Haussmann: He started that whole sidewalk cafe thing (by N D)

The death of Paris or the coming into the modern age.

Baron Georges Haussmann was largely responsible for the transformation of Paris from its renaissance character to the one it preserves today. This Parisian administrator of France exerted great influence on cities all over the world throughout his aesthetics merits. Although, the merits of these creations are open to dispute, there is no doubt that as a town planner, he was fabulous.

Haussmann was the grandson on his fathers side, of a member of the revolutionary convention and, on his mothers, the Napoleanic general. He studied law in Paris and entered the civil service in 1831 as a secretary general of a prefecture. Haussmann rose to be sub-prefect (1832-48), prefect in the provinces (1848-53), and finally prefect of the Seine Department (1853-70).

In his last officially held office, in the Seine Department, he embarked on a truly catholic endeavor in which he created a program of public works. He created wide straight tree lined avenues through the myriad of chaotic small streets of which Paris was then composed. An example of this is Rue de Rivoli which runs from Hotel De Ville to Place De Concorde.

Haussmann connected the train terminals, making rapid easy movement across the city possible for the first time. The purpose of this endevour was two fold, the first was partly economic promoting industrialization, by enabling goods and service to be transported efficiently from one major port to another for the first time in Paris’s pathetic history. The second purpose was merely aesthetic, by imposing a measure of unifying order and opening up space to allow for the ebullient rays of light to penetrate into Paris.

There was also a third, and depending on which viewpoint you stand, a more or less important purpose; military. By eliminating constricted streets where the rascal rebel barricades could be erected, Haussmann eliminated the threat of proletariats rising. Haussmann also had a 'nose' for the common man, by creating new systems of water supply and drainage so as to remove the foul odors- for which the French were and still are known for today. This bourgeois Bengal raised the level of street lights and expanded the width of the sidewalks to cater to the walking population, and spring up the sidewalk cafes that have enlivened Parisian street life for decades. He also demolished the majority of private residences on the Ile de la Cite and gave it the religious and administrative character, as well as constructing the Opera and the center for all of modern drug life, Les Halles. And for these Napoleanic achievements, we grace his legacy by naming a street after him which bends like a monkey's tail, undermining the entire achievement for which he set out to accomplish.