French Urban Character & Public Housing
What the French are getting right.
Let’s sell our house in Austin! I texted to Carolyn last week after sharing an article titled $1.5 Million Homes in Paris. I was only half joking - the apartments in the article are fabulous and (I argued) the Paris-Montpellier commute would be so much easier on us and the dogs than our current Austin-Newark-Paris-Montpellier jaunt.
This morning I read another article in the NYT, How Does Paris Stay Paris? By Pouring Billions Into Public Housing explaining how the Paris City Hall works to develop public housing and preserve the timeless quality of Parisian streets. “Our guiding philosophy is that those who produce the riches of the city must have the right to live in it,” said the former head of housing for City Hall. After reading the article, I’m feeling like a jerk for wanting those $1.5M apartments so badly!
The French government buys buildings and converts them to public housing. When I see the words “public housing” I don’t think of nice places. My imagination conjures old Soviet housing blocks with pock-marked concrete and peeling paint. I imagine places that feel dangerous despite there being few people around. In the US we’ve all had our brains poisoned by right-wing talking points for the last 50 years such that any facility with the word “public” in front of it conjures unsavory images.
Try it for yourself: what do you imagine when you think of Public Housing, Public Restroom, Public Bus. Not nice, right? In Paris there seems to be broader conservative/liberal agreement on the need for social housing than exists here in the US. “A city, if it’s only made up of poor people, is a disaster, and if it’s only made up of rich people, it’s not much better.” Those are the words of a former housing minister who served in a conservative government.
In Paris they have converted former government buildings in desirable locations to public housing, in one case the former headquarters of the French Defense Ministry in the seventh arrondissement and in another case, a former police headquarters building in the Marais. The social housing being developed in Paris benefits an array of working-class families who would otherwise not be able to afford to live there: nurses, butchers, teachers, artists, small entrepreneurs. It seems obvious that social housing will work better if it is mixed into the fabric of the city instead of being shunted to the outskirts.
The housing authority in Paris actively works to prevent a tragedy of the commons. They own 19 percent of the commercial rental space in Paris. They refuse to rent to large chains and they may choose to rent at below market rates to (say) a book store, or bicycle repair shop that is needed in a given neighborhood. People need to be able to shop for food close to where they live, bike shops encourage cycling and reduce car traffic, and residents have richer social lives if the people in their neighborhood actually live there and aren’t just tourists passing through short-term rentals. The work being done by the housing authority isn’t solely for the benefit of the poor and working class. Primarily, the government has an interest in preserving the street character of Paris because it is good for everyday Parisians. It also happens to be good for tourism.
In one of our very early posts, Carolyn and I wrote about the short waiting period when we bought our apartment, it struck us as odd at the time. We were told that the waiting period was put in place to give the city the right to cancel our deal and buy the apartment instead of us. The waiting period now makes more sense to me - it is mentioned specifically in the article I linked above. The French government makes use of the waiting period to further its goal of ensuring French cities can be a home for everyone, not just the wealthy.
I’m going to close on a completely unrelated note: last night I stumbled upon the obituary for Admiral Phillipe de Gaulle, son of President Charles de Gaulle. Admiral de Gaulle was a hero of France, even if he never quite emerged from the shadow of his father. He was a member of the French resistance in WWII, he fought in the English Channel and the Atlantic with the French Navy, he was wounded six times during his military service. Admiral de Gaulle later became a pilot and served in Indochina and Algeria, and after retiring from the military he became a member of the French senate from Paris. Admiral de Gaulle was 102 years old when he passed away last week. Rest in well-earned peace, Admiral de Gaulle.
Jusqu’à la prochaine fois (until next time)
Carolyn & Roberto
Interesting piece! You’ve made me love France even more and explained why we had to wait two months to close on the garden plot we purchased on the outskirts of our village.