. It is located at
In light of its economic and demographic weight, São Paulo has always played a pivotal role in
. With a constituency larger than that of many Brazilian states, the mayor's office is viewed by politicians as a springboard for state and national-level offices.
, with an average elevation of around 800 metres (2,625 ft) above sea level - though at a distance of only about 70 kilometers (43 mi) from the Atlantic Ocean. This distance is covered by two
, (see "Transportation" section below) that roll down the range, leading to the portuary city of
. Rolling terrain prevails within the urbanized areas of São Paulo but in the North of the city - where the
. The entire region is very stable tectonically, and no significant
has ever been recorded.
and leisure for São Paulo. However, in the latter half of the 20th century, it became grossly polluted by raw
. However, a substantial clean-up program for both rivers are in the pipeline, financed by international development banks such as the
. Neither river is navigable in the stretch that flows through the city, however water transport becomes increasingly important on the river Tietê further downstream (towards South, near
basin.
There are no large natural lakes in the region, but the Guarapiranga and Billings
in the outskirts of São Paulo are used for power generation, water storage, and leisure activities such as sailing.
. Today, non-native species are common, as the mild climate and abundant rainfall permit a multitude of tropical, subtropical and temperate plants to be cultivated, with
being especially ubiquitous.
. Temperatures seldom reach 30 °C (86 °F) during summer, while frost is rare during winter. All-time record temperatures are 35.3 °C (96.6 °F) in
(both at the Mirante de Santana National Weather Station, in the north region). In the mountains around the city (Horto Florestal), -3.9 °C (25 °F) were registered also in
(unofficially).
. Rainfall is abundant, especially in the warmer months, but rare between June and August. Neither São Paulo nor the nearby coast has ever been hit by a
activity is uncommon.
is a month which, in the last years, despite of belonging to the winter, is mostly dry and hot, sometimes reaching temperatures of 28°C. This is a phenomenon called "veranico" (in portuguese, "little summer").
Main article: Greater São Paulo Metropolitan region The City of São Paulo is divided into 31 boroughs, called
subprefectures (
subprefeituras in Portuguese):
Each subprefecture is divided into several districts (in most cases, two or three). The subprefectures with the largest number of districts are the boroughs of Sé, in the historical downtown, Butantã, the location of USP, Lapa, Penha and Mooca, all having eleven districts. The district where the headquarters of the subprefecture is located receives the same name of the subprefecture, with exception of M'Boi Mirim. Some important districts which don't own a subprefecture are:
Together with the administrative division, there is also a geographic radial division established in 2007 by the mayor
Gilberto Kassab. The city is divided in ten regions (historical downtown, extended downtown, north, south, east, west, northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest), each one identified with a distinct color in the buses and in the street plaques. These divisions have no relationship with the subprefectures and districts, and, in some cases, the same district may be in two or more geographic regions.
Aricanduva Butantã Campo Belo
Campo Limpo
Capela do Socorro
Casa Verde
Cidade Ademar
Cidade Tiradentes
Ermelino Matarazzo
Freguesia do Ó
Guaianases
Ipiranga Itaim Paulista
Itaquera
Jabaquara
Jaçanã Lapa M'Boi Mirim Mooca Parelheiros Penha Perus
Pinheiros Pirituba
Santana Santo Amaro São Mateus São Miguel
Sé Vila Maria
Vila Mariana Vila Prudente
Morumbi (belongs to
Butantã)
Consolação (includes
Pacaembu and
Higienópolis, belongs to
Sé)
Moema (includes
Ibirapuera, belongs to
Vila Mariana)
Liberdade (belongs to
Sé)
Bela Vista (belongs to
Sé)
Jardim Paulista (includes the
Paulista Avenue, belongs to
Pinheiros)
Tatuapé (belongs to
Mooca)
Perdizes (belongs to
Lapa)
Barra Funda (belongs to
Lapa)
Itaim Bibi (includes
Vila Olímpia, belongs to
Pinheiros)
Boroughs São Paulo is the most important financial center in Latin America. São Paulo's
stock exchange is the
Bovespa, while its
futures exchange is the
BM&F. Its financial districts are located on the surroundings of
Avenida Paulista and in the
Centro Velho (Old Centre). Other important business districts are located in the boroughs of Pinheiros and Santo Amaro, including the large road
Faria Lima.
