The article is poorly researched. Napoleon III&#x27;s motivation was preventing insurrections, not improving health of Parisians or the smell of the streets. Haussman targeted areas favorable to guerrilla action from rooftops, to barricades, and to escape, which often happened to be the oldest in Paris. The new avenues down which a cannon could be fired from one of the city to the other during an insurrection, in a nice bit of unintended consequence, later made the job of the invading Prussians easier. Haussman&#x27;s plans were opposed by a number of cultural figures, including Baudelaire, who believed the loss of a great number of medieval buildings was unconscionable.