Staying recently on the Herengracht in Amsterdam, I found myself trying to solve a psychological puzzle. How could anyone have thought for a moment, how could any mind have entertained even for an infinitesimal fraction of an instant, that 17th- and 18th-century Dutch domestic architecture — as elegant as any in the whole history of the world — should be pulled down to make room for buildings in the Novosibirsk style?
But that, at one time, was the idea of Joop den Uyl, former prime minister of the Netherlands, whose bust is still to be seen in the city hall of Amsterdam. He also wanted to run a motorway through the city to the central station, allegedly for the sake of convenience; reformers such as he have an infallible instinct for a single project that will ruin everything. What is their motive?
The present mayor of Paris, who has a reasonable chance of being the next president of France, thinks that Paris, being crowded, needs skyscrapers.
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