(en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL #246 - Urban Dossier:
Grand Paris for the Grand Capital (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
It is a mixture of "large unnecessary project" on a pharaonic scale and relegation plan
classes. The aim of Grand Paris: making the city more "competitive" in the global market,
unrelated to the needs of the population. Explanations. ---- Launched under the Sarkozy
presidency, the Grand Paris project is expected to transform the Paris area, in 2030, into
a global metropolis, for an estimated cost of at least 26 billion euros. ---- This mammoth
redevelopment will be structured around the Grand Paris Express (GPE), 200 km of new
subway lines and 72 new stations. This "superm?tro" will link 8 "global competitiveness
clusters": a business district of Defense; a "cluster" Science and Technology in Saclay;
the tourist-Le Bourget airport complex; Roissy (which Gonesse Annex and which is grafted
Europa City); a pole "Culture and Creation" west of the Seine-Saint-Denis; to the east,
"sustainable development" side with the University Descartes; a "valley of biotech and
health" to Villejuif; wearing Ach?res connected to the port of Le Havre. Will be added
some 340 urban redevelopment of varying magnitude.
Sometimes implanted in spite of real economic activities in the territories, their people
and their needs, these projects will attract in Paris more and more highly skilled
workers. The purpose? Streamline competition in France, to better carry European level. In
other words, make Greater Paris a champion in the global competition between cities. Le
Grand Paris promises extra 250,000 new jobs by 2030 and the construction of 70,000 homes
per year, 30% of social housing. All this he will be to the benefit of Franciliennes and
Parisians?
Well the answer is... it depends where! For this planning is inherently unequal, despite
its announcement effects. The superm?tro serves less residential areas as "clusters". The
large crown is almost completely excluded, while a third of its assets working every day
in the inner suburbs, and that this number will increase with the Grand Paris. As for
social housing, they will respond to different standards and will not necessarily be so
far from it accessible to the working classes.
In city centers in the suburbs, the middle classes employed in Paris have already begun to
replace the lowest paid categories, pushed to the periphery. In general, the Grand Paris
will expand the gap between high-skilled jobs and sub-jobs insecure, and accelerate the
social and geographic exclusion.
A population substitution project
The housing program is, from this point of view, very telling. Even with unrealistic
ambitions (70,000 constructions announced annually, more than double the current rate), it
can meet the demand of the poorest households in the PLAI housing or "very social". He
already has nearly 400,000 applicants for social housing in Ile-de-France, a figure that
will not qu'enfler with the expected increase 900 000 by 2030. Franciliennes and Parisians
know that, for now, the Grand Paris is only a pretext to destroy habitat and expelling
families. This is the case, among others, in Ivry, where the great Ivry-Confluence project
must result in 450 expulsions. It is the working class who are paying the price. So the
Grand Paris is not qu'in?galitaire. Various critical sociologists even claim that it hides
a population substitution project.
Clearance recent arable land
It is also marked by waste and destruction: the metropolis, making it denser and flowing,
will urbanize the last arable land Ile-de-France, the most fertile in Europe. In addition
to the job losses (by agricultural, industrial or commercial matter) and housing, living
areas will disappear under the road junctions and shopping centers. A flight into
mismanagement, while the region already has 3 million square meters of empty office...
But as we must "sell" projects (the electorate, elected officials, business), it justifies
them by all means. We systematically inflates the promises of jobs - from simple job
displacements are therefore described as 'creations' - to reach this round figure of
250,000 which, in turn, "guarantees" the profitability of superm?tro. When they do not lie
knowingly, developers will autopersuadent, suddenly ideological arguments trans ports
automatically induce economic dynamism, employment concentration streamline flows,
companies and jobs implanting mechanically where it offers office... Postulates regularly
contradicted by reality.
You can spend quickly on the complete denial of democracy that surrounded (and continues
to surround) the gestation of the Grand Paris. It has become so routine that would
eventually be repeated. More than any other city, it has been imposed on local politicians
in the name of "national interest." Their accession will not have been difficult to
obtain, with false promises and exaggerated cited, especially through participation in
financing their territorial projects for which the state will put their hands in the
pocket. Corruption is institutionalized through cross-subsidies and grants. Nothing new
under the sun politician. In summary: the Grand Paris project will increase the
centralization and exacerbate inequalities between territories. Displaced by
gentrification, far from employment areas, the working class will be the big losers of
this upheaval unless the various existing dispute homes or unborn gather. The dynamics of
struggle that develops against the big useless projects can upset the program.
Fanny Meyer (AL Saint-Denis)
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Dossier-urbain-Un-Grand-Paris-pour
