Another effective way to reduce the temperature on the roofs is to vegetalize them, although despite the passage of years, this idea too has not lived to see implementation, of course, in the context of historic buildings. Vegetation itself, however, has begun to make headlines again in Paris in recent years in a slightly different context, thanks to Anne Hidalgo, who is ruling the city for the second term. Indeed, one of the main points of her 2019 campaign was a promise to spice things up a bit. She envisions planting 170,000 new trees in the city, by the end of her second term in 2026! To be more precise, this involves 156,000 new trees and 14,000 plantings resulting from the cutting down of the existing stand of trees. Mathematically speaking, this would mean planting almost ten times as many trees as during Hidalgo's first mandate, whose goal (reportedly achieved, though already with great difficulty) was to add a "modest" 20,000 to the existing tree stand.
visualization of "urban forests" according to the city's urban planning studio; unfortunately, if only because of the multi-level parking lot under the existing plaza, the reality of this visualization is almost zero
© APUR—Céline Orsingher
The city plans to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. In view of research by the GIEC group of government experts on climate evolution, which shows the real danger of Paris in thirty years' time reaching temperatures currently recorded in Australia's Canberra (50 degrees Celsius), it is logical that the city authorities are looking for salvation, among other things, in massive greening. Unfortunately, as time passes, the documents and visualizations presented by the administration look more and more like classic populist greenwashing than a realistic idea with a concrete design, deadlines and plans for implementation.
The building of the main mayor's office in Paris; today it is already known that the visualizations of the "urban forests" shown can be safely included in the category of typical greenwashing
photo: the author
Initially, the visualizations on display (rather cleverly referred to here often in urban-landscape projects as image d "ambiance, which loosely translates as "overview illustration") focused on four main sites. In 2019, the year leading up to local municipal elections, there was even talk of creating fôrets urbaines, or urban forests, in four locations around the city. The locations originally proposed were the squares in front of Paris' main mayor's office and Lyon Station, the space behind the historic Palais Garnier opera house, and the sides of the former express lanes on the banks of the Seine, although here, after consultation with UNESCO and other experts, low vegetation was proposed instead of tall vegetation. Slightly later, these ambitious plans were abandoned for two sites: on the Opera Square, due to too many subway and underground rail lines passing through there, and on the Seine riverfront, due to too little available land depth. The problems of the valiantly vying for the votes of the electorate of Hidalgo did not end there, as in the case of the first two sites the planting of tall trees, requiring space for extensive root systems, also proved to be quite a challenge. There are multi-level parking lots under both the mayor's square and the train station. The original plans called for filling the first underground level with earth, but deeper analysis indicated that as many as two floors would have to be backfilled. In turn, the change in the weight of the floor loads brings with it the need to revise and reinforce the existing structure of the building.
Future tall trees can be counted on the fingers of one hand
Photo: the author
"As a consolation," after the two lost original locations, three more have been proposed: the Plaza de Catalunya behind Montparnasse Station, the Exchange Square in the center, and Curial Street in the north of the city. The now publicly appearing completion date has slipped to 2024. According to Hidalgo's assurances, the greening process was to proceed smoothly, simply and quickly, basically right after the necessary consultations and local agreements.
Les Halles area—- the very center of the city; can the authorities be trusted to make it more beautiful, better and greener, observing the woefully neglected greenery in the capital?—according to the latest press releases of the mayor's office, 35,000 m² of "forest" is to be created in the east of Paris, on the site of the old tracks and the currently disused train station; maybe this time it will not be another unrealistic promise
photo: author
So why is it that so far not even the beginnings of work can be seen at any of the selected locations? Certainly, the aforementioned purely technical difficulties are no small problem. In addition, various organizations, including, of course, environmental ones, have taken a closer look at the proposed changes.
Tangui Le Dantec, an architect and urban planner, a member of the Groupe National de Surveillance des Arbres (GNSEA—National Group for the Protection of Trees) and one of the founders of the tree protection association Aux Arbres Citoyens, conducted a fact-checking of "green" Paris with a group of environmentalists. The first inconsistencies were already found at the level of the city mayor's tree registration system. According to the ecologists analyzing and archiving open data environmental records, only 731 trees arrived in the city between June 2019 and July 2020—which is completely inconsistent with the officially reported communications, which mention 5,000 new trees planted in the intra-muros alone. Officials explain such a large discrepancy by the fact that the official data counter is not updated "live," and say that so many trees in such a short period of time in Paris have not arrived for a long time. When asked how many new saplings have arrived specifically in such a case, the mayor's office only replies that it is not quantity that is the priority, but quality.
