ENROUTE TV   ENROUTE FM   MEDIA KIT   AIR CANADA   LINKS   WRITERS'   GUIDELINES	NEW YORK VS PARIS Text: SHAWN BLORE Illustration: BRUCE ROBERTS 1. Soft Drink/Beer Ratio I enjoyed a 69-cent Coke from the quasi-upscale Dagostino on 39th and Lexington but didn’t risk a US$75 fine for publicly imbibing a $1.20 Budweiser. (Near Washington Square, one creative drinker waved a squeegee to divert cops from his six-pack on ice.) In Paris, six-packs of Coke (2.4 €) and Heineken (4 €) purchased at a Left Bank supermarché carrying 173 varieties of delightfully stinky cheese made a movable (and very liquid) outdoor feast. In a perfect world, 1:1 or a score of 100; anything lower is sobering. New York 52.5 Paris 65 FORMULA > 2. Carbohydrate Comparison I visited H & H, said to have the best bagels on the Upper West Side. But even 10 wood-fired flavours and a slather of cream cheese didn’t disguise the fact that these boiled dough rolls are just, well, bread. There’s still nothing like a Parisian croissant (chocolate or plain) for combining rich taste and layered lightness, even when it’s bought at the obscure Boulangerie St. Paul in Le Marais. A Parisian croissant is a baseline 100; other carbs must rise to the challenge. New York 74 Paris 100 FORMULA > 3. Babe and Hunk Index Parisians are better-looking (as the bumper sticker might say). On the Champs Elysées, nearly one in five people looked like they stepped out of Vogue. I was disappointed to find that Gothamites looked more like cast members from The Sopranos than cute extras from Friends, even outside the Lincoln Center before curtain time. Only in Soho was there a significant concentration of beautiful people. Summed average of stylish head turners in a crowd of 100. New York 30.5 Paris 66.5 FORMULA > 4. Street Life Indicator Paris’s Rue de Rivoli had waffles, crepes, mulled wine, cheap jewelry, old books, calculators and saucepans for sale, along with a miniature carousel, riot police and a bum with a sign reading "J’ai faim." But with neckties, handbags, T-shirts, umbrellas, watches, baseball hats, U.S. flags, books, magazines and a Shaft-like guy with a "Tell me off for $2" sign, Broadway’s street scene was unsurpassed. There was nothing to consume on Broadway except soft drinks and candy as the NYPD was conducting a crackdown on unlicensed food vendors (a sure sign of barbarism). Percentage of goods and attractions available on a busy street or square. New York 86 Paris 100 FORMULA > 5. Public Order Index As many as 13 percent of New Yorkers jaywalked in areas like Soho and Times Square. Rising to the challenge, during a quick trip from the Village to Grand Central (3.42 minutes/km), my cabbie indulged in four horn blasts and ran two red lights on Madison. On the Right Bank, one disdainful Parisian in five crossed with nary a glance. The price of this hauteur was snarled traffic and an epic taxi ride (nine minutes/km) between Gare du Nord and the Left Bank. (After my visit, Paris forbade the longtime practice of letting sweet little chiens doo-doo on public sidewalks – the beginning of the end?) Average number of jaywalkers in a crowd of 200 people (low score, low fun factor). New York 12.1 Paris 21.8 FORMULA > Conclusion New York may be the beacon of liberty and America the shining city on a hill, but when it comes to civilized living it appears the New World still has a thing or two to learn from the Old Continent. New York 255.1 Paris    353.3 ----- STANDINGS: Rio 383.3 Rome 380.3 Paris 353.5 Mexico 346.1 Amsterdam 343.2 Buenos Aires 331.8 Zurich 325.8 Berlin 325.3 London 294.1 Mumbai 289.5 San Francisco 283.8 Tokyo 283.8 Hong Kong 281.5 Moscow 277.9 Shanghai 259.2 New York 255.1 Toronto 249.1 Washington 242.0 Montréal 233.9 Los Angeles 220.6 Vancouver 213.1 Chicago 197.1 Next Match : St. Petersburg vs. Havana – exclusively at enroutemag.com in December 2004. Watch for a Civilization Index finale in January 2005. [ ] St. Petersburg vs Havana Rome vs Buenos Aires Washington vs Moscow Mexico vs Tokyo London vs Mumbai Chicago vs Berlin San Francisco vs Shanghai Toronto vs Zurich Hong Kong vs Vancouver Montreal vs Amsterdam New York vs Paris Los Angeles vs Rio de Janeiro STANDINGS Top   |   Home
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