Angers down town inhabitants complain about unbearable conditions

According to some observers of life in Angers down town, inhabitants would experiencing increasing difficulties. In Baudrière street, residents face growing inconveniencies. Stairwells, halls of building become impossible to keep in normal conditions : rubbish are on the stairs because people coming from the outside of the buildings take pleasure to scatter them in the common parts. But sometimes, inhabitants themselves don't care about the wastes they let in the stairs. 

These facts are noticed whatever be the category of the buildings : new, ancient, social or private. These complains of inhabitants may be added to the demands of Angers store owners which ask more cleanliness facilities from town hall. The problem is that costs a lot of money while the period is rather to the decrease of current expenses. Several years ago, Angers city and other surrounding towns started to reduce the weekly number of waste collects. Apparently, these pile up inside the buildings and on the pavements.

For more and more observers, that phenomena has to do with general offhand manners : incivilities, nocturnal disturbances, the Angers mayor, Frédéric Beatse, could have to prevent and to punish.If the education of people may be at issue, the trafics are also responsible of the climate. That generates a distrust from store owners, customers, and inhabitants towards the core of the city, the Angers representatives should closely consider.

Front sides along Foch boulevard and the municipal polls to come

The wall along Foch boulevard

The Conseil général de Maine-et-Loire has recently diplayed on the wall located along the Foch boulevard panels about the Foch Activities centre project. The interest of the scheme is double, explains the president of the Maine-et-Loire authority, Christophe Béchu. The first consists in "gathering in an unique place several services presently scattered throughout Angers and therefore rationalising our functioning". The second is "to revitalize Angers down town. When the city sets up a tramway which costs 30 millions €/km, it's our responsibility not to let that equipment to go along an obstructed wall of 100 m long", explains the president on the website of the Conseil général.

The gardens of the Conseil général

In the weeks to come, the Conseil général de Maine-et-Loire is going to demolish a building located on Saint Aubin square. After the disappearance of that building and archeological digs, the construction of the scheme will start in spring 2014. A new building along Foch boulevard will host the services of the Conseil général and, at the ground floor, several stores with front sides along the trolley line.

Chr. Béchu

Chance of the calendar, the start of the works is planned just after the municipal polls. So the panels along Foch boulevard could also be interpreted as the involvment of Mr. Béchu in the competition face to Frédéric Béatse, the present Angers mayor or his contender, Jean-Luc Rotureau, presently deputy-mayor in charge of housing. If the issue is to make more dynamic the Angers down town with new front sides, these might as well open on Sundays. (Credit Pictures : Conseil général de Maine-et-Loire)

Economic difficulties in the commercial core of Angers may anticipate troubles for the retail trade

The last demonstrations of Angers store owners against the project of pavement tax finally withdrawn and the implementation of car parks increases may hide more deep and worrying problems. Is the down town retail trade in good health? That is not sure. An indication about that difficulties could be the the admission of the new Café de France located at the core of the city, on Ralliement square, into a receivership procedure for six months.

Opened on April 2011 at the end of the tramway works in the place of a travel agency, the Café de France would not have reached the necessary turnover and would lack cash. But, in such a crowdy place, if a café does not run well, where it will? In neighbouring streets, some front sides indicate "for sale". That's the case for three of them in Saint-Laud street, while another one is visible in Lenepveu street, the two ways being pedestrian...

The attractiveness of Angers down town has not, apparently, be restored by the tramway. On some real-estate agencies, rents of some flats have to be discounted in order to find lesees. And the depressive economic climate could turn political. One of the opposition town councillors, Emmanuel Capus, has asked to the mayor to cancel the car parks fares.

Technicolor gives tongue in front of a scarce public

The people, and the medias, waiting for the French minister in charge of the numerical economy were may be more numerous than those who watched the choir of some Tecnicolor employees singing in Ralliement square on Friday. At the beginning of the afternoon, few people paid attention to the sad tunes that employees wearing a white coat sang on the stairs of the Grand Théâtre...

Fleur Pellerin and the Angers mayor (Credit : Angers city)

But the good news is finally the minister, fleur Pellerin, came and delivered to the employees a kind of support. "We are, like the local authorities, mobilized to find a solution for Technicolor", said Mrs Pellerin. Such a solution could be a takeover by the Angers Oleane group of the factory but only 80 persons would be hired. She said that a one year of workload had been got from France Telecom. 

