Grand Plans For Paris...

There are even some discussion to improve the delinquent Runge's slum
neighborhood... :

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/wo...e/11paris.html

June 11, 2009
Paris Journal

A Paris Plan, Less Grand Than Gritty

By STEVEN ERLANGER

"PARIS - Every president of France's Fifth Republic has had his Pharaonic
project, by which he believes he will leave his mark on the capital and
French culture.

François Mitterrand, a fierce Socialist known as the Sphinx, left the new
French national library and, to continue the Ozymandias theme, the
controversial glass pyramid in the Louvre. Jacques Chirac left the Musée du
Quai Branly, an anthropological museum, with an argumentative design by the
French architect Jean Nouvel.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, no slouch, wants nothing more than to leave
behind "Le Grand Paris." In more than a year of discussions, there have been
some spectacular ideas and drawings by 10 teams of famous architects, drawn
by the president's invitation to reimagine Paris as a city integrated with
its suburbs and responsible in its environmental footprint.

Antoine Grumbach imagines Paris stretching along the Seine to Le Havre and
the sea. Roland Castro, whose team included a sociologist and a philosopher,
proposed a 250-acre park circled by skyscrapers in La Courneuve, one of the
grimmest of the poor Paris suburbs. Richard Rogers plans rooftop gardens and
parks built above railway lines. Yves Lion sees Paris sprouting with fields
and forests, with citizens able to cultivate their own vegetable patches, an
unfortunate similarity to the necessities of Soviet cities.

The architects have provided the ribbons and the balloons, but few if any of
the plans are likely to be carried out. Pressed by politics and financing,
Mr. Sarkozy has concluded that he will reach for reduced goals that are
grittier and essentially practical. The ambition remains the same: to try to
bring about a significant improvement in the city's transportation and
housing stock, stimulate economic development and break the stranglehold of
an artificial "wall" around a relatively small city. The wall is represented
by a roughly 22-mile circular highway that separates Paris from a "crown" of
suburbs - legally separate cities - where many Parisian workers live.

Mr. Sarkozy has even given up on an effort to reorganize the government and
incorporate some of these smaller towns into what really would have been a
Grand Paris. A plan for local government reorganization he commissioned from
former Prime Minister Édouard Balladur proved so unpopular with the mayors
and local councils of the rest of Île-de-France, the administrative region
that includes Paris and its suburbs, that the agile and realistic Mr.
Sarkozy simply shelved it.

But that left Mr. Sarkozy with a problem. What would be so grand about his
Grand Paris?

His answer was, simply, infrastructure. In a speech at the end of April, Mr.
Sarkozy said he would leave the dreams of reform to another generation. He
said that the state would provide around $50 billion for what he said were
complementary proposals for extended subway service that would allow people
in the suburbs to travel between them without having to enter Paris, improve
existing and saturated subway and train lines, tie some of Paris's most
marginalized and poor neighborhoods into the grid and finally connect all
three Paris airports to efficient public transportation.

But construction is not expected to start until at least 2012, and it would
take at least 10 years.

The regional council had already drawn up ideas for a circular subway line
called the Arc Express, with an estimated cost of $8.4 billion, to connect
the inner "crown" of suburbs.

But Mr. Sarkozy's idea is for a more extravagant automated subway line known
as the Grand 8, because it both goes around Paris in a wider circle and also
cuts through it, looking like a figure 8 on its side. Some joke that the
Grand Infinity might be a better name for it, given the length, some 80
miles, the difficulty of acquiring the land and the cost, around $25
billion, including needed improvements and extensions to three existing
lines.

While Mr. Sarkozy has concentrated on transportation, housing is another
crucial component of the plan. Paris is already badly overcrowded, with its
poorest minorities largely placed in big public housing projects in the
outer rings or suburbs of the city. Still, with only 41 square miles in land
(just 1.7 times the size of Manhattan) and a strict height restriction of
121 feet for buildings, there is a severe housing shortage.

