Canoas

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Canoas

Flag

Seal

Location in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Coordinates: 29°55′12″S 51°10′48″W / -29.92, -51.18

Government

- Mayor

Marcos Antônio Ronchetti (PSDB)

Area

- Total

131.097 km² (50.6 sq mi)

Elevation

8 m (26 ft)

Population (2006)

- Total

333,322

- Density

2,542.56/km² (6,585.2/sq mi)

Time zone

UTC-3 (UTC-3)

- Summer (DST)

UTC-2 (UTC-2)

Website: canoas.rs.gov.br

Canoas, which won city status in 1939, is the fourth largest city in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Its population is over 300,000 people. The city is adjacent to the capital of the gaúcho state: Porto Alegre. Canoas is the center of some important industries and the Canoas Air Base, used by the Brazilian Air Force.

According to the IBGE, Brazil's Geography and Statistics Institute, Canoas currently has no rural areas, but it started as a village of large landowners. The first of them was conquistador Francisco Pinto Bandeira, who received from the Portuguese Crown, in 1740, an area north of the Gravataí River.

History has that 1871 was the beginning of the village of Canoas, when the first section of the railway that would link Porto Alegre to São Leopoldo was inaugurated. Canoas was then part of the municipalities of Gravataí and São Sebastião do Caí. Soon large farms would lose space to small properties.

After obtaining city status, Canoas experienced rapid growth, especially after 1945. Today, many call it a "cidade-dormitório" (Portuguese for "bedroom city"), because thousands of people commute to neighboring Porto Alegre to work, as happens with all cities in the greater Porto Alegre metropolitan area.

1 City conditions and subdivisions
2 Pictures of Canoas
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] City conditions and subdivisions

Canoas consists of mostly large sprawling neighborhoods and a lively business district, as well as numerous large factories that provide the city with the second highest GDP in Rio Grande do Sul, among them the Refinaria Alberto Pasqualini (REFAP), a Petrobras oil refinery. In addition, a new high-end district is gradually emerging in the suburbs. As happens with many Brazilian cities, there can arguably be seen two different countries in the same municipality: it does not take too long for one to drive from an impoverished slum to a rich neighbourhood.

The city's poorest neighbourhoods are completely unplanned. The Guajuviras subdivision, the old Guajuviras Farm that was developed by the government, was originally settled by squatters before the government officially opened the property for inhabitation. Poorer favelas or slums fill some of the forest or green space areas in the subdivision).

Canoas has one of the richest and most important universities in southern Brazil: the Ulbra (Lutheran University of Brazil), as well as Unilasalle and Faculdades Ritter dos Reis. The enormous wealth, manifest in the Ulbra, and crushing poverty, manifest in the slums of the city, are characteristic of the economic divide of Brazil. Many wealthy citizens in Canoas and the greater Porto Alegre metropolitan area fail to acknowledge the existence of poverty in their cities and most have never walked through the slums of their own cities.

[edit] Pictures of Canoas

Canoas subdivisions	Guajuviras subdivision	Canoas Air Base	Canoas Downtown
Bairro Getulio Vargas	Soccer game at the Ulbra Sport Club in the São José subdivision	Ulbra University	ULBRA Technological Museum
Chapel at the ULBRA	La Salle University	Old rail line in the Industrial subdivision	Gas station in the Igara subdivision
Zaffari Bourbon grocery store in the Getulio Vargas subdivision	Cultural Foundation of Canoas	Petrobras oil refinery	Canoas Air Force Base
Getulio Vargas Federal Boulevard (BR-116) in Canoas	Urban Train (Trensurb) which passes through Canoas	Canoas Intermunicipal Bus Station (Rodoviária)	Canoas' train station, in 1874
Main Catholic Church in downtown in 1931	Typical vegetation in Canoas