In the city of São Paulo, cement seems to sprout from the ground like brachiaria grass, weeds, or even trees. It spreads freely, often without evident purpose. It transforms into buildings, viaducts, and bridges with vibrant lives that eventually sicken and often die as the city rearranges itself. And so was born the elevated highway named after former President João Goulart – an expressway that, according to some, connected nowhere to nowhere, and, according to others, the mayor's house to his mother's. It was never viewed favorably. It eroded the surrounding properties and transformed the neighborhood. In the past, the expressway connected a peripheral region to the center, and today it is part of the center. Maintaining it became ungainly, and demolishing it would be too expensive, so consequently today various projects emerge and succumb around it in accordance with the public mood of the moment. During the daytime, with the intense, slow flow of cars, the path offers drivers a view of the mountain range surrounding the city. At night it becomes a walkway for pedestrians as well as for people riding bicycles and other forms of non-motorized transportation, and it offers a varied view of the apartment interiors within the building complexes that appear all around it. On weekends it's a leisure space. Its pillars below once housed an art gallery. The central sidewalk, which divides the two car lanes, gives shelter to many people and, from time to time, becomes a furnished home with a sofa, bed, and kitchen. Popularly known as the «Minhocão» (big worm), the concrete park survives the passage of time and slows down the impersonal and inhumane pace of gentrification.
