Toronto vs. Paris — feeling Eiffel envy
We live in a miserable, miserly, boring city.
That was my second mind-flash after I stepped out of a downtown
métro station — luggage in hand — into the light of Paris. The first was
oh là là!
Have you been to Paris? You must go. Save your toonies, stay out in the burbs, eat only baguettes and corner-store Camembert . . . The energy of the streets and beauty of the buildings will sustain you. My husband, Graeme, and I went to celebrate our 10th anniversary. We took the subway from the airport for € 9 ($11.50) and stepped out near the Centre Pompidou modern art museum. A crowd of small round tables swallowed us — each weighed down by cafés au lait and the elbows of thin-scarfed, smoking, emphatic Parisians.
The blue slate turrets of roofs winked hello. Art spun in fountains, boutiques wore ornate iron hats that swirled delicately above their facades, beige bikes-for-hire lined every other corner ready for the taking. And look: another bike lane down a medieval street the width of my closet!
It took us 30 minutes to reach the small apartment we’d rented because I kept stopping to gasp and dig through my purse for my camera. And we weren’t anywhere near Notre Dame Cathedral.
Someone once said that distance makes the heart grow fonder. I don’t know about that. It does make the eyes sharper, though.
Four days in Paris filled me with reflections on our tired, sad, angry city. I kept thinking, “Why don’t we do that?” Paris adores its citizens and wants them to adore their lives. Toronto wants its taxpayers to go home. A few things Paris can teach us: 1. Let people drink coffee and wine here, there and everywhere. You can’t walk a block in Paris without wading through another café. The cafés explode from every scrap of exposed concrete, spilling their little round tables across the sidewalk. You have to be patient and determined to get a seat; most are bursting full.
Parisians live in small, antique apartments. They use the cafés — which serve booze, too — as their living rooms, to write, read, socialize. It means that you don’t need to rush across town to get to the par- ty; the party is right here. We, too, are moving into smaller and smaller places with our current condo addiction. What about encouraging patios? 2. Put cycling lanes in, don’t take them out. Paris has gone cycling mad. Since the mayor introduced the bike-sharing Vélib — the inspiration for our Bixi — five years ago, Parisians have made more than 130 million trips. For perspective: Bixi celebrated 550,000 rides in its first year; Vélib claims 110,000 trips daily. Sure, they have three times the people we do, but they have half the space! Paris was built for horses and buggies. While the main streets are broad, the inner streets are anorexic. If you want to witness the war on the car, watch a Renault double-park there. We have nothing but space, and we are stingy; they have no space and still they share. Since 2010, the mayor’s office has been slapping down bicycle lanes, aiming to create 260 kilometres more by 2014. Mayor Bertrand Delanoë is convinced it’s the solution to the city’s congestion problem. Toronto’s Board of Trade agreed, ranking Paris the most “labour-attractive” city in the world. 3. Make more public spaces and give people there places to sit. The Tuileries is a large park next to the Louvre. We wandered around it a number of times, coming and going to galleries. A lot of other people did, too. Many of them stopped to sit under a tree on one of the hundreds of green chairs scattered about. If you didn’t want to sit under a tree, you could drag one to the lip of a fountain. How many benches does your park offer?
Next time, I’d like to visit in August, when three areas of the city are converted into public beaches, including a three-kilometre stretch of road next to the Seine. City workers truck in sand and potted palm trees, then set up chaises longues under royal blue umbrellas. Parisians are encouraged to luxuriate in life. Why aren’t we?
4. Dig more subway tunnels. I already mentioned my ride from the airport that cost me one-seventh of the cab ride to Pearson. (I could have had 10 glasses of Sancerre for that!)
You need a map to navigate Paris’s subway system. It looks like an MRI. There are more than 14 lines. Now think of the map of Toronto’s system, which has hardly changed since I was born.
I know — I’m sick to death of talking about our meagre transit system and how to fund its expansion or, more likely, not fund it. In Paris, I realized how far down that rabbit hole we’ve plunged. Some things are obvious: if they dug a huge subway system under a crowded medieval city, we should manage in a city of space.
I love our city, which makes hating it all the harder.
I would have been happier to return if the mayor hadn’t greeted me on the radio this morning. He told CBC’s Matt Galloway that he was transforming Toronto into a city to “work, play and live.” His plan to do that?
No patios or subway stations or temporary parks or bike lanes, which he’s busily removing.
“I am pushing taxes down,” he said.
“I believe I’m doing a very good job.”
And then it rained. Catherine Porter can be reached at cporter@thestar.ca.