Aubervilliers

French commune
nomcommune=Aubervilliers
Housing projects at dusk|

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mapcaption=Paris and inner ring départements
lat_long=coord|48|54|53|N|2|22|52|E|region:FR_type:city
région=Île-de-France
département=Seine-Saint-Denis| arrondissement=Saint-Denis
canton=
insee= 93001
cp= 93300|maire=
mandat=
intercomm=Plaine Commune
longitude= |latitude= |alt moy= |alt mini= |alt maxi=
km²= 5.76
sans=
72,000
63,136
date-sans=2005 estimate
1999 census|dens=12,500|date-dens=2005|

Aubervilliers is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 7.2 km. (4.5 miles) from the center of Paris. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe.

The Telecity Paris datacenter which houses Wikimedia servers is located in Aubervilliers.

Name

In medieval times the name Aubervilliers was recorded as "Alberti Villare", meaning "estate ("villare") of Adalbert". Adalbert is a Germanic personal name meaning "noble (Adal-) and bright (-bert)" (Old English Æþelbeorht) which gave modern English Albert, Old French Aubert, and modern French Albert.

History

On January 1, 1860, the city of Paris was enlarged by annexing neighboring communes. On that occasion, a small part of the commune of Aubervilliers was annexed to the city of Paris. At the same time, the commune of La Chapelle-Saint-Denis was disbanded and divided between the city of Paris, Aubervilliers, Saint-Denis, and Saint-Ouen. Aubervilliers received a small part of the territory of La Chapelle-Saint-Denis.

Today

Aubervilliers has a residential part and a housing projects part which is known to have a high crime and murder rate. According to police statistics released by French newspaper "Le Figaro", Aubervilliers is the second most violent town in France after Saint-Denis. However, despite a crime situation which is very bad, the town has been mostly spared by the riots. Neighbouring communes like Saint-Denis (most violent town in France) and La Courneuve (4th most violent town in France) does not help the commune to improve it's security.

Aubervilliers, like most neighbouring towns has been hit very hard by deindustrialization. Big parts of the town are covered with abandoned warehouses and urban decay plagues the town. Some warehouses spaces called EMGP (former Entrepots et Magazins Generaux de Paris) has been converted to a gated office space, with tenants like Cinema Studios, Fashion and Telecommunications. However, most people who works there do not live in Aubervilliers so improvements for the town is mostly confined to business tax. The gated nature of this office space makes it harder for the town to profit from it.

More recently, Chinese immigrants have set up clothes import business after buying or renting abandoned warehouses.

In a more general way, very cheap prices per square meters for a town which is neighbored by Paris is starting to help. The governments also plans to install a university and Paris Metro will be extended to Aubervilliers by 2012. The municipality will also try to buy decayed buildings and refurbish them or demolish them.

Politics hope to start a gentrification process for this town like the one that happened in Montreuil. However, closeness to neighbourhoods with a very bad reputation will make it hard to come by. French specificities like social housing makes the gentrification process slower than in the USA. Moreover other specificities like "carte scolaire" which impose the school where you send your children based on the place you live will also be a problem to the town. Most parents don't want to send their children in a place where high schools can be violent.

Demographics

Immigration

France immigration
collectivity_name=Aubervilliers
census_year=1999
metropolitan_France=63.2
outside_metropolitan_France=36.8
overseas_France=2.8
foreign_French=2.3
EU-15=5.8
non-EU-15=25.9

Administration

Aubervilliers is divided into two cantons:

*The canton of Aubervilliers-Est (East): 36,010 inhabitants;
*The canton of Aubervilliers-Ouest (West): 27,126 inhabitants.

Famous people born in Aubervilliers

* Virginie Ledoyen, (b. November 15, 1976), French actress, occasional singer.
* Ibrahim Tall, footballer
* Abou Diaby,footballer
* Tandem(Mac Kregor and Mac Tyer), a rap band
* Dontcha,raper
* Didier Daeninckx,writer
* Firmin Gémier,actor

Transport

Aubervilliers is served by two stations on Paris Métro Line 7: Aubervilliers – Pantin – Quatre Chemins and Fort d'Aubervilliers.

Aubervilliers is also served by La Courneuve – Aubervilliers station on Paris RER line B. This station, although administratively located on the territory of the neighboring commune of La Courneuve, lies in fact very near the town center of Aubervilliers.

Monuments

*Fort d'Aubervilliers

External links

* [http://www.aubervilliers.fr/ Aubervilliers city council website] (in French)