Pasteur crime scene stays with the knock of the fright

Eight days ago, Nicole Châtelain had her throat cut by a man she helped a few years before through the caritative community she managed in Angers. Since that ugly day, the blood of the woman has been swept. The glasses of the entrance door of her building smashed by bullets and hammer knocks has been replaced. And the few humble bouquets of flowers put by neighbours on the steps have been removed.

All the marks of the horrible, and beyond understanding, death of that peaceful woman who, a week ago came back home from her market, have vanished. Probably the rememberance of the woman, few by few, will disappear except for her former neighbours. Their goings and comings by the entrance of their common building will always meet the shadow of the victim. In the Angers community Promojeunes, where she dedicated her time, probably the souvenir of her actions will be kept as a model to follow. While people walking along the scene crime may think : "Is that so sure?".


But what this "news item" will suggest to Angers city responsable in charge of the hosting of displaced populations? Is it possible to welcome people unprepared for such a change of universe without giving them the intellectual tools to melt in Angers and among its inhabitants? Are they sure they can behave as if they were God?

Angers inhabitants civic mindedness frosted

The snow which felt over Angers city in the early morning of January 17th had nothing to see with the snowfalls of February 2012. But, its predictable arrival was an opportunity for Angers city to deal with the difficulties triggered by such meteorological conditions for inhabitants, drivers and mainly pedestrians. If, generally, the situation today has improved in comparison with those of 2012 for trafic, the state of Angers pavements were far from safe for people.

In a city which is looking to promote walking instead of driving the first advice to inhabitants or store owners had neverthless sense of timing. "Angers city recalls that everybody is due to clear the snow from the pavement along one's home or store", indicated the city website. But apparently, the warning has been far from recorded.

That time Angers townhall took care of detailing on its internet page all the measures of caution it implemented regarding trafic, cancellation of events or clorure of public places. But the worst is maybe to come : the night from Friday to Saturday will be icy. So trafic will be hazardous till Sunday. Townhall which ordered a few days ago to close the ski-trail should order to reopen it.

Letter from the editor

Dear Mr. Lewis,
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Best regards.
Edgar

Avalanche of bad news on Angers students

If snowfalls are predicted on Thursday to Friday night, it's an avalanche of bad news which stormed over Angers students on January 17th. They had been informed that the dean, Jean-Paul Saint-André, didn't got a single euro more for the management of his university current fiscal year, that one being already considered by hom as "under provided" in allocations by the ministry of higher education and research. The second news came from Angers city itself who announced (what was predicted on December 19th by Angers Daily News) that the Saint-Serge parking lot, where students of the law university park their cars, will be from now charged (while it was free).

The origins of such a decision could come from the wish of Angers city to deter inhabitants to use their cars and lead them to choose the tramway, their bikes or their feet... According to town hall, facilities to park the cars are too much important in Angers compared to other cities. So the "incentive" consists in the reduction of those facilities. The second element would be the need of Angers to get more resources. A few months ago, fares of other car parks of down town had been dramatically increased what infuriated retail store owners.

That policy doesn't fit with the attempt to bring back in down town student population which is an important leverage of consumption nor the claim to revitalize the core of the city. The money they will pour in new ticket machines will not go elswhere.  If the policy is to oust cars from town, a simple prohibition would have been more effective.

The Angers universtiy didn't got additionnal money for the current year

The president of Angers university, Jean-Paul Saint-André didn't got, from the French ministry of higher education and research, the additionnal allocation he asked during an appointment on January 16th. The Angers university said Mr. Saint-André was "very resentful" when he left the ministry without a single euro more. That will not allow to the Angers University to recruit new teachers or employees in 2013, a situation Mr Saint-André considers it is "unacceptable". But given the explanations detailed on January 8th during a public conference, it is difficult to opt for another way.
 