But the minister talked about something which looks incredible. "We have also some difficulties to get in touch with Technicolor", she said before to bring a charge against that group "which denies to accept its social duties", forgetting Technicolor was not the author of the reduction of the work time law which made since 15 years uncompetitive hundreds of French industrial companies and, consecuently, thousands of workers. That was precisely what a trade union leader said explaining the factory price (120 €) of a decoder was above the price paid for the item.

The inauguration of the new building of the Ecole supérieure d'électronique de l'Ouest, in the Saint-Aubin district, was an opportunity for Angers representatives to recall the tremedous importance of the electronic sector for the city. "The Eseo will be the first stone of a campus of excellence", they said. And useful to reclassify all who have been or will be laid off.

Angers Technicolor : the hope of a takeover by a local group remains

Hope has not totally vanished for (some of) the Technicolor employees. The Eolane group, which didn't submitted an offer to takeover the Angers factory before the deadline on October 1st, could finally do so before the audience of the Nanterre bankcruptcy court on October 11th. The plan of the Eolane chairman, Paul Raguin, consists in a production of photovoltaics panels by 80 persons. According to Angers medias and even the local trade unions, this is the ultimate hope. 

The Angers ad to support the local elctronic

Chance of the calendar, it is said that the filing of the Eolane project would take place on tomorrow, Friday, the same day of the visit in Angers of the French minister of numerical economy, Fleur Pellerin. Mrs Pellerin comes to Angers because the Ecole supérieure d'électronique de l'Ouest (Eseo) inaugurates that day during the afternoon its new building located in the Saint-Aubin district. 

Fleur Pellerin

It is not said in the local medias that the minister will pay the Technicolor employees a call. What, moreover, doesn't chock the observers... After the difficult period the employees lived through since several month, it would be fair for Mrs Pellerin to do so. The absence that day of a minister in charge of economy at the Technicolor factory would demonstrate that French politicians who talk don't act while managers who act don't talk...

The Angers store owners demand to open on Sundays during end of year holidays

The next demonstration the Angers store owners planned for next Friday will give to a old issue an opportunity to resurface : the opening of stores on Sundays. Of course, only a few Sundays have been targeted by store owners : those inside the end of the year holidays. And they recently pointed out a contradiction in the present stance of local authorities regarding the Sundays. 

While most of the representatives of Angers city claim the Sunday must stay a no-working day and must be dedicated to family life and rest, the same representatives agree to rent, on Sundays, places located in down town as well as surfaces in the Angers Parc Expo where, as recently in the Salon de l'habitat et de l'immobilier, business is running.

How the Angers representatives can deny to a store owner to open on Sunday during Christmas period while, at the same time, can rent a place for wooden huts to other retailers? The contradiction becomes more acute with the need, in Angers as in France in general, to let people resting or working just as they like because activity genererates growth which generates jobs. And Angers desperately needs jobs...

On a more temporary mood, down town store owners will demand (with good reason) that car parks fares be reconsidered. After the difficult times due the trolley works which ended about 14 months ago, the opening of the Atoll commercial park who could enlarge its offer of shops and where car parks are free, after the fear due to the pavement tax project recently withdrawn, the rise of car parks fares is the straw that broke the camel's back. 

If some inhabitants feel they are also the cash-cows of the city, it's unlikely that they will demonstrate on Friday because they work on that day. On Saturday, they could demonstrate by not the store owners because they work. All should demonstrate on Sunday, the Angers down down would be more lively! (Credit Pictures : Angers city and Sara)

Angers Technicolor close to closure

On October 1st, nobody had submitted an offer to take over the Technicolor factory of Angers. Without any way of pursuit of the activity, the Nanterre bankcruptcy court should, alas, decide the closure of the factory and the loss of of their jobs for 350 employees. Eolane, an Angers company which was mentionned as a candidate for a partial takeover of the factory with about 80 persons finally no submitted an offer.

According to some trade-unions responsibles, there is still a hope till October 11th, day of a decision of the Nanterre court. The Angers Technicolor factory is the last factory producing telecomunications items and audiovisual equipments the Technicolor group still owns in Europe. In 2011, it lost an important contract about decoders for France Telecom in which the French state has about 27% of the capital, others belong to private stockholders.

A few weeks ago, the new prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault told "we are not going to give up the employees in spite of the fact [the former government ]has let spoiled the situation too much time". A few weeks before, the Angers company attracted some interest during the electoral campaign. For the city, with Technicolor, a symbol of the industralization of would close (it was set up in the town in 1957). It would be neverthelesse hopeful that this (new) shock be a opportunity for Angers representatives and inhabitants to think about the loss of competitivity of the territory.

