Working and walking with visitors in Sao Paulo, the city that today I call home, I’m an avid user and a prolific contributor of Google Maps.
Living in one of the biggest metropolis of the world I understood that the structure of a city can be very complicated some times and the possibility to access to specific informations about specific areas can help on providing a better experience.
I spend most of my time walking in the street and often I grab my phone on my left hand to check where to go and how to get there. Not only this, many times I consider visiting a place depending on how this “appears” on Google Maps.
In a city like mine, distances are enormous and you usually have to consider before if worth it to try to reach a place or not.
Choosing a life without a private car I believe maps improves my ability to walk.
Talking about Sao Paulo, the city itself has one of the largest historical center of Latin America, also affected by a long period of decadence, once the old Brazilian bourgeoisie left it to move to “better areas” of the city.
This contributed to a stigmatization of the historical center, often linking it to an idea of degradation and danger.
I believe that by improving access to information about places and mobility solutions, those who do not know the center can finally feel at ease visiting it.
Adding business, activities, events, uploading all the infos and details about activities and accessibility to places I use Google Maps to actually improve the area were I live and work!
