Economist.com Cities Guide: Sao Paulo Briefing - May 2006

News this month

All change

Despite promising that he would serve a full four-year term, José Serra, São Paulo's mayor, left his job at City Hall on March 31st. As a candidate for the state governorship in October's elections, he is not allowed to hold executive office. Gilberto Kassab, Mr Serra's little-known deputy, is now in charge.

Mr Serra's run for governor is his consolation prize for failing to win the presidential nomination of the Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (PSDB). That went to the outgoing state governor, Geraldo Alckmin, who also stood down on March 31st. He takes on the Workers' Party incumbent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in presidential elections also in October. Mr Kassab and the interim state governor, Cláudio Lembo, both come from the Partido da Frente Liberal (PFL), a right-of-centre party allied with the PSDB. Mr Kassab will benefit from the fiscal clean-up Mr Serra oversaw during his 15 months in office. After a spending crackdown and the renegotiation of city contracts and debts, São Paulo has approximately 3 billion reais ($1.43 billion) for new programmes. The new mayor is credited with forging the PFL-PSDB alliance that has given the PFL the two top jobs in São Paulo, albeit by default. His party colleague, Mr Lembo, who was Mr Alckmin's deputy, will manage the state government until the elections.

Air turbulence

The fate of Varig, Brazil's troubled airline, is causing serious concern for travellers, including more than 25,000 football fans who bought tickets for flights to next month's World Cup in Germany. The airline, which is considered overstaffed in a competitive industry, owes more than 7 billion reais ($3.4 billion); various plans over the past month to restructure the debt have failed.

Recent flight cancellations and delays prompted the American consulate in São Paulo to warn its citizens off the airline. The company's board and creditors will consider new plans to keep it flying in May, which could involve splitting Varig's domestic and international services, selling its cargo arm and establishing a line of credit from the Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES), the state investment bank. On May 3rd the company confirmed that Boris Berezovsky, a controversial exiled Russian businessman, had placed a bid. Varig is a listed company, and government officials have said they will not bail it out. Few commentators believe the company will survive this crisis intact to celebrate its 80th birthday in 2007.

Pritzker prize

Paulo Mendes da Rocha, an architect best known for his dramatic concrete-and-steel structures in São Paulo, has won this year's Pritzker Prize, the equivalent of a Nobel Prize for architecture. The chairmen of the Pritzker jury, Lord Palumbo, said that Mr Mendes da Rocha brought "the joyful lilt of Brazil to his work". A member of the city's avant-garde 1950s Brutalist movement, the 77-year-old designed the striking Brazilian Sculpture Museum on a triangular site in the Jardins district. He has also renovated a few landmarks such as the Pinacoteca do Estado art museum and the Praça do Patriarca in the city centre.

After Oscar Niemeyer in 1988, Mr Mendes da Rocha is the second Brazilian to win the Pritzker, which was first awarded in 1979. He will be presented with a $100,000 grant and a bronze medal in Istanbul on May 30th.

Dengue on the rise

After two years of declining numbers, the Aedes Aegipty mosquito that transmits Dengue fever is back in force in São Paulo state. One person died and 5,767 Dengue cases were confirmed in the first three months of the year-more than in all of 2005. (Dengue has several forms, one of which can be fatal.) The worst-hit areas are Ribeirão Preto, a town 310km from São Paulo, and the coastal area known as the Litoral Norte, a popular weekend spot.

Municipal health officials throughout the state have launched campaigns to eradicate the breeding areas for the mosquitoes, which lay eggs in still water. Bronislawa de Castro, a co-ordinator with the City Dengue control centre dismissed fears of an epidemic. However, a spokesman from the state health department has warned that there may be up to 15,000 cases in the state: fewer than in past years, when up to 50,000 have been registered, but still significant.

The livin' is easy

Up in the trees, camouflaged by their colour and their slowness, four Bradypi tridactylu live undisturbed in a popular small park in the centre of São Paulo. Better known as Bentinho sloths, the animals may have been left behind when a small zoo was transferred from the area, as it is hard to believe they actively evaded capture. According to André Dias, the administrator of the Praça de Luz park, the city has always had sloths. However, with increased urbanisation, the animals have retreated to the few remaining wooded areas. This particular four-sloth group numbered seven at one point, but restoration of the area and the cutting down of trees led to the deaths of three.

Catch if you can

May 2006

Volpi: A Música da Cor (The Music of Colour)

Until July 2nd 2006

Alfredo Volpi (1896-1988), who came to Brazil from Italy when he was two years old, is a favourite of Brazilian critics and a dominant presence in the country's artistic evolution through the 20th century. Until recently, however, he was little known outside Brazil. He started painting Impressionist-inspired landscapes in the 1930s, before developing his colourful, poster-style abstract geometric canvases in the 1940s and 1950s. This interesting and well-organised show comes 16 years after his first retrospective. It benefits from significant research by the curator, Olívio Tavares de Araújo. Of the 134 paintings on display, 20 have never been shown before.

Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Parque Ibirapuera, Portão 3.Tel: 55 (0)11 5549-9688. Open: Tues-Sun, 10am-6pm. Entrance: 5.50 reais; free on Sundays. See the museum's website.

More from the Sao Paulo cultural calendar