Aerial view of the Maracana Complex, a Rio 2016 Olympic Games venue, is shown with nearly one year to go until the Rio 2016 Olympic Games on July 21, 2015 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.Matthew Stockman
There is a year to go until the opening of the 2016 Summer Olympics, and it feels like every neighbourhood in host city Rio de Janeiro is under construction. There is a race to extend the metro line under the city and out toward the Olympic Park, and a dash to get the stadium and other facilities in the park finished. There is roadwork and sewage work and renovation of everything from beachfronts to the famous Sambadrome (which will be used for the marathon and archery events).
Will it all be ready? Mayor Eduardo Paes, the city's maniacally energetic cheerleader-in-chief, says it will. The Rio 2016 committee itself hasn't updated its readiness chart on facilities since January, so residents have to rely on his promises. Many people predict that the same strategy that got Brazil ready for the World Cup in 2014, in a last frantic push, will see Rio set to play host – although facilities may be hastily and shoddily finished.
Some problems, however, can't be hurried through: A recent Associated Press investigation of water quality at Olympic venues found that not one was safe enough for healthy human contact, with bacteria and viruses present at rates thousands, even millions, of times above the accepted limit. Much of the city's sewage runs through open-air ditches directly into the sea; the Guanabara Bay, at the heart of the city, is today a trash-choked swamp with a gag-inducing reek of sewage.
Cleaning all this up was a key pledge in Rio's Olympic bid. But construction has begun on only one of eight planned sewage projects, and the city government now acknowledges it won't be done in time. Olympic water-sport federations are lobbying heavily to have their events moved out of the city.
Violence is another issue with no quick fix: Military forces were reported this week to be planning to occupy three favelas near key Olympic venues. Yet Amnesty International said this week that on-duty military police have themselves been responsible for "at least 16 per cent" of homicides in Rio in the past five years.
And what of the other legacies of the Games? Mr. Paes chants like a mantra that these Games will have no white elephants, save public money and overhaul the city's infrastructure and facilities for a more inclusive Rio. "The impact on people's lives is of fantastic proportions," he said recently.
The white-elephant problem is being addressed by repurposing existing facilities and by building some – such as a handball stadium – that will later be dismantled, moved and rebuilt as schools. It is not clear if these projects will save any money, but they won't leave empty buildings for Mr. Paes's critics to point out.
The public-money question is tricky, too. These seem certain to be some of the most expensive Games in history, with an estimated price tag of 38-billion reals (about $14-billion). The mayor says a public-private partnership model is saving taxpayers' money. But critics say that makes for conveniently complicated accounting. Sure, private developers are building many sporting venues, but when the city gives them the land, or sells it at a discount, or gives away rights to build a condo tower on top after the Games, that still costs taxpayers, notes Sergio Magalhaes, president of the Brazilian Institute of Architects.
He admires Mr. Paes's efforts and says the mayor has achieved a great deal, by the standards of a legendarily poorly governed city. But he decries planning for the Games, with the majority of construction out in the elite suburbs of Barra da Tijuca. This is a car-reliant, outmoded style of development, he says, that only serves to further divide the city, and Rio missed a key chance to revitalize its old city core.
"We need a friendlier city, where people circulate more, with better mobility, where people don't depend on cars, where there is quality public transportation, with fluid public space, and also spaces with multiple functions," he said. "We lost that opportunity."
With reports from Manuela Andreoni