"Open this gate!" In Marseille, gated communities are fragmenting the city

Anger has not subsided among the residents' group in Chutes-Lavie, a working-class area near the city center, since a gate was installed in the Cité des Jardins, which consists of social housing as well as small individual houses.

"This is our little Berlin Wall," says Nathalie Prost, 53, who is leading the protest with the slogan: "Open this gate to pedestrians!"

This phenomenon of "residentialization," inspired by the "gated communities" popular in the United States and many other countries, has intensified in France's second-largest city, where 34% of homes are now located in gated communities. In 2023, the city had 1.884 such communities, compared to 103 in 1990, according to data from Aix-Marseille University.

In 30 years, residents of the Jardins residence have first seen the installation of a barrier, then a gate open during the day and, for the past few weeks, the prohibition of access to non-residents.

The hundred or so co-owners and tenants justify it by citing "acts of vandalism, illegal parking and intrusions", according to the manager of the social housing complex.

"Unfair"

The consequence for the 7.000 residents of the district: a one-kilometer detour to access public facilities by taking a two-way boulevard with a narrow sidewalk.

"It's unfair," laments Slamet Kadi, a mother of two young children, whose commute to daycare has gone from "two minutes to fifteen minutes." Christian Yust, 70, has given up going to the municipal garden as well as "picking up (his) granddaughter from school."

"It's a neighborhood life that's coming to a standstill," laments the Green mayor of the district, Didier Jau. "It seems absurd that public structures are being cut off from their public," continues the elected official, specifying that the city of Marseille, led by a left-wing-civil society-Green coalition, voted against the closure of the gate.

The Aix-Marseille metropolitan area, responsible for roads and led by the right-wing Martine Vassal, voted in favour, indicating that it was aligning itself with the position of the property owners.

"Marseille must remain a city of diversity that does not erect walls," insists Mr. Jau.

It is the major city in France that "has preserved the most private roads", explains geographer Elisabeth Dorier, who is cataloging gated communities through her Marseille Privatopia project.

"Paris, Nantes, and Bordeaux have taken the step of inventorying private roads that were of interest to pedestrians or traffic in order to transfer them to the public domain and assume responsibility for their maintenance," the researcher continues. Marseille, "in order to save money, has not played its regulatory role," particularly in the affluent southern neighborhoods where the residentialization began.

"Relationship capital"

The case of "Périer hill", in the 8th arrondissement, is emblematic of a latent conflict between residents and neighbors.

The only road allowing passage through this hill dotted with luxurious villas was closed off five years ago by a gate. It "is not registered in the land registry and falls under the public domain," asserts Ms. Dorier, a lecturer and researcher at Aix-Marseille University. But "behind the walls, there are residents with very high social standing who don't hesitate to hire lawyers."

The city has requested that the contentious crossings be transformed into "reserved areas," a tool within the local urban development plan that allows them to be made public. "We have always been met with a refusal" from the metropolitan authority, states Eric Méry, the deputy mayor in charge of urban planning.

The elected official receives numerous requests for permits to install a fence. "In some difficult neighborhoods I accept because I know it can help, but in privileged neighborhoods where there are not really any security problems, it does not suit us," insists Mr. Méry, who counts about ten requests for gate removal.

But this residentialization is primarily driven by "a logic of real estate appreciation, a social exclusivity where the cohesion of the city is disregarded," analyzes Elisabeth Dorier. "After the third detour, the pedestrian takes their car and Marseille remains the champion of urban pollution."