Franklin Roosevelt Square

This guide to Franklin Roosevelt Square in São Paulo starts with Mayor Paulo Maluf cutting the ribbon on a multi-level concrete plaza in January 1970, built on land that once belonged to the widow Veridiana Prado. You'll hear how cheap engineering and poor lighting turned the lower levels into a spot paulistanos learned to avoid for decades, even as bohemian bars filled the surrounding streets and a small cinema kept screening films the dictatorship's censors had banned. It follows what finally changed the square's fortunes.