The streets of my city

This is my favorite building in my Quartier (neighborhood).



It sits on a busy corner where there is plenty of car and foot traffic and a bus line. The upper floors are residential, but the ground floor is occupied by two local businesses - a cafe/bar and an Italian grocery. On weekends there might be a flower stand in front of the grocery, or sometimes fresh fruits and vegetables.



I think that this building is aesthetically pleasing, lovely really; but I think the reason I am so attached to it is because it has become iconic to me. The architecture of this building, the columns, the statue tucked away in its roof alcove, the colors and especially the two small businesses on the ground floor are a perfect image of what I always imagined life in a European city to look like. I even like that when I look at the building from across the streets the cables for the bus line - so very European - slice across my field of vision. Once upon a time I would mutter at those tram and bus cables for "ruining" my pictures; but they are the essence of European city living and I am learning to incorporate them into my pictures. To use them. To appreciate them. Their presence makes my life on foot, my life lived in close contact with the street, possible.



Much of my neighborhood is mixed-use; businesses on the ground floor and apartments above. I'm a big proponent of mixed-use zoning. As Jane Jacobs illustrated long ago, mixed-use neighborhood are lively and interesting; they have varied foot traffic at most hours of the day and night (thus providing not only interest but safety); and they're convenient for the residents. I live within a ten minute walk of a bakery, a grocery store, an organic food store, a butcher, two wine shops, multiple restaurants and cafes, an ATM, a post office, a papeterie (stationary and card store), an art supply store, two bookstores, two florists, two apotheks (drug stores), a branch library, a park, and the bus stop. Small Boy and I live our lives on foot, out on the streets of our neighborhood, strolling here, popping into this store and that, recognizing faces on the streets, contributing to this lively neighborhood. Our neighborhood is designed to be lived in, not merely inhabited.

I love the buildings, the businesses, the streets of my city.