Metropolitics

In Search of Grand Paris: Pierre Mansat on the Eve of the June 2020 Municipal Elections

Magda Maaoui & Pierre Mansat — 2020-06-26T05:00:00Z

Magda Maaoui interviews Pierre Mansat, former deputy mayor of Paris and a founding father of “le Grand Paris” (the metropolitan authority for Greater Paris), about Grand Paris and the limits of political action at the municipal level in light of the upcoming municipal elections.
Less than a week before 12 million Parisians vote in the second round of elections for their mayors and their municipal councils, which has now been delayed from March 22 to June 28 owing to the coronavirus lockdown,

- Interviews / Grand Paris, Grand Paris Express, Greater Paris, Paris region, Paris, Île-de-France, France, banlieue, suburbs, metropolitan areas, metropolitan restructuring, metropolis, territorial equality, territorial reform, governance, local governance, metropolization, coronavirus, Covid-19, public transportation, transport, mass transit, intercommunality

Rendering a Redeveloped France

Alex Schafran & Giorgia Aiello & Theresa Enright & Yohann Le Moigne — 2017-06-07T06:00:00Z

As urban redevelopment projects remake the Greater Paris region, it is impossible to separate an avalanche of new investment from long histories of both multiculturalism and race-based stigmatization. But these are histories that the economic and political authors of the new Paris appear to want to erase. This essay's four authors deconstruct the renderings on billboards created to represent newly renovated banlieues, reflecting on why France's imagined future is unrepresentative of the nation's

- From the Field / France, Île-de-France, Grand Paris, Paris, suburbs, Bordeaux, Greater Paris, banlieue rouge, race, computer-aided images, multiculturalism, race and space, metropolitan restructuring, banlieue

Transport as both a function and a facilitator of metropolitan development?

Aurélien Delpirou & translated by Oliver Waine — 2015-02-12T05:50:00Z

In Paris, Lyon and Marseille, the development of public transport is a central element of the metropolitan projects currently under way. However, the challenges to be tackled and the approaches adopted differ significantly from one city to another. Here, Aurélien Delpirou compares the three situations and analyses the strengths and weaknesses of their respective strategies.
As part of the major territorial shake-up presently under way in France, a new type of intermunicipal body is set to

- Essays / Île-de-France, Grand Paris, public transportation, Paris region, governance, Marseille, Paris, transport, Lyon, metropolis, Greater Paris, mass transit, rapid transit, Rhône-Alpes

The Negotiated Urbanism of Grand Paris Express

Lara Belkind — 2013-06-12T04:55:00Z

In the fragmented context of Paris's metropolitan and regional politics, the Grand Pari(s) design consultation and subsequent public process demonstrate that the Grand Paris Express project, a major new orbital metro line, can become a form of emergent governance and negotiated planning.
Although the Grand Pari(s) design consultation can be interpreted as a strategy through which the state regained control of the metropolitan narrative, this does not signal a return to the centralized

- Debates / banlieue, Île-de-France, Grand Paris, participation, public transportation, Paris region, urban planning, governance, Paris, local governance, transport, metropolis, Greater Paris, consultation, negotiation, mass transit

The Fantastical Accounts of Grand Paris

Frédéric Léonhardt & translated by Eric Rosencrantz — 2011-09-28T05:00:00Z

After four years of ongoing debate, the French government's Grand Paris scheme has spawned a large-scale mass transit project called the Grand Paris Express. In response to Nicolas Buchoud's article on the subject, Frédéric Léonhardt sounds the financial alarm: the Grand Paris Express, as he sees it, is headed straight to the wall.
Four years after it was announced with great pomp and circumstance, the Grand Paris project remains precisely that: a much-hyped announcement, a grand pipe dream.

- Debates / Île-de-France, Grand Paris, public transportation, local finance, Greater Paris, mass transit

Grand Huit, big gamble, big problem

Jean-Pierre Orfeuil & translated by Michael Stokes — 2010-12-22T09:23:22Z

The secretary of State for the development of Paris and its region, Christian Blanc, left office in July 2010. He leaves behind him a public transport project, known as the “Grand Huit” (literally the Big Eight, a project to build three metro lines looping around Paris) which costs between €21.4 billion and €23.5 billion according to the initial estimate of the contracting authority. It remains to be seen how this project will be carried out.
Shock and outrage, such is the reaction of a

- Debates / Grand Paris, public transportation, Paris region, Greater Paris, mass transit