Paris mega-rich raise barricades against urban poor neighbours

The Times ^ | 10/18/2008 | Adam Sage in Paris

[bruinbirdman]

In a move that has ignited furious protests, Bertrand Delanoë, the Mayor of Paris, has approved plans for 180 council flats in Porte d'Auteuil, across the road from Villa Montmorency in well-heeled west Paris.

Its rich and famous residents have signed petitions, berated MPs and complained that tenants will be able to see into their leafy and secret world from the tower block that Mr Delanoë wants to put up. Claudie Fournier-Christol, the chair of Porte d'Auteuil Environnement, a residents' association, accused the council of bringing “suburban crime” to the doorstep of France's “biggest taxpayers”.

The project is part of a programme to increase the number of council homes in Paris from 190,000 to 230,000 over the next six years to take the pressure off a waiting list of 110,000 people. With Mr Delanoë pledging to put social housing in middle and upper-class districts in the name of la mixité sociale - a policy designed to knock down barriers between the wealthy and the impoverished - controversy is inevitable.

Nowhere will it be fiercer than in Villa Montmorency, Paris's equivalent to Kensington Palace Gardens.

Built in the 19th century in the grounds of a château that belonged to an aristocratic family ruined by the revolution, the residence was originally a magnet for writers, thinkers and artists seeking a rural atmosphere in Paris. Today it has become a ghetto for les méga-riches.

Vincent Bollore, the media tycoon with a personal fortune of €4.3 billion, lives there, along with Xavier Niel, whose internet businesses have earned him a fortune of €2.7 billion.

Sylvie Vartan and Mylène Farmer, two of France's biggest pop singers, are neighbours. So is Mr Sarkozy. He stayed with Mr Desseigne, who owns the Lucien Barriè leisure group, for two months last year. Now the President spends

[ccmay]

[americanophile]

Let them eat cake!

[Goldsborough]

Liberté, égalité, fraternité, incendie volontaire
.

[keepitreal]

Can’t we just send Barry over there to fix their obvious class problems, and we’ll sacrifice and keep McCain/Palin (I’m not sure anyone really wants Joe the Senator)

[bruinbirdman]

Well, heck. If the apartments are 40 years old, they qulify for Section 8.

yitbos

[hotshu]

I’ll contribute for tickets if we can but them tickets on the Concorde.

[hotshu]

but = buy.

sheesh!!

[meadsjn]

Paris mega-rich raise barricades against urban poor neighbours

As will big-city liberals in the US after Nov 4th.

[ASOC]

Council flats = Welfare rabbit warren.

Solution? I dunno - Banlieu 13 maybe?

for more - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_13

[MediaMole]

It’s like building a wolf den next to a chicken coop.

[worst-case scenario]

Rich people shouldn’t have to live next to poor people! They work hard all their lives to have nice things, and then poor people are put into a high rise next to them? Probably throwing their garbage at them?

What is the point of having huge amounts of money if you can’t avoid living next to poor people?

[bornred]

a policy designed to knock down barriers between the wealthy and the impoverished

This ridiculous idea fails everywhere it's been tried. See: here

[Tzimisce]

Rich liberal elites love poor peasants...they just don’t want said peasants in their neighborhoods. :)

Coming soon to a nation near you. :D

[derllak]

What if Grandma didn’t make the cut? Would they block her out too? Wouldn’t surprise me......

[backhoe]

What is amusing me in my little Southern city, that is seeing a vast influx of people fleeing the big cities that got ruined by liberal politics?

Earthworks...

No, I'm not kidding- the new, gated developments being built here for all these damned Yuppies from Atlanta, who are "Skeered O us rednecks and black folks who've lived here all our lives" are surrounded by berm architecture-- in other words, earthworks... and guarded by gatehouses and gates...

[seemoAR]

Good idea, makes it easier to box them in. ;0)

[backhoe]

Good idea, makes it easier to box them in. ;0)

One of my now-dead best friends was the highest-ranking non-com in the county's Auxiliary Police force years ago, and one day, long ago when we were cruising around, we passed one of the county's most notorious "Road Houses."

If you don't know what they were, in a nutshell, a bar & grill where the front room served liquor, and the back rooms... ahem! assorted vices...

As my friend Roger put it, "A good roadhouse is one you have to fight your way to get out of... a bad one is so tough you have to fight your way to get in..."

Anyway, I asked him, "Roger, the police know where all these places are, why don't you shut them down?"

And I'll never forget his reply,

"John R, you don't understand- this way, we know where all the troublemakers are, and we can keep an eye on 'em..."

[DeLaine]

You know, we’ve become so infected with this equality crap, we don’t even see it in ourselves. Why SHOULD they have to live next to degenerates and criminals? They are not building single family homes, they are building as is said, rabbit warrens for the do nothings/give nothings. Lots of time for criminal activity, lots of money for drugs but don’t ask most of them to WORK!

I am of rather modest means, yet I would have to move if this happened across the street from me. Not because they were not good enough, but because of crime!!!!