Crossfire of criticisms against Angers Loire Métropole and Angers city for their policies and the financial standing of their territories

The AquaVita project

The difficulties foreseen in the economic field for the Angers region and the some of the public investments  in the same area stirred criticism both from political and economical responsibles, reported by local medias (1). The Angers mayor, Frédéric Béatse, as well as the president of Angers Loire Métropole, Jean-Claude Antonini, are targeted by these reproaches coming from a mayor and a businessman. The two Angers representatives are criticized for their policies but, also, for their personal caracteristics, Mr Antonini being qualified of "autocrat", Mr Beatse being, at the opposite, considered as a little bit "shy".

The Technicolor closure

Regarding the policies, the mayor of Murs-Erigné, Philippe Bodard, find regrettable the Angers reconquest of the Maine banks projects, titled "new banks" as well as the local television deploring, for that one, the lack of debate in Angers Loire Métropole . But more generally, the Murs-Erigné mayor points out a centralization of the powers favouring Angers at the expense of little cities. "When Angers has decided, it's useless to fight", says Mr Bodard. 

The New Banks project

In the economic field, a businessman recalls the same day the increasing impoverishment of Angers and the concentration in that city of many of the asylum seekers arrived in the Pays de la Loire region. According to that person, the project of a new penitenciary will never grow while the financial difficulties of the public university will get worse while the judicial city of the Pays de la loire will not come in Angers in spite the fact the city is the center of the region.

(1) Le Courrier de L'Ouest

Activists for the right for persons of the same sex to get married and adopt children demonstrate

About a hundred persons demonstrated on November 7th at Ralliement square in favor the passing of a law giving to lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, transsexual and heterosexual the right to get married and to adopt children. The date coincided with the consideration by the French council of ministers of a bill widening to persons of the same sex the right to get married as other persons. Consecuently, the bill opens to the persons concerned the right to adopt a child. 

Several Angers associations took the initiative of that gathering, as "Quazar Lgbt (1) Centre of Angers" and "Les enfants de l'arc en ciel - L'asso" which claims that "The (French) republic must recognize all families and must protect all children". These communities say the bill is not going as far as it would be necessary because female parents must be able to get maternal assisted procreation.

The opinion of the Angers population regarding the homosexual marriage and adoption is unclear. The city looks quite conservative but could be, logically, in phase with the French opinion mostly in favor of the right of the persons above to get married. On the other hand, the opening, to these persons, of the right to adopt children is more controversial. But since a long time (maybe more than 30 years) Angers elects Socialist mayors. Now, sympathizers to the bill are more numerous on the left side in France than on the right side.

(1) Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual

Angers awakes to the Election Night

The English Language Library in Angers was tuned, as probably American citizens or students living in the city, to the Us presidential election night. On November 6, public was invited to a talk about the American elections. The guest of the libray was the Us consul in Rennes, Robert Tate, who delivered a conference on what is "behind the scenes, the electoral process and the economic issues". 

The following morning, from 9 to 11 am, the Angers public will be invited to  "stop by the library to hear about the results of the elections and treat itself as a full American breakfast! Eggs, bacon, hash browns, pancakes, tea, coffee, orange juice...no need to reserve! 3 euros at the door" announced the library on its website. 

On the eve of the results, hustle and bustle were visible in the Library whose frontside was sprinkeld with stickers of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party as well as the two 
candidates, Bararck Obama and Mitt Romney pictures.

It seems that the American inhabitants of Angers, most of them students, were in favor of the outgoing president who extended scholarships for them (what Mitt Romney is said he would scratch). Some of them were even visibly anxious by what could come out from the ballot. The interest in Angers is more acute for that election given the opening of a deparment of the Saint-Edward's University and the twinning of Angers with the Us city of Austin (Texas) whose mayor is a Democrat.

