This is Paris’ mayor Anne Hidalgo at the closing ceremony. She was the one who started Paris’ campaign 9 years ago, after the worst terrorist attacks the city had ever known she became one of the most passionate (if not only) advocates for the games in the city.
If you’re not French, chances are you do not know her. She is pretty hated within the French population, mostly for her anti-car politics. Her opponents have always said she was “destroying” Paris. It was one of France’s most popular top tweets " #saccageparis". Even though she’s been re-elected, she’s been called every name in the books, lunatic, crazy (dingo) and so on and so forth, and everyone was betting on her to fail. Honestly ? Myself included.
When I turned on the Games, I was expecting to see her gloating everywhere, from the opening to the closing. Tweeting about the games, Léon Marchand’s victory and so on. Turns out the closing was the first time I did saw her. She remained very discreet the whole 2 weeks, not going to pose with the French champions or drying their tears like other French politicians did.
Now let’s be clear, the lady has flaws, but her and her administration’s ambition’s for these games in the face of constant public opposition ended up proving me wrong. This is a huge victory for Paris. Congrats, mrs Mayor !
At a cost of around 8 billion USD, Paris could have used that money to fight crime, poverty, unemployment, improve life in the banlieues, improve buildings, streets or fix traffic issues. Fight pollution and rat infestations, improve housing or indeed fight anything related to “Paris syndrome”.
There’s nothing to celebrate here. Thanks for the downvotes, but this is my honest take.
Some of the things you mentioned are not within Paris’ administration’s reach : life in the banlieues = the banlieues, or the Région, unemployment = the région OR the state, crime = national police, so the state.
Improving buildings, housing and traffic issues, fighting pollution : it can always be better, but those are heavily financed by the City Hall and/or dealt with with the anti-car policies I’ve mentioned. Housing for example, with rental control or the bails réels solidaires to fight against speculation, an innovation started under this administration.
As for “Paris syndrome” : i do believe none of these games’ visitors experienced it.
Now, for the 8 billion USD : not only is is twice less than any other games so far because 95% of the venues already existed, but it’s not Paris’ taxpayer’s money. It’s a 50/50 between public and private funds, and public funds are split between the Région, the city of Paris, the Département de Seine Saint Denis, and so on…
And one has to think about the money the games will bring into Paris and France overall. It’s been estimated around 10 B$ in 2016. So…All in all…Not a bad investment.