There have been hundreds of blocos (local street parades) in Rio carnival in recent years. Nobody really knew how many. For Carnaval 2010, the prefetura - Rio's local government - is trying to impose some order on the chaos by insisting that all the blocos register officially. The idea is to try to rationalize the schedule to minimize traffic congestion, and to predict where and when facilities like mobile toilets might be necessary. | Questions being asked? | | What is the main problem of the blocos of Rio? | - The traffic jam that they cause
- Violence
- Overcrowding.
- Trash left in streets
| | Should circuits or parade zones with assigned times be adopted? | As a result of the new law, 461 blocos have been given permission to parade in Rio carnaval 2010. The City subsidizes 120 of them. The decision to force the blocos to register officially has been controversial - there have been demonstrations in protest. Registration takes away some of the anarchic chaos that is the point of carnival. Some blocos (for example, the one that incorporates a ferry ride from Rio to Niteroi as part of their route) felt that they would never get their routes approved. Last year 269 blocos registered officially. This year there are 499 official parades - some blocos parade more than once. There's 39 in Zona Oeste (16 last year), 54 in Barra, 55 in Tijuca (21 last year), 83 in Zona Norte (from 18 last year), 96 in Centro and 172 in Zona Sul. "The challenge is to organize the party without letting it lose the spontaneity. The block has to jump in wherever you want, the way he sees fit" - advocates Cláudio Pinheiro, founder of Banda de Ipanema. President of the Association of Residents of Ipanema, Maria Amélia Loureiro disagrees. She even likes to see the band go away from the coast. "This year was a horror. My suggestion is to take the blocks to the center of Rio, which is not residential and has wider streets. There, they can make noise away from homes 24 hours a day. It would also facilitate the police, who could keep its men to one place." she told a globo report Riotur, the Rio state tourist board, has been able to make alterations to the dates and routes of some of the blocos to minimize disruption to traffic. Giselle of TD Sounds did a partial schedule of some of the best known blocos, with dates, times and locations - you can access this here | 
"most interesting"