Angers towards a "biodivercity" statute

Biodiversity in 2010

Angers Loire Métropole will soon attempt to demonstrate that the "quality of life" it promotes in France and abroad to attract companies and job is not only a slogan, but a reality. Its president and deputy-president, Jean-Claude Antonini and Gilles Mahé, will officialy launch the "Agenda 21 of bio-diversity of Angers Loire Métropole" at Le Grand Theâtre, on November 24th. The Agenda 21 is one of the components of the 2015 Agglomeration project, drawn up in 2003, almost ten years ago, when local economy was in better conditions than now.

Biodiversity in 2011

No less than forty actions were planned in different fields : economy, building and transport, citizenship, ecology and energy. Regarding biodiversity, Angers had in 2012 implemented awareness campaign regarding the necessity of wildlife protection and one year later a trail displaying all the animals colonizing the Angers urban jungle.

Credit : Angers Loire Métropole

The programme regarding the launch of what be done in 2013 looks unclear but it could concern all the actions aiming at the preservation of the natural assets of the Angers region : the landscapes, the rivers and the flora around. That seems a little bit vague but Angers representatives hope that these may make Angers more attractive for employers and employees in the years to come. But would it be sufficient?

Angers poker club puts its cards on the table of the Angers Resto du coeur

Credit Picture : William

They were gathered by the heart. Some because they have from time to time an ace in their play. Others because they give food and meals to low income Angers inhabitants. The Angers poker club and the Resto du coeur were associated in a "solipoker" event on November 4th. The "recipe" is simple. The players come with a food gift as fees and have a competition from 9 h 30 till the afternoon.

The initiative was accessible to 100 cards lovers from the Angers poker club and other communities from Maine-et-Loire and outside. The tournament was in Texas hold 'em, a variation of the standard card game of poker. In Texas hold 'em, as in all variants of poker, individuals compete for an amount of money or chips contributed by the players themselves (called the pot).

The Angers Poker club was created in 2007 and gathers around 100 players all lovers of that game and who promote it in the Angers region through events, tournaments and workshops. The Restos du coeur community gathers, in Maine-et-Loire, more than 1 200 volunteers and hosted on one year about 10 000 persons to whom 1,5 million meals were served.

Authorities are looking for temporary facilities for more homeless persons in Angers

If the human consequencies of winter affect all the Maine-et-Loire inhabitants, they are maybe more visible in Angers. Towns gather homeless persons who find in their boundaries food help, shelter and social assistance. More numerous persons, sometimes families, from the region or from abroad, could, during the cold season 2012-2013, find themselves in desperate conditions because the worsening economic "climate" will put them a severe test in the months to come.

The measure Angers city council has passed a few days ago about the prohibition of alcohol consumption in down town streets will certainly calm anxiety of residents and store owners. But it will not strike the root of the problem. If homeless are source of concern because they are over alcoholized, it's simply because wines and hard liquors are their only way to endure (temporarily) themselves from the cold. And temperatures are far to be at their minimum in Angers before next spring...

So the Maine-et-Loire prefecture, as well as other cities, has started to anticipate the problem by launching on November 1st the "intense cold plan" because Angers could maybe face an increase of homeless in the months to come. That state authority is looking for "further rough and ready facilities for temporary housing" in town. That could reassure (a little) Angers town hall which recently noticed that the existing facilites were already overloaded and warned that the city could not host more misery from abroad. A difficult winter is feared.

Letter from the editor

Adn received on November 2nd the following mail regarding the post "Dead workers cemetery" :
"Hello,
Thank you very much to keep on following Thomson Angers - Technicolor "adventure" with such well-targeted reports.
The employee that I was, now fired, is grateful of your concern. 
Gilbert"
Thank you Gilbert for your kind appreciation.
Warmest regards
Edgar

Angers Loire Métropole economic scheme aims at stir jobs (without growth?)

Bichon open air market

In its latest issue, "Métropole", the magazine of Angers Loire Métropole, the territorial authority gathering Angers and surroundings towns, dedicates six pages to the new "Sustainable economy and job director scheme 2013-2017". The document, passed on by the board of Alm in September, points out "an absolute priority : job creation". If the recent closure of Technicolor, an economic and social disaster, worries, understandably, the representatives of Alm, the contents of their plan (as they are described by "Métropole") do not clearly establish that growth  is an essential condition for job creation. So, it is not sure that the importance of the Techicolor closure has been appropriately considered as a turning point in the economic future of Angers.

