Le Grand Paris. How would this project generate an economic growth?

A-Paris : A global city

A-a Historical context of Paris Ile-de-France

Ile-de-France region was born at the tenth century by the Capetian dynasty (the oldest royal house of Europe), which were a Frank dynasty. The historical growth of Paris can be measured by the growth of the Paris' confines. They have been fortified by Philippe Auguste at the 12^th century, at the 14^th century by Charles V. The real urbanisation of Paris started with Louis XIV, and an administration was established at the end of the 18^th century (Fermiers Généraux). The borders of Paris have a strong historical and social significance, as «la commune de Paris» in 1860 illustrates perfectly this point².

From an historical point of view, this history of Paris explains why the city had a concentric growth over the years. Indeed, the borders of Paris have been designed in order to be able to defend the city by including every part urbanized. The actual administrative borders of Paris have not changed since 1860 (year of the last enlargement of Paris, with the incorporation of town such as Montmartre)³.

According to Pierre Pinon, the real engine which permits to Paris to grow has always been the same: Paris is the capital. But since the beginning of the 20^th century, a problem has raised. Indeed it is noticed that the administrative limits of the capital do not fit with the real situation⁴. The urbanisation strongly grew around Paris, without being considered as part of the city, which creates a discrepancy between the city and its administrative power.

Nevertheless, the legal power at this time created in 1910 a commission focused on the extension of the city («Commission d'Extension de Paris»). In 1919, a law concerning the urban redevelopment of Paris was adopted. From this point many plans have been proposed to the authorities in order to improve the situation of Paris⁵. In 1919, Léon Jaussely won the first price on the development of the region of Paris. Indeed this famous architect from Toulouse⁶ proposed a plan which aimed to report out of Paris, every building, institutions with a function not considered as primordial in the city centre. Indeed, industrial equipments, housing areas, or universities would have to be sent in the periphery. This is according to P. Pinon, a zone strategy rather than a mixed strategy (which can be compared to the Taylorism practice by specialising every area to a simple function).

² P.Pinon, 2009, Le Grand Pari(s), Consultation internationale sur l'avenir de la métropole Parisienne, PP.15.

³ Ibid

⁴ Ibid, PP. 16

⁵ Ibid

⁶ Zieseniss Ch. O. Les projets d'aménagement de la région parisienne. In: Annales de Géographie. 1940, t. 49, n^°277. PP. 28-34.

Because of this law of urban redevelopment, 81 cities were concerned (all cities from the old department named «Seine», which nowadays mainly represent «la petite couronne»). A departmental office was in charge to manage the different plans which were going to be established in the towns⁷.

But in 1928, Raymond Poincarré decided to bring up the development of Paris on a national stage. The government at this time, through Mr Albert Sarrault (minister of the interior), created a comity for the overall organisation of the Parisian region («Comité supérieur de l'aménagement et de l'organisation générale de la region Parisienne»).

The 14^th of May 1932 has seen the promulgation of a new law for the redevelopment of the Region of Paris. The break of this law was the legal establishment of the region, which was composed by three departments: Seine, Seine-et-Oise and Seine-et-Marne. Geographically speaking, it does correspond to a radius of 25 kilometres around the centre of Paris. The law gave the impulsion to embellish the towns located in the area and an also stimulate an extension of them⁸.

The plan of this urban redevelopment was concerning at this time 656 towns. In practical terms, the plan was to improve (or creates) road to connect the towns, but also to be sure that all these towns were provided in water, and would ensure the building of sewer, creation of schools, post offices, police stations or even garbage collector services. These actions aimed to develop economically these towns, and also to attract more people to release the city centre. The government scheduled this development on a 15 years scale, thinking it would leave enough time to the different city councils to create or improve all these services in order to meet with these imposed standards⁹.

Nevertheless, as the author of «Les projets d'aménagement de la region Parisienne» wrote in 1940, the plan of the government has not been implemented quickly in the region, and the constructions have been delayed for different reasons (budget problems, but also the Second World War)¹⁰.

Nevertheless, this project really implemented the impulsion to improve Paris. In 1956, new laws aim to continue the urban redevelopment plans have been studied by the different institution still in this goal to release the city centre and improve the organisation of the region. The new idea is to create modern housing estate («Grands ensembles») in order to limit the extension of the suburbs, provide more housing to the population, responding to some higher quality norms. Some cities such as La

⁷ Ibid PP.28

⁸ Ibid PP.29

⁹ Ibid PP.30

¹⁰ Zieseniss Ch. O. Les projets d'aménagement de la région parisienne. In: Annales de Géographie. 1940, t. 49, n77. PP.34.

Courneuve (Seine Saint-Denis department) or Sarcelles (Val d'Oise department) represent perfectly this politic¹¹ followed at this period.

In 1960's, President De Gaulle asked Paul Delouvrier (Director of the District of Paris), to organize the region of Paris considered as real «mess» by the president. In 1965, Paul Delouvrier launched the project of the new cities. Indeed, by developing cities relatively far away from the centre, it would settle new urban centres (in term of animation, culture, economy). Nowadays, we can still contemplate the results of this politic as the new cities Cergy-Pontoise, Marne-la-Vallée, Mélun-Sénart, Evry and Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines¹² symbolize this stage of construction.

Indeed the creation of these new cities mainly changed the system of the region. Indeed, they lead to the improvement of the RER (Réseau Express Régional) as it is mentioned in the Schema of the Ile-de-France region of 1994.¹³

Indeed the region focused on the improvement of the public transport in order to reduce the traffic going into the city, to result a better impact on the environment.

When we look back on these different urban plans, we can consider them as having a really positive influence on the region overall.

Indeed, the implementation of Disney Land Paris in Marne-la Valée, which attracted 14,5 millions of visitors in 2007 (which makes this touristic site as the visitors' main reason to go to Seine-et-Marne department)¹⁴ generates 49000 jobs¹⁵.

On the other hand one of the new cities objectives was to constraint the extension the urban growth, which actually did not work. Indeed as mentioned by Pierre Pinnon, the urban extension reached the new cities, which means that the growth of the city kept coming from the centre¹⁶, there is still a densification of the entire region.

Moreover, we might notice many projects which have been delayed or give up by the region, and
would have been useful for the economical situation. By looking to the region development plans

¹¹ National archives, http://www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/19770784.pdf

¹² Loïc Vadelorge, Mémoire et histoire : Les villes nouvelles françaises, 2005, n°98, PP.6-13.

¹³ Direction génerale de l'équipement de l'Ile-de-France, 1994, http://www.ile-defrance.equipement.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/texte-complet cle0addb1.pdf

¹⁴ L'observatoire départemental du tourisme de Seine-et-Marne, 2007, P.P.7

¹⁵ Ibid,P.P 15

¹⁶ P.Pinon, 2009, Le Grand Pari(s), Consultation internationale sur l'avenir de la métropole Parisienne, PP.17

archives of 1994, the creation of RER line F in the department of Val d'oise¹⁷ was supposed to be built two decades ago. Unfortunately, this project was abandoned because of budget restriction and the lack of political implication in this project. Recently an eventual creation of a line F still creates a debate.

All this history permits to understand the actual situation of Paris. Indeed its economic and industrial repartition shows the social inequality repartition within the region, and the creation of new city centres which have obviously some benefits for the economy have also highlight the limits of massive construction efficiency. As we can assume, the concentric problem of Paris is not a new issue, and many plans have failed so far. Many observatories have claimed the use of space of the region as totally inefficient.