During that conference, the president recalled the origins of the "critical situation" of Angers University. While 80% of the expenses of the university were already related to wages, between 2009 and 2011, the board give tenure to 100 persons, depriving itself of all possibilities of a regress in case of financial difficulties. "That reccruitment of an important number of persons had a direct impact on the payroll", said Mr Saint-André. That one recognized that the 2012 budget was moreover built on "unrealistic hypothesis" : under valuation of expenses and over valuation of receipts which triggered a savings plan last year which reduced the deficit.

Credit pictures Angers university

But apparently, the university shoud have considered cautiously a ministry hypothesis. After a meeting with the French minister on December 14th, who told to Mr Saint-André that the 2013 allocation would be "between 1,5 and 3% above that of 2012", the university considered it will be 3%. Moreover, the Angers university board refused the "freeze" of recruitments. A new information conference is planned for January 28th.

The financial problems of Angers university didn't rallied Angers students

About 1 000 students were in the streets of Angers on January 15th demonstrating against the insufficient allocation their university has received from the French ministry of higher education and research. One thousand persons is not a very important figure compared to the importance of the situation and compared to the number of students of Angers university, more than 20 000... Moreover, there were not only students who demonstrated in down town, but also teachers and trade unions representatives of the campus.

That proportion could have many meanings. January is generally a period dedicated by students to work on mid-year exams. So some of them were not available that day. But some demonstrators could have the same constraint. More generally, that week involvement may indicate a focusing on one's inner self in spite of an accumulation of short and long term difficulties for young people today : work, housing, money...

The Angers mayor, Frédéric Béatse, and the university president, Jean-Paul Saint-André, were in the cortege; That last havd an appointment the same evening at Paris to get supplementary resources (€ 4 millions are needed to balance the 2013 budget). According to M. Saint-André who considers Angers is one the most poorest universities of France, the financial situation is "critical".

Angers university : the state allocations didn't increased as quick as the number of students

January 12th will be an important day for the Angers university. Its president, Jean-Paul Saint-André, will be received at the ministry of higher education and research in order to get some supplementary credits. "The Angers university faces a critical situation. That doesn't come from a bad management but to a transfer on universities resources of expenses they don't master", mentions the Angers university on the front page of its website which, moreover, displays a video about its finances.

That was not the case a few weeks ago while the financial deterioration was already official. The Angers university would be unable to balance expenses and receipts for the third successive year. "€ 4 millions are lacking", indicates the website "and the allocation granted by the ministry doesn't allow to Angers university to run normally". The situation worries not only teachers but also students : more than 1 100 of them have launched an appeal to demonstrate in Angers streets the same January 12th. Classes and exams will be interrupted a part of that day

That situation led the board of the university to refuse to pass a 2013 budget in the loss. In 10 years the number of students rose from 15 500 in 2001 to 20 200 in 2011, an increase of 30%. On the last fiscal year, the number increased by 9% against 1,5% ten years ago. According to figures disclosed by local medias, the number of foreign students has tripled between 1988 and 2008 to about 2 300 persons, about 11% of the total of Angers students.

Angers economic policy should not only give way to "facilities"

News analysis. - The two main representatives in charge of Angers and its surroundings, Frédéric Béatse, Angers mayor, and Jean-Claude Antonini, president of Angers Loire Métropole, have openly expressed on Janueary 8th that the present year would be "complicated" because of the continuation of the economic crisis. The most evident result of that situation is the increase of the unemployment rate in Alm, which, soon, will be equal to the France rate : about 10%.

It is maybe under that aspect that their greetings pledges could felt short of the Angevins' expectations. Of course, large part of what they said was related to the improvement of the inhabitants daily way of life : a new tv channel, the re-development of the Maine banks, a new swimming pool, a second tramway line but also new accommodations for young and low income households who want to live in the city, because of the increase of the energy costs. But is that dimension of people, as beneficiaries of facilities, the only one to be considered?

