Chapter 16 "Istanbul" Don't walk the streets with your mouth open

Let me now offer a few randomly sampled excerpts from the hundreds of thousands of pages written by disparate columnists over a hundred and thirty years: Our horse-drawn buses, perhaps inspired by French stagecoaches, but because of the bad condition of our roads, they had to hop over stone by stone like partridges all the way from Beyazit to Idnekapi. (1894) We are tired of flooding the city squares every time it rains.Whoever should figure it out, do it now. (1946) The first is that the rent and taxes are constantly rising. According to immigration, the city is full of razor vendors, "sesame" vendors, stuffed mussel vendors, tissue vendors, slippers vendors, knife and fork vendors, grocery vendors , toy, water, and soda vendors, and as if that wasn't enough, pudding, dessert, and doner pie vendors have now invaded the city's ferries. (1949)

It was suggested that, to beautify the city, the drivers of the carriages should wear the same attire.If this idea can be realized, how unique it will be. (1897) One of the great credits of martial law is to ensure that the "Dom minibus" stops at the designated stop sign.Don't forget the chaos of yesteryear. (1971) The city council has decided correctly that iced juice makers are no longer allowed to use coloring or fruit that has not been approved by the council. (1927) When you see a beautiful woman in the street, don't look at her with hostility, as if you want to kill her, and don't show excessive desire, just smile at her, look away, and keep walking. (1974)

A recent article in the famous Parisian magazine Le Morn on the proper way to walk in the city has inspired us, and we should make it clear to those who have yet to learn how to behave in the streets of Istanbul. Feel, tell them: don't walk down the street with your mouth open. (1924) Twenty years ago, this city was full of bargaining, noise, and running to the police station. At that time, after the final meter was installed, the taxi driver in this city began to say: "Dude, give us as much as possible." Let The city is a big headache.We hope that drivers and passengers will make good use of the new taxi meters installed by the military, so that this phenomenon will never be seen again in the city. (1983)

When the bean and gum sellers allow children to pay for lead instead of paying for their purchases, they are not only encouraging them to steal, they are encouraging them to pick up stones from every fountain in Istanbul, cut off their spigots, and dispose of the catacombs. and the lead of the dome of the mosque was removed. (1929) Trucks hawking potatoes, tomatoes, and canned gas with loudspeakers, and their hideous cries, turned the city into a living hell. (1992) We have launched a campaign to eradicate stray dogs from the streets.If done at a leisurely pace—instead of a quick day or two sweep—if all the dogs were captured and sent to the dreaded island of Hayszada, if all the packs were dispersed, the city would be free of dogs forever ...but at present it is impossible to walk down the street without hearing a dog barking. (1911)

Porters still unfairly test the stamina of pack horses by subjecting them to heavy loads and whipping the poor animals in the city centre. (1875) Just because they are the bread and butter of the poor, we see horse-drawn carts encroaching on the best parts of the city—while Istanbul does nothing—and destroying a view they have no right to look at. (1956) We couldn't wait to be the first to disembark or leave any form of transport, so there was no way to stop those jumping off the Haida Basha ferry that wasn't even docked, no matter how many times we shouted "the donkey is the first to disembark". (1910)

Some newspapers started running lotteries for the Turkish Flying Fund to increase their circulation, and we noticed that on the day of the draw, unsightly lines and crowds gathered around the newspapers. (1928) The Golden Horn is no longer the Golden Horn, it has become a pool of dirty water surrounded by factories, workshops and slaughterhouses: chemicals from the factories, tar from the workshops, discharge from ships and waste water, all of which have taken a toll on the water. pollute. (1968) Your city correspondents have received many complaints that the city's night watchman, instead of patrolling the city's markets and neighborhoods, prefers to pass the time dozing off in cafés.In many urban areas, it is rare to hear the sound of the night watchmen's sticks. (1879)

The famous French writer Victor Hugo often rode on the top of a stagecoach across Paris just to watch what his compatriots were doing.We did the same yesterday and we were able to confirm that there are a large number of residents of Istanbul who don't care what they are doing when they walk the streets and keep bumping into each other, throwing ticket stubs, ice cream wrappers and corn husks on the ground.There are pedestrians walking on the road, cars climbing on the pavement, and - not from poverty, but from laziness and ignorance - every citizen is poorly dressed. (1952) Only by abandoning the way we behaved in the streets and public places in the past, and by obeying the traffic rules like Westerners, can we get rid of the chaotic traffic.But if you ask how many people in this city know what the traffic rules are, well, that's a whole other story... (1949)

Like every clock that adorns the city's public spaces, the large clocks on both sides of the Karakoy Bridge are not so much telling the time as guessing it: sometimes it means that the ferry still tied to the pier has left, and sometimes it means that it has already left. The ferry that sailed was still tied to the pier.These two great clocks tormented the inhabitants of Istanbul with hope. (1929) The rainy season is here and the city's umbrellas - may God bless - are in full force, but please tell me how many people hold up their umbrellas without poking someone in the eye, how many get hit like bumper cars in an amusement park Other people's umbrellas, milling around on sidewalks like idiots because they're blocking their view? (1953)

Such a shame, the adult cinema, the crowds, the buses and the exhaust make it impossible for us to go to Beyoglu again. (1981) Whenever a contagious disease breaks out in a certain part of the city, our town halls throw lime here and there, but the filth is everywhere... (1910) The city council will launch a campaign to clear the streets of beggars and homeless people in line with the sanctions against dogs and donkeys.It soon becomes clear that not only is this not going to happen, but that hordes of false witnesses are starting to flaunt their vagrancy in droves. (1914) It snowed yesterday, does anyone in this city get on the bus by the front door or respect the elderly? Sadly, we have noticed how quickly this city is forgetting the norms of civility in society - first of all, very few residents know. (1927)

After I figured out how much money is being spent on the pointless, flashy fireworks displays we see every night in the streets of Istanbul this summer, I have to ask myself if the wedding people would be more happy to see it - not forgetting We are currently a city of 10 million people - spending money on education for poor kids.Am I Right? (1997) Especially in recent years, our watered-down pseudo-Frankish "modern" architecture - so heartily hated by all the most active and tolerant Frankish artists - has eaten away Istanbul's monuments like termites.Before long, Yuksekatilin and Beyoglu will have nothing to be proud of other than a mass of ugly buildings, if we can't justify it on the grounds of being poor, weak, and damaged by fire--and because the cities Updates have us obsessed. (1922)