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I live just nearby Paris (in Issy-les-moulineaux) and I do vote for a mayor, just not the mayor of Paris. I also vote for a few local representatives (départeme

by epsylon 13y ago

I live just nearby Paris (in Issy-les-moulineaux) and I do vote for a mayor, just not the mayor of Paris. I also vote for a few local representatives (département, canton and région). Representation isn't a problem, since many projects are handled by the départements or région. > An interesting phenomenon in Paris is the fact that there are still many housing projects inside Paris proper. Which means that effectively only the middle class is getting priced out. Only the really rich or really poor get to stay. Access to HLMs (housing projects) is very, very complicated, with waitlists of a few years and strict conditions. In practice there are way too few of them to even cover all the demand (even though construction of housing projects is required by the French law for every town of a minimum size), so the really poor will usually stay way outside in the suburbs.

carlob 13y ago
> I live just nearby Paris (in Issy-les-moulineaux) and I do vote for a mayor, just not the mayor of Paris. I also vote for a few local representatives (département, canton and région). Representation isn't a problem, since many projects are handled by the départements or région. I lived in Montrouge and in Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, so I know what I'm talking about. Look at all the trouble they ran into when they tried to extend bike sharing outside the Paris municipality. If such an artificial barrier were eliminated and the first couple of rings of neighboring towns were to be absorbed in Paris proper such a thing would never had happened.
- epsylon 13y ago
  I don't remember any specific issues about extending the Vélib outside Paris, but perhaps I didn't pay attention too much. Can you develop ? I don't thing centralizing things more than they are today would significantly improve the issues faced by the various neighbouring municipalities. Au contraire, I'm a proponent of decentralization.
  - carlob 13y ago
    I agree with the sentiment of excessive centralization in France. However what really is happening is that things are still centralized, only not everyone gets to vote for the mayor that makes the real decisions. As far as the Vélib' affaire goes: it opened in July 2007 in Paris and they announced it was going to expand to the banlieue as soon as it started. However JCDecaux's main competitor Clear Channel claimed it was a new service and a new competitive tender was needed. The trial dragged on for 18 months, but eventually JCDecaux won and Vélib' was extended, but it wasn't finished before the end of 2009, two and a half years later than in Paris. You can read more about it in the history section of the French wikipedia article.
  - Gmo 13y ago
    I would not call merging towns around Paris in Paris centralization. It's more the contrary actually, as you should see this move for "Paris the town" and not "Paris the capital of France". Actually, this should be done with other French major cities (actually minor cities as well), we have far too many towns in France and far too many layers.

by epsylon 13y ago

carlob 13y ago

> I live just nearby Paris (in Issy-les-moulineaux) and I do vote for a mayor, just not the mayor of Paris. I also vote for a few local representatives (département, canton and région). Representation isn't a problem, since many projects are handled by the départements or région. I lived in Montrouge and in Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, so I know what I'm talking about. Look at all the trouble they ran into when they tried to extend bike sharing outside the Paris municipality. If such an artificial barrier were eliminated and the first couple of rings of neighboring towns were to be absorbed in Paris proper such a thing would never had happened.

epsylon 13y ago
I don't remember any specific issues about extending the Vélib outside Paris, but perhaps I didn't pay attention too much. Can you develop ? I don't thing centralizing things more than they are today would significantly improve the issues faced by the various neighbouring municipalities. Au contraire, I'm a proponent of decentralization.
- carlob 13y ago
  I agree with the sentiment of excessive centralization in France. However what really is happening is that things are still centralized, only not everyone gets to vote for the mayor that makes the real decisions. As far as the Vélib' affaire goes: it opened in July 2007 in Paris and they announced it was going to expand to the banlieue as soon as it started. However JCDecaux's main competitor Clear Channel claimed it was a new service and a new competitive tender was needed. The trial dragged on for 18 months, but eventually JCDecaux won and Vélib' was extended, but it wasn't finished before the end of 2009, two and a half years later than in Paris. You can read more about it in the history section of the French wikipedia article.
- Gmo 13y ago
  I would not call merging towns around Paris in Paris centralization. It's more the contrary actually, as you should see this move for "Paris the town" and not "Paris the capital of France". Actually, this should be done with other French major cities (actually minor cities as well), we have far too many towns in France and far too many layers.