What happened to Main Street America?

We have been living part time in this part of Paris for about 12 years yet every time I walk up Rue des Martyrs I am struck by how unique this place is. One street with everything you could possibly need to equip and feed a household – no driving to Fred Meyer or Home Depot or Macys – it’s all on one street. You actually walk along the street and pick what looks and smells good to eat. What a novel concept.

Why doesn’t this still exist in America?

Some statistics – I went and gathered some data this morning.

– Rue des Martyrs runs from the church at Notre Dame de Lorette in the 9th Arrondissement all the way up the Butte de Montmartre to the Cathedral of Sacre Coeur. The real commercial part that is the Market Street for the 9th starts pretty much at our front door and stretches just 400 metres up to Place Lino Ventura.

– There are 125 businesses in that stretch of street – I counted them all and did not include anything in the side streets. This is really a street of everyday life: Restaurants/Cafe/Bar (16), Traiteur/Epicerie (12), Clothes/Femme (11), Household (11), Boulanger/Patissier (8), Fruit/Vegetables (7), Chocolatier (5), Cosmetics (5), Butchers (4), Wine (3), Flowers (3), Fish (3) – plus hair salons, banks, a few mens clothes stores, opticians, pharmacies, and only ONE supermarket.

– Apart from the obvious candidates (banks, Carrefour, Nicolas) there are almost no national brand stores here – almost all independent businesses that mostly seem to have been here forever under the same ownership.

I am sure there are other streets like this in Paris but I do not think there is one left in America.