As an occasional visitor to Paris, I was quite astonished at how nice at least the central parts of the city have become under the 12-year tenure of Mayor Hidalgo (admittedly with the help of gobs of public funding for the Olympics). It's so much more green, clean, and biking/pedestrian friendly than it used to be.
I gather locals who drive are in violent disagreement with me on this, and Paris is a big place that extends well beyond the posh touristy arrondissements, but it's still remarkable -- especially given that the downtowns of most American big cities have gone downhill in the same time period.
I’m currently travelling in China and the total absence of graffiti and the wide availability of public toilets as well as the general cleanliness of the place is a stark contrast to London. I am somewhat dreading that part when I return.
Any "private" space in a public place becomes valuable with more density. It's basic scarcity incentives. It unfortunately incentivizes hooligans to make the restroom appear even more disheveled and unsafe to increase the privacy (less people want to go in it)
I don't really understand why the author is dumping on LA's toilets so much while praising how Parisian toilets are so useful for everyday people like commuters. The LA Metro program, which is expanding and seems to be very successful, has very different goals and challenges than the skid row public bathrooms.
Not sure why you're bringing subways into this, since the Paris Metro wipes the floor with the LA Metro. 16 lines and still growing, not including the even more rapidly expanding modern tram network.
As an occasional visitor to Paris, I was quite astonished at how nice at least the central parts of the city have become under the 12-year tenure of Mayor Hidalgo (admittedly with the help of gobs of public funding for the Olympics). It's so much more green, clean, and biking/pedestrian friendly than it used to be.
I gather locals who drive are in violent disagreement with me on this, and Paris is a big place that extends well beyond the posh touristy arrondissements, but it's still remarkable -- especially given that the downtowns of most American big cities have gone downhill in the same time period.
"JCDeaux basically invented the idea of Street furniture"
That is a fairly strong claim on the surface and the company's website has a slightly different one:
"In 1964, Jean-Claude Decaux invented advertising street furniture."
Such a fundamental mistake in the opening paragraph. Made me realize I could not trust whatever was written afterwards.
Public restrooms are a sign of advanced civilizations. It's a pity that they have to be built to withstand damage from hooligans.
The existence of well maintained and clean public restrooms and hooligans is a shibboleth for culture. Some cultures are simply superior.
I’m currently travelling in China and the total absence of graffiti and the wide availability of public toilets as well as the general cleanliness of the place is a stark contrast to London. I am somewhat dreading that part when I return.
The restroom building provides more utility than most buildings do to a hooligan. Unclear why it is an enemy.
Vandalism scales linearly with [accessible, visible, unsupervised].
Uncorrelated with the usefulness of the building after controlling for other factors
Any "private" space in a public place becomes valuable with more density. It's basic scarcity incentives. It unfortunately incentivizes hooligans to make the restroom appear even more disheveled and unsafe to increase the privacy (less people want to go in it)
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I don't really understand why the author is dumping on LA's toilets so much while praising how Parisian toilets are so useful for everyday people like commuters. The LA Metro program, which is expanding and seems to be very successful, has very different goals and challenges than the skid row public bathrooms.
Not sure why you're bringing subways into this, since the Paris Metro wipes the floor with the LA Metro. 16 lines and still growing, not including the even more rapidly expanding modern tram network.