Sao Paulo

Without much notice (except from short notices in newspapers), Hotel Ca’d'Oro announced that they are going to shut down ’temporarily’.

Last week, the last meal was served in the restaurant, and this week, the two last guests checked out; “we maintained our standards of service until the last customer”, says concierge Ricardo Nocais, aged 64, 43 of which working at the hotel.

One of the last customers was Italian businessman Marco Crippa, who has come to Sao Paulo four times a year since 1992 and stayed only in CaDoro: “they are taking away my home in Sao Paulo”.

The owner Aurelio Guzzoni says that the hotel will re-open shortly: “we are looking for investors, and we plan to be open during the World Cup 2014“. The staff, however, are less optimistic, and everybody is looking for a new job.The reason is that the hotel is located near the old downtown of Sao Paulo, which do not attract people looking for five star hotels.

The CadOro, opened in 1953, was the first five star hotel in Sao Paulo.It was opened by Italian Fabrizio Guzzoni (1920 - 2005), first as a high class restaurant, eventually as a hotel. Until 1962, a tie was mandatory to access the restaurant; after that, only suits were required, but most gentlemen still kept their ties.

For decades, the CadOro was hotel of choice for all celebrities visiting Sao Paulo (the counterpart of Copacabana Palace, poshest hotel in Rio de Janeiro). Among the famous signatures in the guest book, one finds several Brazilian Presidents, several Brazilian artists (di Cavalcanti was a resident) and international personalities like François Miterrand, Pablo Neruda, Linus Pauling, Luciano Pavarotti.

Other five star hotels in downtown which closed doors recently: Crowne Plaza (rua Frei Caneca), Hilton (avenida Ipiranga), Othon Classic (rua Líbero Badaró).

See other hotels in Sao Paulo.

Gilberto Kassab was re-elected for a new term as Mayor of the city of São Paulo; Kassab’s office will go from January 1st 2009 through December 31st 2012.

Kassab was elected in 2004 as vice-Mayor of the then winner candidate Jose Serra. In 2006, Serra ran for the Government of the State and won; as Serra took the office of Governor, Kassab took office as Mayor.

Kassab is affiliated with the Party Democratas (Democrats), one of the most conservative (right wing) in Brazil (Democratas used to be called PFL, Party of the Liberal Front). Kasseb’s opponent in the second round of the elections was Marta Suplicy, candidate by powerful Party of Workers, the party of President Lula; despite ostensive presence of the President in the campaign, Kassab won by a margin of 61% of valid votes against 39% for Marta.

Kassab was born in 1960, and graduated in Engineering and Economy at the University of Sao Paulo. Kassab was elected in 1989 to Councilman of the city, then had offices as State Representative and Federal Representative.

The most controversial incident during the campaign occurred when Mrs. Suplicy suggested that voters should ask themselves whether Kassab was married or had children.

Many people then learned that Kassab was never married and is not married. Despite rumors, Kassab neither confirmed nor denied to have a male partner. Kassab said that his personal life was not in discussion. The voters of São Paulo agreed with him, and gave him a massive victory in the elections.

Report by newspaper O Globo revealed a surprising news to the fans of Indiana Jones: the hat used by Indiana Jones is made in São Paulo.

The manufacturer is Chapéus Cury (chapéu is the Portuguese word for hat), situated in the city of Campinas. Cury provided the hats for movies of the series, since the first one, Raiders of Lost Ark, in 1981; in total, according to Cury, eight hats were used in the Jones movies.

Besides Harrison Ford, Clint Eastwood is also a client of Cury’s; and, also, several artists of movies and soapboxes made in Brazil.

Ford’s hat is taylor made, and takes about ten days to get ready. Cury produces 200,000 hats per month, 50,000 of which are the Indiana’s model. Price: R$ 170, or slightly above US$ 100.

In the latest tests of the OAB Sao Paulo (OAB stands for Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil, Order of Lawyers of Brazil, the counterpart of American BAR Association), 77% of the candidates failed to obtain the minimum level.

