São Paulo Creek Becomes Linear Park

Why this is here: The Tiquatira creek park stretches along a waterway that received over 40,000 newly planted trees, creating a green space within the city.

Hélio da Silva and a team planted over 40,000 trees along the Tiquatira creek in São Paulo, Brazil. This creek, once confined, now forms the city’s largest linear park. Journalist Ramón Raquelly documented the transformation in the podcast “Oásis da Leste,” exploring how São Paulo’s urbanization historically obscured its waterways.

The podcast’s first episode reconstructs the city’s development, revealing how sanitation ideas and road-building converted valley floors into avenues. It highlights the often-hidden waters flowing beneath the concrete. The project received funding through the Vandré Fonseca Journalism Award, supported by the Amazon Sustainable Foundation and the Grupo Boticário Foundation for Nature Protection.

The podcast acknowledges that many of São Paulo’s waterways remain unseen and unaddressed. Further episodes will likely explore other urban streams and recovery efforts. The work to reveal and restore these waterways continues.