the case of Linha Amarela, an express highway that displaced some 10,000 people to foster private automobile traffic between the Barra da Tijuca district and downtown Rio. Reelected in 2000 in a runoff election against his former protégé Conde - for which he had meanwhile joined the Brazilian Labour Party - Maia embarked on a project to set a branch of the Guggenheim Museum on the Rio waterfront, a US$200 million project - in partnership with Guggenheim director Thomas Krens - which included a building designed by French architect Jean Nouvel and whose cost would be borne entirely by the city in return for the prestige associated with the Guggenheim brand. The scheme was eventually shelved as a court decision declared the contract between the Rio City Hall and the Guggenheim Foundation to be against Brazilian law, the project being described as "a piece of hubris and folly worthy of Maia's Roman namesake". In his second term, however, Maia embarked in various building schemes, such as Cidade do Samba (Samba City) a complex of workshops in Rio's docking district to be used by samba schools to prepare for Carnival parades, inaugurated in 2005 - and was partially destroyed by a fire on 7 February 2011; the Luiz Gonzaga Center for Northeastern Traditions, an old pavilion in downtown Rio long used for selling Northeastern traditional foods and wares, refurbished to function both as a market and a showhouse - in what was seem as a "commodification" of traditional culture. Easily reelected in 2004,this time again on the Democratas party ticket, Maia embarked in a whole gamut of public works linked to the successful Rio candidature for hosting the 2007 Pan American Games, including many works that were hotly contested as authoritarian, environmentally unfriendly, and in collusion with private building interests, such as the proposed works for the Gloria Marina, which included the construction of a huge garage for yachts - as well as a shopping mall - in the landmark protected Aterro do Flamengo area, works which were shelved after being questioned by a public attorney. Works actually concluded, such as the Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, the Estádio Olímpico João Havelange and others, were regarded by many as simply an embarrassing legacy of "white elephants" - a Brazilian idiom for costly, only-for-show works and without any actual counterpart in urban infrastructure - a result reached after cost overruns that were actually