Notes on São Paulo

It's been over a week since I got back, but here, at last, are my notes on São Paulo.

-Traffic is something else. As I mentioned before, São Paulo is facing some serious transit issues. The city has simply grown faster than the infrastructure could (I have seen historical documents that put the population of the city at just over 3 million people in 1960; the official city numbers now are over 11 million, but that is just within the technical city limits; the city as a whole, including suburbs, is over 18 million people). Thus, one day I spent 2 and a half hours just on buses trying to get around the city, including one hour just to get to the Metrô (subway). The government has been trying to get the Metro to reach more parts of the city, but that is temporarily on hold after the tragedy of the cave-in in January that killed seven people. There is basically no sign of letup on the traffic anytime soon, something to which Paulistas (those who live in the state of São Paulo) are already accustomed.

-Late last year, Brazil introduced the Museum of Portuguese Language. This was really fun (provided you know Portuguese - I'm not sure how rewarding it would be if you don't), but it was also a little problematic. Parts of it really are about the Portuguese language worldwide (Brazil, Portugal, Mozambique, East Timor, and other regions), and the influence of various languages on Portuguese, but a majority of the multi-media exhibits focus solely on Brazil, and one of those exhibits, using poetry, not only had one non-Brazilian poet; it hardly had any non-Paulista poets. I don't know much about Brazilian poetry, but something tells me that people from the Northeast, from the Amazon, and from the South have written important poetry too. Still, the museum is quite interesting, and it made me wonder about the possibilities of a similar museum for English (particularly the section where you could see all the different word origins for common words).

-As a city, São Paulo itself simply isn't as beautiful as Rio. Yes, it has the main commerce stretch of the country on the Avenida Paulista, and wealthier neighborhoods, (and, surprise surprise, the favelas are much better hidden in São Paulo than in Rio) but nothing matches the mountains, Corcovado, and Sugar Loaf here in Rio. And while there are many things to do culturally there, it just doesn't have the same offerings as Rio (which was the capital of Brazil from the 1760s to 1960). Thus, when I was there, and it rained (a lot), I ended up having to pass one afternoon in malls - there simply wasn't much else to do in that part of the city.

-The part of town called Liberdade is totally cool. It has the largest concentration of Japanese immigrants and descendants not only in Brazil, but in all of the world outside of Japan. You can get really good Japanese food there, and it was the first time I'd seen such a variety of teas since I got to Brazil. It's just really refreshing to be able to go to a part of the city where you can get a bit of a different cultural flavor. Overall, I think it was my favorite part of the city - unfortunately, I only was able to pass an hour and a half there.

-The ride in from São Caetano, one of the major industrial and labor-union regions of the country, in to São Paulo by train provides a rather stark and dreary reminder of São Paulo's industrial past. Industries have moved from the city to the suburbs, but the industrial sectors of the city still haven't recovered. Thus, you had the chance to spend half an hour going by empty and burnt out warehouses and mills. It was the most "blue-collar" looking place that I had seen since I arrived in Brazil (reminding me of a giant Cleveland in the 1980s, before massive rennovations took place in the latter's campaign of urban renwal).

-The bus ride back to Rio was only 6 hours (better than the 17.5 hours from Brasília to Rio), but it sure felt a lot longer than 6 hours. Why was that? Well, the only thing worse than a bus ride where you can't avoid this movie? Having it followed by this (one of the seriously worst movies of all-time - how it got a Criterion edition, I'll never understand).

-Overall, São Paulo is worth going to, but I'm at best lukewarm on the city (though I'm willing to give it another chance).