The Angers inhabitants waited in the next "districts meetings"

The "partici-pative democracy" Angers promotes since 2011 is on the way back. From October 10th, the second edition of the annual gathering of Angers districts will start. These public meetings in the ten districts of Angers are designed to give to the inhabitants an opportunity to express ideas and describe experiences about the life of their close environment. In 2011, more than a thousand people participated.

All the daily aspects of life in these districts can be discussed : "transports, urbanism, place for youth" are some of the points quoted by the city. It seems these meetings are also an opporunity for Angers representatives to stay in touch with inhabitants. "We need you to make the public action more efficient and to take up challenges facing the city", says the Angers mayor.This one and his deputy mayor in charge of each district will take part to these conferences organized - most of them but not all - on the evenings.

Apparently vague, the association of citizens to the choices which concern them is in fact precisely organized. Every person may be candidate to a workshop on specific issues. Some of them may even join the district councils. All that work could later be very useful when municipal polls will take place in 2014. But, who is going to complain?

Berlin-Angers : a block of East from the "Wall of shame" to the "Hall of Fame"

Clink of an eye? Designed to separate in two parts of the same country, the Berlin Wall, today almost completely dismantled, and exported all over the world, is a symbol of reunification! That complete change of meaning didn't escape to Angers representatives.They used one of the pieces of the Berlin Wall the city inherited in setting it up on the left bank of the Maine, on September 20th, in front of the Gaumont Multiplex, to recall to the young generation and people coming in that place, the necessity of concord between nations. More pragmatic, the Angers mayor, Frédéric Beatse, pointed out that this piece of the "Wall of shame" suited perfectly with the "New banks" project aiming at a reunification of Angers around its river.

Credit Picture : Angers city

In front of the Multiplex, the Angers "Hall of fame", of cinema artists, the block of concrete doesn't look incongruous. Covered by tags probably drawed by people coming from the Western part of Berlin, the piece of concrete sets new challenges to Angers city. The first is material. The original tags covering its surface could easily disappear under new drawings of Angers taggers, ignorant of the historical value ot that symbol.

The second is intellectual. That piece of the Berlin Wall is also the mark of a new period for Germany which needed twenty years to swallow the economic and social difficulties triggered by the country reunification. These were solved by a budgetarian and fiscal discipline which todays gives results. Let's hope the Angers representatives, and inhabitants, thank to that piece of concrete, will remember the example Germany has shown.

The New banks of Maine project will also be durable in the city political life

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)

Angers Technicolor, close to the deadline in a increasing unemployment background

The long and anxiety-producing period which leads to a decision regarding the future of the Angers factory of Technicolor is ending. The Nanterre bankcruptcy court will decide on October 11th if the factory will continue to run or must close definitely. If possible buyers have till next Monday to submit their offer, on the previous Friday, none was received... And 350 persons could loose their job...

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. 

That would be,alas, in the line of the trend of unemployment in Maine et Loire since the last 18 months. According to a survey of the Comité d'expansion économique of Maine-et-Loire, the number of job-seekers has increased by more than 13% while, in the Pays de la Loire région, it grew "only" by 11,5%. Since the beginning of 2012, the number of persons who registered themselves at Pôle Emploi was twice important (8%) than the number of persons dropped out of the authority. These are not good news for Angers.

A conference on Angers nocturnal life is going to see daylight

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.

Another issue, the dirtiness of down town (recently pointed out by stores owners when they demonstrated against the increase of car parks fares) has prompted a reaction of the mayor who recognized "Some points of watchfulness" existed in down town. Mr Beatse clearly considers "some inhabitants or users of down town" don't have a responsible behaviour. Consequently "important resources" are necessary to maintain the cleanliness of streets and pavements. But the mayor warned he will not hesitate "to punish" some inappropriate gestures. (The picture on the left was shot after a strike of Angers garbage men in October 2010)

Unemployment, incomes, cash-flow, rain of economic worrying news for Angers

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)

Angers Loire Télévision, officialy candidate for a channel

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.


The work to be done now is to give Angers Loire Télévision a content. The presence of private shareholders, and among them professionnals of the medias sector, should prevent the channel become too indentured to public authorities. The electoral campaign for municipal polls will be a good test.

"Angers knows how to welcome its new students", even if they are noisy

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.