There are a number of highly specialized regions, such as Bom Retiro and Brás (wholesale garment districts), Consolação (lighting equipment), Rua Santa Ifigênia (electrical and electronic parts), Rua Teodoro Sampaio (furniture and musical equipment), the posh
Rua Oscar Freire (designer and label stores), Avenida Europa (luxurious automobiles) and the crowded
Rua Vinte Cinco de Março.
In the last few years, São Paulo has become a major host to various international events and fairs, visited by the most varied audiences, ranging from scientists and artists to merchants and entrepreneurs, coming from Brazil and also from abroad. Some of the most important events that usually take place in the city are:
There has been a gradual change in the city economic profile since a decade ago - from a strongly industrialized base to service and technology-oriented industries. Intensive manpower-consuming firms have been replaced by a great number of high-technology companies and service providers of a vast range, namely law services,
investment banking,
IT, consultancy firms,
advertising and radio and TV broadcasting companies.
Leather Goods Fair - Couromoda
International Textile Fair - Fenit
International Construction Fair
Shoes, Fashion Accessories and Machines Fair - Francal
Cosmetics and Beauty International Fair - Cosmetica
Lodging-related products, services and equipment Fair - Equipotel
International Automobile Fair - Salão do Automóvel
Book Fair Biennale - Bienal Internacional do Livro
Economy São Paulo is one of the world's more diverse cosmopolitan areas:
Other sizable groups are:
Chinese,
Armenians,
Lithuanian,
Greeks,
Syrians,
Koreans,
Polish,
Hungarians, and
Jamaicans.
5,500,000 are direct or indirect descendants of
Italians. The
Edifício Itália (
Italy Building), the second highest skyscraper of the city (165 m), was named in honor of the Italians.
3,000,000 people are direct or indirect descendants of
Portuguese.
2,000,000 are direct or indirect descendants of
Spaniards.
1,500,000 people have direct or indirect
African ancestry.
1,000,000 people are direct or indirect descendants of
Germans.
850,000 people are direct or indirect descendants of
Lebanese immigrants— by far the largest number of Lebanese outside Lebanon.
More than 1 million people are direct or indirect descendants of
Japanese. São Paulo has the largest number of Japanese outside Japan. The Japanese community's historical centre is the Liberdade neighborhood.
São Paulo is home to the largest Jewish community in Brazil with about 130,000 people.
There is a considerable number of immigrants from other countries in Latin America, especially
Argentina,
Uruguay,
Paraguay,
Bolivia, and
Chile.
Note that many
paulistanos have mixed ethnic origins; the numbers above may count individuals belonging to multiple groups.
Demographics As in the rest of Brazil, Portuguese is the official and dominant language of the vast majority of the population. However, many other languages, such as
German,
Japanese,
English,
Arabic,
Spanish,
Chinese, and
Korean are still spoken by first and second-generation members of their respective ethnic communities.
Italian was once widespread, and though most
Italo-Brazilians in the city are no longer fluent in it, typical
Paulistano accent usually retains a distinctive Italian
cadence.
Languages São Paulo hosts the
University of São Paulo (USP). USP is a state university financially supported by the State of São Paulo. It charges no tuition fees for students who qualify in its very competitive entrance exams. USP is an important research centre, as well as one of the most highly-regarded academic institutions in Brazil. USP's main campus is located in the Cidade Universitária neighbourhood. Several smaller campuses are located throughout the state.
Other respected universities include the
Fundação Getúlio Vargas, the
Federal University of São Paulo,
Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP) and
Mackenzie Presbyterian University, the latter founded by
North American missionaries. Also, São Paulo is home to the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Nucleares (IPEN, National Institute of Nuclear ResearchIPEN) and the largest public hospital in the country (
Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da USP).
Education Culture Adoniran Barbosa was a famous
samba singer and composer that became successful in São Paulo's radio era. Born in 1912 in the town of Valinhos, Barbosa became the composer of the lower classes of São Paulo, particularly the poor Italian immigrants living in the quarters of Bexiga (Bela Vista) and Brás, and the poor who lived in the city's many shanties and
cortiços (degraded multifamily row houses). The topics of his songs are drawn from the life of low-wage urban workers, the unemployed and the vagabonds. His first big hit was Saudosa Maloca ("Shanty of Fond Memories", 1951), where three homeless friends recall with nostalgia their improvised shanty, which was torn down by the landowner to make room for a building. In his Trem das Onze ("The 11 PM Train", 1964) record, which has been ranked one of the five best samba songs ever, the protagonist explains to his lover that he cannot stay any longer because he has to catch the last train to the Jaçanã suburb, for his mother will not sleep before he arrives. An old-school samba band called
Demônios da Garoa still plays his songs in the traditional Bar Brahma venue in
Centro.
