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Urban forests, bikes and Airbnb: Paris mayor Hidalgo sets out six-year plan

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Urban forests, bikes and Airbnb: Paris mayor Hidalgo sets out six-year plan
Anne Hidalgo has set out her six-year plan. Photo: AFP

After comfortably winning reelection in June, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo says she wants the post-covid recovery to be a green one.

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Following her victory in a pandemic-disrupted mayoral race partly thanks to a partnership with the Green party, Hidalgo said Parisians had chosen to make their city more "ecological, social and humanist". 

Now, in her first sit-down interview with the French media since the vote, the Spanish-born Socialist set out the agenda for her next six years at the Hôtel de Ville. 

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Hidalgo says extra cycle lanes are here to stay. Photo: AFP

Bikes good, cars bad

During her first term in office, Hidalgo famously banished cars from large stretches of the banks of the Seine, and her campaign to clean up Paris' air shows no signs of abating. 

"Parisians have chosen clearly. They have chosen ecology, to pursue a project to make us breathe better, to move around differently," she told Le Parisien.

50km of cycle lanes installed during lockdown in order to encourage people away from crowded public transport are to be made permanent. 

The busy thoroughfare Rue de Rivoli will be left predominantly to cyclists with increased space for buses and taxis.

The speed limit on the Paris ring road will be limited to 50km/h and by 2024 certain lanes will be reserved for buses, 'clean' cars and carpooling. 

"As of now we are going to start adding many more trees and plants on the embankments," she added.

Hidalgo also confirmed that another lockdown measure - the expanded street terraces allowed to restaurants and cafés to ensure better social distancing - could potentially be made permanent at the expense of cars.

At present the expanded terraces can stay in place until September, and Hidalgo said their long term future would be debated at Conseil de Paris (the city council).

READ ALSO Should Paris allow cafés and restaurants to permanently expand their terraces?

 

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Urban forests

One of Hidalgo's more eye-catching environmental policies is the introduction of urban forests, as part of a large-scale 'greening'  programme across the capital. 

While 'forest' might be a slight stretch, thickets of trees at major landmarks will radically change the city's aesthetic, and help Paris reach its ambitious goal of 50 percent vegetation coverage by 2030.

"Assessment work will start very quickly for the urban forests on the square outside the Hôtel de Ville, near to the Opéra Garnier or near to the Gare de Lyon," she confirmed.

Hidalgo also said work would begin "very quickly" on a project to reinvent the deprived Porte de la Chapelle area in the north of the city as a "great, exceptional site similar to Invalides or the Champ-de-Mars". 

Plans include construction of a huge, green square and the transformation of ring-road access ramps into hanging gardens. 

Planting will also take place on Champs-Elysées, towards Place de la Concorde. 

Referendum on Airbnb

Hidalgo confirmed she would moved ahead with plans for a referendum on Airbnb-type rentals in order to free up more residential accommodation in the city. 

It's the latest chapter in a long-running war between City Hall and the home-letting giant who, in Hidalgo's view, are  causing normal Parisians to be priced out of the rental market. 

"There are about 30,000 Airbnb-type rentals in Paris, the task is to get them back," she said.

"We will therefore ask Parisians via a referendum whether or not they would like to see the annual rental period of these apartments limited. This will encourage homeowners not to put them on the rental market." 

The vote is likely to take place in autumn.

It is likely that many of the world's other major cities will be looking on with interest as Hidalgo seeks to realise her vision for Paris ahead of the 2024 Olympics. 

Anne Hidalgo has Airbnb in her sights. Photo: AFP

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Anonymous 2020/07/23 23:21
Next, Madame Mayor, ban smoking is all public places, outdoors too. I'd like to have a meal or un verre on a terrace for once.

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