No Thongs on the Pompidou Expressway! Tomorrow the F.D.R.?

Streestblog foreign correspondent Geoff Zink sends in this snapshot from Paris, France, where every summer since 2002 an expressway running along the River Seine has been transformed into a beach and linear park. More from Geoff on Flickr.

Today, the New York Times reports the new rules: No toplessness. No thongs. "If people want to see breasts, they should go to the Lido, or the Moulin Rouge," says Yvan Hinnemann, a manager of Paris-Plages.

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European Vacation

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DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall’s two week European vacation has gotten off to a lousy start. NPR is reporting that Weinshall, her husband, Senator Chuck Schumer, and their two daughters were stuck in Heathrow Airport for hours after yesterday’s terrorism arrests. The Commissioner and her family were planning on visiting Amsterdam and Paris but have decided to stay […]

Picturing a Car-Free Seine: The New Vision for the Paris Waterfront

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The new plan for the Seine’s left bank will transform space for highways and parking into space for people. The area outside the Musee D’Orsay will host outdoor film screenings. Image: City of Paris. A few weeks ago, Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë announced a plan to transform his city’s waterfront, closing 1.2 miles of expressway […]

They Come to Bury the BQE, Not to Praise It

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The Brooklyn Paper reports that there’s talk brewing about seizing an opportunity to bury the section of the BQE that runs underneath the Promenade, rather than simply repair it (right, the Atlantic Ave. overpass where the roadway rises near the site of the proposed Brooklyn Bridge Park and the One Brooklyn condo development): Some Brooklyn […]
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Decision Time for Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway

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Toronto is facing a critical decision about the aging elevated Gardiner East Expressway. Will Canada’s largest city go ahead with the plan to replace the one-mile-long concrete relic with a surface boulevard and walkable development? Or will it cling to yesterday’s infrastructure? The debate has been heating up ahead of a key City Council meeting next week. A poll released […]