In the late 1960s, a
psychedelic rock band called
Os Mutantes led the way in the national avant garde music scene. Their success is sometimes related to that of other
tropicalia musicians, but they also had a musical style and ideas of their own. They were regarded as very
paulistanos in their behaviour and clothing. Os Mutantes released five albums together before lead singer
Rita Lee departed in 1972 to start a solo career. Although almost exclusively known in Brazil at that time, Os Mutantes became quite successful abroad after the 1990s (a well-spread legend has it that one Brazilian girl in an exchange programme in
California, U.S., forgot one Mutantes' vinyl record in her American host family, leading the way to the popularisation of the band in that U.S. state). In 2000, a record sung in English,
Tecnicolor, was released with artwork designed by
Sean Lennon.
After the two oil price shocks in the 1970s, the country suffered from an economic recession during the
1980s, a phenomenon that was named the
lost decade. A late punk and garage scene became strong in the 1980s, perhaps associated with the gloomy scenario of unemployment and few actual prospectives from the viewpoint of the youth. Underground rock bars and clubs in town were full of thriving musicians and artists waiting for their moment to come.
Ira!, which translates as
anger or
ire in Portuguese, was one of the rock bands that came about at that time. They were strongly influenced by the
Mod sound of
The Who, the hard rock of
Led Zeppelin and the punk rock of
The Clash. The band still exists, although with sparse records released. Ira!'s
guitarist Edgard Scandurra has a solo career of his own.
In the 1990s, a new musical style has come about:
drum & bass.
DJ Marky, nowadays considered one of the most exciting DJs/producers in the dance music scene, used to work in a record shop in São Paulo in the early 1990s, which allowed him access to the
hardcore sounds that were coming from the UK at the time. Although hardcore wasn't immediately well accepted by the clubing scene in Brazil, Marky started playing these records out, almost giving up at some point because of the small audiences interested in that kind of music. As Marky followed the
breakbeat evolution to
jungle, a local scene began to develop by itself, and his work began to pay off. In August 1997, Marky made the most important move of his career by travelling to the UK with
DJ Patife, intending to meet their drum & bass heroes, by invitation of
Bristol-born producer Bryan Gee. Other d&b artists include
DJ Patife,
XRS,
Drumagick, and
Fernanda Porto.
Music To be expanded. Please help contributing and explaining the historical roles of these artists.
Mário de Andrade Oswald de Andrade Literature São Paulo is a major cultural centre. The city has an ethnically diverse metropolitan area, with heavy Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Arab and Japanese influences.
The city is known for its varied and sophisticated cuisine, ranging from
Chinese to
French, from
fast food chains to five star restaurants. There are approximately 52 different types of cuisines in São Paulo, and more than 12,000 restaurants. Other venues such as bars, pubs, lounges and discos cater to a variety of music tastes.
São Paulo is home to the
São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) and "Pinacoteca do Estado" art museums, a symphonic orchestra (
São Paulo State Symphony (OSESP), and a
Formula One Grand Prix racing circuit (
Interlagos).
Sites of interest Praça da Sé (Large square next to the
São Paulo Cathedral. Official center of the city)
Edifício Itália (skyscraper with observation deck)
Banespa Building (skyscraper with observation deck and museum)
Pátio do Colégio (founding site of the city)
Catedral da Sé (the metropolitan cathedral, a symbol of the city)
Museu do Ipiranga (a museum built in honor of the proclamation of the independence of Brazil)
Solar da Marquesa (a rare example of 18th century architectural style)
Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (designed by Ramos de Azevedo in 1897)
Avenida Paulista (one of the most important thoroughfares of the city and the site of many cultural centers and museums, such as the
MASP and Centro Cultural Itaú)
Ibirapuera Park (the second largest park of the city (Parque do Carmo is the biggest), is also home to several museums. It is known for its buildings designed by Brazilian architect
Oscar Niemeyer, such as the Oca and the new Ibirapuera Auditorium)
Edifício Copan, also designed by Oscar Niemeyer, in the Centro neighbourhood. Built between 1951 and 1966, its wavy shape gives the building an impression of movement, and the integration of small businesses and residential flats are of innovative urbanism. Rumour has it that
Chrissie Hynde from
The Pretenders lived for 6 months in this building while touring with musician
Moreno Veloso in 1994.
