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Greater Paris: Emmanuel Grégoire's Projects to Transform the Metropolis

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The Editor

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This Thursday, October 1st, the — not exactly brand new — Mayor of Paris addressed a letter to the president of the Greater Paris metropolitan authority, to highlight his ideas for evolving the latter and pushing it to its full potential. A quick overview of Emmanuel Grégoire's proposals.

For years, there has been a real divide between Paris and its suburbs. So much so that a few months ago, the commissioner for planning proposed integrating inner suburban towns into the capital, in order to reduce these differences. While for now this project has fallen through, Emmanuel Grégoire isn't planning to stop there, proposing a number of solutions to bring Paris closer to its neighbors.


"Bringing Greater Paris to life"

Although Greater Paris encompasses no fewer than 130 municipalities spread across 814 square kilometers and home to 7.1 million inhabitants, it remains a complex territory, all too often neglected by the authorities.

are supposed to care for them. It's in response to this absence that Emmanuel Grégoire sent a letter this Thursday, October 1st to the president of the metropolis, Patrick Ollier. Within it, he reminds him of their shared responsibility to "give greater substance to this metropolitan reality, make it more visible, more understandable and more concrete for those who live in it". And for that, we can say that Paris's mayor certainly doesn't lack ideas.


Big ambitions ahead

Among the topics discussed, several caught our attention, starting with his desire to rename the périphérique boulevard. A project that follows the one to integrate it into the marathon route, in order to shake off the image of a border, an edge that it conveys far too often, and to make it a connecting point. Along the same lines, the Paris mayor would like to set up festivals at the Gates of Paris, to encourage meetings and celebrations between residents on both sides. Finally, Emmanuel Grégoire would like not only to establish a citizen convention, but also to propose Paris City Hall as a gathering place for the metropolitan council, which currently lacksat the current time of the perpetual hemicycle.