The Curious Case of Downtown Londrina

[Yuri]

The Curious Case of Downtown Londrina


Wilson Vieira

That’s a thread that probably won’t get any attention in SSP, but I decided to post it anyway, maybe as a diary, a personal archive.

I’ve lived in Londrina before comes to São Paulo ten years ago, in Downtown Londrina, more specifically and I always knew it was dense, denser than other cities of the same size but I never gave much a thought.

Anyway, as I organizing my tables waiting for the 2022 Census, going way down to neighbourhood level, I realized how an oddity Downtown Londrina is, as it has the same size of big dense cities, cities up to 7 times larger than Londrina itself, like Belo Horizonte, Curitiba or Porto Alegre.

For context, here a list with Brazilian largest urban areas (2010 Census). Londrina ranks 27th only:

----------------------------- 2010 -------- 2000

São Paulo -------------- 19.520.758 --- 17.735.391 --- 10,07%
Rio de Janeiro --------- 11.769.605 --- 10.802.930 ---- 8,95%
Belo Horizonte ---------- 4.563.078 ---- 4.086.680 --- 11,66%
Recife ------------------ 3.513.174 ---- 3.198.113 ---- 9,85%
Porto Alegre ------------ 3.492.743 ---- 3.301.944 ---- 5,78%
Fortaleza --------------- 3.291.204 ---- 2.803.413 --- 17,40%
Salvador ---------------- 3.266.562 ---- 2.857.776 --- 14,30%
Brasília ---------------- 3.187.984 ---- 2.507.587 --- 27,13%
Curitiba ---------------- 2.993.678 ---- 2.608.846 --- 14,75%
Belém ------------------- 2.025.276 ---- 1.784.158 --- 13,51%
Goiânia ----------------- 1.980.649 ---- 1.582.680 --- 25,15%
Campinas ---------------- 1.815.615 ---- 1.537.496 --- 18,09%
Manaus ------------------ 1.802.014 ---- 1.405.835 --- 28,18%
Vitória ----------------- 1.565.393 ---- 1.337.187 --- 17,07%
Santos ------------------ 1.556.718 ---- 1.395.330 --- 11,57%
São Luís ---------------- 1.309.330 ---- 1.070.688 --- 22,29%
Natal ------------------- 1.187.899 ------ 980.897 --- 21,10%
Maceió ------------------ 1.088.456 ------ 931.563 --- 16,84%
João Pessoa ------------- 1.013.215 ------ 853.926 --- 18,65%
Teresina ------------------ 969.690 ------ 845.052 --- 14,75%
São José dos Campos ------- 925.887 ------ 806.734 --- 14,77%
Florianópolis ------------- 851.955 ------ 687.791 --- 23,87%
Cuiabá -------------------- 803.694 ------ 698.644 --- 15,04%
Campo Grande -------------- 786.797 ------ 663.621 --- 18,56%
Aracaju ------------------- 756.952 ------ 611.020 --- 23,88%
Sorocaba ------------------ 739.572 ------ 624.461 --- 18,43%
Londrina ------------------ 651.632 ------ 577.404 --- 12,86%
Ribeirão Preto ------------ 642.343 ------ 535.652 --- 19,92%
Jundiaí ------------------- 633.273 ------ 529.990 --- 19,49%
Uberlândia ---------------- 604.013 ------ 501.214 --- 20,51%
Feira de Santana ---------- 556.642 ------ 480.949 --- 15,74%
Joinville ----------------- 540.098 ------ 453.249 --- 19,16%
Juiz de Fora -------------- 516.247 ------ 456.796 --- 13,01%
São José do Rio Preto ----- 502.494 ------ 439.186 --- 14,41%

Londrina is the 2nd largest urban area in Paraná state with 650,000 inh., way below Curitiba, the capital, with 3 million inh. Londrina is not a touristic city, a tourist resort by the ocean. No, it’s an ordinary mid-size city, surrounded by very productive farmland. It’s not a state capital either, which in Brazil are the largest cities of every single state.

So, let’s get to the numbers. I was greatly helped as those definitions of “Downtown” are pretty much the same size, around 3 km² (or 1.15 sq mi), making comparisons very straightforward. All numbers are from 2010 Census.