People have another dimension. They are, and want to be, for themselves and for the society, economical agents. And the first way to get such a status is the work. In that sense, the aim of such territorial authorities would be to gather within their territory the best conditions for companies to create value, to be profitable and, maybe, to recruit. The fiscal pressure is part of the problem. That was not clearly disclosed a week ago by the two representatives. These projects regarding territory private companies' competitiveness are not the most visible but they are not the less necessary.

A horrible news item may raise questions on mutual abilities of Angers and displaced individuals to match

The horrible murder occured on Saturday around 11 am in front of a building located Pasteur avenue in Angers suspects a 29 years old Sudanese, until now unknown from the police department. The man is suspected to have cut a 60 years woman's throat on the outside steps of the building where the victim lived. According to some witnesses, "the man looked mad and threatened the other pedestrians with a knife" before the arrival of the police forces. When these were on the scene, the man attempted to grasp a semi-automatic gun just before he was wounded by a shot of the police.

The Angers mayor, Frédéric Béatse, was on the scene crime and, "horrified and affected by this news item" expressed "his compassion and solidarity to the victim's family". He ordered that a psychological assistance be given to witnesses of the murder and neighbours of the victim themselves upset (some of these saw the victim "laying on the ground in a pool of blood").

Such a disaster - if the suspect is convicted - may raise questions within Angers population and its representatives about the ability of the city to host people without giving them the sufficient assistance to adapt to a new way of life and without monitoring they have the abilities to do so : knowledge of the society they are in, professionnal qualifications and, above all, the wish to integrate themselves to their new environment. Most of them have been "landed" in Angers by people smugglers only interested by money. A fact Angers city should not be ignorant.

The twinning Angers-Bamako could be the hostage of the Malian conflict

The conflict between Mali's armed forces to islamist rebels could stop the projects developped in the twinning of Angers and Bamako. Next week in Angers, a meeting was planned to register candidacies for a staying in the Malian capital in 2014. The object is an exchange of youngs of Angers and Bamako in 2013 and 2014. the Angevins are due to go there in 2014. 

The twining between the two cities was launched in 1974. In 1985, Angers decided to dedicate 0,5% of its resources to cooperation and a house for the partnership house was opened in Bamako in 1997. The main fields of Angers cooperation are related to culture, health, water and waste treatment throughout non profitable organizations.

Given the security problems for Western citizens and among them French people, the imple-mentation of the project could be postponed if the Malian conflict was due to go on. But it could also re-direct in in unforeseen fields like the assistance of Angers to possible Bamakians victims of the conflict. 

The situation of the country will surely have echo in Angers who hosts a Malian community. That one was badly surprised laearning that a Malian writer, Moussa Ag Assarid, may have joined rebels forces in the Northern Mali suspected to have links with islamists warriors.

2014 : the invisible adversary of the Angers left majority

Reading the statistics of the Angers bankrupcy court, the city mayor, Frédéric Béatse, as well as its left contender, Jean-Luc Rotureau, may discover the name, or rather, the nature of their most fierce opponent to the municipal polls of 2014 : the economic crisis. According to Hervé Tréhard, the president of the bankrupcy court, the "balance sheet" of 2012 is quite worrying. 

More and more big companies face difficulties and the number of employees hit by the trouble of their employers, increased from 1 886 in 2011 to 3 292 last year, a sky-rocketing trend of 75%. These figures do not come from Angers only but have an echo with the economic situation of the city. Nation wide, the figures are not very different and the Angers city council as well as Angers Loire Métropole will be challenged by the loss of confidence of voters for their future. 

Between October 2011 and October 2012, the number of persons without job went over the 15 000, i.e. about 15% in Angers Loire Métropole territory. And few by few the local unemployment rate comes close to the national one. Probably Mr Béatse is aware of that, pointing out during his greetings pledge that he will monitor the usefulness of every euro spent or invested. But that will not eliminate the temptation of Angers (and France) voters to sanction the representatives in office at local level.

