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| Credit Picture : Angers city |
Angers town hall starts a new stage in the preliminary studies regarding the "New banks" project. That scheme, consisting in the re-development of the Maine sides when it crosses the city, aims at "a reunification of the two banks, the creation of a link between Angers inhabitants and the river, and its transformation as a symbol of the quality of life in Angers, that one recently praised by the Express magazine", indicates the city website. The "New banks" project will be discussed by all next district meetings throughout the city in the month to come. 
The city has just renewed by half the group of Angers inhabitants in charge of following the project. But its mission looks vague. That group (90 persons) is entrusted to the writing, next year, of a guide which will give "a tangible translation of the main directions of the project as it was imagined, step by step, by the Grether and Phytolab teams". But, at the same time, "Everybody, companies, partners, riverside residents, Angers inhabitants, university, hospital, could acquaint themselves with the project". So, between the 90 persons group, the architects and "everybody", who is in charge of what?
Visibly, that one will play an important part in the federation of public support in the months to come till the municipal polls of 2014. The "New banks" project, which got the interest of Angers inhabitants during the exhibition of the architectural models, not only will reshape the core of the city, but will also be at the center of its political life for a long time. (Credit Pictures : Angers city)
Only two candidates have declared themselves, among them an Angers company, Eolane, but these need that Technicolor gives a additional workload to make a transition possible. And the Technicolor group said it was not able to fulfill that condition. If that dark scenario becomes true, a industrial symbol of Angers will disappear. 
Some of the aspects of Angers inhabitants daily life will be monitored by town hall on the months to come. That's what the Angers mayor, Frédéric Béatse, said in a chat on Wednesday. While the students have just return to schools and universities or are going to do so, the problem of the nocturnal racket has just resurfaced. Along Rabelais street, some inhabitants complain about the spottings of the pavements and the damages on cars every morning after merrymakers have gone to bed... Broken bottles, food on the pavements, wing mirrors destroyed drives some residents to be fed up.
Because the problem has been noticed in other Angers districts, the mayor is going to set up a "conference on nocturnal time" in which all the communities involved in the issue will have to take part : students, schools and universities managers, residents and cafes owners. "Some tangible solutions will have to be suggested", Mr Béatse said.
Like the first rains in autumn after the sunny weather of August, bad news have beaten down on Angers on Thursday in the local medias. These affect both households and companies. Regarding households, according to indicators displayed during the last meeting of the municipal council, their average income is under the national average income (1 413 € per month in Angers and 1 530 € nation wide). And the increase of unemployment during the last twelve months has been rather dramatic : the number of persons who have never worked was 9 000 on June 2012, that's 10% more than the previous year. 
On the same day, the new manager of Strego, a chartered accountants office, said that the private companies are, one more time, hit by a crisis (the former was in 2009) : "The order books are shrinking and the cash flow problems are growing. They pay later, so they cash later. It's the infernal spiral". Today, he said, the crisis is hitting the building sector where the number of building permits are lowering. On the same day, the chairman of the local building federation warned about the consequences of the low level of sales in the city. "It's in the private real-estate development that there is a problem" pointing out "Without new fiscal aids, breakage is ahead".
At the lowest level of the scale, the communities helping homeless complain they have no more blankets. Fifty persons are found daily in Angers streets in desperate need of help. And the winter has not yet arrived... (Credit Pictures : Angers Développement, Angers CCAS)
After the late Angers 7, the local tv channel which closed in May 2010, Angers city has introduced a successor : Angers Loire Television. The project of that new channel, of which the Angers town hall council spoke a few months ago, has been sent on Tuesday to the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel. An audience is scheduled at the Csa next month. If the step is successful, Angers Loire Television should broadcast from the beginning of 2013.
The idea has appealed to private investors what should be a guarantee of the independance of the station. Some private companies, two of them from Angers, have agreed to invest money in the project : Le Grenier à Pains, a chain of bakeries, and La Boucherie, a chain of restaurants as well as a Super U and the Hemisphère store. Some medias are also associated. The Maine-et-Loire Chamber of commerce and industry gave its support to that idea but, apparently, will not be one of the shareholders. Several public regional and local authorities are involved on the scheme : the Pays de la Loire regional council, Angers Loire Métropole and Angers city. On his side, the Maine et Loire general council had said no.
Angers caddles its new students. This is right and clever. They were about 32 000 in 2009 on 147 000 inhabitants in 2009. One inhabitant out of five is student and students spend money in town : housing, transportations, food, books and... fun. And not always for the calmness of streets in the centre during nights. That aspect doesn't appear in the page the town hall website dedicated to the welcome of the news Angevins. |
| Credit Picture Le Val de Loire |
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| Credit Picture : Cipa Civ |
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| Credit Picture : Pierre Abraham |
For its thirteenth edition, "Deux jours en jeux" had choosen the games of chance : dice, cards among others. "By chance", it didn't rained that afternoon and numerous people came and discovered new ways to have fun after decades of tv stalling. Several Angers stores as La Luciole and Sortilèges, two old Angers shops dedicated to game boards, had set up stands for those who may decide to buy something.
That brought through streets a very lively atmosphere which had disappeared when those were invaded by cars instead of pedestrians. The festival will continue on Sunday in Thiers-Boisnet hall till 6.30 pm.
