On Tuesday 10th July the Mayor of the 19th arrondissement, in the north east of Paris, announced that the local authorities would buy a large apartment block located at 25-31 de la rue Pradier, much to the delight of its residents. This decision marked the end of a 6-month long battle between the building’s tenants and its current owner, property company Gecina, which began in January when Gecina announced its plans to sell the building off apartment by apartment.
Known as block or split sales (vente à la découpe in French), Gecina’s proposal left the tenants with a tough choice: either buy your apartment or move out…The Le-Corbusier style building, which was built in the 1960s, is home to more than 200 families, including around 50 elderly people. Whilst the thought of owning their apartment, rather than renting it, might have been appealing, the current tenants could not afford the prices Gecina were asking for. But this is the 19th arrondissement and, up here, people don’t give up that easily.
A bit of history
From the 1820s onwards, the rural suburbs north east of Paris – Belleville, Charonne, and Ménilmontant – were slowly transformed by the forces of industrialisation. A number of industries, including metal and leather workshops, matchstick manufacturers, gas factories, which were considered too dirty and insalubrious to be located in Paris, were established here. And with them came the working class. This is why these parts of the city are still referred to as quartiers populaires (“working-class neighbourhoods”).
As the population grew and the north east of Paris became increasingly urbanised, these suburbs became known for their radical, anti-authority politics. When they were finally incorporated into the city in 1860, the boundaries of the new districts were designed to ensure that Belleville was divided amongst the 10th, 11th, 19th, and 20th arrondissements, thus weakening its political power. Just over a decade later, during the violent repression of the Paris Commune (a working-class revolution that lasted from March to May 1871) by government troops, the heights of Belleville and the nearby Père Lachaise cemetery were the last holdouts of Communard resistance. And the fighting didn’t end there. A hundred years ago the bear baiting and cockfights that took place here led to the 19th arrondissement being nicknamed “Combat”.
Encouraged by this long history of resistance, the residents of rue Pradier began a combat of their own. They hung banners on the balconies of their apartments on which were written phrases such as Non à la speculation (“Say no to speculation”) and Cassez les prix, pas les locataires (“Slash prices not tenants”). A website called Les découpés du 19ème was created to raise awareness, and residents contacted local politicians, including Cécile Duflot, the new Minister for Housing.
The facade of 25-31 rue Pradier
The residents were not challenging Gecina’s right to sell the building; what they were against was la vente à la découpe. Buying a block of apartments and then selling off each apartment one by one is much more lucrative than simply re-selling the building, as it increases the value of each individual apartment. For the residents of rue Pradier this was pure speculation; the prices Gecina were asking for the apartments would force low-income and middle class families out of the building. La vente à la découpe was threatening to destroy the social diversity of their neighbourhood.
Banners reading “No to split sales” and “Social diversity is in danger”
Social diversity
In her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, the American writer and urban theorist Jane Jacobs argued that neighbourhoods serve as bridges between different social groups. For Jacobs the basis of a successful, healthy city was the street, and key to lively street life is social diversity. She believed that streets which had a combination of housing, retail, and commercial property would always be busy, and that neighbourhoods need a mix of new and old housing to allow people of different incomes to live together. Low rents encourage the young and adventurous to set up new ventures, and she firmly believed that innovation is essential to the economy of a city.
Jacobs wrote The Death and Life in the late 1950s/early 1960s and based many of her ideas about street life and the ideal neighbourhood on New York’s Greenwich Village. But as more and more people around the world are becoming city-dwellers, her ideas about cities continue to influence how we think about the urban environment. Well-known for her community activism (she led a successful campaign against Robert Moses’s plan to build the Lower Manhatten Expressway in the early 1960s), I think Jacobs would have admired and supported les découpés du 19ème.
Thinking about Paris in relation to Jacob’s theories about street life and successful neighbourhoods, the 19th arrondissement is, in fact, one of the most socially and ethnically diverse neighbourhoods in the city. There is a wide-range of housing here, from beautiful 19th-century Haussmanian buildings near the Buttes Chaumont, to the charming little houses around La Mouzaïa, to the 1960s and 1970s low-rise tower blocks surrounding the Place des Fêtes. In a recent issue of Logic-immo.com’s glossy property magazine that was dedicated to the 19th, this mix of housing is one of the arrondissement’s biggest selling points. As is the price of property here. Compared to the average price of 1 square metre in Paris, which is €8,390, the 19th arrondissement is currently the cheapest neighbourhood in Paris in which to buy an apartment. Here the average price of 1m2 is €6,580 (both figures were taken from the 23rd February edition of Le Parisien).
“The tenants are rebelling” and “We refuse to be split up”
But I can’t help but worry that articles about the 19th arrondissement in glossy property magazines sound the death knell for its diversity and affordable housing – precisely what inspired the articles in the first place. As middle-class people find the central arrondissements increasingly expensive (the average price of 1m2 in the 1st arrondissement is €10,630), the north eastern quartiers populaires and near suburbs are becoming more and more desirable places to live. But although gentrification might create more job opportunities, improve local services and facilities, and result in the opening of trendy new bars and brunch places, it usually spells the end for social diversity. The subsequent rise in property values means that locals on more modest incomes will eventually be priced out. After all, despite the fact that it represents good value in the Paris property market, €6,580 is still a lot of money for just one measley square metre.
La vente à la découpe reveals the aggressive side to gentrification. Things have worked out for rue Pradier but there are many other residents’s associations around Paris who are fighting to stop their apartment blocks from being split up and sold off apartment after apartment, including le 234 résiste on rue Championnet in the 18th and the Association Alouette Pouchard in Sainte Mandé (a suburb just outside Paris). There is a growing fear that unless something is done to resolve the housing crisis in Paris, in the not-too-distant future those on low incomes will not be able to afford to buy or rent anywhere in the city.
So how can the city maintain social diversity in the 21st century? The mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, is experimenting with new social housing projects. Challenging a 1977 by-law that limits the height of buildings in Paris to 37m, he is convinced that low-rise tower blocks built with sustainable building materials offer the best solution to the housing crisis. Porte de la Chapelle in the 18th and the Masséna-Bruneseau district of the 13th have been chosen as potential locations for such towers. New laws might also help maintain social diversity. There’s already legislation stipulating how much social housing (or HLM as it’s known in French) there should be in every arrondissement but more might be on the way. Inspired by the rue Pradier campaign, Cécile Duflot is now trying to pass a law that will bring an end to the practice of split sales.
And perhaps the decision of the local authorities in the 19th arrondissement to buy this building and classify it as social housing will encourage other arrondissements to do the same. Les découpés have been told that not only can all the tenants stay, but that some of them will see their rent decrease in accordance with their income. A happy ending for rue Pradier and food for thought for city-dwellers everywhere.
Elephant in the city 