[kps]

Although ‘banlieue’ = ‘suburb’ literally, the analogous word in American media is ‘urban’.

For the SV crowd, Paris = San Francisco, banlieue = Oakland.

[jnbiche]

>the analogous word in American media is ‘urban’

I would say the analogous word is "inner-city". "Urban" carries a limited range of socio-cultural connotations, unlike "banlieu" and "inner-city".