Quote:
Originally Posted by bilbao58
I've seen (and personally experienced) a lot of "interesting" things in that city over the many years that I've known it. Staying multiple months at a time is a great way experience a place. Staying in really cheap one-star hotels in sketchy neighborhoods increases the "interestingness." I'd say the most "interesting" time was mid-80s. Holy cow!
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The inner city has changed a lot since then, much the same way NYC has.
It is almost entirely gentrified today.
Even the northeast neighborhoods that were traditionally plagued by homelessness and drug addiction (crack, heroin...) are widely gentrified now, and the local authorities have been working on driving homeless addicts away to the neighboring suburbs of Seine-Saint-Denis.
In fact, gentrification occurs pretty much over the entire metro area, as the mass transit network and redevelopment keep on spreading.
Of course, the wrong side effect is that lower incomes are driven away; sometimes tens of miles away from the center of the metro area, which is unfair because it makes their lives even rougher.
For instance, it is typically impossible to people who have to clean up offices early in the morning and late at night.
Hence the need for subsidized affordable housing. It is ok as long as it is not concentrated over the same areas. The best policy is definitely to mix market-rate and affordable housing in the same neighborhoods.
And if some pricks don't like it, they're free to move to some place else.
Since cleanliness has been discussed in posts above, I must say gentrification helped a lot in that matter.
Even though I was only a little kid in the 80s, I can remember the city was far grittier and dirtier back then.
Again, it changed like NYC did in that respect.