Rio favela bulldozed for Olympic parking

The Guardian's Tom Phillips has an excellent piece today on poor residents of Rio de Janeiro being bulldozed from their homes to make way for the 2014 World Cup in 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games. Phillips visted the recently-demolished shantytown called Favela do Metro on the north side of the city, where a neighborhood once home 1,000 people has been reduced to rubble. There are disputing narratives about why the homes had to go. Residents say there were told to make way for new parking lot. City officials have a vaguer explanation involving notions like urban "transformation." Either way, it's an well-done story on an under-reported side of a city in the grip of Olympic fever.