Entre o legal e o tradicional: uma avaliação da implementação do código da cidade do município de Fortaleza na feira livre de Messejana

Abstract

In 2019, Complementary Law No. 270, better known as the City Code, was enacted in Fortaleza, Ceará. It brought together a variety of disparate legislation and consolidated it with the former 1981 Building and Bylaws Code. Its purpose was to serve as a legal framework for regulating various situations considered to be municipal jurisdictions. Influenced by federal legislation, particularly the 2001 City Statute, the Ceará legislation is based, among other things, on modernizing law enforcement, improved urban planning, and increased social participation. To observe these changes, the Messejana Fair, held in a public space, designated for commerce and an environment conducive to social and cultural interactions, serves as an example to see whether the improvements that justified the new City Code are being fully implemented. Several scholars such as Estima Giacobbo and Hermany (2023), Da Silva Araújo (2024), Dias (2025), Levin (2016), Placha (2011), among others, advocate in their works for legislation and government action that respects the various forms of occupation of public spaces, combating state problems and allowing public participation. Therefore, given the context, the general objective of this research is to evaluate in depth (Rodrigues, 2008) the implementation of the City Code of Fortaleza (CE), as a public policy that aims to regulate and organize commercial activities carried out in public spaces of the municipality, having as its territorial scope the century-old Feira Livre de Messejana. This research is qualitative, exploratory, and analytical in nature. Data collection will be based on bibliographic and documentary research, as well as semistructured interviews with vendors and the public at the Messejana market (Minayo, Deslandes, and Gomes, 2009). Documentary Analysis and Thematic Content Analysis were used to analyze these data, based on predefined categories and openness to field categories (Bardin, 1977; Dias; Mishima, 2023). Based on the evaluative research on the implementation of the urban planning policy, the following findings are highlighted: (i) Although it presents innovations, the urban space regulation policy does not demonstrate a significant difference from the similar norm that preceded it; (ii) It was demonstrated that the policy's content does not maintain a strong influence on the context for which it is intended; (iii) The objectives inserted by virtue of the policy's implementation in 2019 still lack stability in terms of their implementation and delivery; (iv) The proposed cut is maintained, mainly, due to its condition of offering an option for the popular classes, also counting, in this case, with its historical aspect; (v) No elements were identified that corroborate the state's promise of modernization or of opening up space for social participation in the institutional trajectory of the policy; (vi) Regarding the characteristics related to the temporality and territoriality of the policy, oversight did not provide greater understanding of its rights and duties, characterizing it as a punitive or corrective measure. Thus, based on the evaluative research, the importance and tradition of the Messejana Fair are evident. However, it suffers from the lack of public action involved in addressing the challenges arising from its position within the urban cultural, social, and economic sphere. Therefore, it is recommended to expand spaces for participation in the formulation, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of policies for organizing urban space, based on the perspectives and voices of the municipality's open-air markets