The parent's "them" is not your quote's "endangered spaces". There is no plan to fill the carrières/catacombs (the parent's "them") with concrete and filling parts of it (your quote's "spaces) has been an established practice for decades, either for structural reasons (new metro lines, etc.) or for policing reasons (preventing people from entering the system). It was really hard 30 years ago to stay underground for more than one hour without having to squirt your way above a blob of concrete.
Yes, it progressively makes parts of the system harder or impossible to reach and something is definitely lost in the process for the very few who care but that's how the underground in general—and this underground in particular—has always worked.
I really don't see how "there is no plan to fill the catacombs, except for the public plan that's been in place for decades" is supposed to be a defense to the argument "we shouldn't fill the catacombs".
There was no argument to defend to, only a misconception to correct.
But, if you really want to make the argument that "we shouldn't fill the catacombs", then feel free to petition the IGC, because it is "they", not "we", who are in charge. Be more precise in your petition, though, because "the catacombs" is a very specific and profitable part of the system that no one ever thought of filling up with anything but tourists.
FWIW, I haven't gone down there for nearly three decades so I don't care one bit about the catacombs and the cataphiles. While I have very fond memories of the time I spent down there when I was younger, I moved on, as most people did. If "they" need to fill up a short section somewhere to prevent collapse during the new Metro works, I am fine with it.
Sad to see they are planning on filling them up with concrete:(
I'm not sure what "them" exactly refers to, here, probably "the Paris Catacombs" in the title… which is not very precise. The misconception is that there is a plan to fill up a) the publicly accessible part of the network (the actual "catacombs"), or b) the non-publicly accessible parts of the network (the "carrières" and "abris" that both cataphiles and casuals incorrectly call "catacombs"), or c) both with concrete.
The publicly accessible part is basically the ossuaries, which is a very popular tourist spot. That part is profitable and very well maintained so there is no reason whatsoever to fill it with concrete.
The non-publicly accessible parts are the ones the cataphiles care about. _Many_ parts of it have been clogged with concrete over the past decades for the reasons already mentioned, but there is no plan to do that at the scale of the network which, given its size, would be insanely costly, challenging and pointless. No one is planning to do that.
The whole network? No. Just no.
What will continue to happen is concrete being poured here and there whenever the IGC identifies a security risk that can only be mitigated that way—entitled weed smokers be damned—and the cataphiles being pissed about something they can't do shit about.
Comments
The parent's "them" is not your quote's "endangered spaces". There is no plan to fill the carrières/catacombs (the parent's "them") with concrete and filling parts of it (your quote's "spaces) has been an established practice for decades, either for structural reasons (new metro lines, etc.) or for policing reasons (preventing people from entering the system). It was really hard 30 years ago to stay underground for more than one hour without having to squirt your way above a blob of concrete.
Yes, it progressively makes parts of the system harder or impossible to reach and something is definitely lost in the process for the very few who care but that's how the underground in general—and this underground in particular—has always worked.
I really don't see how "there is no plan to fill the catacombs, except for the public plan that's been in place for decades" is supposed to be a defense to the argument "we shouldn't fill the catacombs".
There was no argument to defend to, only a misconception to correct.
But, if you really want to make the argument that "we shouldn't fill the catacombs", then feel free to petition the IGC, because it is "they", not "we", who are in charge. Be more precise in your petition, though, because "the catacombs" is a very specific and profitable part of the system that no one ever thought of filling up with anything but tourists.
FWIW, I haven't gone down there for nearly three decades so I don't care one bit about the catacombs and the cataphiles. While I have very fond memories of the time I spent down there when I was younger, I moved on, as most people did. If "they" need to fill up a short section somewhere to prevent collapse during the new Metro works, I am fine with it.
What was the misconception?
I'm not sure what "them" exactly refers to, here, probably "the Paris Catacombs" in the title… which is not very precise. The misconception is that there is a plan to fill up a) the publicly accessible part of the network (the actual "catacombs"), or b) the non-publicly accessible parts of the network (the "carrières" and "abris" that both cataphiles and casuals incorrectly call "catacombs"), or c) both with concrete.
The publicly accessible part is basically the ossuaries, which is a very popular tourist spot. That part is profitable and very well maintained so there is no reason whatsoever to fill it with concrete.
The non-publicly accessible parts are the ones the cataphiles care about. _Many_ parts of it have been clogged with concrete over the past decades for the reasons already mentioned, but there is no plan to do that at the scale of the network which, given its size, would be insanely costly, challenging and pointless. No one is planning to do that.
The whole network? No. Just no.
What will continue to happen is concrete being poured here and there whenever the IGC identifies a security risk that can only be mitigated that way—entitled weed smokers be damned—and the cataphiles being pissed about something they can't do shit about.