To meet demand, the government and private industry are supposed to be
building 70,000 housing units a year inside Paris, but in fact have been
building only 35,000. Mr. Sarkozy has now backed the 70,000 annual goal as
part of his plan, including 19,000 more public housing units. Officials have
been talking about a public-private partnership to create new poles, or
magnets, for development and housing, made possible by easy transportation
and intelligent investment.

Skyscrapers are an inevitable part of the answer, despite extraordinary
aesthetic and cultural opposition to them from many French, who like them in
New York, Tokyo or Shanghai but detest the few that have been built in
Paris. One reason is the architectural nightmare of the Tour Montparnasse,
which is generally regarded now as a mistake.

The Socialist mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, already has courageously
begun the debate over building skyscrapers on the edges of Paris and finally
won the support of Mr. Sarkozy, who said he was not against building tall
"so long as it's beautiful."

The economic crisis has created all sorts of difficulties in every big city
in terms of financing, investment and empty office space. But the state is
the dominant player in France, and the president is practically royal. The
secretary of state for development of the capital region, Christian Blanc,
said that the crisis "simply obliges us to think differently," adding that
even in the private sector, "money for good projects, that exists."

As for the vision thing, Mr. Blanc said that "grand architectural gestures"
would be an important "signature of the Grand Paris project." But he gave no
specifics, saying that "they will be studied with local elected officials in
the framework of existing projects."

There is another aspect to the plan. Mr. Sarkozy, who made a name for
himself with some tough talk during the suburban riots of 2005, when he was
the interior minister, is also moving to create a "Grand Paris of police."
He is ordering up a super prefecture to coordinate all the police in Paris
and the "small crown" of innermost suburbs - Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-St.-Denis
and Val-de-Marne - that he failed to incorporate politically into Paris.

"Only 45 percent of delinquents live in the interior of the capital," he
said. "Delinquents don't have borders, particularly those belonging to
gangs."

It may be a long way from visions of rooftop gardens and urban forests, but
it is good politics..."

Jeanette Coombs contributed reporting.

Naw left wing scrooges

"Gregory Morrow" a écrit dans le message de
...

There are even some discussion to improve the delinquent Runge's slum
neighborhood... :

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/wo...e/11paris.html

June 11, 2009
Paris Journal

A Paris Plan, Less Grand Than Gritty

By STEVEN ERLANGER

"PARIS - Every president of France's Fifth Republic has had his Pharaonic
project, by which he believes he will leave his mark on the capital and
French culture.

François Mitterrand, a fierce Socialist known as the Sphinx, left the new
French national library and, to continue the Ozymandias theme, the
controversial glass pyramid in the Louvre. Jacques Chirac left the Musée
du
Quai Branly, an anthropological museum, with an argumentative design by
the
French architect Jean Nouvel.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, no slouch, wants nothing more than to leave
behind "Le Grand Paris." In more than a year of discussions, there have
been
some spectacular ideas and drawings by 10 teams of famous architects,
drawn
by the president's invitation to reimagine Paris as a city integrated with
its suburbs and responsible in its environmental footprint.

Antoine Grumbach imagines Paris stretching along the Seine to Le Havre and
the sea. Roland Castro, whose team included a sociologist and a
philosopher,
proposed a 250-acre park circled by skyscrapers in La Courneuve, one of
the
grimmest of the poor Paris suburbs. Richard Rogers plans rooftop gardens
and
parks built above railway lines. Yves Lion sees Paris sprouting with
fields
and forests, with citizens able to cultivate their own vegetable patches,
an
unfortunate similarity to the necessities of Soviet cities.

The architects have provided the ribbons and the balloons, but few if any
of
the plans are likely to be carried out. Pressed by politics and financing,
Mr. Sarkozy has concluded that he will reach for reduced goals that are
grittier and essentially practical. The ambition remains the same: to try
to
bring about a significant improvement in the city's transportation and
housing stock, stimulate economic development and break the stranglehold
of
an artificial "wall" around a relatively small city. The wall is
represented
by a roughly 22-mile circular highway that separates Paris from a "crown"
of
suburbs - legally separate cities - where many Parisian workers live.