"Students jobs, culture and sports activities, assistance from the Centre communal d'action sociale, carte A'Tout in order to gain acces to municipal facilities, sorting and of wastes... all these issues will be expounded to allow students to discover and fully take benefit of their new lifestyle", next Thursday says the Angers website. If the city is concerned by lifestyle in down town of inhabitants, it does't demonstrate it. It would have been maybe appropriate to remind them their duties in down town during nights before inviting them to a free evening at Le Chabada, where silence is not the main caracteristic... 

Within a few monts, or maybe weeks, Angers medias will report about the inconveniences of noisy evenings, the city will organize talks with students, it will have to send night correspondants to prevent disturbances and sometimes send police to warn hecklers. "Angers knows how to welcome  me", declares the website. The students will surely remember it!

The Angers new real estate market notes the interest of households

Credit Picture Le Val de Loire

According to real estate operators gathered at the Salon de l'habitat et de l'immobilier d'Angers, the market looks to be divided in two parts : the existing real-estate and the new one. Regarding the first, ir would exist an over-offer presently. Some products, mostly flats or student rooms, do not provide sufficient comfort to be rent quicky. Morevover, the investors, a little bit dazzled with fiscal advantages, have often over paid their property and want to rent them at a price local households cannot pay. So that would explain why there are so numerous empty appartments "to rent" on the city.

Credit Picture : Cipa Civ

The real estate would be in a different situation. After a severe cooling following years of boom, promotors have started to adapt their prices and to choose, for their new programs, locations well connected to transports. Because, the Angers households would look carefully to the cost of energy for their cars. A more important demand on Angers city and cities of the first crown is noticed. Some promotors having stands at the Salon didn't complained about the pace of sales of their appartments in these locations. 

Credit Picture : Pierre Abraham

It is widely said that the interest rates are low and that the present fiscal measures could change next year. Those different elements should lead the Angevins to come back on the real-estate market next years. If no negative economic event doesn't surge in the months to come...

Angers down town streets as fields of games

 It was like a giant monopoly. All Saturday afternoon, several pedestrian streets of Angers down town were, temporarily, properties of city game board associations. These places - Bodinier, Saint-Laud, Poëliers streets and Pilori, Romain and even Railliement squares, were the fields of games of "Deux jours en jeux", an event organized by these associations of enthusiasts. About a hundred games had their rules explained. Onlookers, adults as well as children, beginners or experienced players, had nothing to do but play.

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.

Angers car park fares increase : the store owners don't want to foot the bill

The Angers store owners don't disarm. After a demonstration a few days ago in the middle of Ralliement square against the increase of parking lots fares, they reiterated their opposition by demonstrating on Friday at the bottom of the Angers mayor's office. About 80 persons said once again their business couldn't support a supplementary handicap.

"We have already endured the works of the tramway line in down town, we are now facing the competition with Atoll (a new commercial park opened a few month ago in the suburbs of Angers wher the parking is free), now the prospect of an increase of parking lots fares is the final straw", said their spokesman. They firmly denied the veracity of the position of town hall saying the parking lot fares had not been increased since 1998. "This is not true", they said adding to town hall :"You can't just milk us like cows!"

The demonstators demanded "one hour of free parking, an effort on the cleanliness of the city and the collection of garbages, and the opening of the stores the Sundays before Christmas". At the end of their gathering, they went a moment at the entrance of the car park dedicated to Angers representatives built under town hall asking why that one was free... (Video Credit : You Tube)

20 000 visitors waited at the Angers real-estate exhibition as from Friday

While analysis diverge about the present situation ot the real-estage sector in Angers, all the local and outside actors apparently agree about the interest of the Salon de l'habitat which opens tomorrow in the exhibition park. For some professionnals (most of them real estate agents), there are too numerous homes for sale or for rent in the city. For others (most of them real-estate developpers) point out that what is built is sold. Meanwhile, Angers inhabitants who are taking their time in the field of real-estate investment should be interested by the Salon de l'habitat.

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.

Traditionnaly, the most interesting part of the exhibition is dedicated to gardens : how to develop them in order to get a real widening of the home. The event is also an opportunity to atract young people toward manual work which all have an artistic part. (Credit Pictures : Angers Expo Congrès, Salon de l'habitat)

Sports : Angers puts its cards on the table

The offer should seduce Angers people and, among them young inhabitants. Angers town hall has recently extended the services available through the "Carte A'tout". While it gave already access to public transports (bus, trolley, VéloCité+ and AutoCité+), municipal libraries, its bearers will henceforth get access to numerous sports facilities of Angers : swimming pools, skating rink, badminton, the Montaîgne gymnasium and the tennis table hall of La Baumette.

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).