[almcd]

For Paris, the renovations overseen by Georges-Eugène Haussmann between 1853 and 1870 shaped much of the centre of Paris. Overcrowding and sanitation were publicly cited as the main motives for this renovation, although social control was also a factor with the new boulevards deliberately being designed to enable suppression of street-level insurrection.

[InitialLastName]

To expand, the various governments running Paris had a big issue in the early and mid- 19th century with urban insurrections being able to hamper military movement by setting up barricades across streets. There are multiple revolutions and major insurrections that were able to establish strongholds and fortified, highly defensible areas out neighborhoods by building walls out of furniture and debris.

It's much harder to block a military column from advancing down a 200' wide boulevard than down a 20'-alley.

[euroderf]

Nowadays potential insurrections are starved by population dispersion into low-density areas, like suburbs. It's getting hard to form an angry mob.