“Gentrification in the districts of central Toulouse is limited”, assures sociologist Marie-Christine Jaillet
Toulouse silent. The central districts are no exception. Marie-Christine Jaillet, geographer and sociologist specializing in the city takes stock. Maintenance.
Can we talk about a gentrification process in Toulouse?
Yes, we can talk about the gentrification process in central neighborhoods as it happens in most large French cities. But it is also gaining ground in suburban neighborhoods where the working classes who could live there, at the time of the change of generation, when housing is put up for sale by their heirs, are replaced by other social strata (when it comes to houses or small buildings, they can also be bought by developers). The increase in the price of housing then no longer allows the working classes to live there. This same process is also observed in individual housing districts such as Rangueil or in the municipalities of the inner suburbs. Another phenomenon also exists in large cities which are university towns, it is the division of large apartments into small apartments or studios to accommodate students. Strictly speaking, we cannot speak of gentrification, but it also helps to change the sociology of certain urban neighborhoods.
Are working-class neighborhoods in the center like Arnaud Bernard or Bayard concerned?
They are for the party. But, the Arnaud Bernard district is also characterized by the presence of many “Maghrebian” shops. These traders often own the businesses and sometimes the apartments above the businesses, which allows them to stay in the neighborhood, thus limiting the gentrification of the neighborhood. Close to the University of Toulouse Capitole, it is also a district where students are present. For other reasons, because it is a station district, the same is true for the Bayard district. These are districts where populations coexist more diversified than in other central districts.
In large social housing districts, many buildings are razed to create a social mix …
In fact, HLM housing has been demolished to rebuild other types of housing in order to diversify the offer and have social diversity. Here, as in most of the large cities where these urban renewal operations have been carried out, we cannot say that social diversity has accumulated. If they have sometimes allowed tenants of the HLM park to access home ownership on site, give them the opportunity to improve their housing conditions, in general, these large social housing districts have instead continued to impoverish oneself. They house the most economically disadvantaged popular canapes, mostly from immigration. These demolitions / reconstructions did not therefore really contribute to the fight against ghettoization, with however differences from one district to another: they were, for example, a little more successful in Empalot than in Mirail. For the moment, the supply of cheap social housing remains largely concentrated in these large neighborhoods.