Why Paris works? Less cars

Santa Cruz (CA) Sentinel ^ | June 6, 2004 | Dan Harper

[martin_fierro]

[martin_fierro]

Get a load of this.

[jriemer]

Why would Santa Cruz want to be French?

[Brilliant]

My in-laws just came back from Paris and told me that it's a disaster. Street people everywhere, defecating wherever they like--the place stinks. They hated it.

[johniegrad]

Paging Willie, paging Willie.

[rhombus]

Very typical "liberal-speak". Bad, bad Americans with their Capitalistic PRIVATE transportation. Good, good French with their Socialistic PUBLIC transportation. We are so fat and lazy because we don't walk everywhere. Instead we get to work earlier with our cars and work longer... um, I guess that must make us greedy too. Bad, bad America. Bring back Carter's malaise!! Sorry, Le Chump, not gonna happen here and keep your hands off my Conestoga wagon.

[PGalt]

Harper's bizarre.

[MEG33]

The most harrowing drive I have ever had was in Paris..they cross lanes in traffic circles without fear or worry..while I thought we were going to get smashed into any moment.

[Drango]

it’s a people-friendly city

right

[Dane]

Our Aptos friends who have relocated to Paris have more than 100 stairs to climb to their apartment in the sixth arrondissement

Yep while Grandma is roasting in that non airconditioned apartment, while her family is on a three week holiday in August, and doesn't even have time for a phone call to see how she is doing.

[Sybeck1]

I thought this thread was about why Paris Hilton works. Being a billionaire's daughter and all.

[ClearCase_guy]

it’s a people-friendly city

Especially if the people speak German.

[wideminded]

The truth is, in spite of its shabby corners, Paris works. Everything fits. From those wonderful morning croissants and tiny cups of thick black coffee at street side brasseries to its amazing metro, it’s a people-friendly city.

One of the metro lines in Paris has no tracks. The cars are rubber-tired vehicles that travel in a concrete trough. They also have tires on the sides to keep the cars centered in the trough. To me, this does not appear to be the height of great engineering.

[BSunday]

Why Paris Works ? Good question...

[The Great RJ]

What makes Paris work without cars is a cheap subway system. When I was a student in Paris, I knew I could get almost anywhere by Metro for about 20 cents US in those days. Note however, the major tunnels were constructed 75-100 years ago and the system is heavily subsidized by the taxpayers. The cost of developing such a system now in a major metropolitan area would be prohibitive--look at what the Washington DC subway cost the taxpayers.

[IGOTMINE]

In many ways, they are more French than the French.

[BSunday]

I could say the same exact thing for Naples Italy. They truly take stop signs and red lights as mere suggestions.

[MadIvan]

Utter rubbish. Paris only "works" in the very central districts, which benefit from huge subsidies that the average Jacques and Juliette have to pay with exhorbitant taxes. In these areas, rubbish collection and street sweeping are done more or less meticuluously.

However, Paris is an "inside out" city in the Anglo-Saxon sense - its "inner city" ghettos are confined to the outer districts. It is clear that this author has never accidentally stumbled on the pissoir called Saint Denis. These areas are so "no-go" that the police don't dare enter. As many of the people there are Muslim immigrants from North Africa, these have also become hotbeds of Islamic extremism.

It used to be that this system "worked" to the extent that the centre was a museum, where the elderly French bourgoisie could go on a Sunday stroll and be slightly deluded into thinking that the grandeur of the 19th century was alive and well. However the outer districts are increasingly encroaching on the centre - crime, drugs and beggary are on the increase. Hamstrung by socialist politicians (some of which have the temerity to refer to themselves as "the Right"), the police is unable to deal with this. We can see the increasing awareness of this phenomenon throughout France in the rise in the vote for Jean Marie Le Pen, who is one of the few who is proposing radical change for France's problems (albeit, much of his policy is just as statist as those he opposes).

Anyone with the slightest bit of sense would prefer Santa Cruz to Paris. Remember, America is a country that had a revolution to reassert rights and liberties. France is a country had a revolution to put themselves under a more onerous dictator than Louis XVI. The results of these national traits are self evident.

Regards, Ivan