In Brazil, after finishing the Course of Laws (which take between five and six years), the students graduate as Bacharel in Laws; as a Bacharel, he/she can assume several juridical jobs (including public offices, all the way to Judges), but can’t represent on behalf of other before a Court. To become a Lawyer (which in Portuguese is referred to as Advogado, i.e., someone who advocates on behalf of others), a bacharel must be approved in tests conducted by the OAB of the respective State.

The high levels of failing at these tests are not uncommon. And if this happens in the richest State (with the best educational infrastructure in Brazil), the situation is even worse in the poorer States.

And the reasons are well known: the schools of Law in Brazil are bad. Until a few years ago, the opening of new institutions of superior learning was strictly regulated; today, it’s much easier to start a new faculty. And the easiest of all faculties to open is the School of Laws: no much need of physical instalations, no need of laboratories, no need of machines, etc.

And the result of this situation shows in the low quality of Brazilian ‘lawyers’ (everyone who finishes a Course of Law calls themselves a lawyer - advogado -, even though they are just bacharéis). The best graduates become successful and usually rich, by either working in private offices or in public offices (Judges and Prosecutors); several take clerical functions in offices and courts. But the vast majority of Brazilian lawyers end up with low paid jobs, often unrelated to the juridical career.

Being a lawyer in Brazil doesn’t have the same status as in other countries.

Credit is a problem in Brazil. Factors like: lack of capitals; a law which overprotectes debtors and underprotects creditors; high interest rates, among others, have been preventing a growth of credit in Brazil.

This week, the total volume of credits in Brazil reached R$ 1 trillion (about US$ 600 billion), the highest volume in the History of the country; that volume amounts to 36% of GNP, also the highest figure ever.

The graph below shows the total credit as percentage of GNP over the past few years.

It is noticeable that credit has been growing very fast. The reasons are the opposite of the factors mentioned in the top paragraph: there is an abundance of capitals (foreign investors are bringing large amounts of money into the country); laws are being passed to safeguard the creditors (for example, specific laws have been giving protection to banks which loan money for purchase of vehicles and real estate); interest rates have been falling.

And, as São Paulo has the biggest economy in Brazil, a good part of that credit was directed to people in the State. And the consequences are visible: the market for cars is hot, and the traffic jams are getting worse; real estate prices are reaching new record levels; the poorer classes (which never had credit before) are buying stuff like computers, TVs and the like, making their lives happier and increasing the popularity of President Lula in the process.

On May 25th, São Paulo will host the 12th edition of the São Paulo Gay Parade. In each of the last three years, a crowd of approximately 3.5 million people followed the parade, making it the biggest in the world.

This year, the organization announced the presence of 22 electric trios (large trucks with a band playing on top) who will perform for more than seven hours straight; there will be over 1,000 police forces, to guarantee peace all along the 3.5 km of the parade.

The São Paulo Gay Parade starts right in front of MASP, the Museum of Art, at Avenida Paulista; the parade moves along Avenida da Consolação as far as the Praça Roosevelt.

For more information about the organization, visit the official site of the São Paulo Gay Parade.

Brazil is the country outside Japan with the largest Japanese community in the world, and Sao Paulo is the city in Brazil with the largest Japanese community.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Japanese immigration to Brazil, a series of events has been happening. Yesterday, Mrs. Karina Eiko Nakahara (photo) was elected Miss Brazil-Japan.

Karina is a 26 year old dentist, 1.70 m and 57 kg. To win the contest, she had to beat other Brazilian-Japanese women coming from 19 States of Brazil (Brazil has a total of 27 States, but in some of them the Japanese community is not very big).

Click here and here to see photos of some other participants of the contest.

According to statistics by the Secretary of Social Assistance of Sao Paulo, there are about 12,000 homeless people in São Paulo; most live of begging for money and food in the downtown area of São Paulo.

Since 1988, the city government has been maintaining a social service to help the homeless; a law was passed in 1997 determining that the city must provide assistance to the homeless.