Angers "tuned" to English

"Angers and Angers Loire Métropole are proud of their talents" said the little text stuck on a dvd distributed at the end ot the 2013 greetings ceremony which took place last Monday. That gift illustrated one of the issues developped during his pledge by Frédéric Béatse, Angers mayor, about the ability of the city to face the "complicated year" which has just started now. 

If in the artistic field, the city hosts a lot of skilled persons, it must be noted that all of these are deeply steeped in English culture. Angers didn't missed the point. The opuscule inserted in the dvd includes a little text in English signed by Angers city and Angers Loire Métropole about the contents of the gift : "tracks of the currently most popular bands in Angers. They have a point in common, a deep commitment and sense of belonging to our territory of Angers". All the bands have also many connections with English universe, according the little texts introducing each of them. 

In spite of their names and the titles of their songs, they are Angers made : The Dancers (A french trio who settled in Brighton), The Lemon Queen, Humanist, My Sweet October (with its hit "6 feet under"), Djak ("On the radio" or "Dust in the Brainstorm"), Daria ("For it, the English language is never an excuse for say nothing", writes the leaflet) and Pony Pony Run Run ("Hey you"). Throught this best of, Angers looks eager to contradict its fame of mildness and indolence. "Angers is not just a sweet music", concludes the leaflet above the signature... Angers Loire Valley. 


The only "false note" Angers and Angers Loire Métropole did with their gift was a grammatical mistake (in French) in the little introduction joined to the dvd. It was written "La Ville d'Angers et son agglomération sont fiers de leurs talents!". Was not the adjective "fières" more appropriate? Probably that is due to the fact the two authorities are already very englicized!

Frédéric Béatse's fighting greetings

It sounded like a warning towards all who wish to become Angers mayor, in his own political family or in the opposition one : "To be Angers mayor gives you a sum of energy you can't imagine", said Frédéric Beatse who, for the first time of his mandate, wished a happy new year to the Angers inhabitants gathered in the Lurçat tapestries museum. The register was voluntary that Monday. While Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport opponents displayed panels claiming "NDDL airport = climatic crime", Mr Beatse didn't surrender, continuing his pledge under applauses. And pointing out his will to overcome the predictable, and predicted, difficulties of 2013, he said "That year will not be the year as it is announced, it will be the year as we shall do it".

Throughout his pledge, Frédéric Beatse made numerous announ-cements regarding the launching of projects as the Maine new banks, a festival, in 2014, about new musics, the opening of La Cité, a building dedicated to all the associations of Angers, the new swimming pool, a new centre of congresses and political initiatives like a conference on employment with local businessmen or another about the night disturbances. But, aware of the difficult period the city faces, Mr. Béastse repeated that "not a single euro will be spent or invested without a concern for the economy and the employment and everything will be done to maintain the city debt as low as possible".

Preceded by Jean-Claude Antonini, the former Angers mayor and now president of Angers Loire Métropole authority, Mr.Béatse pledge was rather direct, and even sometimes agressive when, after he recalled one of Mr Antonini favorite words, "To be mayor is always close to get a slap", he recognized that "[he] was sometimes in the mood to give some". 

Commercial projects : the Chamber of commerce wants a break

An informed observer had expressed in Le Courrier de l'Ouest a soft warning to Angers city representatives regarding the situation of the trade sector, from the retail trade to the commercial park. The usefullness of a "break", advised by Eric Groud, president of the Maine-et-Loire Industry and Commerce Chamber, is justified because of the change in local consumer behaviour. The first factor comes from internet. "People buy more and more by internet. So the superstores are less visited", notices Mr Groud who predicts that several drive stores are in project in Angers surroundings. The second change comes partly from that increasing use of internet what makes people are less tempted. 

