Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 365

We have spoken about Paris' Tour Montparnasse before on the blog, and spoken more broadly about the city's discomfort with tall buildings . The Tour Montparnasse is the only skyscraper within the city limits of Paris. If you include the Eiffel Tower, it is one of only two really tall things , though this will soon increase to three with the addition of Herzog and de Meuron's new trapezoidal-shaped tower (now under construction).

The Tour Montparnasse turned 50 this year and so people are now writing about it again. In my opinion, this recent piece in the New Yorker , by Colin Marshall, is particularly thoughtful. Here are two important points that he makes. The first has to do with the fact that kind of old usually isn't enough when it comes to architecture. You need buildings to be really old before they get fully appreciated:

Architectural fashion treasures hundred-and-fifty-year-old structures but derides fifty-year-old ones; hence the works of brutalism that have faced the wrecking ball in recent years. “The destruction of brutalist buildings is more than the destruction of a particular mode of architecture,” Jonathan Meades says, in his television documentary “Bunkers, Brutalism and Bloodymindedness: Concrete Poetry.” “It is like burning books. It’s a form of censorship of the past, a discomfiting past, by the present. It’s the revenge of a mediocre age on an age of epic grandeur.”

The second point is maybe an obvious one:

Aberrations like the Tour Montparnasse only underscore how much Paris remains Haussman’s city, its core frozen in a nineteenth century whose built environment can be restored, and in some cases discreetly renovated, but which—so the severity of the restrictions implies—can never fundamentally be improved upon.

This is, however, a crucial point. Because it directs to why the Tour Montparnasse is so jarring to many, or perhaps most. It is jarring because it is so obviously different from its surrounding 19th century context. It is clearly not that. But as Marshall points out, one way to address this would be to simply add more 21st century context throughout the city.

Of course, this is easier said than done. It would require a new mental model -- one that accepts that the built form of Paris is not static and can be allowed to evolve. We're not there yet. But maybe the current renovation of Tour Montparnasse , or the city's new triangle tower , will give people a fresh set of eyes when it comes to buildings taller than 37 meters.

Photo by  Maeva Hemon  on  Unsplash

I did it . I finally got (well, ordered) a new and more serious road bike.

I have been planning to do this since last year. I almost bought a friend's Cervelo a few weeks ago, but I took it to Gears on King Street and they immediately told me it was too small for me. The frame was 58cm and apparently I need 60cm.

So I instead ordered a new Cannondale CAAD13. It's one that my serious cycling friends -- people like Jeremiah Shamess -- tell me is a good "starter bike."

I'm excited to get going. In the winter, I am, as most of you know , all about snowboarding. But I need something active/challenging for the summer that I can be equally fanatical about. Maybe that thing will be cycling.

The one thing I do need to give some more thought to is cycling to the office . I know a bunch of people who do this, but they tend to go to the gym and then shower before heading to their desk. I'm not sure I want to make this my morning routine.

Either way, I guess it's time to dust off my Strava. If any of you are into cycling, hit me up on Twitter/X .

Photo: Cannondale

I just came across the above chart from City Observatory showing the percentage of restaurants in each city that are part of a chain. (The data is taken from Yelp.) On the top is New York City, where only about 13% of restaurants in the city are a chain. And on the other end is Louisville, where more than 35% belong to a chain.

The article also observes that there appears to be a correlation between restaurants per capita and the percentage of independents. In other words, the more restaurants you have, the higher the likelihood that more of them will be independents. New York City is once again at the top with 22 restaurants per 10,000 people.

What is perhaps most interesting about this data is that Yelp ratings show a pretty clear preference for independent restaurants. Meaning that, on average, independent restaurants receive a higher rating compared to chain restaurants. At the same time, this spread seems to be widening. Here's data from 2012 to 2017:

This is maybe obvious; but it's worth reiterating. As city builders, it's good practice to encourage independent and small businesses. They are a competitive advantage. People, at least based on this Yelp data, seem to clearly like them more. So I guess Jane Jacobs was right: "The greatest asset a city can have is something that is different from every other place."

Charts: City Observatory