2023-12-07 08:00:12
Unlike the geographer Daniel Behar, I do not think that it is necessary “to end it” with city policy. But it is certainly necessary to review a certain number of its presuppositions. Allow me to write that this revision was already included in the report “Tomorrow, the city”, written with twenty-five elected officials, actors and specialists, which I submitted to the government in 1998… This necessary revision is developed in three other reports that I have since written for the Senate’s foresight delegation.
Also read the column by Daniel Behar, geographer: Article reserved for our subscribers “We must put an end to city politics”
The first presupposition is simply due to the ministerial division. There are not two ministries of agriculture, one for agriculture which is doing well and one for agriculture which is doing badly. For cities, it’s different. The so-called “city” ministry is that of neighborhoods in difficulty. The city that is doing well, or better, is the responsibility of other ministries. We see that this state of affairs presupposes that we could change life and the city in these neighborhoods without this having any effect or consequence on the entire urban fabric. But this is neither true nor possible.
If we really want to change the situation, we need a “whole” city ministry! For what ? Because the one left to us by the 20th century suffers from sectorization: there is the center, heritage; the suburbs ; the suburbs, vertical, made of bars and towers, or horizontal (pavilion), where there is mainly only housing; the “city entrances”, where there is only commerce; activity zones, where there is only activity; campuses, where there are only universities; leisure areas, where there is only leisure, factory outlets, etc.
Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers “City policy requires a real overhaul”
We must largely challenge this sectorization and move towards a “new urbanity”. This will have the effect of bringing together all functions (housing, work, commerce, training, leisure, sport, etc.) in the same spaces. This implies replacing the concentric city (and agglomerations) with “polycentrality”.
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The solidarity and urban development law is excellent. It is a categorical imperative to finally implement it and create quality social housing throughout France which will no longer be denoted by its external appearance, which is also what a large number of housing organizations are committed to. social. Inserted into the neighborhoods of the new urbanity, they would no longer be dedicated to a single function, housing, but would welcome them all. In other words, to be successful, “social” diversity must go hand in hand with “functional” diversity.
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