WI: Paris' Borders Moved Out

kernals12

Banned
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Paris' municipal borders are pretty small in comparison to its contemporaries

New York City and London are home to over 8 million people each. The City of Paris is home to just over 2 million people.

When we look at population density, we see Paris' borders only cover the urban core.
London fits 15,000 people per square mile
New York fits 27,000 people
Paris fits a whopping 55,000 people

Paris' population density is close to Manhattan's population density of 66,000.

It'd be like if New York's boundaries only covered Manhattan, which they did before 1898.

Before 1968, Paris and most of its suburbs were in the department of Seine. But that year, it was broken up with Paris becoming its own department and the rest being split up into 3 new departments.

So what if instead this whole Department was just made into a new Mega-Paris?
Such a move wouldn't be unprecedented at the time. In 1965, the County of London with 3.1 million people merged with a bunch of its suburbs, creating the 8 million strong Greater London that we all know and love today.

As of 2006, the department of Seine would've had 5.5 million people, down from 5.7 when it was abolished. It had been dropping until 1999 then rising since. 5.5 million is much closer to London and New York.

With an area of 185 square miles, population density would be about 30,000 per square mile, just above New York.

It's pretty obvious that the department of Seine is a lot closer to Paris' natural boundaries than what they are now. So how would things be different?
 

kernals12

Banned
France as a whole has a problem with local government fragmentation. They have a total of 37,000 municipalities. Germany, which has 30% more people, has just 12,000. In fact, to find a comparable number, you have to go to the United States, which has 35,000 municipalities for quintuple the population.
 
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Paris already thinks it's boundaries are the Channel, Atlantic, Mediterranean and Germany etc. The rest of France begs to differ.

France has just put into place a cunning plan to reduce the number of communes by combining 3 or 4 into larger bodies. This being France it now means that you have fewer communes: except that these have under communes, still with a Mayor and Marie, under them. Net result; more municipalities......... We have a large village not far from us. One half was one Commune and the other also it's own. Following these changes each commune has chosen to combine with different neighbours so the village still has two communes..... French politics spectating makes living in France so entertaining. The British seem to be learning from them though.
 

kernals12

Banned
Paris already thinks it's boundaries are the Channel, Atlantic, Mediterranean and Germany etc. The rest of France begs to differ.

France has just put into place a cunning plan to reduce the number of communes by combining 3 or 4 into larger bodies. This being France it now means that you have fewer communes: except that these have under communes, still with a Mayor and Marie, under them. Net result; more municipalities......... We have a large village not far from us. One half was one Commune and the other also it's own. Following these changes each commune has chosen to combine with different neighbours so the village still has two communes..... French politics spectating makes living in France so entertaining. The British seem to be learning from them though.
And now France has decided to create a governing body called Grand Paris covering Paris proper plus Hauts De Seine, Seine Saint Denis, and Val De Marne and two communes in other departments. But all these other bodies remain and this new one has limited powers.
And for what it's worth, if Grand Paris just became the new Paris, it would have 7 million people living at a population density of 22,000 per square mile, smack between New York and London. That's a population worthy of Paris' stature. Right now, at just 2.1 million, they have fewer people than Rome or Houston.
 
I need to research the political struggle that forced UniGov on Marion county and subsumed the suburbs into Indianapolis. The issue was forced by the State legislature, with the object of rationalizing tax distribution and the urban/suburban infrastructure. New York is another larger example, with a large collection of cities & towns incorporated into a mega city.
 
And now France has decided to create a governing body called Grand Paris covering Paris proper plus Hauts De Seine, Seine Saint Denis, and Val De Marne and two communes in other departments. But all these other bodies remain and this new one has limited powers.
And for what it's worth, if Grand Paris just became the new Paris, it would have 7 million people living at a population density of 22,000 per square mile, smack between New York and London. That's a population worthy of Paris' stature. Right now, at just 2.1 million, they have fewer people than Rome or Houston.
Meh, Paris intra muros isn't really what a Frenchman has in mind. There's the whole of Île-de-France - the Région parisienne - to take into account. 12 million out of France's 67-68 million inhabitants.
 
France has just put into place a cunning plan to reduce the number of communes by combining 3 or 4 into larger bodies.
A tragedy, really. My great-uncle have been the mayor of a small hamlet in Normandy, home to perhaps 40 people. Since my extended family has represented more than half of the population since the late 1800, the hamlet was essentially an hereditary mayorship, going down the male line from my great-great-great-grandfather to my grand-uncle.
Now, I agree that the mayor and his 3-person strong municipal council being equal to a tenth of the population of the place is somewhat silly, but still, now that the commune has been merged, I can't help but thing we lost a valuable source of silly family stories :p
 
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