Pinacoteca do Estado, an important art gallery, and
Museum of the Portuguese Language, in the train station of Luz.
Sights There exist some sites and magazines specialized in the spreading of the events in the city, but we can detach the Agenda Cultural de São Paulo (São Paulo's Cultural Calendar) in
http://agendacult.wordpress.com Events The
São Paulo Art Biennial is a cultural event hosted every two years. Almost 1 million people visited the 26th Bienal in 2004. Its theme was chosen to enable a wide range of artistic positions to feel comfortable. The concept of "Free Territory" involved various dimensions: it had a physical-geographical, a socio-political as well as an aesthetic dimension — the latter, of course, being of greatest interest in the context of this exhibition.
In order to emphasise the thematic unity of the overall exhibition, the invited artists and those representing the countries are mixed together on the 25,000 square metres of the spacious Oscar Niemeyer Pavilion. Despite the complexity of individual voices, the final result was intended to be a unity.
In addition to an intensification of the North-South dialogue inside Brazil, the Bienal's aims include the promoting of links between non-European cultures along a South-South orientation. The next edition of the Biennale will take place in 2008.
Bienal de São Paulo Brazil first entered the international fashion circuit with the increasing reputation of famous Brazilian top models such as
Adriana Lima,
Gisele Bündchen,
Alessandra Ambrosio,
Fernanda Tavares,
Ana Beatriz Barros,
Izabel Goulart and
Ana Hickmann, and the "discovery" of some fresh talents such as
Alexandre Herchcovitch by some international fashion magazines. As a consequence of this, SPFW is the place to see and to be seen in Brazilian fashion scene, always attracting a number of international editors and models.
São Paulo Fashion Week is nowadays one of the most relevant fashion events in the country. It takes place twice a year at the building of Bienal de São Paulo.
São Paulo Fashion Week The largest tourist event in the city, the
São Paulo Gay Parade attracted about 2.5 million people to
Paulista Avenue in 2006. It is usually opened by the city's
mayor. A large carnival runs along the avenue, with several
Trio Elétricos. The last parade was held on
June 10,
2007, and its organizers claimed a record-breaking 3.5 million attendees, though no official estimate was given by the
Polícia Militar.
São Paulo Gay Parade The March for Jesus is a
Protestant parade that takes place every year in
Paulista Avenue, now in another downtown avenue. It is organized by the
Renascer Church, a
Pentecostal denomination created in the 1980s and which has grown significantly in the first decade of the 21st century. In 2007, about three million people took part in the event, according to official estimates.
March for Jesus The
Electronic Language International Festival is a non-profit cultural organization, whose purpose is to disseminate and to develop arts, technologies and scientific research, by means of exhibitions, debates, lectures, and courses. The festival promotes a yearly meeting in Brazil, in the city of São Paulo. The event is open to the public, and intends to expand its educational reach to local and eventually remote audiences, thus sharing the experiences learned with FILE, through technologies of education, communication, registration and memory. The File Festival show in its events web art, net.art, artificial life, hypertext, computer animation, real time teleconferences, virtual reality, panoramas, interactive movie, e- video, electronic art installations and robotics through interactive and immersive rooms.
Festival for Electronic Art Anima Mundi (an international competitive video and film festival devoted exclusively to animation)
AnimeCon - International Anime Convention
AnimeDreams - International Anime Convention
Anime Friends - International Anime Convention
Comdex Mercado Mundo Mix
São Paulo International Film Festival Carnival of São Paulo
Skol Beats Tim Festival
Nokia Trends
Festa de N. S. Achiropita
Fenasoft (International Computer and Software Trade Fair)
UD Fare (Domestic Utilities Fair)
São Paulo Art Biennial a modern art exposition
Feira Internacional do Livro (Book International Fair)
Other events Sports As in the rest of Brazil,
football is by far the most important sport in the city. The major teams in São Paulo are
Corinthians,
Palmeiras and
São Paulo FC. These teams are all playing in the
Brazilian Série A. The fourth most important club of the city is
Portuguesa, playing in
Brazilian Série B. There are two other small clubs in the city,
Juventus and
Nacional. Another popular club in São Paulo is
Santos FC from the nearby coastal city of the same name,
Santos.
