Canoas

Infobox City |official_name = Canoas
website = [http://www.canoas.rs.gov.br/ canoas.rs.gov.br]

---

image_

---

map_caption = Location in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_type1 = Region
subdivision_type2 = State
subdivision_name = Brazil
subdivision_name1 = South
subdivision_name2 = Rio Grande do Sul
leader_title = Mayor
leader_name = Marcos Antônio Ronchetti (PSDB)
area_magnitude = 1 E8
area_total_sq_mi = 50.6
area_total_km2 = 131.097
population_as_of = 2006
population_total = 333322
population_density_sq_mi =
population_density_km2 = 2542.56
timezone = UTC-3
utc_offset = -3
timezone_DST = UTC-2
utc_offset_DST = -2
elevation_m = 8
elevation_ft =
latd = 29
latm = 55
lats = 12
latNS = S
longd = 51
longm = 10
longs = 48
longEW = W
established_title = Established
established_date = June 27, 1939
footnotes =

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.

City conditions and subdivisions

Canoas ("Boats" in English) 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.

Pictures of Canoas

See also

*Porto Alegre
*Alvorada
*Esteio

External links

* [http://www.canoas.rs.gov.br/ Canoas Mayoral Office] (in Portuguese)
* [http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=canoas,+brazil&ie=UTF8&ll=-29.909115,-51.180153&spn=0.131836,0.343323&t=h&om=1 Satellite view of Canoas]
* [http://nutep.adm.ufrgs.br/munisRS/mun080.htm Images of the city and its History] (in Portuguese) Images of homes are not representative of the rest of the city - the homes shown are part of one wealthy subdivision in the city
* [http://www.sogal.com.br SOGAL - Sociedade de Ônibus Gaúcha: Canoas City's Bus Transport] (in Portuguese)
* [http://www.ulbranet.com.br ULBRA - Lutheran University of Brazil] (in Portuguese)