Funny how the cities are made. Either Paris or Berlin. I noticed something : people are moving everyday, almost always the same way : from east to west. It’s like concentrated areas. You’re parked at one place to sleep ; you’re parked to another to work. The only connection between the zones are the public transports, which allow you to go through. When do you stop in the center ? but on Saturdays of course ! when you go shopping , all together, at the same time, in the big department stores. Why ? because it is the only place which are reachable for you.
This morning I started very early and because I had to wait for the train to bring me to work, I looked at the people coming from the other direction, all glued together in the train, over-white lighted. Like I said, from east to west. The only type of people moving on the other side are the workmen because the east of the city is “in progress”. I also leave in the east of the city (not east Germany, Darling, it’ so passé bourgeois; but centre east, where the city is breathing) and I feel quite alone to travel from east to east-east. I guess this will change soon. You can feel it. The city is moving. There are zones I can’t afford to leave in today when a few years ago nobody would have dared to move. It already happened in Paris. Before the leaving areas were on the east side and we had to go to the west, even far west to go to work. It’s like changing world for the day. The problem with Paris is that there are only a few places available to build. Paris is a closed city you can’ extend it (because of this horrible motorway around the city; the one you never escape from…). So the only free zones were the old wine warehouses (rive droite) where the new park and Bercy are based, linked together via the new (wonderful) bridge Simone de Beauvoir and the no man’s land between Austerlitz and the motorway on which is now the bibliothèque François Mitterand and all the new buildings and university. But tell me, where are the people who used to leave there now that the work place arrived at the front door ? they had to move, of course ! what do you think ? can you afford a flat in Paris (or anywhere else) where the new trendy placed are ? no, so what do you do ? you move far east, where new zones are built, only for you. That is why there is less and less countryside and more and more urbanism. The cities are emptying themselves, as well. And look carefully : it’s happening at the European scale : how many cities closed big companies head office only because they moved to east Europe where it is cheaper ? They talk a lot about the deserts that take more and more space on the planet. But the desert is already in front of you. Do you make any difference between sand and concrete ?
In the end, there is still no one outside.
This morning I started very early and because I had to wait for the train to bring me to work, I looked at the people coming from the other direction, all glued together in the train, over-white lighted. Like I said, from east to west. The only type of people moving on the other side are the workmen because the east of the city is “in progress”. I also leave in the east of the city (not east Germany, Darling, it’ so passé bourgeois; but centre east, where the city is breathing) and I feel quite alone to travel from east to east-east. I guess this will change soon. You can feel it. The city is moving. There are zones I can’t afford to leave in today when a few years ago nobody would have dared to move. It already happened in Paris. Before the leaving areas were on the east side and we had to go to the west, even far west to go to work. It’s like changing world for the day. The problem with Paris is that there are only a few places available to build. Paris is a closed city you can’ extend it (because of this horrible motorway around the city; the one you never escape from…). So the only free zones were the old wine warehouses (rive droite) where the new park and Bercy are based, linked together via the new (wonderful) bridge Simone de Beauvoir and the no man’s land between Austerlitz and the motorway on which is now the bibliothèque François Mitterand and all the new buildings and university. But tell me, where are the people who used to leave there now that the work place arrived at the front door ? they had to move, of course ! what do you think ? can you afford a flat in Paris (or anywhere else) where the new trendy placed are ? no, so what do you do ? you move far east, where new zones are built, only for you. That is why there is less and less countryside and more and more urbanism. The cities are emptying themselves, as well. And look carefully : it’s happening at the European scale : how many cities closed big companies head office only because they moved to east Europe where it is cheaper ? They talk a lot about the deserts that take more and more space on the planet. But the desert is already in front of you. Do you make any difference between sand and concrete ?
In the end, there is still no one outside.
No comments:
Post a Comment