By Maëlle Lions
BAGNEUX, France, Oct 19 2023, (Sciences Po) - Cranes and building permits are popping up all around Bagneux’s new metro station as the suburb town gets ready to welcome new Parisian commuters; but communist city hall doesn’t want its working-class inhabitants to be left behind.
In the and once-quiet and working-class Bagneux suburb, located 2 kilometers south of the French capital, the newest home of metro 4’s terminal station Lucie-Aubrac has become a hum of construction work, cranes circling in the sky and footsteps of hurrying passengers.
Since last year, Bagneux’s inhabitants can enjoy a direct metro connection to the capital with the extension of line 4. By 2025, Lucie Aubrac will also host the future metro line 15, which should connect all the suburbs close to Paris as part of The Grand Paris Express, a colossal project worth 42 billion euros that aims to open up Parisian suburbs and boost employment. With this new line, the Grand Paris company expects 60,000 passengers to pass through Lucie Aubrac every day.
In the meantime, building permits are strewn across the site barriers that line the square, making room for future office buildings, a dozen of commercial premises, a parking lot, an educational garden, and, of course, residential homes.
“Bagneux is a fast-developing city, with the housing crisis in Paris and the arrival of the metro attracting people to move here,” said Nassera Hennouche, a municipal councilor in charge of welcoming new residents.
Real estate prices in this city of 43,000 inhabitants remain almost half the level of Paris with an average of 5 659€ per square meter. And while Paris average real estate prices fell below the symbolic threshold of 10,000€ this summer, Bagneux’s real estate prices went up 17% in the past 5 years, 14 points ahead of Paris.
Around the brand-new metro station, prices are already reaching 7,000€ per square meter, as white modern architecture spring up between the old grey social housing blocks.
But the communist town hall is aware of its challenge of not giving in to gentrification.
In a city where social housing makes up 60% of all real estate – the third-largest number in Ile-de-France— and with 19% of the population below the poverty line compared to 14,6 % nationwide - Bagneux’s city councillors want to make sure the metro doesn't just bring in white-collars workers eager to split the cost of their rent while remaining close to their offices in the capital.
"We all live well together when we blend well together, not when we create ghettos for either the rich or the poor," said Bagneux communist mayor Marie-Hélène Amiable, who calls the RATP - the region’s public transportation company - for transportation development in the south of the city as well.
As Bagneux is turning into a new playground for architects, bringing opportunities for eco-friendly architecture - including a building made of the raw earth excavated from line 4’s tunnels - real estate promoters are including quotas of social housing and intermediate housing.
“Social mixity (i.e. diversity) is our main objective and an essential dimension of our work, said city hall’s Nassera Hemmouche. We really want to welcome households with all types of socio-cultural backgrounds”
The latest example is Nexity's newest ultra-modern residence, located a stone's throw from the metro station and inaugurated on October 11, which counts 40 intermediate housing units out of its 200 appartments.
If intermediate housing provides a middle ground between access to property and social housing, the latter remains the main demand in Bagneux’s estate.
According to Nicolas Sidot, departmental head of the social landlord Sequens, which owns 3 775 dwellings in Bagneux, another 3 500 inhabitants are still in line for social housing in the town. In France, 750 000 people are on social housing waiting lists.
It was precisely with the goal to reducing inequalities, particularly between neighbourhoods, that the Grand Paris Express project was voted back in 2010.
Counting 68 stations, 80% of which will have connections, the Grand Paris Express should bring Ile-de-France’s population closer to employment, education, healthcare facilities as well as cultural and leisure facilities.
But Communists, who are still at the head of 28 Parisian suburb towns, also referred as the “Red Belt” - had seen the gentrifying effect of the Grand Paris Express coming.
The “Red Belt” once dominated the economic landscape of the Petite Couronne - the name given to Paris’ peripheric departments - as their inhabitants were employed in the heavy and light industries. Bagneux, which has been discontinuously led by the Communist party ever since 1935, remains one of its strongholds, as the party has lost almost half of its hold on Paris’ peripheral towns since the 1977 municipal elections.
In 2016, a bill presented by communist MP Christian Favier called for at least 30% social housing to be set aside in any new residence built within 400 meters of the new stations of the Grand Paris Express project, but was rejected.
Completion of the metro lines, initially scheduled for 2030, is expected to bring two to three million passengers on the Grand Paris Express’s 200 kilometers of lines every day.
Already, inhabitants note that the inflow of commuters around the extended metro station, brings in all the city aspects.
“Now, we even have homeless people, which we would never see before” said Florence, a 59 years old long-standing resident.
With her two other friends, Nathalie, 51, and Ntyame, 62, who have lived in the city for decades, she remembers the time when they could just bump into familiar faces on this square.
“Everything has changed, added Florence. Before the metro came, Bagneux was just a little town in the suburbs".
Comments