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Planning Paris' Makeover

Posted by: Judy Chang

11 March 2009 - 1:00pm

Though challenged with facing a multi-tiered government, Nicholas Sarkozy has nonetheless devised one of the most ambitious plans ever for Paris. To reimagine this bolder, greener "Grand Paris," he has put 10 teams of architects and planners to work.

"After nine months of work, the architects have come up with a diagnosis on what ails Paris: its grimy suburbs are not only an eyesore, but an affront to urban living, far removed from shops, workplaces and Paris city centre.

Unlike London which has around eight million people in the city and its suburbs, Paris is home to just two million citizens while at least six million more are scattered across nearby suburbs under separate local governments.

'We need to plant some beauty where there it is now mostly ugliness,' said Roland Castro whose team has tackled head-on the 'banlieue' that exploded into rioting in November 2005 and have been marred in sporadic violence since."

Full Story: Top architects unveil vision for Paris of the future
Source: AFP, March 9, 2009
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Public transit has suffered from an economic mis-focus, and ironically enough, it has only worsened perennial problems like chronic underfunding and running incomplete systems that can't compete with the private automobile.
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