“Don't build walls, no more; Or the city dies.” I discovered this poem on a solitary wheatpaste poster stuck to one of the endless walls that make the city of São Paulo a worse place to live. I must admit that every time I take my youngest son to get vaccinated at the local health clinic (UBS) in Vila Romana, I think it would be nice to have a can of spray paint to graffiti the poem onto the walls of one of the apartment complexes recently built right across the street, which occupies nearly an entire block in the neighborhood.
It is only a thought, of course, because as much as I see those excessive walls as an assault on the city and those who walk its streets, I do not advocate vandalism as a response.
