Planning a city and its traffic

The words a city argues in when it rebuilds itself. In the middle sits le riverain, and it is built on la rive, a bank or a shore — but it has stopped needing water. In French les riverains are the people who live along a particular street or road, and the word is on signs everywhere: interdit sauf riverains, circulation réservée aux riverains, l’avis des riverains. It has become an administrative category. English kept its cognate in the water: « riparian » belongs to law and ecology — « riparian rights », « riparian vegetation » — and never to a residents’ meeting. So English has to say it the long way round: « local residents », « the people living on the street », and in planning documents « frontagers ». One French word on a metal sign against an English phrase that will not fit on one.