[Yuri]

Downtown Londrina



It has 32,601 inh. in 3.3 km² for a density of 9,879 inh./ km². It’s square shaped, very well visible surrounded by wide avenues: https://www.google.com/maps/@-23.310.../data=!3m1!1e3

The core of it’s on Cathedral as the oldest parts of it. There are lots of examples of modernist architecture. The western 1/3 of it is newer (highrises started on the late 1980’s), more residential, upmarket and denser.

As Downtowns of biggest urban areas in Northeast are historic, light populated and surrounded even by slums, they don’t compare very well. Brasília barely has a Downtown. So I picked up the largest cities, with the most populated Downtowns, right below São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro: Belo Horizonte (3rd largest urban area), Porto Alegre (5th), Curitiba (9th) and Goiânia (11th). The smaller of them, 3x larger than Londrina.




Downtown Belo Horizonte



31,448 inh. in 3.6 km². Here I added up to Downtown the neighbouring districts (Floresta and Santa Efigênia) to find a similar area to Londrina’s. Belo Horizonte is a very dense urban area, 7x more populated than Londrina. Still, it’s Downtown has fewer people.

Note, it’s the northern section of Belo Horizonte “Ring Avenue”: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ce...!4d-43.9386558 . South of it there are more upmarket and denser residential districts (Lourdes, Savassi). The area inside the Ring has 91,591 inh. in 8.87 km². We can call it the central heart of Belo Horizonte, then much bigger than Londrina, but density only slightly: 10,326 inh./ km².




Downtown Porto Alegre



39,154 inh. in 2.44 km². Porto Alegre is known for its density, below São Paulo and Rio only, it’s a sea of midrises that go all the way very far of Downtown. We can see clearly here: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ce...!4d-51.2278242 . Dense neighbourhoods surround Downtown.

It’s clearly ahead Londrina’s, but again, it’s a much bigger city. Note Porto Alegre sustain a higher density over a much larger area compared to the bigger Belo Horizonte: 273,477 inh. in 25.79 km² for a 10,604 inh./ km² density.




Downtown Curitiba



37,283 inh. in 3.30 km². Curitiba, Paraná state capital and almost 5x more populated than Londrina, has the same area with a population slightly bigger: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ce...!4d-49.2699665
It’s in better shape than Porto Alegre and Belo Horizonte, retaining more wealthier residents, but unlike happen to them, density falls a lot as soon as you leave Downtown. In this case, it’s much more similar to Londrina.




Downtown Goiânia



23,102 inh. in 3.31 km² https://www.google.com/maps/@-16.671.../data=!3m1!1e3 . Here Londrina is way ahead, despite being 3x smaller. Downtown Goiânia is not in a good shape either, having lost most of its middle-class.

[Crawford]

I've been to Balneário Camboriú, which is a very small city in Southern Brazil, but extremely dense and huge skyline, even for Brazilian standards. That was perhaps the most impressive city I've seen, relative to size. Nearby Joinville, which is much bigger, feels like a country village in comparison.

[Yuri]

And now, let’s compare Londrina with similar sized cities.

Downtown Campo Grande



Campo Grande is Mato Grosso do Sul state capital. Bigger than Londrina (786,000 inh. vs 651,000 inh.). Socioeconomics and geography quite close to Londrina. Its Downtown: 11,509 inh. in 2.94 km²: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ce...!4d-54.6122371 . 3x less populated than Londrina’s and losing population (12,907 inh. in 2000).




Downtown Maringá



Neighbouring Maringá (80 km west of Londrina, 3rd largest city in the state, with 475,860 inh. in 2010. Downtown Maringá has 12,101 inh. in 2.30 km²: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Zo...!4d-51.9399117. Comprised by Zona 1 and Zona 9. A very liveable, green, upmarket Downtown, full of very tall highrises. Very strong for a city of its size, but nowhere near Londrina.




Downtown Uberlândia



Uberlândia, a typical big-ish mid-sized city in Brazilian Centre-South with 604,013 inh. (2010), justl slightly less populated than Londrina. Downtown Uberlândia: 17,390 inh. in 2.84 km²: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.916.../data=!3m1!1e3. Very ordinary, unimpressive Downtown.