Soccer/Football teams Football The São Silvestre Race takes place every
New Year's Eve (
31 December). It was first held in 1925, when the competitors ran about 8,000 metres across the streets. Since then, the distance raced has varied, and it is now fixed at 15 km. Registration takes place from
1 October, with the maximum number of entrants limited to 15,000.
Corrida de Sao Silvestre The
Brazilian Grand Prix (
Portuguese: Grande Prêmio do Brasil) is a
Formula One championship race which occurs at the Autódromo
José Carlos Pace in
Interlagos. In 2006 the Grand Prix was the final round of the FIA
Formula 1 World Championship. The Spanish driver
Fernando Alonso won the 2006 drivers championship at this circuit by coming second in the race. The race was won by the young Brazilian driver
Felipe Massa, driving for the
Scuderia Ferrari team.
Brazilian Grand Prix Volleyball,
basketball and
tennis are other major sports. There are several traditional sports clubs in São Paulo that are home for teams in many championships. The most important are Esporte Clube Pinheiros (volleyball, swimming, basketball and
handball), Clube Atlético Paulistano (basketball), Esporte Clube Banespa (volleyball, handball and
futsal), Associação Atlética Hebraica (basketball) and
São Paulo Athletic Club (
rugby union).
Other sports The following international sports events have been held in São Paulo:
1950 —
FIFA World Cup (football)
1963 —
Pan American Games (Multi-sports)
1971 —
FIBA World Championship for Women 1977 —
Women's U20 Volleyball World Championship 1983 —
FIBA World Championship for Women 1993 —
Volleyball World League 1994 — Women's Volleyball World Championship
2000 —
FIFA Club World Championship (Football)
2005 — World Cup in Artistic Gymnastics
2006 — International Police and Fire Games (Multi-sports)
2006 —
FIBA World Championship for Women (Basketball)
2006 — 13th World Cup Final in Artistic Gymnastics
2007 — 3rd International Blind Sports Association World Championships and Games
International sports events Transportation The city is crossed by many of the most important Brazilian motorways, such as the BR-116,
Rodovia Raposo Tavares,
Rodovia Anhangüera,
Rodovia dos Bandeirantes,
Rodovia Anchieta,
Rodovia Castelo Branco and
Rodovia dos Imigrantes. Automobiles are still the main means to get into the city.
Motorways São Paulo grew quickly from the 1940s to the 1980s and many roads and buildings were built without major planning. As a result, heavy traffic is common on the city's main avenues, and
traffic jams are relatively common on its largest highways. The main means of commuting into the city is by car and by bus. An effective way of avoiding heavy vehicles traffic in the city, such as buses and trucks that crossed the city for other destinations, was planned by ex-governor
Mário Covas as a road ring that circles the city, called Rodoanel Mario Covas
Rodoanel Although poorly served by heavy rail services, there is an infrastructure project to build a
high-speed railway service linking Brazil's two largest cities, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, a milestone in the revitalisation and improvement of the Brazilian passenger railway services.
Railways São Paulo has three airports. There are two major airports in the São Paulo metropolitan area:
São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport (
GRU, for domestic and international flights) and
Congonhas, (
CGH, for domestic flights). There's also a small airport known as
Campo de Marte north of the Old Center for small, private aircraft and helicopters. Campo de Marte also hosts the Ventura
Goodyear Blimp.
Congonhas Airport operates domestic and regional flights, mainly to Rio de Janeiro,
Belo Horizonte and Brasília. Campo de Marte airport handles some private and small-sized airplanes. Guarulhos International Airport, also known to São Paulo dwellers as "Cumbica", is located 25 km North East of the city centre, in the neighbouring city of
Guarulhos. Guarulhos airport operates both domestic and international flights.
On July 17, 2007, the worst airline accident in Brazil's history occurred at Congonhas airport, blamed on rain and a shortended runway. Nearly 200 people from the plane and on the ground died. Following the accident, pilots refused to land in the rain and the President ordered that ticket sales for flights to the airport be stopped. Aviation throughout the entire country reached a crisis state.
In 2005, about 33 million people went through the city's airports (mainly from Congonhas and Guarulhos International Airport, the only two operating commercial flights).
