This appears to bother the people that live outside Paris rather than most Parisians. I'm all for it. I've watched my balcony become unusable from pollution. I imagine if half the stuff that was collecting on the balcony floor was going into my lungs my lungs would look like a 50 year heavy smoker.
I am all for it too, I was just giving some context for HN readers who might be surprised to see a lot of hate comments regarding the current mayor under most articles covering Paris elections :)
> She closed a few roads and made them pedestrian-only; that was not well received by a number of people.
And it has been very well-received by a larger number of people, I guess. As for me, I would make the whole city pedestrian-only. Clarification: I live in banlieue and take the RER-B every day.
She's applying short sighted solutions for the declining 2 million of "rich" Parisians (aka her electors) in an area of 12 million. She's basically flipping the bird to more 80% of the population.
Lived in Paris for 20 years, everything is getting worse:
- Public transportation => many subway lines are saturated
- Traffic jams => stupid road and signals reworks (for cycling lanes mostly), it's a disaster, I am starting to think that about 90% of the population lives more than 5km from work and will never use a bicycle
- Security => cops have been in overtime for 5 years with Vigipirate & gilet jaunes and have no time for anything else
- Pollution => not a single cop around to enforce vehicles pollution laws, better hand parking tickets
Overall feels like a third world country where the state is losing control over everything.
Anyone younger and applying (scientifically) proven solutions could do.
The problem is that she is elected by the 2 millions and not by the 12. Paris needs to annex its surrounding, Grand Paris is just too slow. A mayor of the 7-8 million of Petite Couronne would probably benefit Paris immensely.
That means public transport is working, Paris is one of the few big mature cities that invests heavily in new lines. (Not all of them make sense, but I guess that's politics)
Cars create traffic. Paris has been basically one traffic jam since 50 years, congestion pricing is what's needed, which she sadly is not pushing for, but which would create an even crazier absurd outcry than the closing of the berges (if that's possible).
The Paris Police Prefecture is under the Ministry of Interior, there slowly rolling out a much needed municipal police force.
Automatic enforcement of vehicle vignettes is not allowed yet, but will, from my understanding, be changed with the new mobility law.
Have you been to a country without working infrastructure and state with little power?
One of the problems is investing so much in public housing that could be used in better ways. So the debt of Paris has been rising quite sharply. At least the region (Ile de France) is actually building lots of housing compared to other big cities.
To add to your point, she is disliked by some for the gentrification of Paris, of which 'greenification' is only one aspect. Granted, this is a phenomenon that started well before her, and is not completely under the mayor's control.
Basically, only super-rich, single households or very poor (only in designated neighborhoods, thanks to social housing) people can still afford to live there. Middle-class families with kids can't anymore.