Mr. Sarkozy has even given up on an effort to reorganize the government
and
incorporate some of these smaller towns into what really would have been a
Grand Paris. A plan for local government reorganization he commissioned
from
former Prime Minister Édouard Balladur proved so unpopular with the mayors
and local councils of the rest of Île-de-France, the administrative region
that includes Paris and its suburbs, that the agile and realistic Mr.
Sarkozy simply shelved it.

But that left Mr. Sarkozy with a problem. What would be so grand about his
Grand Paris?

His answer was, simply, infrastructure. In a speech at the end of April,
Mr.
Sarkozy said he would leave the dreams of reform to another generation. He
said that the state would provide around $50 billion for what he said were
complementary proposals for extended subway service that would allow
people
in the suburbs to travel between them without having to enter Paris,
improve
existing and saturated subway and train lines, tie some of Paris's most
marginalized and poor neighborhoods into the grid and finally connect all
three Paris airports to efficient public transportation.

But construction is not expected to start until at least 2012, and it
would
take at least 10 years.

The regional council had already drawn up ideas for a circular subway line
called the Arc Express, with an estimated cost of $8.4 billion, to connect
the inner "crown" of suburbs.

But Mr. Sarkozy's idea is for a more extravagant automated subway line
known
as the Grand 8, because it both goes around Paris in a wider circle and
also
cuts through it, looking like a figure 8 on its side. Some joke that the
Grand Infinity might be a better name for it, given the length, some 80
miles, the difficulty of acquiring the land and the cost, around $25
billion, including needed improvements and extensions to three existing
lines.

While Mr. Sarkozy has concentrated on transportation, housing is another
crucial component of the plan. Paris is already badly overcrowded, with
its
poorest minorities largely placed in big public housing projects in the
outer rings or suburbs of the city. Still, with only 41 square miles in
land
(just 1.7 times the size of Manhattan) and a strict height restriction of
121 feet for buildings, there is a severe housing shortage.

To meet demand, the government and private industry are supposed to be
building 70,000 housing units a year inside Paris, but in fact have been
building only 35,000. Mr. Sarkozy has now backed the 70,000 annual goal as
part of his plan, including 19,000 more public housing units. Officials
have
been talking about a public-private partnership to create new poles, or
magnets, for development and housing, made possible by easy transportation
and intelligent investment.

Skyscrapers are an inevitable part of the answer, despite extraordinary
aesthetic and cultural opposition to them from many French, who like them
in
New York, Tokyo or Shanghai but detest the few that have been built in
Paris. One reason is the architectural nightmare of the Tour Montparnasse,
which is generally regarded now as a mistake.

The Socialist mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, already has courageously
begun the debate over building skyscrapers on the edges of Paris and
finally
won the support of Mr. Sarkozy, who said he was not against building tall
"so long as it's beautiful."

The economic crisis has created all sorts of difficulties in every big
city
in terms of financing, investment and empty office space. But the state is
the dominant player in France, and the president is practically royal. The
secretary of state for development of the capital region, Christian Blanc,
said that the crisis "simply obliges us to think differently," adding that
even in the private sector, "money for good projects, that exists."

As for the vision thing, Mr. Blanc said that "grand architectural
gestures"
would be an important "signature of the Grand Paris project." But he gave
no
specifics, saying that "they will be studied with local elected officials
in
the framework of existing projects."

There is another aspect to the plan. Mr. Sarkozy, who made a name for
himself with some tough talk during the suburban riots of 2005, when he
was
the interior minister, is also moving to create a "Grand Paris of police."
He is ordering up a super prefecture to coordinate all the police in Paris
and the "small crown" of innermost suburbs - Hauts-de-Seine,
Seine-St.-Denis
and Val-de-Marne - that he failed to incorporate politically into Paris.

"Only 45 percent of delinquents live in the interior of the capital," he
said. "Delinquents don't have borders, particularly those belonging to
gangs."

It may be a long way from visions of rooftop gardens and urban forests,
but
it is good politics..."

Jeanette Coombs contributed reporting.