On a perfectly fine, unusually warm Friday evening, the people of Paris and those who fulfilled for themselves a dream by visiting the French capital, went out to eat, and to try Cambodian food, listen to American Rock, see French-German soccer or just mill about in central Paris.
They did what anybody would associate with Paris until they were shot at with military style automatic weapons and a peaceful evening turned into a nightmare with the image of Paris shifting in the collective mind.
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| Friday night in Paris (Creative Commons) |
These everyday "flaneurs" were doing exactly what people do in cities, meeting, watching other people, eating out, watching sport or listening to music. Doing those peaceful things makes them vulnerable, but unlike the jungle, a good city offers the comfort of civility. The terrorism experts who flood the airwaves ever since the attacks rightly call these places "soft targets". The entire city of Paris is a soft target and so is any other large or small city that is worth a visit. The whole point of an exciting city that has a high quality of life is that it is soft, malleable, and open to the whims of those who live there or just mill about.
The flâneur, the purposeful male stroller, was a principal performer in the theater of daily life in Paris in mid-century, if we judge by his importance in writings of the era. A journalist, writer, or illustrator, he looked about with the acute eye of a detective, sizing up persons and events with a clinical detachment as though natural events could tell him their own stories, without his interference.(
source)
For a city to provide a joyous and uplifting experience, it has to combine physical aspects such as well-planned and designed with organizational ones such as being well-managed, and, most importantly a certain behavior of the people. All those sharing public spaces have to engage in a certain code of civility that, while allowing a good range of deviation, forbids anything that risks the health, well-being or enjoyment of the others.
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| civility in Paris (photo ArchPlan Inc.) |
Ironically just when progress and technology make cities cleaner, healthier and physically more pleasant and when democratic governance...
Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects