Paris is known as “the capital of the 19th century”, and day to day, it feels like it. I live on a 19th-century Haussmannian street. I travel around on a late 19th-century invention, a bicycle with two equally sized wheels, when I’m not using the prehistoric technology of walking. Living here has helped me realise: the 20th century was rubbish for cities. All over Europe, in particular, cities are now peeling off the century’s imprint like a bad wallpapering job in ways that go beyond pushing out cars. The post-pandemic urban ideal is a cleaned-up version of the 19th-century city with 21st-century enhancements.
巴黎以“19世紀之都”聞名，而且一天天地，巴黎給人的感覺也越來越是這樣的了。我住在一條19世紀的奧斯曼式街道。我通過一種19世紀晚期的發(fā)明出行——一輛兩個輪子大小相同的自行車。當然，這是在我沒有用一種史前技術(shù)——行走——的時候。住在這里幫我意識到：20世紀對城市來說糟透了。尤其是在整個歐洲，各個城市現(xiàn)在都在剝離20世紀的印記，就像剝離貼得不好的墻紙，方式多種多樣，不僅僅是把汽車從城市清除出去。在疫情后，城市理想的模樣是一種清潔版的19世紀城市，附帶21世紀的各種改善。