A NEW PARIS

Taranaki Daily News, 1 February 1933, Page 8

A NEW PARIS

PLANS BEING MADE OLD CONSERVATISM GONE. SOME STARTLING CHANGES. Until only a few years ago Paris was, geographically, the most conservative capital in the world. Technically, even now, the area of Paris proper is no larger than the Paris of 1840, when the ring of fortifications marking its boundary was built. There are still some conservative Parisians who believe that Paris does not stretch beyond the old line of fortifications, that it has a population of less than three millions, and that everything beyond the line is “banlieue” (suburb) and consequently of no importance. ' • Unfortunately this conservative spirit is not foreign to the Paris Town Council itself, and there are numerous facts which show that, although the municipal organisation of Paris is admirable in many ways little thought was given for a long time to the densely populated area outside the city boundary. Even now —to quote one example in manynot a single line of the Metro, the excellent Paris underground system, goes beyond the line of the 1840 fortifications. Every Metro terminus has the name of a “gate”—Porte Chaperret, Porte de Lilas, Porte d’Orleans, and so on—seventeen “portes” in aIL There is something truly medieval about the plan of the Paris underground railway. And although the Paris fortifications, whose practical uselessness became apparent during the war, have been razed to the ground during the past few years, the old distinction between Paris and “banlieue” still persists in many minds, says a writer in the Manchester Guardian. ' PARLIAMENT ACTS. However, the changes in Paris and in the Paris region have been so startling during the past ten or fifteen years that the old prejudice is’ now dying fast. In 1931 Parliament passed a Bill setting up a special committee which' was to , study the means of re-planning . and “urbanising” the Paris .region within an 18-mile radius from the centre of the v town, and the conception of a “Greater Paris” thus received official recognition. The population of Paris proper is stationary, and is even showing a tendency to decline. The census of March, 1931, showed that there were 2,871,000 inhabitants in Paris proper. This was 32,000 more than in 1926; but since then a small section of the fortifications area, with a population of about 40,000, has been incorporated in Paris. In reality, therefore, the population of the capital showed a slight decline. In several parts of the town the decline was considerable. Owing to the recent extension of the underground the population on the outskirts of the town had, on the contrary, increased to some extent, and . during the building boom of 1925-30 thousands of modem flats had been built in North, East and South Paris—areas which until recently had been almost exclusively working-class and which, ■: were not considered “respectable.” . THE THRIFTY REVOLT. Strangely enough, these modem flats, with their lifts, central heating and hot and cold water, have not been as popular as their builders expected, and that for several reasons. The proprietors of these vast blocks of flats were under the delusion that the French public would be fascinated by the words “comfort moderns” and pay any price for the privilege of enjoying it. They were wrong; until quite recently, , at least, the rent for a three-roomed “comfort modeme” flat—usually in a “disre- x putable” neighbourhood—was near £lOO (at par)—a price which most of- the French refused to pay “on principle.” A large proportion of these "modem” flats are, indeed, occupied by foreigners, who are not expert house-hunters. The French also objected to these flatson other grounds—the rooms are too small, the flats on the lower floors, especially those facing the courtyard, are miserably dark, and they also lack privacy. Many of the houses are built in such a way that the pianos, wireless and gramophones of the upstairs, downstairs, and next-door neighbours are enough to drive one insane. Such “comfort” is too “modem” for French tastes. It is too much like living in barracks. GOING TO THE SUBURBS. .

Shortly after the. war there were a hundred applicants for any vacant flat in Paris; to-day there are at least 20,000 empty flats in Paris which cannot find a tenant. Rather than settle in one of these “modem” flats many Parisians now prefer to settle outside Paris in a little house and with a little garden, of their own. The famous Loucheur Housing Act of 1927 granting extensive credit facilities for building these small houses greatly stimulated the migration from Paris into the “rural” suburbs. When the transport faeffities improve the exodus will" no doubt become even more marked. The Paris "region” has grown enormously since the war, and has now a population of nearly six millions (including three million “Greater Parisians” living outside .the 1840 boundary. Al-. though there is a marked tendency among the Parisians to move into the suburbs, the chief increase in the sub-, urban population has come from outside —from provincial France.