Metropolitics

Have Low-Income Households Been Failed by the Sale of Social Housing?

2023-01-06T06:00:00Z

Since 2018, the selling-off of social housing in France, as in other countries in Europe, has accelerated. What are the social effects of such measures? Matthieu Gimat, Manon Le Bon-Vuylsteke and Bruno Marot examine the lessons that France can learn from policies implemented in Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
In 2018, the approval in France of the so-called “ELAN law”, aimed at reforming property legislation, revived debates on the sale of social housing. While social

- From the Field / privatization, Germany, social housing, housing, United Kingdom, Netherlands

Aéroports de Paris: A Strategic Lever for the French State?

Nathalie Roseau & translated by Oliver Waine — 2021-01-26T06:00:00Z

Following growing controversy surrounding the French government's plans to privatize the Aéroports de Paris (ADP) group, Nathalie Roseau looks back at the history of this organization and questions the wisdom of such a reform.
On April 11, 2019, France's lower house of parliament, the Assemblée Nationale (National Assembly) approved a law known as PACTE (Plan d'Action pour la Croissance et la Transformation des Entreprises – Action Plan for Growth and Transformation of Enterprises), paving

- Debates / climate change, Greater Paris, airport, sustainable development, Île-de-France, ADP, France, globalization, Paris region, Paris, transport, transport policy, environment, environmental protection, economic development, territorial development, privatization

Sale of the Century: Chicago's Infrastructure Deals and the Privatization State

Philip Ashton & Marc Doussard & Rachel Weber — 2020-11-24T06:00:00Z

Since 2004, the City of Chicago has been engaged in a new wave of infrastructure privatizations, selling concessions to financial institutions. Philip Ashton, Marc Doussard and Rachel Weber analyze the consequences of these transfers in detail, in terms of both public action and the impact on users, and identify lessons to be learned from this new way of doing things, whereby firms mine the city for potential revenue streams.
---- Series: Cities in the Age of Financialization When the City

- From the Field / financialization, privatization, infrastructure, infrastructures, urban services, Chicago, United States

The Contestations and Contradictions of the New York City Housing Authority's Plan for Mixed-Income Redevelopment

Valerie E. Stahl — 2020-11-10T06:00:00Z

The New York City Housing Authority, faced with a capital shortfall of nearly $40 billion, is pursuing a series of privatization plans. Its residents are resisting. As Valerie Stahl asks, when public housing is seen as an avenue for profit, is it actually being preserved?
Resident resistance to infill: competing ideas for the future of NYCHA
On a frigid evening in January 2019, the meeting room at the Stanley M. Isaacs Center, the community center for the public housing development of

- From the Field / housing, housing justice, affordable housing, public housing, social housing, New York City housing policy, public-housing redevelopment, privatization, New York, United States

Private Infrastructure and Urban Government: How Vélib' Veered Off Course in Paris

Maxime Huré & translated by Oliver Waine — 2019-05-17T05:00:00Z

When the city of Paris entrusted its decade-old bike-share service, Vélib', to a new provider in January 2018, multiple problems ensued. Maxime Huré looks back on the opportunities and pitfalls presented by the changes of scale and operator that this switchover entailed, and sheds light on public authorities' mistakes, misgivings, and above all their growing dependence on large, globalized firms.
The Vélib' bicycle-sharing system, launched in 2007 in partnership with French

- Debates / bicycles, mobility, transport, public transportation, self-service, urban public service, Île-de-France, Paris region, Greater Paris, Paris, privatization, public–private partnership, municipal, urban services, urban technical networks, active mobility, Vélib', bicycle-sharing, cycling

Where Does Public Land Come From? Municipalization and Privatization Debates

Oksana Mironova & Samuel Stein — 2018-03-06T06:00:00Z

This article illuminates contemporary land-use and disposition struggles in New York City by tracing the history of land's passage between the private and public realms. The authors contend that government and community-controlled nonprofit organizations should govern the disposition of the city's remaining public land supply, deliberately deploying this scarce resource to promote the well-being of the people and neighborhoods most at risk in a speculation-fueled real-estate environment.
For

- Debates / land, New York, privatization, community land trusts, tax-lien sales, public land, municipalization, land use

The burst bubble and the privatisation of planning in Tokyo

Raphaël Languillon-Aussel & translated by Oliver Waine — 2014-02-05T05:50:00Z

Since the early 1990s and the collapse of Japan's asset price bubble, developments in Marunouchi – Tokyo's main business district – have revealed a turning point in planning policy with regard to commercial real estate. Instead of letting laissez-faire prevail, the public authorities have actively involved private developers such as Mitsubishi Jisho in order to increase functional diversity and redefine public spaces.
Marunouchi is the most central business district in the Tokyo urban area,

- From the Field / developers, urban planning, urban policy, urban development, privatization, development, business district, Tokyo, Japan

Challenges in Co-Producing Publicly Accessible Spaces

Ulrich Berding & Antje Havemann & Juliane Pegels — 2012-09-19T04:55:00Z

Publicly accessible urban spaces are more often than not co-produced and maintained via ad hoc partnerships between public administrations and private owners and tenants. The authors describe the complex negotiations that lead to this intricate situation in German cities, and point at some directions to clarify the respective roles of private and public players in the production of urban public space.
---- Dossier : Espaces publics urbains et concertation Plazas, parks and promenades play

- From the Field / public space, urban design, privatization, Germany

From Vélib' to Autolib': private corporations' involvement in urban mobility policy

Maxime Huré & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-04-25T06:35:58Z

In December 2011 – four years after the launch of Vélib' – Paris inaugurated Autolib', the largest system of self-service electric cars in the world. Leaving aside the debate on the economic and technical viability of Autolib', the development of self-service mobility services has brought with it the increased involvement of large private groups in the production of urban policy, contributing to the privatisation of public spaces and redefining the notion of public service.
With the

- Debates / mobility, transport, public–private partnership, urban public service, self-service, bicycles, cars, privatization, urban technical networks, urban services, Vélib', bicycle-sharing, active mobility, transport policy, cycling