[Yuri]

Londrina is up there with one of the most populated, strongest Downtowns in Brazil, neck to neck for the 3rd spot.

I can’t think of any case like that in other countries and there’s no easy explanation for why Downtown Londrina got that strong. I guess it’s just an oddity.

And here some pics to help you gauys make sense of the area:


Wilson Vieira

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I've been to Balneário Camboriú, which is a very small city in Southern Brazil, but extremely dense and huge skyline, even for Brazilian standards. That was perhaps the most impressive city I've seen, relative to size. Nearby Joinville, which is much bigger, feels like a country village in comparison.

Balneário Camboriú has the tallest buildings of Brazil today.

The thing is, BC is part of a metro area of 650,000 inh., headed by Itajaí just north of it. BC itself has only 150,000 inh. but houses 1 million tourists during summer, hence the oversized skyline.

What's very odd about Londrina is, there is no special reason explaining the abnormal density and the size of its Downtown. It's just another big-ish city in Brazil countryside and somehow it managed to rival with metro areas several times bigger.

[MAC123]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I've been to Balneário Camboriú, which is a very small city in Southern Brazil, but extremely dense and huge skyline, even for Brazilian standards. That was perhaps the most impressive city I've seen, relative to size. Nearby Joinville, which is much bigger, feels like a country village in comparison.

Yes I believe it's the tallest city in Brazil (and maybe South America?). It holds like 9 of the ten tallest in Brazil and keeps expanding. Apparently there's even a plan for a 1,700 ft residential building which would take the title of tallest residential from Central Park Tower.

[DCReid]

Originally Posted by Yuri

Londrina is up there with one of the most populated, strongest Downtowns in Brazil, neck to neck for the 3rd spot.

I can’t think of any case like that in other countries and there’s no easy explanation for why Downtown Londrina got that strong. I guess it’s just an oddity.

And here some pics to help you gauys make sense of the area:


Wilson Vieira

Wiki states that Londrina was not officially established until 1930 and its major growth spurt was in the 1950s and 1960s. So it is a newer city by Brazil standards. It seems that many Brazilian cities have similar clusters of apartment blocks in their downtowns. Were they mostly built around the same time (1950s, 60s). Oddly Brasilia, the capital established in 1960, doesn't seem to have clusters of apartment highrises, but it was a planned city.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by DCReid

Wiki states that Londrina was not officially established until 1930 and its major growth spurt was in the 1950s and 1960s. So it is a newer city by Brazil standards. It seems that many Brazilian cities have similar clusters of apartment blocks in their downtowns. Were they mostly built around the same time (1950s, 60s). Oddly Brasilia, the capital established in 1960, doesn't seem to have clusters of apartment highrises, but it was a planned city.

That's right. Till 1929 the whole region was completely covered by rainforest, despite not being so far away from São Paulo (500km west of it).

British developers put up Paraná Plantation (had the then Prince of Wales as a shareholder), bought the whole region (6,000 sq miles), cleared the forest, built Londrina and all the other cities westwards including Maringá and sold every peace of urban and rural plots. By 1936, people from 36 countries had bought lands in Londrina, Italians being the majority, followed by Japanese, Germans and Spanish. It's reputed as one of the best soils in the world, the dark red one.

The whole region boomed as the British built the railway link to São Paulo and the port of Santos. Coffee was introduced and Londrina region was responsible for 1/3 of world's production. Then the 1975 Black Frost came in an destroyed every single coffee tree that covered the entire northern half of Paraná state. 2 million people left the region afterwards, but the Northern Paraná managed to recovery, replacing coffee with soybeans, maize and wheat. It's Brazil's 2nd largest grain producer and the region is much wealthier than Brazilian average.

Brasília is a Niemeyer's magnum opus, it was the future as seen in the 1950's. It was built to cars, everything segregated, "organized". For instance, there are no corners in Brasília. It aged badly. Regarding other Brazilian cities, around the 1950's-1970's when they were experiencing an insane growth, they were taken by modernist buildings that destroyed much of the classic architecture that was built before. There are many good modernist buildings, but the majority was a very poor copy. Hence they don't give Brazilian Downtowns a good appearance. I learned to like modernist architecture a bit more these days.

