HIGHLIGHTS

Paris is an easy place to be a tourist, especially in Spring, oh, and in Autumn, even Winter, Summer, eh. The citizens care about their city enough that the monuments we all know so well, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and Sacre Coeur, haven't been surrounded by skyscrapers. After the Tour Montparnasse construction, the citizens rose up in protest and the Parisian council instituted a height restriction of 12 stories for all buildings within the city limits. The skyscrapers were limited to La Defense on the other side of the Seine. Those limits remained until 2010 and have recently been reinstated after the approval of the Tour Triangle at the Parc des Expositions de la Porte de Versailles, which is rising to 42 stories.

Many of the older buildings in Paris are made from locally sourced limestone and can become dark with pollution. Buildings are required to be cleaned every ten years to preserve the aesthetics of the City of Lights. The buildings are draped with scaffolding and coverings to contain the dust. The cleaning takes several months to complete. We were very thankful that our apartment building, made from the soft-white limestone, had been cleaned before we moved in.

View from the window of our Paris apartment in the 16th Arrondissement

When we lived in Paris, our son and I would take an afternoon and complete one of the Paris Highlights tour spots we had devised. We rode the Ferris Wheel on the Place de la Concorde, took the elevators at LaSamarataine department store or the Tour Montparnasse for the city view, rode the bus to Montmartre to Sacre Coeur, or climbed into the elevators to the top of the Eiffel Tower. The tower stands at 1083 feet and is still the tallest structure in the heart of Paris. Standing on the Eiffel Tower's glass floor on the first floor, we looked down between our shoes to see a different view of the sidewalk we usually walked. We got back on the elevator and rose to the next floor to look at the changing perspective at the higher levels.

Our local PBS station recently showed a documentary about the Eiffel Tower construction. Once the tower was complete after much controversy and opposition, Parisians crowded to the top to marvel at the city below. The Eiffel Tower was then the tallest structure in the world so the view must have been a wonder for them.

Flower Market near the Republique Stalingrad bus stop

All these memories flashed back at me as Bill(husband) and I walked the sixth-floor hallway to a lab at UCSF Parnassus for some tests he needed. We happened to come on a perfect sunny Spring day. As we entered the lobby, we were stunned to discover a hidden, 180-degree view of San Francisco out of the windows. Like those first Parisians at the Eiffel Tower, we stared in wonder. Before us was an unexpected diorama starting at the Sunset District with its straight main street leading to the Pacific Ocean, moving over Golden Gate Park to the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge sticking out from the greenery, over the various neighborhoods of the City, and to the high-rises in downtown and ending just beyond Salesforce Tower at another green hill. Our only puzzle was why all the chairs in the lobby faced away from the view.

Sunset District to the Pacific Ocean

Golden Gate Park & deYoung Museum

Golden Gate Bridge

University of San Francisco

Downtown San Francisco

San Francisco is often compared to Paris. It is a beautiful city and its citizens have tried to keep it that way. San Francisco is well-known for its system of arcane building codes. Not every decision has been good. We lost the old Fillmore District, which used to be called the Harlem of the West with all its links to Black music and history. It has been supplemented by the Fillmore, a busy neighborhood with small businesses lining the streets, similar to Jackson Square and Chestnut Street, but the Black community has been pushed out. For the most part, like Parisians, SFers want a say in keeping the city's character. When a tower of apartments was recently proposed for the Sunset District, a residential area of 2 to 4-story buildings, citizens rose up in protest. Green spaces within the city are now required of any new large building so we have sculptures and small parklets that dot the downtown. Best of all, we now have a series of parks that run along the Embarcadero from the Golden Gate to Bayview, along the San Francisco Bay Trail.

The view from our 8th floor window 

While I was waiting for Bill to finish, I took out my sketchbook and tried to draw the diorama in front of me. Some artists can create drawings of cities with each building and each street delineated. I remembered as I drew that I am not one of them. I decided to draw outlines and took photos instead.

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https://www.firstpost.com/explainers/why-paris-has-imposed-a-ban-on-skyscrapers-12748392.html 

Thanks, Christy, for some of the photos of Paris.