Haussmann’s Paris
The Paris we know today did not emerge haphazardly over a number of centuries but rather it is the completed vision of Baron Haussmann (1809-1891) who was given the remit by Napoleon III for a reconstruction programme for the city to recapture and commemorate the grandeur of his uncle Napoleon Bonaparte, The First Emperor of the French Republic.
Like all great ideas there were other good reasons, most practically addressing the free movement of people, food and sewage for a city that had doubled its population since 1800. It was also a mechanism to control civil unrest. Previously the city had been a warren of small streets – as still exist in the Marais district – and these had been hard for government soldiers to defend when the proletariat got restless.
The creation of the wide boulevards (up to 120 metres in the case of L’Avenue Foch) and an elegant and harmonious building style was also – being the French- about architecture as art. These grand boulevards that crisscross the city are bookended by monuments or magnificent buildings, such as the Opera House framed by the avenue of the same name, or the Boulevard Beaumarchais leading to the Place de la Bastille – revolutionary equivalent to our Cuffy Square. The L’Arc de Triomphe is the star at the centre of a wheel of eight perfectly straight boulevards from which it can be seen, amplifying its symbolism of French military prowess. Hitler made sure to hang a swastika on it in 1940.
Haussmann built large sewage tunnels under each boulevard, created elegant and uniform newspaper kiosks and benches, and he planted trees along sidewalks which are extremely spacious, making Paris one of the most walkable of cities and also a joy to “people watch” from a cafe table.
Moses’ New York
Robert Moses (1888-1981) did not have quite the same impact nor did he add any art to New York City; it was an ugly period for American public works despite the lashings of federal money spent on them. Today we might enter Manhattan via the Triborough Bridge -a great view if you like the egomania of skyscrapers but the bridge has zero aesthetic value. It was a Moses project that typified his single-mindedness of how to get humans in and out of the city via bridges and highways at a time when Americans were in a fully fledged love affair with the automobile.
During a career spanning six decades Moses accrued extraordinary power despite being an unelected bureaucrat. He is quoted as saying, “You can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs” and he certainly did that. His Cross Bronx Expressway remains a dreadful scar across the south of that borough that decimated and impoverished minority neighborhoods. Equally ruthless was his clearing of the poor quarters on the West Side of Manhattan to create the Lincoln Center. Worst of all, was his building of low bridges over the highways out to Jones Beach, said to be to deter buses used primarily by African Americans. His widening of avenues in Manhattan meant narrower sidewalks and to this day the borough often entails a cramped, Indian file walk, although its energy and colour always makes it entertaining. And it is also still a collection of distinct neighborhoods especially in the downtown area – Little Italy, Noho and Soho although gentrification over the past 40 years has homogenised its inhabitants into the mostly white and wealthy.
Dubai’s instant urbanism
Dubai was not much more than a fishing village at the time Baron Haussmann was building his boulevards. And it was not until the late 20th century that Sheikh Mohammed ibn Rashid Al Maktoum began the creation of a modern metropolis. His biggest advantage was having a blank canvas for his plans and the political power to push them through. Demo-cracy can slow such stuff up. Nevertheless it is a staggering achievement of “instant urbanism” in terms of size and speed made possible by cheap Asian labour whose shabby quarters are hidden far from the tourists.
Dubai contains some of the world’s most exciting architecture including the Burj Khalifa the world’s tallest building and the sail-shaped Burj Al Arabhe hotel, along with massive man made islands. But it is a city for four wheels not two feet and as such has an enormity, anonymity and artificiality that is for some dystopian. Many of its villas stand empty, simply investments for the world’s wealthy to park their money. Real estate as Bitcoin.
The shaping of public spaces determines its inhabitants’ behaviour. Build parks and sporting facilities and more people will use them as part of their daily routines. Build more highways and more will drive on them and more often. For all his sins Moses built eight municipal swimming pools around New York, many of which are still open. The flaneur of Paris who strolls the city, or the Italian family indulging in their evening passeggiata around their neighbourhood piazza, have been assisted by wise city planners. New Yorkers on the other hand invariably jump in their cars when the evening sets in, or take a desultory subway to their nondescript suburban homes as part of the city’s daily inhaling and exhaling of commuters.
What might the residents of Georgetown learn from these different cities as they ponder their future and the prospects of transformation? In colonial times without the combustion engine the Garden City might have been a pleasant place to stroll under the shade of the flamboyant trees, a precious few of which remain. The city’s parks and its seawall still offer some relief from the heat and claustrophobia and more could be done to enhance these communal spaces. More basketball courts might bring an energy and sense of community that those in lower Manhattan have generated. A daring proposal.
Perhaps the primary and most immediate issue is how heavily motorized the city is.The increase in vehicles in the country and the failure to offer safe and reliable public transportation have snarled the city streets to the point where traffic jams are the norm. This Christmas season is already promising to be bumper to bumper. The absence of sidewalks either because they are not there (North Road) or because private cars are blocking them makes walking anywhere an obstacle course rather than enjoyable. And while the Diamond to Mandela Avenue highway and the proposed East Bank/East Coast bypass might bring relief to commuters, the city’s roads will only experience increasing congestion as more cars flood in, as part of a vicious cycle of road building and vehicle ownership. There is a term for it – induced demand. Sadly we do not hear of any talk of a light rail service along the East Bank -a possible solution.
Meanwhile the President’s plan to build Silica City, south east of the Soesdyke junction reflects the lack of interest the current government has in the capital and it feels more like a politically driven abandonment under the guise of combating rising sea levels. It may happen it may not (Guyanese are a coastal people) but one could imagine this “shining city on a hill” being as soulless as Dubai and bland as downtown Orlando. However the exodus might give Georgetown residents the room to finally breathe and perhaps an autonomy to create a city that celebrates its complicated history and is more livable rather than one where people just survive. Given our politics we will probably not have a Haussmann or a Moses to drive through plans and perhaps that is best. Grassroots city planning involving all citizens is preferable as long as the business class is limited in its influence given it has destroyed so much of the city’s old buildings and built their ugly boxes up and down Regent St.
Any initiative or master plan will take decades to realise but perhaps we could start with some baby steps: pedestrians-only Saturdays on Regent St; alternate side of the street parking on main thoroughfares; the prioritisation of parapets for two feet over four wheels. Cities are the souls of countries so must be cultivated. Georgetown is wounded but not beyond repair.
