Paulista doesn't have an awful lot. There's MASP, the modern art museum. There's a small park opposite MASP. Further east along the avenue there's Shopping Paulista, a shopping centre, which is a small and not very good shopping centre. The only one there though. Scattered along Av. Paulista are various small booth type shopping centers, such as StandCenter (near MASP) which mostly specialises in electronics and pirate movies/games.

Perhaps some of the long time residents can give more detail.

As if Paulista has loads!!

You have the museum and all the electronic shops!

Plus if you walk down Haddock Lobo you have Oscar Freire with all the good shops and chici people! Then you can walk around jardins and see all the nice apartments plus have a great meal!

Went to Fig Tree last night - It gets better each time.  I would love to go there just for the coverts but I am scared I would get kicked out!

Not sure what you're saying here, but a few not so brilliant electronic markets and a museum and gallery don't really make it a tourist hub. SP is not a tourist city, unlike London, Paris or Rome where there is genuinely plenty to do (as Zeca confirmed also).

I found Rio a big dissapointment (although I've mentioned this before on the forum). Perhaps I missed something as I was on an organised tour, but two principal attractions and artificial feeling beaches (aside from being backed onto by infinite buildings) aren't really enough for me. Also the general feel of the place, with all the issues in the slums, crime on the beaches etc. just wasn't good.

I'd much rather go to the places in the north-east I suspect, or those with more natural things on offer.