Source: http://viatrolebus.com.br/2013/03/moradores-querem-bonde-de-santa-teresa-de-volta/bonde-santa-tereza/

Rio de Janeiro is probably the most known Brazilian city around the world. The city image is shaped by natural beauties, Bossa Nova, samba, carnival, the big statue of Christ the Redeemer [o Cristo Redentor] and the Pão de Açucar Mountain. (Of course we may not forget some sad things that is also part of the city, like the urban violence and inappropriate housing in favelas). Rio de Janeiro is both one important city for the Brazilian history and for the tourism economy. So the historic heritage should be carefully preserved, right? Yes, but it doesn’t always happen. A historic icon is in danger to be extinct: the electric trolley of Santa Teresa.

The electric trolley of Santa Teresa started run in 1896. Therefore, the trolley is almost 120 years old and since 1968 this is the only historic trolley yet in operation in Rio. Who visited Rio de Janeiro during the 20th century or during the first decade of the 21th century probably saw the trolley in operation. Passengers could take the train from the center of Rio to the Santa Teresa neighborhood, so they could cross the famous Arcos da Lapa.

Source: http://www.mjturismo.com.br/news-tour/brasil-imperial-12-a-24-de-maio-2015/attachment/bondinho-no-arco-da-lapa/

After decades of insufficient maintenance by public authorities, the trolleys stopped run in 2011. In this year, a sad accident killed six people and injured more than 50 passengers. Since then, the trolleys have not worked and they are stored in a workshop. The government is building and testing new trolleys, but the service don’t come back yet.

In this carelessness context with the historical heritage, an organization called Meu Rio [My Rio] took action. This is an organization that operates mainly in the city of Rio de Janeiro and its main action is to pressure public officials and other authorities to defend the citizens. For example, they achieve success in ask maintenance for some public schools and opening of GPS data from buses of the public transport system.

Source: http://deguarda.nossascidades.org/

Regarding to the trolley of Santa Teresa, the Meu Rio mobilized people to monitor the fate of the historical trolleys. They are especially concerned about the irregular grant to third parties. So they created a petition to request an inventory of goods from all trolley system. The argument is that some of the historic trolley (as old as 1896) can be recovered and operate together with the new trolleys that are under construction.

Source: http://deguardanobondinho.meurio.org.br/

After the government put the trolleys at a workshop, the Meu Rio created the page called De Guarda no Bondinho [on guard on the trolley]. The idea is basically push towards the trolleys’ preservation instead of being donated or thrown away. They put a camera in front of the workshop to monitor whether someone remove the trains. People who are concerned about this issue can register on the platform and inform his/her phone number. Thus, in case of the need for a flash mobilization, Meu Rio promises to send SMS to everyone. The idea is simple but looks efficient.

Until this week, the site has 2478 people registered, which are called guardians. Meu Rio explains the reasons and the procedure: “If it continues, the cable cars there will be only in the memory. Thus we are on guard! We will prevent the removal of parts until it’s done a rigorous and updated inventory of this heritage. Enlist now: we will send a SMS calling all guardians for the workshop door, if we suspect they removed parts. The city is ours. The trolleys too!”

However, there is no record that there was a mobilization in front of the workshop. This week, the camera is not working. Anyway, my goal is not to evaluate the effectiveness of this project, but discuss how this model can be inspiring for other actions and for our reflection on the exercise of citizenship.

I think this case illustrates the Schudson’s idea on monitorial citizenship. “A monitorial citizen scans (rather than reads) the informational environment in a way so that he or she may be alerted on a very wide variety of issues for a very wide variety of ends and may be mobilized around those issues in a large variety of ways”. The author argues that citizens can be more monitorial than follows the news. This kind of citizenship is based on personal interests and due specialized. As professor Zuckerman said at the class, the big challenge of the monitorial practice is the fight for public attention, once there are a lot of agendas looking for visibility.

The Meu Rio acts as a vigilant that monitors closely what happens with the trolleys. Thus, the citizens don’t need themselves give up their daily activities to monitor this issue. They can just engage if necessary. This model is good and bad at the same time. It doesn’t require too much from the citizens who can engage with a low cognitive and emotional cost. But at the same time this kind of project doesn’t guarantee that people understand the reasons for the trolleys’ support. The citizen takes a political position, but they don’t necessarily learn from this experience.

This kind of project isn’t concerned to create broadly opportunities for the formation of citizens. Through this platform, citizens don’t have the opportunity to understand better the operation, maintenance and financing of the public transport. Likewise, there isn’t explanations on preservation of the trolleys as historical heritage. Anyway, in my opinion, making choice of a much focused political action in the “monitorial” paradigm, Meu Rio don’t teach the idea of the Santa Teresa trolley as a citizen’s rights. Schudson could say that there is a valorization of the monitor citizenship and a devaluation of the rights-conscious citizenship.