Like many of the world's great cities, Paris--especially its best-known, iconic neighborhoods--is gentrifying at an astonishing pace, with developers and wealthy investors threatening to destroy the very character they want to enjoy. Marseille-based journalist Cole Stangler's insightful first book, Paris Is Not Dead, dives into the past, present, and future of French housing policy, working-class protests in Paris, and the (shrinking) opportunities for people of all economic strata to build lives in the City of Light.
Stangler focuses his present-day narrative on northeast Paris, whose working-class arrondissements currently are buzzing with immigrants, many of them from the Maghreb and the Middle East. Despite challenges, including long commutes, racism, and a housing shortage, many of these residents are proud to live where they do and want to stay in their communities. Stangler then gives a brief French history lesson, highlighting several seminal uprisings (including the French Revolution of 1789 and the June Rebellion in 1832) and exploring their connections to housing concerns in Paris. He touches on the banlieue (the suburbs) and the geographical constraints of Paris proper; the "museumification" of formerly lively, diverse central neighborhoods such as the Marais; and the vibrancy Paris stands to lose if its policies continue to allow developers and wealthy foreign buyers to dominate the housing market. Insightful and well-researched yet thoroughly accessible, Stangler's book will prove fascinating to urban-planning geeks, Paris aficionados, and anyone invested in the future health of dynamic, walkable, and diverse global cities. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams