the horrendous Friday night traffic,-
said Henry Sobel, the senior rabbi of São Paulo+s largest
synagogue.
        The most affordable and best-selling helicopter in Brazil is the
Robinson R44, which can comfortably seat three or four people. It
costs about $380,000, or roughly 90 times the average annual
income of a São Paulo resident. Another popular model is the Bell
407, which seats as many as seven people and costs about $1.5
million.
        -Why settle for an armored BMW when you can afford a
helicopter?- said Eric Wasson, a Latin American sales
representative for Bell Helicopter of Fort Worth, Tex.
        The helicopters of São Paulo are not universally admired.
Critics consider them an obscene barometer of the financial power
enjoyed by the affluent few in a sea of poverty. According to the
World Bank, Brazil+s richest 10 percent control more than 50
percent of the country+s wealth while the poorest 10 percent
control less than 1 percent.
        It is easier for a wealthy person to buy a helicopter than it is for
a working-class person to buy a car. Rich Paulistanos have access
to financing that often is substantially cheaper than domestic
lending rates, and more financing options are emerging. Debis, the
financing arm of DaimlerChrysler, recently opened an office here
that will largely focus on helicopter deals.
        The contrasts are not lost on the vast majority of people in São
Paulo who cannot afford a helicopter.
        -One of the contradictions of the Brazilian character is the
capacity for great warmth to coexist with an extreme
individualism,- said Renato Janine Ribeiro, a professor of political
philosophy at the University of São Paulo. -The desire for a
helicopter is a result of a complete lack of concern for other
people.-
        Others see the helicopters as a symbol of a worsening class
distinction in Brazil.
        -That there is an archipelago of wealthy consumers that is able
to use helicopters just as their counterparts do in Manhattan or
Bombay or wherever doesn+t surprise me,- said Jorge Wilheim, an
urban planner. -But the ocean of people surrounding this
archipelago should be getting the transportation services they need,
and they are not.-
        Compared with the several hundred people in the city who are
able to commute by helicopter, about 3.7 million residents resort to
the city+s precarious bus system each day, according to municipal
figures. Riding the city+s 10,400 buses is not only uncomfortable
but often dangerous, because of the high risk of muggings. So
unlicensed minivans have grown popular as a way to get around.
        Earlier this month, when three people were killed and eight
injured when a minivan driver fled from the police and hit a tree,
one newspaper said in a front-page editorial, -No one controls the
city.-
        While travel on the ground remains quite dangerous, there have
been few accidents involving helicopters in the city.
        Mr. Wilheim said São Paulo would need to extend its subway
by six miles each year in the next decade for the public
transportation system to approach those of Paris or New York. Yet
there is little impetus from the authorities to make such plans when
spending is restricted. A result of São Paulo+s lackadaisical
approach to public transportation is an assault on the ears of
residents.
        In some parts of the city, the honking horns of bottlenecks and
sirens of police vehicles weaving through traffic is joined by the
almost incessant sound of helicopters whizzing by. The São Paulo
Helicopter Pilots Association says about 100 helicopters fly above
the city at any given time during the day.
        -I can+t stand helicopters,- said Paula Doria, a 21-year-old
student, -because I live next to an apartment building with a
heliport, and the noise is incredible.- Still, she said, -If I had enough
money to buy a helicopter I would, because it+s a way to escape
from crime.-
        Visually, the helicopter traffic is an added feature that can make
some of São Paulo+s more crowded districts, already adorned with
huge television advertising screens and multilingual billboards,
resemble a scene from -Blade Runner,- the 1982 movie about a
rain-soaked, futuristic Los Angeles.
        Just as a wealthy elite seeks private-sector solutions for its
problems in -Blade Runner,- São Paulo+s powerful are increasingly
turning to private companies for services normally in the public
sphere, like security, education and transportation.
        James Thurston Lynch, a former banker at Chase Manhattan,
understands this well. Mr. Lynch, a Brazilian who now has his own
investment firm, plans to buy 100 helicopters for a part ownership
program similar to the system that people use to share private jets
in the United States.
        Mr. Lynch, who intends to sign up 1,000 people to buy shares
in his fleet, said, -I hope to democratize use of the helicopter.-