When Paris was chosen to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, the French government promised to reduce waste and costs compared to previous spending and that the measures would have a positive and lasting impact on the territory. The topic of positive impact has been discussed in French newspapers for many months, and not only: the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, has made it one of the main requirements that must contribute to the success of the event, and the court has also expressed itself in this sense the French auditor. It will take years to concretely measure these consequences, but for now there also seems to be confidence in the investments being made in the north of Paris, where the Olympic Village is to be built.
It is expensive to equip cities to host the Games and there are several examples that show how many purpose-built buildings, structures and spaces are subsequently abandoned and in ruins. In Athens, where the 2004 Olympic Games were held, almost all structures were built without any plan for their future reuse. For this reason, more and more countries and cities have withdrawn from the race to host the games over time.
Paris had promised not to spend any more 6.2 billion euros on the Games and related work (a relatively modest budget by current standards). He had ensured that 95 percent of the infrastructure would be of two types: either existing structures or structures yet to be built, but with a precise plan that envisaged their immediate use after the Olympics.
The latter includes the Olympic Village, which can accommodate more than 14,000 athletes. At the end of December, the engineer Nicolas Ferrand at the head of Solideo, the public company responsible for the construction of the final and temporary buildings where the Games will take place, said during a press conference on the progress of the work that overall The deadlines were adhered to and the Olympic and Paralympic Village was completed. The keys, Ferrand added, will be handed over to the organizing committee in early March, which will then furnish the interiors.
The Village is a residential complex on the banks of the Seine, where there were previously mainly industrial buildings and warehouses. It lies at the intersection of three communes north of Paris: Saint-Ouen-su-Seine, Saint-Denis and L'Île-Saint-Denis, some of the poorest areas in France where mostly migrants or third- or third-graders the French live in the fourth generation, where the unemployment rate is above average and racial discrimination is an everyday problem. Around 80 percent of the investment made for the Games went into these areas, which were chosen because they were already the focus of a large-scale renovation project.
Once the Olympics are over, the village will give way to a neighborhood with homes, shops, sports and school facilities, and green spaces. There will be almost 2,000 new homes in the municipalities of Saint-Denis and Saint-Ouen, of which at least 25 percent will be social housing. A further 750 residential units will be specifically earmarked for students and older people. On Île-Saint-Denis there will be 320 new apartments, 90 of which will be restaurants, while 130 rooms will be available to students. Overall, it is expected that there will be apartments for around 6,000 people and offices for at least 6,000 employees.
One of the main goals of the Village is also to bring the northern suburbs of Paris closer to the Seine by permanently reopening previously neglected sections of the riverbank.
The French suburbs were created at the end of the 19th century to accommodate the large factories and the working class. They grew quickly and often disorderly, particularly in the years after World War II, when the French government began to delve into public housing, constructing thousands of buildings on the outskirts of cities between 1945 and 1975. Originally designed for lower-middle-class families, these places were also highly politicized: that is, they were inhabited by the rank and file of the labor movement, supported by parties and unions.
With the crisis of the industrial model in the 1980s, the loss of the social and political strength of the working class, high unemployment and the end of French colonialism, these areas were increasingly occupied by low-income migrant communities.
The mayors of the municipalities involved in the new infrastructure for the Games believe that these projects will change the image of the Parisian banlieues, which will no longer be seen only as places that provide services of little value to the capital (“Banlieue ” is a word meaning “suburb” and refers to the outskirts of large French cities).
– Also read: The question of the suburbs
Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine is a city of almost 60,000 inhabitants: it is a densely populated area traditionally linked to the labor movement and where almost 70 percent of the population is under 45 years old.
Mayor Karim Bouamrane, a socialist and Moroccan-born, told the Guardian that the Olympics and Paralympics could bring “a wave of hope.” Redevelopment projects accelerated by the Games include new green spaces, improvements to school buildings, new public services and the opening of the riverfront: “Too often people and even left-wing parties have thought that beauty is only for higher classes.” In my opinion, beauty is for the working class, a weapon that gives people pride and identity and makes them happy.”
Mathieu Hanotin, socialist mayor of nearby Saint-Denis, also viewed the decision not to build a neighborhood from scratch and to intervene in an area that needed it as positive.
Isabelle Backouche is a historian and director of the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS, School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences) based in Paris. He believes the work surrounding the Games is part of a broader effort to bridge the deep divide between the French capital and its neighboring and poorer communities: “Paris and its banlieues are two very different spaces that have been isolated for a long time. “ l 'from each other through fortifications. Paris remained closed behind a wall and a moat until the end of World War I, so the divide was physical and obvious. Later in the 20th century, the division between Paris and the surrounding areas became primarily political, with the right dominating the capital and the left finding space in the suburbs.
According to Backouche, the major new public transport project due to be completed in 2030, the Grand Paris Express, and the changes triggered by the Olympics could help close this historical gap, although confirmation will still have to wait a few years .
However, not everyone welcomed the government's measures to prepare for the Games. For example, various movements, associations and non-governmental organizations that have come together in a network called “The Other Side of the Coin” have spoken of “social cleansing” to refer to the eviction operations that have already begun in many residential spaces inhabited by migrants or homeless people in the department Seine-Saint-Denis, where Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine, Saint-Denis and L'Île-Saint-Denis are located, that is, the municipalities involved in the construction of the Olympic Village.
The government denied any connection between the evictions and the Olympics, but many activists, lawyers and social workers argued the measures were an attempt to improve the way the area presents itself to tourists and spectators that many would become homeless.
This morning, let's take a look at the Sacred Heart to denounce social commitment in view of the Jeux Olympiques Paris 2024.
We are not waiting for exclusion, but for solidarity ✊ pic.twitter.com/UXi3oBUrwk
— Utopia 56 (@Utopia_56) December 15, 2023