Infraero - Brazil's main aviation authority - estimates that with the remodelling of Guarulhos Airport, São Paulo's airports will be able to handle about 45 million passengers a year within the next five years. There are also plans to expand the
Viracopos-Campinas International Airport at
Campinas, a city about 90 km North of São Paulo.
São Paulo has allegedly one of the highest per capita
helicopter ownership in the world. The owners are an elite wealthy class who take advantage of around one hundred helipads and heliports to conveniently avoid heavy traffic.
Airports The city has 61 km of underground railway systems (34.6 km fully underground) (the
São Paulo Metro.
São Paulo's underground train system is modern, safe, clean and efficient, considered one of the best subway systems in the world, as certified by the NBR ISO 9001. It has four lines (the newest one, the
Yellow line, is under construction, thus unavailable at the moment) and links to the metropolitan train network, the CPTM.
The underground rail system (called "metrô", short for "metropolitano"), with three complete lines:
The suburban rail system,
Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos (CPTM), has six lines that serve many regions not reached by the underground system, and even some other cities in the metropolitan region. The CPTM network is longer than the underground rail system.
The fast-lane bus system: there are many such bus lines in the city, called "Passa Rápido", which are street-level, placed on large avenues, and connected with the underground or suburban train stations.
Line 1 - Blue: The first Metrô line built connects the North and the South Side of São Paulo. Connections are available for the Green, Red and Yellow lines and also for CPTM trains. Tietê and Jabaquara bus terminals are also reachable through the use of this line.
Line 2 - Green: The Green line transverses the Avenida Paulista ridge, connecting Ipiranga to Vila Madalena, and also integrating the Blue and Yellow lines.
Line 3 - Red: One of São Paulo's busiest lines, it connects the East Side to the West Side. Connections to the Blue and Yellow lines are possible, as are with CPTM trains. The Barra Funda bus terminal is located on this line.
Line 4 - Yellow (under construction): Scheduled to be open in the near future, the Yellow line will connect the central Luz station to the South side in a route constructed immediately below the Consolação and Rebouças avenues. Connections will be available to the Blue, Green and Red lines and to CPTM trains.
Line 5 - Lilac: Built for users who need to reach specific places in São Paulo's South Side. Only a short distance of the line is already available (six complete stations), connecting to CPTM trains at Santo Amaro station.
Underground and light rail system By 2008, a new line, the Line 4 - Yellow, will be ready for use. The state government has built some underground stations in the Line 5 - Lilac, but although operating fully, this line is yet to be integrated with the main subway system. The lilac line serves only the subprefecture of Santo Amaro, but it is planned to be extended and connected with the lines 1 and 2.
On
January 12,
2007, at 3:15 p.m. local time, a huge hole in the ground opened by accident in the future line 4 (yellow) Pinheiros station of São Paulo's underground system. Seven people were killed (four of them in a passing shuttle bus which was swallowed and buried by the cave-in). The accident caused serious structural damage to many houses in the surrounding area, forcing their households to move to hotels and the homes of relatives. Prior to the accident, many reports concerning fissures in the walls of these houses had been noticed. Officials of the company hired by the State of São Paulo Government to build the station blamed excessive rain as a primary cause, although outside pundits say what really happened was insufficient soil analysis, since the future Pinheiros underground station is very close to the river Pinheiros. After the accident, another concern was a large crane that threatened to fall over neighboring homes, until it was later dismantled by engineers working in the project.
New underground lines The bulk of the
public transport (government and private companies) is composed of approximately 17,000 buses (including about 210 trolley buses), coloured uniformily according to the non-central region served (ex.: light green for the buses that go South West, dark blue for the Northern area). Until the past few years, there was a strong presence of informal transport vans (dab vans), but the vast majority of such vans are already fully registered with the city council, legalized and operating under the same color scheme of the main system.
Buses Since the beginning of the 20th century, São Paulo has been the major economic center of Brazil. With the arrival of the two
World Wars and the
Great Depression, coffee exports to the United States and
Europe were critically affected, leading wealthy coffee farmers to invest in industrial activities which eventually turned São Paulo into Brazil's largest industrial hub. The new job positions thereof contributed to attracting a significant number of immigrants from other regions of the country, especially northeastern states. From a population of merely 32,000 inhabitants in 1880, São Paulo increased its population to approximately 250,000 in 1900, 1,800,000 in 1940, 4,750,000 in 1960 and 8,500,000 in 1980. The effects of this
population boom have been:
Although
urban planning has been implemented in some areas, São Paulo has developed quickly without major planning
Ineffective public transport associated with a high number of cars and other vehicles in circulation lead to consistently
congested traffic on many roads of the city.
