It is not just to bring water to the mill

Every Saturday afternoon, it is any Ile-de-France crosses at the Forum des Halles, in the heart of Paris. A game of football to the France stage unites more world than the residents of this equipment. Such places are concrete existence of the metropolis, but they are not very many, and most are located in the city centre. The Ile-de-France live to their work, a community to distract a territory then does is almost never made. Administratively, the Grand Paris is so little that the capital services stop once crossed the peripheral boulevard. Another anachronism: consultation of the only inhabitants of the 1st arrondissement of Paris at the choice of the Forum des Halles renovation project. "They have chosen the place of the village, an anti-métropolitaine response by excellence," said Djamel Klouche Planner. It is in is taken shortly also to issues of communal borders and public markets, users of Vélib' are forced to change frame to continue their journey to the suburbs.

Since 2005, the Metropolitan Conference, an informal group of elected members left mainly, reflects on what might be on the merits, the Parisian agglomeration and in what framework it might exist. Here and there, links are between communes bordering between the capital and its neighbours also: Ouen, Seine-Saint-Denis, for example will take charge of the development of land owned by the city of Paris in its territory. "We then share the duties of social housing in proportion to the means implemented by each", explains Pierre Mansat. As a Deputy of Bertrand Delanoë responsible for relations with local communities, it is at the origin of the Conference and its work. Common operation of Saint-Ouen is in will be not less worn by two development corporations, Paris Semavip and the Sodedat stamped 93, where one would have sufficed. "It is clear that issues such as housing, employment, solidarity, or the environment must be addressed at the level of the metropolitan area," supports Claude Bartolone, former Minister of the city (PS), now President of the General Council of Seine-Saint-Denis. The challenge is to size: sharing or at least a more equitable sharing of resources and wealth.

Birth of Paris metropolis

The next step, in January 2009, should provide an institutional framework to these empirical initiatives. The birth of the Joint Union Paris metropolis is imminent and connected now to the deliberations of the municipal councils of the common candidates as well as the approval of the prefect. Its perimeter Less than the area, larger that the small Crown, this structure will host municipalities, public departments Intermunicipal Cooperation establishments, the Ile-de-France region, all ready to bend to the intangible principle which puts Paris on the same level as any city: a member, one vote. Its purpose Nothing less than the development, the environment, economic development and employment, housing and habitat, mobility and travel, training, higher education and research, cultural development.

Of course, Paris metropolis will not replace municipal services nor those of inter-communal structures: "It's a tool, someone very capable of handling projects over boundaries that hinder us today", describes Pierre Mansat. While most UMP elected representatives had boycotted the meetings of the Metropolitan Conference, some appear to be ready to make their city to join the Trade Union. Similarly the region, which the President swore in May 2008 that the Grand Paris would not, appears to have relaxed his judgment. As if the time has come...

A Paris of architects

The subject takes up a lot of world. Since June 2008, ten teams led by architects and planners, five French and five foreigners, are working on the Grand Paris. In December, they will present a first report on the metropolis of the 21st century post-Kyoto and the issue of sustainable development in the region of France. In February, the Steering Committee and the Scientific Committee of this consultation expect them ideas more mature on the Grand Paris as plans, films, websites, scale models, of drawings... All documents probably presented at a major exhibition at the Cité de l'Architecture in Paris next spring. Competition call for projects, debates of ideas Officially, no team should come out winning and the ten issues of a first selection among 50 are already dubbed "the ten winners. Each yet hopes to surprise by its ideas, make tracks of reflection and carry membership. "All spend a lot of time and money, confessed one of the candidates. It is not just to bring water to the mill. "Need to be careful to not lose enroute necessarily interesting ideas emerge discussions and work of these experts, even if they may be very abstract and little accessible." "Urban form is not urgent to define, let alone architecture", observed Philippe Panerai, Grand national prize of urbanism in 1999 and author of the book Paris metropolis, "forms and scales of Grand Paris". It is not the only one to think that the display of some spectacular images can lose his credit with the approach that all teams address with the utmost seriousness. Stars such as Jean Nouvel, Richard Rogers or Christian of Porzamparc are present in the meetings and wait their turn as all other applicants. Yet, unless they take it as an investment, the economic game is the loser: 200,000 euros in compensation, to which the city of Paris has just add 40,000 will even not the financing of the two models of two metres by three required in the specification.

All formed of about thirty people at least, the groups have played multidisciplinarity. They unite course planners, architects, and landscape, but also economists, statisticians, promoters, sociologists, philosophers, graphic artists... convinced to participate in a great work, equally important, given the time and the issues, that reconstruction or Delouvrier plan and the creation of the new in the 1960s towns. Armed with this faith in their mission, the candidates strive to forget the load step which leads to this consultation: nine months. "At the time of the first seminars, each had a quarter of an hour to explain three months of work, explains one of the members of the Scientific Committee." It is a good exercise of synthesis, but it is barely the time to come. "" In six months, we will of course not redo the transportation plan of Ile-de-France, in which hundreds of engineers working for many years, resumed Djamel Klouche. ". We will not produce plan, but the tracks, of which some will be may be explored later. The important thing is to ask questions, explain how it could exist this metropolis.

A territory politicized

The teams are also trying to ignore the very political setting in which played the piece. If the initiative of the reflections is clearly and first mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, the President of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, has succeeded in appropriating the visible part of things. "It is a way of cutting a hole in the objective alliance left Bertrand Delanoë and Jean-Paul Huchon, President of the Regional Council, note an observer. Or to play one against one another, since the President of the region seen as a threat the birth of a governance structure potentially rival that he led.

For its part, the Secretary of State for the development of the capital region, Christian Blanc, also started to work with a vision focused on economic development. Sweat a little information of his work and the last communication on the future of the Saclay plateau proved disappointing, because without precision on encryption and the financial development of this showcase for the performing France territory Assembly.

Claude Bartolone, concerned primarily by projects between Paris and Roissy, expects nothing: "I feel that the approach of Christian Blanc is isolated and does not take into account the reality of the territories." I dare say that it is above ground. I know that in many of my elected colleagues of right and left, this method, a quarter of a century after the first decentralization laws, causes a stir. "By their work and thoughts by the addressed issues teams reach may exceed these politicians games that exist, as far as the administrative structures, the emergence of a metropolis.