{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.03724928366762178, 'fraction_numerical': 0.02464183381088825, 'mean_word_length': 5.083623693379791, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Race and Politics

designed for the ‘legal city’ to povertystricken areas of the city is undesirable. In the absence of specific legislation to deal with the problem, some justice might be found in the relaxation of the rules. Having said this, the country’s politicians seem to be uninterested in dealing with the country’s urban problems. It is more likely that the state seeks to hide and overlook these problems. For example, a bill to deal comprehensively with urban development, proposed and debated since 1983, has made no progress in Congress; president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, elected at the end of 1994 [and recently re-elected], has no proposals for urban development. Although Brazilian academics are increasingly contributing to politics and government policy—both as politicians and public office-holders—few have returned to academia and even fewer have treated the experience obtained in government as of academic interest. It follows that, generally speaking, Ermínia Maricato brings her personal experience as a public office-holder to the book but not the array of information and first-hand documentation that she might have had access to during the time she worked for the São Paulo local authority. The data used in the four maps, however interesting it is to plot the city’s neighbourhoods, can be obtained from official sources. To finish, despite its analytical strengths, the book presents some minor editorial problems. References to Schwarz (1991), Reis (1994), Vaz (1986), Medeiros (1992), Fiori (1994), Tavares (1994), Smolka (1992) and Souza (1992), to name but a few, are not listed in the Bibliography. This is, in sum, an insightful book by one of Brazil’s leading urban studies specialists. Book Reviews 185