DEMOLITION PARTY
On November 29, 2014 in Saint-Denis, France, at 11:30 am there was a neighborhood party for the ongoing demolition of the cité Saint-Rémy. It was cold and almost frosty and I didn't want to go, but I could see they had tents set up and people did attend.
A cité is a group of French buildings and may be subsidized housing or private. Some in Paris are very old.
The Saint-Rémy subsidized housing project buildings were constructed in the 1950s and over a decade ago, it was felt they were getting too old, so the tenants were carefully and very slowly rehoused. The last tenant left the building across from me in Apri; 2014 I think. Most have stayed in this neighborhood, which dates back to the Dark Ages at least. Saint-Denis was the capital of France before Paris and was an important walled city in the Dark Ages and Medieval times. The farthest wall went to the Saint-Rémy parish and people lived outside protection (there were some barbarian invasions here more than once before the year 1000).
The huge "jaws" or "claw" machine was installed earlier this week and tested. Today it went noisily toward the party, did a little demonstration, possibly clipped off a bit of the building in the back for the sake of ceremony, and was shut off for the rest of this Saturday afternoon. Work will resume Monday.
Subsidized housing, or HLMs, is very desirable in France. You must be means-tested and your family and the occupants must be the right size for your number of rooms. Mostly, these are ideal and are neither co-ops nor condos nor "projects." They are communal in nature. If your family grows or decreases, you can apply to be rehoused. The waiting lists are about ten years long. These are very much favored to live in, in France.
Some new buildings already went up here and are HLMs. Their appearance is better than these "barre" design buildings, which were done in haste after the destruction of WWII.
copyright 2014 Lisa B. Falour, B.S., M.B.A.
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