[edale]

Sounds like Londrina is the Calgary of Brazil. Maybe Balneário Camboriú is the Austin?

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by edale

Sounds like Londrina is the Calgary of Brazil. Maybe Balneário Camboriú is the Austin?

Yeah, I thought about Calgary when I was organizing this thread. A not so big city with big Downtown. An even better comparison would be Saskatoon if it had a Downtown rivalling Calgary's.

Balneário Camboriú is definitely Miami. The place where Southern Brazil's nouveaux riches get together.

[muppet]

Perhaps Londrina has more of the lowrise suburbs (read:richer) entering at a different state of its development than other cities? Thus hemming in the centre into being more highrise.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by muppet

Perhaps Londrina has more of the lowrise suburbs (read:richer) entering at a different state of its development than other cities? Thus hemming in the centre into being more highrise.

I don't know. Downtown Londrina is all middle class and upper-middle class and aside few blocks on the northeast corner of it, it didn't experience any decline. The detached house neighbourhoods around it (like the one in the first pic of my last post), are on the same socioeconomic bracket.

Londrina is also very affordable, a relatively wealthy city with relatively cheap real estate.

[dimondpark]

Oh about 25 years ago, I was walking on a BR(Brazilian interstate highway) with my missionary companion just outside of a small town called Santana do Livramento, Rio Grande do Sul-we missed the bus and so we decided to walk the 3 miles back to town. All of a sudden, a black BMW sedan stopped next to us and the license plate said Londrina-PR, anyway it was a couple from Londrina that was driving from Parana to Uruguay who happened to belong to the same church as us. They gave us a ride back to Livramento, and they gave us R$20 to get something to eat. Good times!

[Wigs]

Interesting thread, Yuri.

If it wasn't for Brazilian forumers like yourself most wouldn't even know a city like this even exists.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by dimondpark

Oh about 25 years ago, I was walking on a BR(Brazilian interstate highway) with my missionary companion just outside of a small town called Santana do Livramento, Rio Grande do Sul-we missed the bus and so we decided to walk the 3 miles back to town. All of a sudden, a black BMW sedan stopped next to us and the license plate said Londrina-PR, anyway it was a couple from Londrina that was driving from Parana to Uruguay who happened to belong to the same church as us. They gave us a ride back to Livramento, and they gave us R$20 to get something to eat. Good times!

That's very unusual. Despite both being in Southern Brazil, they are 800 miles apart. Londrina in the very northern end and Santana do Livramento on the very south, right in the border with Uruguay.

P.S. R$ 20 back then was like R$ 100 today. Good money.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by Wigs

Interesting thread, Yuri.

If it wasn't for Brazilian forumers like yourself most wouldn't even know a city like this even exists.

Thank you! I keep imagining how it's like for US & Canada forumers to picture a completely different place they're used to. I mean, I've never been to both countries either, but we're so exposed everyday to things up there that everything looks very familiar whereas you are not to a random country far away.

[dimondpark]

Originally Posted by Yuri

That's very unusual. Despite both being in Southern Brazil, they are 800 miles apart. Londrina in the very northern end and Santana do Livramento on the very south, right in the border with Uruguay.

P.S. R$ 20 back then was like R$ 100 today. Good money.

Yes that was a very long distance ...we went to a churrascaria that was like R$3 and really good lol

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by dimondpark

Yes that was a very long distance ...we went to a churrascaria that was like R$3 and really good lol

That's a trigger. A coxinha today ranges from R$ 6 to R$ 8.

[UrbanImpact]

Originally Posted by Yuri

That's a trigger. A coxinha today ranges from R$ 6 to R$ 8.

Brazil is still incredibly inexpensive for us to visit. I was there a few months ago to see family and had some nice shopping sprees at the malls.

We have places to buy Coxinhas here now outside of Brazilian supermarkets:
https://goo.gl/maps/jvvw8YefLdXNsRG86

Banco Do Brasil:
https://g.page/bb-americas-lighthouse-point?share

Here's the large Brazilian supermarket:
https://goo.gl/maps/KePeZKPoCv8kWPhX7