Well, I hope that I may help here a bit by plugging Canada, which seems to help....
Edmonton is really quite a car city. Not that many walk, but there's still quite a few tree's that really help with the air pollution. (nicely breathable compared to other cities)
Crime in Edmonton is quite low. The police force is strong and effective, and so is the fire department. Arsons still go around, but they are usually dealt with before anything big happens.
Poverty is almost nonexistant, since there's plenty of low-qual jobs that need doing, so people with no education can still get a job. And if you've gone to college, then good things indeed await. College people can get richly awarded if you know where to go.
The province of Alberta in itself is the richest province in Canada. We have massive oil reserves in Northern Alberta that makes us a mint. We're the only debt free province ever, and Ralph Klein does a damn good job at his job of premier. He makes a LOT of money, and he uses the money. Out of about $14 billion made in a year, only $1 billion is used for surplus. (not much compared to other provinces. They usually have half of their money put in reserve to take out debt)
Edmonton has about 900,000 people, and is nearing 1 million. However, compared to Sao Paulo, it shouldn't be a problem. Most of the people here are nice and decent, and they make an honest living.
West Edmonton Mall is, from what i've heard, the second largest mall in the world (I heard there's one huge one in Japan that's 3 times West Ed's size, but I haven't verified that) From what I know for sure, West Ed is the largest mall in the world. I've been there a lot of times, and I'm almost bored of it already. There's a LOT of Marvel comic stores, (which I like.)
And....... Well, that's Alberta in a nutshell.
