My assessment of Lyon is that, like Torino, it is a city in a very good space. The main difference is that Torino is in a rapid economic ascent that, if unchecked, may strip away some of its quality-of-life (like in SF, where the rent is too damn high). Lyon seems like it’s been in a good place for hundreds of years – happy to let Paris be the capital of panache.
Speaking of panache, after a week, the only French I can speak are words that are also in English, and “Excuse me, I don’t speak no Fron-say. Can we come to your country and bombard you with English”. French is not only harder than Italian, it’s completely undecipherable when spoken. Everything is either pronounced in the back of the throat or in the nose. Pronounced, it’s like someone sanded down all the words so that only the finest textures remain. It makes for high art. High, indecipherable, unpronounceable art.
In addition to having a beautiful-sounding language, the Lyonnaise have an outstanding quality-of-life. The public transit is impeccable. There are thousands of public bikes to rent for free or really cheap, depending on how long you have them (but which require a credit card with that little chip that American cards don’t have, so we never got to ride – c’est la vie). The architecture is lovely – inhabited for over 2,000 years, the old town is a UNESCO World Heritage District. Most of the buildings are a comfortable 6-8 stories. The newer section is less lovely, and from the 30s-80s, but is lovely as well – what it lacks in windiness, it makes up for in tree-linedness. Rent is very reasonable compared to salaries. And, on a national level, there are perks that, in place in America, would reduce the national stress levels in half – free health care, free school through university, excellent unemployment benefits, great social security. People work, and are challenged, and create, but money is not the organizing principle of life, and the office is not the hub of activity. It really is a pleasure to witness such a society and wonder what it is we sacrifice for our way of life – and are the benefits worth it?
And I haven’t even mentioned the food. We’ve eaten a whole zoo – both in diversity, and quantity. The French are not scared to kill, cook, and sauce anything. And if one’s attitude is to dive in, one must be willing to touch the bottom of the deep end. Frogs legs are like chicken wings, except still connected at the pelvis. Ducks have many edible limbs. Beef need not be cooked. Calves need not grow up. Intestines are our friend. Lambs beg to be chopped. And fish practically swim into your stomach, into a sea of delicious sea of local, light, low-sulfite wine. (Really. I mean, I often go months without getting drunk. Yesterday, it was twice, including once at lunch with a senior planner for the City of Lyon (who seemed unphased when we continued the meeting at his office)). And salads and cheeses and sauces and mousses and tartes and tartlettes and digestives and champagne.
So you may wonder how we saw any of the city with all this eating. Especially because dinners are easily two hour affairs, and often three. Well, the key is eating until 11PM, at which time it’s only been dark for an hour, and for the first time the skies aren’t filled with millions of cheeping, flitting, swooping swallows. Outdoors, preferably. After translating every word on the menu with our gastronomic dictionary (that’s right, a dictionary only of food terms – helpful in Italy, absolutely essential in France). Hold on, am I talking about food again. Sorry.
So I did manage to see a good bit of the city, and meet with many of the kind, sweet, shrewd people who are helping keep Lyon on course. In many ways, these planners have more influence and authority than we do in SF. In general, government has much more authority, and trust (which we could have too, if we didn’t have large companies continuously and cynically spreading the message that government is bad). Because of that, they are trusted to develop community plans with minimal community input (I have mixed feelings about that, because that means a lot of expertise is overlooked, but it does increase their power). The environment is treated with much respect (their green neighborhoods are really green, like carbon neutral green, like leafy green), but yet they don’t get involved in incredibly expensive, project-by-project environmental review. And, incredibly, in the big French metro areas are all run by metro-level governments to which the local authorities have ceded power. For example, Lyon has 58 cities in the “Grand Lyon” government, which controls land use, economic development, environmental considerations, and transportation in the metro area. It makes so much sense, given that jobs and housing and transportation and the environment are all regional issues. But it is still a rarity in the world, and that gives the French a real competitive advantage in making strong cities. With a regional economic strategy tied to land use and transportation, they can most efficiently build on existing trends and patterns, address needs, and leverage strengths.
And, of course, they have a LOT more money to work with. Which is possible in a society that is interested in investing in itself. For example, the government does the cleanup of polluted ex-industrial areas, to support their redevelopment, so as to keep prices down so that housing can be more affordable. For example, the first aspect of a project is always the transit, and only then does development happen. For example, at every level of government there are think tanks and researchers that gather best practices from around the world to share with their colleagues. And they go en masse to study other cities as well. Yes, I am green with envy, and also from the frogs legs.
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