Avenida Corrientes

Over a central stretch it is popularly known as "The Street that Never Sleeps" ("La calle que nunca duerme")[1][2] widely considered Buenos Aires' answer to Broadway as it concentrates many of the main theatres and cinemas as well as famous pizzerias and cafes,[3][4][5][6] being intimately tied to the tango and the porteño sense of identity.

The plan called for the massive razing of most of the avenue's north-side real estate and, so, met with strenuous opposition from affected landlords, retailers, as well as intellectuals like Roberto Arlt.

Further down, for some blocks from 9 de Julio Avenue to Uruguay St the avenue forms the Southern border of the lawyers' district surrounding the nearby Plaza Lavalle and the Supreme Court (see "Points of Interest" below) For most of the 20th century "Calle Corrientes" was a symbol of nightlife in Buenos Aires, traditionally nicknamed "the street that never sleeps",[7] In the 10 blocks West of downtown from Maipu St to Callao Avenue it still holds the largest concentration of theatres and cinemas (in the past together with nearby pedestrian calle Lavalle "La calle de los cines" or "Cinema street") making it the center of commercial theatre in the city and the country.

Throughout the decades the street has seen its own fauna of urban stereotypes, from the "innocent barrio girl" corrupted by the "bright city lights" of many a tango lyric (cf.

La costurerita que dio aquel mal paso [es] "The Seamstress who Took the Wrong Turn") in the street's cabarets and nightclubs of the 1920s and '30s before its enlargement, to the '60s and '70s "valijeros" ('peeping toms') lone salesmen or office workers (thus nicknamed for their briefcases or valijas) who on lunch breaks sneaked to watch X-rated European movies when they started to appear at that time (visible also on neighbouring Lavalle St) to the '80s "psico-bolches", artsy students and intellectuals (typically leftist – bolchevique – and/or dabbling in psychology) who mulled around its bookstores and cultural centres after the return of democracy The emergence of video, the Internet, cineplex and shopping malls reduced much of the allure of Corrientes, and saw the closing of several famous cinemas and theatres.

The last blocks of this main stretch, between Avenida Callao and Uruguay Street are converted into an expansive outdoor reading room during Bookstore Night, an annual event inaugurated in 2007.

[15] Mayor Mauricio Macri announced in 2010 that the financial district section of Corrientes - between Ninth of July and Avenida Leandro N. Alem, would become a two-way avenue.

Further down, Corrientes traverses the Balvanera borough (popularly known as Once) the traditionally Jewish neighborhood known for its many synagogues and the wholesale and retail sale of clothing (now home to merchants of other nationalities, including Koreans, Bolivians and Peruvians).

In disrepair not many years ago, the neighborhood is slowly making a comeback, after local developer IRSA turned the imposing old market into what is today, the city's largest shopping center.