A place to talk about art on Farcaster. Artwork created by jacob.eth

Also helpful to give a single individual dictatorial powers to demolish whole streets and neighborhoods without any input from the locals and let that compound for 170 years

Haussmann was a visionary who saw Paris’s future as a museum-city and built accordingly.

How thankful we should be for the empty space around Notre Dame so that tourists may mill about with space to breathe!

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Same! I love it, too.

But, I'm not a Parisian, only ever a tourist. Much of Paris feels built to those tastes, but if you were a local, you may feel differently.

It reminds me of Fran Lebowitz's documentary "Pretend It's a City" where she expresses annoyance at the touristification of New York. "It's a functional city, not a museum!"

But New York, like Paris, is a museum in many respects. Far more so than Texas cities.

Of course visitors to Paris thinks it's more beautiful than Houston! Paris has been built with the outsider in mind. Give Houston time: it will become a museum eventually.

To be clear: I love the end result. Just not productive to compare in modern democratic society.