In an Angers superstore on November 1st

One of the four goals of that scheme (which has put 150 millions € available for five years in order to create 10 000 new jobs) is to promote the development of "employment providing companies". Among the sectors quoted in that chapter, is the retailing trade. One of the key opening new opportunities for Angers store owners would be to let them open their business on Sundays before end of year holidays. But, unanimously, the towns members of Alm decided they will not allow store owners to open during that period. How these could hire employees if they are not allowed to work during the most high-growth Sundays of the year? That stance is beyond understanding while, at the same time, Angers city council favours the opening of temporary wooden stores in the streets and squares of down town (and rents, on ordinary Sundays, its exhibitions park for public or professionnal events).

It seems that the authors of the plan have the strongest will to preserve the life quality as an asset for present and future inhabitants of Angers Loire Métropole. Is that concern consistent with the present constraints (the changing work schedules) and wishes (to go for shopping on Sundays or no working days as regularly testified by crowd in superstores those days) of the city households? Angers desperately needs jobs, so growth. It's not sure growth will only come from empty stores in Angers during many days of the year as well as it's not sure that empty stores are a guarantee for quality of life for Alm inhabitants and visitors.

Dead workers cemetery

A new cemetery is visible in Angers. A cemetery where apparently nobody paid a visit on that November 1st, day of the deads in France. All the names, ages and seniorities of persons in connection with that place are indicated on the "orbituaries" along the fences of the "graveyard". And the only "flowers" that embellish the site are yellow limetrees leaves brought there by the wind. The cemetery is not an ordinary one. Here are the grave of an existence who ended on October 22nd from "a long disease".

Along the iron fences of Techni-color, twelve panels have been set up. They have the silhouettes of signs visible along the French roads which represent the victims of car accidents. On each of those, victims of the economic crash of Technicolor have  affixed letters. As employees of the Angers decoders manufacture (the last Technicolor had in Europe), they have been informed they were laid off. Christiane, Dominique or Jean are still alive but their hopes to find a new job after the years of seniority in Technicolor are badly ill, or even  spelled to death: 15 years for one, 36 for another and 39 years for a third.

These figures they wrote on the letters are a kind of epitaph and could mean : "I worked here, faithfully, loyally, for almost forty years and that is the epilogue for me. Please, think of me". Within a few days, Angers authorities will pay tribute to the soldiers died between 1914 and 1918 (even if the last survivor has disappeared a few years ago). The Technicolor fences with all the names of the economic victims recall the monuments of the war France (and England) won, bloodless, more than 90 years ago. Contemporaries of the present economic disaster could think about the ways to avoid such casualties.

Angers cemeteries from stone to lawn

Credit Picture : Angers city

Few by few, silently, the Angers cemeteries borrow to the English graveyards their main caracteristic : lawns. This resuraction of green comes from the duty of the city to limit the use of pesticides in the maintenance of cemeteries. The massive use of pesticides during the 70's led that numerous undesirableplants became much more difficult to kill. Moreover, the presence of those substances in cemeteries made compulsory to reduce their access to the public. That became difficult during period like the Toussaint day when graveyards are overcrowded.

Credit Picture : Trees of memory (Pruillé)

Rather than fighting the botanic intruders, the Angers city now tries to make them disappear by sowing surfaces with grass seeds. "By covering the spaces with lawn or ground cover plants, we limit the appearance of undesirable species. And when, nevertheless, those grow despite everything, they integrate themselves in a vegetal environment in which their presence becomes less troublesome", explians Gilles Mahé, deputy-mayor in charge of environment and greens.

An Angers cemetery has, from its beginning chosen to cover its surface with lawns and trees : "The trees of memor" located near Angers which could be unique in France. On the Eastern cemetery, about 3 200 m2 have been sowed with grass seeds in  2012 in the place of paths and between gravestones. But to make more similar to gardens, the three Angers cemeteries will take a long time. They cover about 24 hectares. It will need more than a lifetime.

