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Someone better educated than me, please comment, but this sounds something like Paris. The old section of Paris has a great deal of law protecting its preservat

Someone better educated than me, please comment, but this sounds something like Paris. The old section of Paris has a great deal of law protecting its preservation. Would it be progress to tear down the Eiffel tower, or the Arc de Triomphe?

raldi 13y ago
When it was first built, the Eiffel Tower was decried as destroying the beauty of the city. And the Etoile of boulevards radiating from the Arc were built as part of one of the biggest demolish-all-the-history public works projects of all time. If those laws had been on the books in 1850, or if the Paris of that time had subscribed to modern-day SF's change-nothing philosophy, the city you love would not exist in anything like its current form. Further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eiffel_Tower&mobileaction=toggle_view_desktop#The_.22Artists_Protest.22 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eiffel_Tower&mobil... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussmann's_renovation_of_Paris http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussmann's_renovation_of_Paris
- mikeash 13y ago
  This seems like a perfect example of the adage that "Europeans think 100 miles is a long distance, Americans think 100 years is a long time." Those particular Paris icons are extremely recent, relatively speaking. If Paris's timeline were fit into that of San Francisco, the Eiffel Tower would have been completed in 2001.
  - raldi 13y ago
    The fact remains, much of the Paris we love today was only made possible by their willingness in the 1800s to tear out so much of their history and build something better.
    - mikeash 13y ago
      Yes, I'm really just reinforcing your point. These examples of historic, static landmarks are relatively new.
- 205guy 13y ago
  Yes, but the Etoile neighborhood is rather sterile if you ask me, with the big streets and lack of businesses. There is the Champs-Elysee with car dealships and over-priced cafes, and then the other boulevards with embassies and high-end apartments. It's all pretty and well done, but who's to say it wouldn't be a vibrant, diverse older neighborhood like the Marais if they'd left it.
TheCoelacanth 13y ago
It becomes a problem when you're protecting the entire city rather than just a few key areas.

raldi 13y ago

When it was first built, the Eiffel Tower was decried as destroying the beauty of the city. And the Etoile of boulevards radiating from the Arc were built as part of one of the biggest demolish-all-the-history public works projects of all time. If those laws had been on the books in 1850, or if the Paris of that time had subscribed to modern-day SF's change-nothing philosophy, the city you love would not exist in anything like its current form. Further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eiffel_Tower&mobileaction=toggle_view_desktop#The_.22Artists_Protest.22 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eiffel_Tower&mobil... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussmann's_renovation_of_Paris http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussmann's_renovation_of_Paris

mikeash 13y ago
This seems like a perfect example of the adage that "Europeans think 100 miles is a long distance, Americans think 100 years is a long time." Those particular Paris icons are extremely recent, relatively speaking. If Paris's timeline were fit into that of San Francisco, the Eiffel Tower would have been completed in 2001.
- raldi 13y ago
  The fact remains, much of the Paris we love today was only made possible by their willingness in the 1800s to tear out so much of their history and build something better.
  - mikeash 13y ago
    Yes, I'm really just reinforcing your point. These examples of historic, static landmarks are relatively new.
205guy 13y ago
Yes, but the Etoile neighborhood is rather sterile if you ask me, with the big streets and lack of businesses. There is the Champs-Elysee with car dealships and over-priced cafes, and then the other boulevards with embassies and high-end apartments. It's all pretty and well done, but who's to say it wouldn't be a vibrant, diverse older neighborhood like the Marais if they'd left it.

TheCoelacanth 13y ago

It becomes a problem when you're protecting the entire city rather than just a few key areas.