Due to heavy usage and poor maintenance, the quality of the pavement on certain roads (especially in the outskirts of the city) is problematic, and
potholes and other asphalt defects are common.
Crime rates are high, mainly due to the high circulation of automobiles and buses in town.
The two major rivers crossing the city, River Tietê and River Pinheiros, are also highly polluted. A major project intended to clean up these rivers is in the pipeline.
Current critical problems Bob Burnquist Fabiola da Silva Marco de Santi
Alex Atala Ayrton Senna Rubens Barrichello Leandro Barbosa Luciano Burti Hélio Castroneves Mário de Andrade Oswald de Andrade Emerson Fittipaldi Eder Jofre Amyr Klink Rita Lee Anita Malfatti Felipe Massa Fernando Meirelles Jair Oliveira Roberto Rivellino Robert Scheidt Alex Barros Alexandre Herchcovitch Ruy Ohtake DJ Marky DJ Patife Famous Paulistanos January 25 – São Paulo's Anniversary — city holiday
Between February and March –
Carnival (Brazilian national holiday, it starts on the Friday to Tuesday preceding
Lent. The holiday ends at noon on
Ash Wednesday)
Between May and June –
Corpus Christi July 9 – 1932's Constitutional Revolution
November 20 – Black People Consciousness Day
Major holidays 
Abidjan,
Côte d'Ivoire (1981)
Algiers,
Algeria (2005)
Amman,
Jordan (1997)
Asunción,
Paraguay (1998)
Bamako,
Mali (2000)
Barcelona,
Spain 
Beijing,
PR China (1999)
Beirut,
Lebanon 
Budapest,
Hungary (2000)
Buenos Aires,
Argentina (1999)
Cairo,
Egypt 
Cluj-Napoca,
Romania (2000)
Coimbra,
Portugal (1996)
Córdoba,
Spain (2001)
Damascus,
Syria (1999)
Funchal,
Portugal (1998)
Góis,
Portugal (2000)
Havana,
Cuba (1997)
Johannesburg,
South Africa (1995)
La Paz,
Bolivia (1999)
La Plata,
Argentina (1988)
Leiria,
Portugal (1996)
Lima,
Peru Lisbon,
Portugal (1995)
Luanda,
Angola (1993)
Macau SAR,
China (1999)
Mendoza,
Argentina (1998)
Mexico City,
Mexico 
Miami,
USA (1988)
Milan,
Italy (1962)
Montevideo,
Uruguay (2001)
Naha,
Japan (1998)
Osaka,
Japan (1985)
Presidente Franco,
Paraguay (1994)
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil (1995)
San Cristóbal de La Laguna,
Spain (1990)
San José,
Costa Rica 
Santiago,
Chile (1998)
Santiago de Compostela,
Spain (2000)
Seoul,
South Korea (1977)
Shanghai,
PR China (1988)
Sydney,
Australia (1997)
Tel Aviv,
Israel (2004)
Toronto, Ontario,
Canada (1999)
Yerevan,
Armenia (1999)
Sister cities List of municipalities in the state of São Paulo by population Conservatório Dramático Musical de São Paulo 1963 Pan American Games in São Paulo
Sister cities of São Paulo São Paulo Turismo S/A - Official Tourism Board of the City of São Paulo Large Cities Climate Leadership Group See also Official websites (Portuguese) Guia Sao Paulo.com (Portuguese) Agenda Cultural de São Paulo (English) VisitSP – São Paulo travel guide with hotels, restaurants, bars and news (English) São Paulo Conventions and Visitors Bureau (English) Gringoes Website (English) The New York Times São Paulo´s Travel Guide (English) Brazil Travel Guide - São Paulo Travel information for foreign visitors Other websites São Paulo travel guide from
Wikitravel Maps (English) Rich Brazilians Rise Above Rush-Hour Jams (English) São Paulo mayoral race 2004 pages (English) Global Cities exhibition at Tate Modern, London
2000
2003-2004
In addition to its Semester, May Term and Summer Session, which individual students sign up for, the Chicago Center designs and staffs what it calls "LearnChicago!" programs for groups, which promise non-tourist 
History