The remains of the last Plantagenet king of England, could come back to Angers rather than the Crown Jewels

If in Angers, the family name of "Plantagenet" has now disappeared from the news, in England the name of that Anjou dynasty who ruled the country from 1154 till 1485 is still on the front pages. In August, archeologists discovered under a car park located in Leicester the remains of a man who could have been Richard III, the last Plantagenet king of England, defeated and killed by his rival to the English crown, Henry VII. A reader of Angers Daily News in England, reports that the remains could be those of Richard III.

In spite of the fact the DNA test have not been yet completed, "early indications suggest that the remains may well be those of the king".  "There is some sign that he had scoliosis (and) one shoulder being slightly higher than the other", as demonstrated by historians, reports our correspondent. " In addition there is some indication of a break in the skull which does seem consistent with the story that Richard III fell from his horse at the battle of Bosworth and was clubbed to death". 

"A debate has now started as to where the bones of Richard III (if they are proved by DNA tests to be the true remains) should be buried. Some advocate they should go to York Minster, others prefer Leicester Cathedral, some prefer Westminster Abbey in London", reports the reader. who adds that "a spokesman for the Abney-Hastings family said that they would certainly support a claim that as Angevin the body should perhaps be returned to Angers Cathedral!"  

According to that one, "This has a much greater chance of success than the return of the Crown Jewels which in fact were destroyed by Oliver Cromwell some 200 years later. The existing crown jewels were given by Charles II. Come along Angers - just imagine the tourism that this burial would create!".

The change has yet to be done

If the Angers down town retail trade sector is not in great shape, the political offer looks itself a little bit ailing. A few weeks ago, the committee room of Luc Belot, socialist candidate to the French national assembly was buoyant. Votes had to be collected. So the candidate was tuned with the inhabitants of his constituency throughout the opening of its committee room. The electoral campaign is over now and the closure of the office may mean the representative doesn't need anymore to be connected with voters.

In the "store", everything has gone. The inside is absolutely empty. So empty that the vacuum is visible. On the front side, notice boards and posters calling people to give their votes to Mr. Belot have vanished, except the tagline banner at the top of the front side which still says (on Barack Obama's mood) : "The change : it's right now". But that change doesn't look very attractive and that is the point of view of pedestrians who stopped their walk in front of the former committee room to shot a picture, a little bit dumbfounded by the incongruity between the catch phrase and the condition of the store, by the discrepancy between the words and the facts.

It would have been more appropriate, more consistent, and simply more kind, for the former candidate to remove the tagline banner and the candidate's posters at the same time. But it was not the case. Why? Simple omission, indifference or Freudian slip? What does it mean? "Polls are over now : see you again in five years?". Representative and French president are not anymore on the same line? The first option would be shameful. The second looks unlikely. So what does it mean? The change (not only of occupant), it's right now and it could be a sobering experience.

Angers city council satisfies store owners about a free car parks first hour for end of year holidays

Credit picture Angers city

Finally, after several demon-strations of Angers store owners, the city council met, at least for a part, their expections. For weeks, these had asked permission to work on Sundays before end of year holidays and a less costly access to car parks for their customers throughout that period. If the first demand has been denied by Angers majority representatives, these nevertheless granted satisfaction to the second.

The town council will give a subsidy of about 16 000 € to the association of down town stores owners, Vitrines d'Angers. These will convert that money buying car park cheques for the customers of Angers stores. Then, all these could benefit from a no charged car park first hour. Regarding the first claim, the Angers city had promised a few weeks ago, along with the other cities members of Angers Loire métropole, to deny the right of opening on Sundays to store owners. That triggered wrath from the city council minority representatives who described the majority's decision as "reactionary".

The Angers retailers have nevertheless learnt that sales event will be organized in the city during the end of year holidays. A big whell will be set up on Lorraine square and a circus will take place in La Rochefoucauld square. Store owners just hope they will not experiment a lack of purchasers.

Letter from the editor

The article "Angers down town retail trade sector afraid of its future and of the town's future" published on October 22 led a reader of Angers Daily News, himself store owner, to express his fear that the end of the year animations of down town have not been already devised by the representative in charge. "I wonder about the management of that issue. We have been told that sales events are not yet completed and assessed. Christmas arrives in about a month and a half. That' s a little bit skimpy".

