Yesterday, the Mediterranean University Center hosted a special day dedicated to questioning the future of French cities.
On Friday, November 19th, the topic of the future of cities and French metropolises was on the agenda at the Mediterranean University Center.
Indeed, the second edition of the event “The City, New Horizons,” organized and hosted by Le Point, was devoted to this theme.
“We couldn’t hold this event anywhere else but in Nice. It was obvious, we are at the heart of the matter,” explains Étienne Gernelle, the director of the weekly publication.
Christian Estrosi, the mayor of Nice and president of the metropolis, was present at the opening of this day. The director of Le Point questioned him to understand his definitions of a metropolis and a city. “The city is the future, it is conceived as an ecosystem that combines urban and rural. As for the metropolis, it is too often confused with a megalopolis (a large urban conglomeration bringing together several cities),” he said.
The local politician then defended and presented the strengths of this territorial organization: “France must rely on metropolises, it needs to strengthen the dimension of large intercommunalities: create attractiveness with industry, culture, environmental richness, events, …
Our metropolis is primarily an urban territory, but we have decided to unify several communes and territories with freedom thanks to Sarkozy’s territorial reform in 2010. This unification allowed us to act together, for example when Storm Alexa hit. In a very short time, we managed to help maintain the proper functioning of education and businesses in the Vésubie Valley. Meanwhile, the Roya Valley, which is not part of the metropolis, is still in reconstruction.”
