Kids In The Hall

"Authorities in the French port of Le Havre have found a bizarre way to solve the problem of urban delinquents hanging about in the entry halls of apartment blocks: an entry hall with no apartments.

For several weeks, a "false lobby" has been erected on a stretch of grass in Graville la Vallée, a poor neighbourhood nicknamed "Chicago" in the northern city that houses about 1,500 people, mainly of immigrant extraction.

A red 12-metre-long metal shipping container has been furbished to create the illusion that it is the foyer of an apartment building, with a door and windows, an intercom, a wall of mail boxes, a false elevator and a staircase leading to the roof.

The idea - according to the city's social housing department - is for youths to use it as their recreation area rather than real-life entry halls, where many local people find them an intimidating presence.

Some locals praise the "false lobby" initiative as an imaginative answer to a pressing social need, but the response of most of its intended beneficiaries has been caustic.

Le Figaro newspaper reported yesterday that the buildingless entry hall this weekend attained a new level of verisimilitude: It was vandalized."