For the president of the Chamber, "the arrival of Atoll makes necessary to do an inventory" while the commercial park has not, up to now, realized the predicted turnover and triggered commercial fields in Grand Maine and Espace Anjou. Regarding the future cultural complex planned at the south of Angers, Mr. Groud looks dumbfounded. In many aspects, what Eric Groud is saying is similar to what Angers real-estate professionnals are claiming : the pace has been a little fast during the last year and now the demand is slowing down. 

And the obsever suggests it should be wiser to modernize Angers down town in the housing and offices fields rather than to export people and activities outside the city limits. But Mr Groud doesn't say all must be stopped. The ideas of technological campus in the Les Hauts de Saint-Aubin district as well as the new local tv channel and the purchase of the industrial tools of Technicolor are good news and symbolize the will of the city to go ahead.

Verneau, destination nowhere

A greyish and foggy Sunday will be the last day of the existence of the Verneau district, such as the Angevins knew it since the fifties' when is was necessary to rebuilt new facilities to house inhabitants whose homes were destroyed during the bombardments of the second world war. About 400 flats  in eight old buidlings of three floors each where were sheltered thousands of Angers families, then others coming from abroad when economic growth made necessary to import workforce, will disappear on Monday.

 Nobody, except maybe old people to whom that environment merge with their youth, will miss those buildings which were, year after year, attacked by the pauperization of their inhabitants and became themselves the visible symbol of the empoverishment of the district. Devised at a time of abundant and cheap energy, these buildings were, along the years, more costly to maintain. For their owner, the social housing authority Angers Loire Habitat, it was more approriate to tear them down.

The Verneau district will even be erased. Angers city council want it to be merged with the new and neighbouring Les Hauts de Saint-Aubin district and served by the new tramway. Similar schemes were implemented in other districts of Angers like La Roseraie, Grand Pigeon, Belle-Beille and, recently, Monplaisir. Verneau will be soon nothing more than a souvenir.

"From China with love"

Peking.- Angers is really far away from Tiananmen square (Peking). Not only because of the distance - the travel from Angers takes more than a day - but above all because of the complete change of planet. For a first stay in China, the traveller coming from Angers crosses several times throughout different historical periods. In Shanghaï, some locations look as the settings of a science fiction movies while others exhale urban landscapes of ancient times and reminds scenes from "The Sand Pebble" movie.

Credit Picture : Iris

But in Tiananmen square, the traveller is caught by history. The location is the core of China because The Forbidden City, the place of the former imperial regime of China, is there as well as the main symbols of the communist regime which rules China since 1949. At this period of the year, the night falls early in China and, in Peking, the temperature is far below zero degree  and windy. Only a few people dared on Saturday to walk throughout the square. A police patrol was monitoring the comings and goings of lonely and shy Angers visitors.

In spite of its fame and size, and the time of the day (end of afternoon) the Tiananmen square was not jammed up by cars, pedestrians and buses. That tranquility gives some solemnity. Huge monuments enlighted run through the night making the stars invisible. As if China wanted to challenge the sky.

"Greetings art" planned next Tuesday

Next Tuesday, the Angers mayor greetings ceremony, the first for Frédéric Béatse as leader of town hall, will be carefully watched by all the Angers and Maine-et-Loire representatives who yearn to attempt to take his charge in 2014. It will also be eyed by several lobies believing the next year will be a turning point for their business. Mr Béatse has already been criticized in columns of the web, even his pledge has not been already delivered.

The events of last year, among them, the dramatic closure of Technicolor, and more generally, the increase of unemployment, but also the difficulties for the city to get new resources to balance its budget will make more difficult to finance some of the schemes the former mayor, Jean-Claude Antonini, launched and want to be implemented : the second trolley line, the Maine new banks project, the new swimming pool...

About all these issues, it is hoped by many people Mr Béatse will give solutions. But in time of crisis, the city can only rely on istself. If it would be understandable some of these projects be postponed. But time is running. In one year and a half, municipal polls will be there. So the road for the incumbent is narrow. If he promises to much, he may not be able to fulfill his promises. If he promises to few, he may disappoint its supporters. 