The Secretary maintains 35 shelters in the city (the word in Portuguese is ‘albergue’, which also means hostel), with a combined capacity of 8,000 people.  The shelters offer a bed, a place to shower and a soupper; in case of need, the wardens send the homeless to health centers and hospitals.

There is a staff of 354 people dedicated to finding homeless people and trying to bring them to the dormitories. In the head office, a team of six people runs a call center (phone: 3228-5554 and 3228-2092) which the population uses to inform about homeless. A fleet of 44 kombis answers the population calls and, as well, drives around town by night looking for homeless (photo).

Frequently, the homeless refuse going to shelters, because over there they are invited (by the wardens and by the other guests) to take a shower, which many don’t want to, and because some rules are enforced (no drinking, no loud conversations, etc). The Assistance teams can not oblige anyone to go to the shelters.

As winter comes and temperature falls, it becomes easier for the assistance agents to persuade homeless into going to a shelter.

On May 10th 2008, Governor José Serra opened to the public the newest bridge of São Paulo; the bridge is official called Bridge Octavio Frias de Oliveira (Mr. Frias, who died in 2007 at age 94, was the publisher of newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo, one of the most important in Brazil). Despite this official name though, the bridge is becoming known as Ponte Estaiada, which is the Portuguese for Suspended Bridge.

The bridge is located over the river Pinheiros, and connects avenue Roberto Marinho to the Marginal Pinheiros; about 5,000 vehicles per hour, each way, should cross the bridge at peak times.

Besides being useful to relief traffic jams, the bridge, thanks to its grandness and beautiness, is also becoming a tourism spot of São Paulo.

This will be the longest curved suspended  bridge in the world, 290 meters (950 feet) long each way; the large X in the middle is 138 meters (450 ft) tall; a set of 144 steel cables were used to hold the structure.

See Veja magazine for details (in Portuguese) about the construction of the bridge; see aerial images of the bridge.

Veja magazine published an article about dogs in São Paulo. The article cites some statistics and gives recommendations to dog owners in São Paulo.

According to Veja, there are, in the city of São Paulo today, 1.9 million domestic dogs (dogs which have an owner and a house), which means that one out of each six households has a dog; to cater for them, there are about 6,000 pet shops. It is estimated that there are about 2.6 million stray dogs wandering around the town; there is a service to collect stray dogs, but like most other public services, it is not very effective (this service is called ‘carrocinha’, small cart, and is the terror of children who own unlicensed dogs).

The article gave some recommendations to dog owners, and provided some useful information to visitors who bring their animals to Sao Paulo.

Some rich people treat their dogs like children; and some fine restaurants are happy to have them as customers.

The lady in the photo purchased 400 collars to her dog, from brands like Louis Vouitton, Gucci and Hermes; and she always brings her dog when visiting some of the finest restaurants in town, such as D.O.M. Figueira Rubayat and Vecchio Verino.

There are several laws regarding dogs and domestic animals, but most laws are neither respected nor enforced (the first one is the law which obliges every dog to be registered with the Zoonosis Control Center and have a vaccination card).

For example, the law says that dog owners must collect feces left by the animals; but seeing a lady picking up stool with a shovel is something very rare. Also, the law does not allow dogs at the sand beach, but it is difficult to convince a madame that she can’t bring her baby to a stroll (the sand of Copacabana beach, in Rio, is contaminated by sewage and dog urine).

When outdoors, dogs must be in a collar; some wilder races, such as pitbull and rotweiller, must also wear a mouth locker and a neck locker (every now and then, there are news of a pitbull killing somebody in Brazil).

Some shopping centers (such as Iguatemi, the poshest one) allow dogs in the shops area, but, by force of law, no bar or restaurant can admit dogs or animals.

In the case of condos and apartments, it is up to the residents to determine whether dogs or animals are admitted at all, or any restrictions which might apply. One thing is for sure: dogs are a common cause of disagreements among neighbors in São Paulo.

These are some tips for those who are thinking about bringing a dog to São Paulo.