After a long and exhausting election campaign… bring on Sunday! But what does it mean to elect a mayor? The classic answer is a democratic act.
Yes, but what kind of democracy are we talking about? A “formal” democracy, this electoral ritual experienced like a sports competition, a captivating spectacle but with no real impact.
The candidates, pitted against each other, labeled with political affiliations or not, with constant promises to win over the largest number of constituencies.
But do they know what a territory is today beyond the concept of physical space? What a community is, other than a place of proposal, consensus, and the covering-up of contradictions?
For example, that a city is not an entertainment business to gather and amuse but a community, an integral part of its residents’ living conditions and shared experiences?
So, if we want to go beyond the symbolic value of a vote, which gives people the feeling that they still have some influence, we hope that the candidates, once elected, will regain the ability to think about a community of values and destiny, the very meaning of the word community, and assess, at the right level, using the right methods, and look in the right direction, to guide this destiny.
Elections are a fertile ground for promises where everyone tries to throw their hat the highest. Projects, programs, commitments, forecasts—the dance is worthy of a carnival parade. What remains is the language of numbers where two plus two makes, and will always make, four.
For future reference and when the time comes again for the next assessments, we present to you the current situation of the city of Nice, set by objective criteria and without any comment.
The parameters:
ISF (percentage of people in relation to the population): 2,652 people, i.e., 0.77% (6th position). First: Boulogne-Billancourt with 2.66%
Population over 75 years old: 12.53% of the population (1st position)
Debt per inhabitant: 1,117 euros (24th position). First Argenteuil with 2,169 euros
Housing tax: 367 euros per year (1st position)
Property tax: 387 euros (3rd position). First Grenoble with 490 euros
Cost of personnel relative to the city’s budget: 720 M€ (20th position). First Nanterre with 1,180 M€
Police per 1,000 inhabitants: 108 (2nd position). First Avignon with 116
Social housing relative to the housing stock: 12% (16th position). First Rennes at 34%
To be continued…
