Zaffari to build new mall in Santa Cecília neighborhood in Porto Alegre.

Old Grêmio Esportivo Força e Luz stadium will be a shopping mall.

The Zaffari Group referred to the City Board of Environmental Urban Development (CMDUA in Portuguese) the construction Project of a mall and a supermarket at 110 Alcídes Cruz Street The project will be evaluated in the coming weeks by the board members and once it is approved a report of the environmental impact of the building will be requested.

According to the civil engineer Gilmara Müller, the Project designer at the CMDUA, the plot where the new shopping mall will be built has an area of 2.1 hectares. The enterprise will take up a total area of 94 meters square. The seven floor building will huddle tons of customers and visitors. On the first floor there will be a 2.5 thousand meter square supermarket. On the second and third floor the building will hold stores and 900 seat movie theaters will be built on the fourth floor. The parking decks will be on the last three floors. Nearby streets will also be transformed to meet traffic regulations and to accommodate the potential number of vehicles. There will also be two underground floors.

This is the second Project of a new shopping mall referred by the Zaffari Group to the CMDUA this year. The board already approved early June the construction of a three floor building at 239 Furriel Luiz Antônio de Vargas Avenue in Bela Vista neighborhood. The enterprise is supposed to hold a supermarket, business stores, an eating area, a gym, a movie theater and a parking deck. Besides that, the company aims the construction of a nine floor office building in the same local. The land belonged to the State Pension Institute (IPE in Portuguese) and was acquired by the Zaffari Group in 2004 in an auction by R$12.5 millions.

Now, how many other Zaffari enterprises do you know around? Doesn’t it look like Zaffari is buying the “whole” city?

GETTING AROUND IN PORTO ALEGRE

As tough as it gets.

After years of easy credit and diminishing prices, the number of vehicles in the city has surged to a record. In the rush hours it may take long annoying minutes to drive a few miles.

Drivers in the city are mostly bad-natured and always competitive as if they were struggling to high score and reach a podium. Pedestrians are kind of quarrelsome and disrespectful too. It's not difficult to see little incidents and accidents occurring routinely over here.

While some boast we have good air-conditioned buses that take passengers everywhere, I guess the absence of a subway train doesn't pay off the advantages of such bus system.

Some time ago I was thinking about buying a bike to ride around but eventually I thought the risk of being run over is too high for the take.

What else could I bring up? Reckless motorcyclists? Confusing Traffic-Wardens(azuizinhos)? Ubiquitous-fast-noisy ambulances (saving lives, of course)? Long-lasting red lights? Holes in the streets? Absent traffic sing boards (did you ever notice many unaware drives take the wrong lane in my street because they don't know that the street is not a single lane from my building to Vasco da Gama Av. - there's no sign board to inform them)?

So, what's your experience in our traffic? How do you agree with me? To what extent things are really chaotic in our streets? Leave your thoughts.