This store owner urges the Angers city council to reconsider its stance about "the opening of stores before Christmas, a no charged car park first hour and the access to the city hall car park closed on weekends". He recalls that Angers retailers "must be able to work all year long and not only three weeks". Adn thanks the reader for his comment.

Adverts of discounted prices in Angers down town stores may hide troubles and concerns for the future

Angers stores owners recently claimed that the economic conditions for running their business were deteriorating. A walk throughout down town streets may confirm their worries. In the main arteries of the city, some frontsides are covered by panels "for sale", "for rent" or "discounted prices before closure". If that would not be strange at the end of a commercial season (i.e. summer), the trend at least may raise questions from pedestrians. Lenepveu, Saint-Aubin, Röe, des Lices streets are among the Angers commercial ways affected by the disappearance of stores.

It seems that women clothes stores are the most hit by unfavorable conditions. Behind large adverts of clearance, female customers take benefit of items at discounted prices. These stores were designed for medium income customers who have decreased in most of French towns like Angers. The most intriguing in that situation is the privilegied locations of some of these shops without taker. At the corner of the Prefecture mall and des Lices street, a prime location is waiting for months (perhaps more than months) a new occupant. Some others, free for a long time, are now in works. 

It would not be impossible that Atoll, the "eco-commercial park" opened in April at West of Angers may explain some of the difficulties experimented in down town. Its owner, the Phalsbourg company, recently said that 3 millions visitors came since the opening. That number would be well above the forecasts but (curiously) the promotor has no figures about the global turnover. Some of the locations are still available and, as it was feared by Angers retail stores owners, the Phalsbourg company is now looking for a food superstore and a culture products brand. That are not news which will make the Angers down town retailers more comfortable.

Angers town council is fed up with day and night over drinking behaviours and damages

Angers city, one of the places of the French wine producing sector, distances itself from alcoholic drinking. The town council has just published a regulation preventing the consumption of alcoholic beverages in down town from 10 h 00 to 19 h 00 every day for a year. The most interesting part of the measure lays in its origins. The municipal regulation, passed on October 22nd, is due to "gatherings more and more important of persons [in the streets] with an overconsumption of alcoholic beverages [which] causes troubles to public order : altercations, sound nuisances, miscellaneous disturbances, broken glasses and soilings".

According to the mayor's bylaw, "these disturbances around Romain square and the Republic district come often from overconsumption of alcohol and threatens public peacefulness". These could have something to do with homeless persons sat on the pavements and squares who drink alcoholic beverages to warm themselves up. The phenomena indicates the increasing impoverishment of a part of Angers (young) population.

Recently, Angers has launched an initiative towards students regarding their own safety with binge drinkings. A few weeks ago the Angers mayor, Frédéric Beatse, had announced he would implement repressive measures in case of the continuation of incivilities (some of them caused injuries). And, more recently, down town store owners have complained about the loss of attractiveness of down town because ot its lack of cleanliness. In April 2001, the former mayor had already banned sales of alcohol in down town after 22 h 00.

The Point on the English side of Angers

The English universe of Angers, people and places, is getting itself talked about. The issue of the French weekly Le Point publishes this week an insert about the city whose the cover refers to "The English...". There is a British connection in the city which goes through places like the English Language Library in Angers, previously "The American Library" opened in 1993, or My favourite place, a tea room opened almost two years ago, in Angers down town.


Those are good evidences of the dynamism of the English community in Angers and the attractiveness of inhabitants for British civilization. The library located in Boisnet street recorded in 2011 a 15% increase of its members (more than 1 800 vs. less than 1 600 in 2010). And "the book sessions of the tea room attract numerous Angevins", says Mary Green, its owner, to Le Point. The English community of Angers has even founded a garden club (England is a nation of gardeners). In the surroundings of Angers, others use to gather for a lunch one time per week. The town council of Angers hosts Angers International Welcome, an institution dedicated to cater for new arrivals from abroad.