Angers didn't caught new inhabitants during the last decade

Between 1999 and 2010, the city of Angers has recorded a flimsy loss of inhabitants. Their number, 151 270 in 1999, was 147 571 in 2011. Above that slight decrease, what is noticeable is Angers doesn't attract new inhabitants. Some of the towns of the first circle around Angers do not record substancial increase of their population. That is the case of Avrillé in spite of the numerous real-estate projects which have been implemented there. The change is more important in villages of the second circle around Angers. That is demonstrated by the recent survey about the travels inside Angers Loire Métropole limits : these become more important gradually with the remoteness of the city centre.

Probably, one of the origins of that phenomena has something to do with the soaring of real-estate prices in Angers city during the last ten years. For a young household, it is now impossible to buy a house or even a flat inside Angers, even with interest rates which have never been so low. So these families have no other choice to run away and settle in cheaper locations.

 For Angers city, the challenge consists in building affordable real-estate projects. Many of them have already been erected by the social housing companies but, even if about 80% of Angers population is eligible to such accomodations, all do not ask a home in the city. The fact the representatives tried, and will continue, to make Angers more attractive (with commercial , transports and leisures facilities) looks no sufficient. The price of the real-estate, above all in time of crisis, is decisive in the choice of locations of Angevins.

Angers history through heredity

Two historical characters, kings,  having links with Angers, who both died centuries ago, have just "resurfaced" in France and England news just before and just after the change of year.

In Leicester,  after excavations under a car park during August and September of last year, archeologists discovered the skeleton of a man who could be Richard III, the last Plantagenêt king of England, killed in 1485 by his Tudor rival, Henry VII, at the battle of Bosworth. The results of a "Crime scene investigation" style survey (a Dna sample from the skeleton will be compared to the one of a Canadian descendant) are due to be published in January, but already the caracterics of the remains match perfectly with historical accounts.

Another king, French that one, who had stayed in Angers at a critical period of his life and of the country history, dead in 1610, is back in the news. Henri IV, whose head and body were cut off in 1793 during the French revolutionnary terror, can be joined each other. Spanish biologists succeded to extract a Dna sample from the deepest part of the throat of the mummified head and compared it to another Adn coming from the blood of Louis XVI. The two were identical. Henry IV came in Angers just a single month (March-April 1598) to draft the famous Edit of Nantes, granting the religious freedom to French protestants.

Angers looks today closer to Richard III than Henry IV. The first, may vilified by William Shakespeare, has an eponymous way in Angers (the Plantagenêt street) while the other never got this "privilege"...

The Angers first "after"

For several weeks, Angers inhabitants were used to see the enlightment of streets and front sides, the hustle and bustle around the wooden mobile blue and red chalets on Ralliement square, the music and the smell of hot wine. That atmosphere turned frenzy on Decembre 31st, when people rushed in stores to do their ultimate purchases for the Eve of the year. Once the night separating two different years passed away, the city was quiet and desert. But the most perfect contrast between the "before" and the "after" was in Saint-Maurice cathedral on the evening of January 1st. 

While, around the cathedral, the car parks are usually occupied, many places were free and even pedestrians were scarce in the surroundings of the monument. Few after 6 pm, when night started to invade the sky, the entrance of the cathedral gave access to an atmosphere completely different of those the catholics Angevins had lived a few days before with Christmas. Behind the door, at that time, the main nave was, except one person sat on the left, completely empty. No noise, no breeze inside the monument was perceptible. Only the silence was audible. Only the meditation of a single believer was present. 

 Close to him, all the statues of the past bishops of Angers looked in the center of the nave, towards a weak glimmer in the choir where a panel "Annus Fideis 2012-2013" was enlighted. Angers passed from the frenzy of the previous evening in the consumption temples of the city to the silence of its cathedral, as if the city wanted to hold its breath before a new year.