If that exhibition is divided in two parts, home and real-estate, the first is the most visual : simple passer-by may in a coupe of hours get a glimpse about what is new in the field. Exhibitions (about the design of furnitures, self-building), guided tours, workshops, conferences, desmonstrations of buildings technics are available all day long from Friday to Monday. About 350 exhibitor have set up kiosks in the fair and among them, the presenter of a programme about real-estate on M6 channel.
Through that new product, Angers city intends to make easier for inhabitants to get access to its facilities and to eliminate uncessary documents. The card works with a quantity of points every one may buy in proportions to its needs. In accordance to the a principle of solidarity, the price of the point depends on the income of the user. But, says the city on its website, even the price of entrances paid by the highest incomes of Angers will cost less than paid by them one by one.
It is possible to top up its credit in from 20 to 600 points for a year. Logically, AquaVita, the new water complex of Angers should be included in the facilities next year. It is not said if the car parks are included in the offer (Credit Picture : Angers city).
One of the Angers, and national, passions is visible in departments of superstores : the wine. Some of them have already sent to their customers all the advertising about the wine fairs and others are planning to do so in the weeks to come. 
For many persons who are not specialists in wines, their history, their culture, their tastes (and their prices), it'a a scheming and entertaining moment to see connoisseurs to choose their bottles. They look their color, their weight, their labels and the crates on which the chateau they come from is written. Bottles are held as if they were women choosen to spend an unforgettable evening.
Some hypermarkets put the wine on stage. Glasses, wine litterature, cooling stores, barrels and crates are the elements of the setting. Wines coming from Bordeaux look to be the most numerous. They are wines at all prices but the cheapest are probably nothing compared to "grands crus".
In the competition between towns to attract companies and jobs, Angers is going to set up "a business district which will match up those of others major cities" : the Gare + project. This district will take place near the Angers Saint-Laud railway station. At the South of the railways, the construction of a first building of 5 300 m2 has already begun. It will host offices and stores at the ground floor. On the North side (formerly filled by Sernam), the laying out is on the verge of starting.
These programs, in addition to the fact they give work the the construction sector and to sub - contractors (some of them Angers companies), are part of the recent plan the Angers Loire Métropole Authority has recently voted for the years 2013-2017. These are good things but Angers city as well as Angers Loire Métropole must consider that everything useful to lower the cost of labor is key for the sucess of such policies : limited fiscal pressure for companies and households can't be ignored.
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| Credit Picture : Angers city |
But the city would be inspired to reconsider the regulations of parking cars. Many inhabitants complain it's difficult in down town to park theirs own cars. These should be the only persons authorized to park their cars in the streets where they are living. On another side, the limit of speed to 30 km/h will not eliminate all the risks of accidents. Many bikers go now well above 30 km/h...
The decision of Angers Loire Métropole to launch a plan aiming at 10 000 jobs creations within the five next years coincides with an alarming increase of unemployment within the limits of that territorial authority. There are 22 000 unemployed persons in Alm and, according to local medias, the rate of job seekers continuously increases since the middle of 2011. The level of unemployment is close to the France average.
For that reason, the title of the policiy (offensive for job) is maybe inadequate. If jobs creation is highly desirable, the way to achieve that goal goes through companies creations. And its may that such a spirit is insufficiently promoted in the region.
While Angers households have received or/and will receive soon the tax rolls about their incomes and their homes, the French ministry of finances has published a survey regarding the Angers place in a national ranking in terms of income tax as well as property tax. Regarding the income tax, the ministry took census of 80 953 households for tax purposes. On this total, 41 197 are liable to tax, i.e. 51%. One Angers households out of two does not pay income tax. And the others 49% pay an average of 2 000 € per year.
That amount follows moreover a regular decreasing trend. In 2006, the average amount paid was 2 437 €, five years later, that sum has decreased by 17%, what indicates a impoverishment of Angers population on medium-term. If, at the other end of the scale, the most wealthiest persons (they were 1 282 in 2010 ) paid in two years ago 4 361 €, i.e. 2% more than in 2009, the rank of Angers in the national scale decrease what demonstrates too an impoverishment of Angers city.
The height of the walls, the little size of the windows do not precisely give to the facility the face of something which inspires or stimulates mind openess to culture and neighbours. The surroundings burnt by the heat of August without trees and lawns give the pedestrians walking along the nearby road more fear than confidence.
Obviously, the Angers city council want to calm down the debate. But the store owners can't stay on an unique critical approach. The mayor is looking for results and possible tests at the end of the year. "A new plan for the down town future must emerge from that work", Mr Beatse said.
"That issue deserves a more compre-hensive debate with the store keepers. I shall suggest to withdraw that deliberation during the next municipal council meeting", said the mayor, Frédéric Beatse. On shop retailers side, they complained that morning that "the Angers customers had to run away from down town because the costs to park were to high" and about the "illegality of the pavement tax on which [justice] has already came to a decision".
The remaining basis of the walls of the churd have been discovered as well as its immediate surroundings : a cloister walk, a chapter house and a garden. These give a better picture of where the tomb could be. "We are tantalisingly close and will investigate the choir where Richard is presumed to be buried", said the head of the University of Leicester team of archeologists.
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