portrait of a shop keeper, France
English version. Please listen to the one by Kabuika & Navraaz - it's fun. Our respective translations crossed the ocean more or less at the same time, but they are different: same time, different view, same guy. And well, yes, Guy is his name - a guy, but one of a kind. The kind of guys that like their neighborhood, despite what others think and say, that it is underprivileged, that it is rundown, that it's the ghetto. Come on ! It's not so bad, not at all !
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Intersting. In fact, the City of Rouen is indeed re-investing in the neighborhood in order to 1. improve the inhabitants' living conditions, but 2. it will at the same time push out some families who will not be able to pay for the higher rents. A sort of combination between public and private sector interests is at play right now... I guess I can say, however, that the "stop and go" sort of rhythm that you have in the US is not as intense in France. Also people maybe have less of a habit of moving around on average than in the US. By definition, disadvantaged neighborhoods do not attract businesses and are economically slow. There are incentives though for businesses in the form of tax exemptions and the government itself sometimes injects some money to renovate administration services. Our radio for example is subsidized by the French local authorities, the central government and the EU.
If you are intersted in this Shannon, we can send Vocalo more suff (we have a whole interview here of an urban planner appointed by the Town and operating here since 8 years).
I'd be interested to play this for folks working and living in similar areas of the city here, and have them compare the two. Do your neighborhoods change a lot? like one year its poor and five years later everyone is being pushed out cause richer residents are moving in? That's a pretty big issue here.
jon 