Thomas Locke Hobbs

Currently near San Francisco

 

Santos

Santos is the port for São Paulo, a city of a million reached by a spectacular freeway that drops 2500ft. in a few short miles down to the ocean. Downtown has charming ruins from the coffee boom days. The flat and muddy beach extends forever and its lined with middle class apartment blocks, some of which are sinking into the sea.

 
Saturday, July 02, 2005

 

Paulista Sidewalks

I look down when I'm walking so I don't trip on a broken sidewalk. I kept noticing this pattern repeated everywhere. I asked and was told that its an abstraction of the shape of São Paulo state.

 
Friday, July 01, 2005

 

Here's another of those abandoned corckscrew pedestrian overpasses. I took this from the top of the Banespa Building.

 
Thursday, June 30, 2005

 

Vertical Favela

Edificio São Vito is a 30 story luxury high rise from the 1950s that fell on hard times, was abandoned and then invaded. It's known as a vertical favela and sits just east of downtown, prominently overlooking the Mercado Municipal, the main municipal bus terminal and the old city hall.

Beautiful old buildings are currently used as wholesale fruit depots including this fantastic art deco bank building.

 
Wednesday, June 29, 2005

 

The Big Worm

The Minhocão, or Big Worm, as it's popularly known is an elevated expressway running thru downtown. It's sort of São Paulo's Cross Bronx Expressway. It's universally hated and blamed by many for contributing to downtown's decline. It was built in the late 1960s during the military regime when wanna-be Jane Jacobs' were thrown in jail and tortured. On Sundays the expressway is closed to traffic and free for pedestrians and bicylists. I enjoyed looking right into the 2nd story windows of all the belle epoque buildings lining the formerly fashionable Ave. São João. The whole area is gritty and rundown. The place is cruisy and reminds me of the Christopher St. Piers before they were renovated--the glare of the sun, the heat reflected off the blacktop, men idling improbably. It made quite a contrast from the previous Sunday's wanderings on the beach in Ipanema in Rio.

Graffiti from the Minhocão

 
Tuesday, June 28, 2005

 

Curitiba! Last week I travelled to Curitiba to check out its reknowned urban planning. Above are the photos from that trip.

 
Monday, June 27, 2005

For more about me, please go visit my old geocities page.

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