The Rue du Pont Neuf, located in the very center of the city, is one of the few examples, unfortunately for the time being, of the implementation of planting with tall vegetation at the expense of former parking spaces
photo: the author
The next step in verifying election promises turned out to be relatively simple math. Well, in order to properly plant the "promised" 170,000 trees, one needs a huge area by Paris' cramped standards—calculations show that almost 6 square kilometers, or as much as the area of the northwestern 17th district, one of Paris' larger arrondissements. Areas of this size are—simply—not available in Paris, even if one takes into account, for example, the annexation of many parking spaces. And here, I must admit, the real nonchalance of the authorities' response is astonishing: supposedly aware that there is indeed not enough space in the city (!). So, in order to get the right score on the meter, the squeezed-to-the-wall Merki administration is now talking about greening the slopes along the Paris ring road, and using the Miyawaki method. It's a strategy undermined by environmentalists to plant local species as densely as possible and then rely on the forces of nature. What is obvious—most of the seedlings simply die, while the effectiveness of this method in the local climate has not yet been confirmed (this system is used successfully in tropical climates in Asia or South America). So basically, however, it is not quality, but quantity. How far this is from the visions of "urban forests" spread earlier, cooling the streets and buildings.
Rue du Pont Neuf, located in the very center of the city, is one of the few examples, unfortunately, for the time being, of the implementation of planting with tall vegetation at the expense of former parking spaces
photo: the author
The problem that many cities face, namely developer rights and privileges, cannot be overlooked here either. Just a few months ago, the OnE project in the immediate vicinity of the Eiffel Tower in the framework of spatial reorganization intended to cut down forty-two trees, including two several hundred years old, had a hiccup. As a result of a well-organized protest (a petition on this issue was signed by more than 140,000 people), the administration withdrew from this plan. However, other recent felling has been carried out: twenty-nine trees went under the saw in preparation for the construction site of the Bruneseau skyscrapers in the 13th district. Under pressure from politicians and environmentalists, the city finally agreed to abandon the project itself, but the greenery that existed there to date is no longer there. Even more, seventy-six trees were recently cut down at the Porte de Montreuil, located in the east of the city, as part of a "land release" for the erection of a new 60,000-square-meter development.
And finally, a seemingly rather obvious thing. Namely, it should not be forgotten that the size of the tree crown itself and its age are also not insignificant. For example: when large old trees are cut down—new plants, although many times smaller, are counted in the record system as a one-to-one replacement. This is also, unfortunately, another argument working against the mer's methods: only many years and many liters of water later will the shade and carbon absorption of the new sapling be comparable.
The mayor of Paris, now in her second term in office, certainly had the courage to make an unpopular but extremely important decision for the city—a radical and regular reduction in car traffic. What is extremely positive is the heavily expanded network of spaces for bicycles. However, its expansion is often chaotic, the paths are poorly marked, not isolated from other street or sidewalk users, and thus often very dangerous. The intensive expansion of subway and streetcar lines cannot be underestimated either. Although these decisions have been made before or not necessarily steered by the capital's mayor's office itself, the changes are progressing and are positive.
Les Halles area—- the very center of the city; can the authorities be trusted to make it more beautiful, better and greener, observing the pathetically neglected greenery in the capital?—according to the latest press releases of the mayor's office, 35,000 sq m of "forest" is to be created in the east of Paris, on the site of the old tracks and the currently unused train station; maybe this time it will not be another unrealistic promise
photo: author
Plans for intensive greening of Paris, creating new urban enclaves of greenery are excellent ideas, as right as possible and climatically even necessary! This makes the populism and "politics" of these promises, in the shape of—so far—no cover, all the more irritating. Maybe it's naive thinking on my part, but how much more credible it would be if Hidalgo presented in her campaign not slogans and impossible "numbers" of new trees, but previously analyzed, concrete assumptions and projects. It remains to grit one's teeth and arm oneself with patience, optimism and faith that the enticing visions and prospects presented years ago will not remain them only on paper. Real changes in reality undoubtedly take more time, effort and money than perhaps hastily constructed election promises. May we only live to see them realized. Do we still have time to do so?
Anna Popiel-Moszyńska
photo: Author
