Paris not so lovely — even in spring

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33671, 22 October 1974, Page 26

Paris not so lovely — even in spring

(By a correspondent of "The Times," through N .Z.P.A.) LONDON. One of President Giscard d’Estaing’s most startling innovations in his first four months of office is his almost complete reversal of his predecessor’s ideas on the future of planning in Paris.

He stopped the construction of the Left Bank expressway; he reprieved the “Cite Fleurie,” the haven of artists’ studios in the concrete desert of the new Italie district; and he drew a line- through Mr Pompidou’s plan for an international commercial centre on the site of Les Halles.

In general, the new President, backed in this by a majority of Parisian opinion, has taken a resolute stand against the sacrifice of the amenities of the capital to the requirements of traffic or to the futuristic projects of promoters and architects. The President outlined his “new urban policy” in a letter to Mr Chirac, the Prime Minister. The development of Paris, he stressed, must meet a certain number of Criteria: There must be a pause in the building of new office space; restoration must take precedence over renovation; and renovation plans must respect the character of different quarters of the city and make it possible for the present inhabitants to continue to live there. Instead of motorways which encourage an increase in motor traffic, preference should be given to avenues which enhance the attractiveness of districts, and the promotion of public transport. Finally, the t environment of Parisians slwuld be improved through the creation of parks and playgrounds, along the Seine, and Paris’s canals. The President’s letter ends by calling on the Prime Minister to work out, in cooperation with the city fathers, by the end of November, a document which will make the State’s plans for Paris known to all. “DISASTER” His letter is timely. An article in “Le Monde” points out today that Paris’s ecology is “disastrous”: one square metre only of parks and green spaces per inhabitant; a noise level at the Place de L’Opera higher than that of the Niagara Falls; an increase of 35 per cent in atmospheric pollution between 1970 and 1973 through sulphur dioxide; and of 50 per cent through carbon dioxide; a river, the Seine which carries more sewage water than river water. Paris has seven times fewer parks and green spaces than London or Rome, 10 times less than Berlin, 20 times less than Vienna. There are, the article emphasises, great possibilities of increasing the green spaces in Paris by 200 to 300 acres merely by planting certain public grounds like the old slaugh-ter-houses of La Villette, Les Halles, the Esplanade of the Invalides, the site of the former Citroen works on the Left Bank.

If foreign capitals are much greener than Paris, the reason is that their density of inhabitants is much lower. The “renovation” of whole districts of Paris, like the former wine depots at Bercy, the Italie quarter, the banks of the Seine, have led to an appalling over-popu-lation.

In the Italie quarter, a new Manhattan on the

( Seine, there are 60,000 inhabitants per square kilometre, three times the previous population density. From 1958 to 1968, 13,000 old dwellings were demolished to build 97,000 new ones.

While Mr Giscard D’Estaing’s initiative is applauded, the wish is widely expressed in the press that Parisians might be given a little more responsibility for planning the future of their capital than they have at pr&sent. The Council of Paris has limited powers, and is dominated by the prefect appointed by the Central Government and a President who is but the pale shadow of a real Mayor.