British citizens do not look uprooted. "In Angers, English people are very busy and, above all, they love to make themselves useful", says Phoebe Marshall-Raimbeau, manager of the Library. British Airways opened a few months ago a route from Angers to London which is not talked about in the medias. For Le Point, "the Angevins have English blood and made it known to United Kingdom", claiming the restitution of the British crown jewels to their city. In the absence of English blood they have at least the English sense of humor.

A petition for "citizen primaries" inside left must convince first

The team of Angers inhabitants claiming the organization of primaries to select, inside the majority of the city council, the candidate who will face the challenger of the minority, is far from having convinced supporters. After they suggested that it would be wise, and fair, to have such primaries elections between the two candidates, in the majority left side of town council, Frédéric Béatse, present mayor, and Jean-Luc Rotureau, his challenger, they launched at mid october a petition.

Credits : http://www.facebook.com/municipales.Angers.2014

But that one has not (yet?) convinced a lot of people. About 115 persons registered their names on the website. Under the (a little bit overused and prepos-terous) title, the signatories demand the organization of "citizen primaries" (as if the official poll was not "citizen" itself) in order to give to the candidate "an "indisputable legitimacy", open critic about the present mayor who took office after the resignation of Jean-Claude Antonini, former Angers mayor, this year. 

But is such a project tuned with the present worries of Angers population recently informed about an important increase of unemployment, more than 5% in a single month (september)? Moreover, some of the signatories are, or were, or will be involved in the policital game of Angers :  among them, the senator Corinne Bouchoux, the former municipal representative Sophie Briand-Boucher who left her charge because she didn't "swallowed" the way the present mayor was choosen and (n° 76) Mr Rotureau himself. So the "citizen primaries" could be charged to smell the setttling of scores. Above all, the idea would not be considered favorably by the French socialist party Mr Béatse is an influent member.

Angers city wants its inhabitants to take more care of food

Indication of the deterioration of the local economic context? Angers city took recently two initiatives regarding the food habit of the inhabitants. First, the town council launched a campaign against the food wasting. Angers want to catch the attention of the public to the issue through hustle and bustle in open air markets, exhibitions and even lectures in schools. According to national studies, a French household throws away food for an amount of 175 € per year.


That figure does not include the wastes coming from the professionnals, i.e. agricultural products directly thrown away without the stage of the stalls in stores. At the same time, the Centre communal d'action sociale, an authority set up by the Angers town council towards low income publics, enlarges another campaign : the "united string bags". 

Designed to retrieve the unsold food items at the Marché d'intérêt national of Angers and to resell them at a price correlated to the resources of the families, the operation will be deployed to six Angers districts in 2012 and more next year. While food becomes more costly along the years, would be more numerous the Angers inhabitants facing difficulties fo food themselves properly? The worsening of daily conditions for humble persons is not yet overcame. (Credit pictures : Jardins de cocagne, Ccas of Angers and French ministry of agriculture)

The Angers down town retail trade sector afraid of its future, and of the town's future

The store owners of Angers down town do not desarm. Saturday in spite of the rain, a delegation gathered on Ralliement square and delivered a message imprinted of concern for themselves but also, what is new, for the city. After an appeal to other retailers, but also employees of the Angers retail trade and inhabitants, their spokesperson warned about the deterioration of the local economic conditions and, with more shades, what is new too, of the Angers city policy.

First, they established a clear link between their own problems (many of them get the minimum wage in spite of the number of hours they dedicate to their business) and the general climate. "At the time of a difficult context of companies closures which toss out employees, we have some difficulties to understand why our city council is static and why it buries its head in the sand", pointing out they noticed "dreadly the deterioration of the city and of the retail stores standing".

Apparently, specific claims of the Angers retail trade sector have not been mentionned like the openings on Sundays during the end of the year holidays and the increase of car parks fares. But, these statements indicate that the Angers retail trade economy is starting to experiment difficulties and foresees a dark future. If the Angers mayor "is not to blame for everything", the demonstrators urged him to quickly implement solutions wihtout saying what these could be.