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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.

He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.

In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.

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• Paris 2000
  
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• Paris 2005, 2
  

More than that, for me Paris as a capital of France will be forever linked with the French middle class, both business and working. The city for made by the middle class with its imagination, money and talents during the centuries and who else could live where everything reminds of its artifacts. Nevertheless I decided to verify this story and find it much less funny after checking the market statistics.

To rent an apartment in Paris today is something I shouldn't advice for the ordinary people living on their salaries even if they seem to be well above the average level. For an average 2BR apartment (no more than 900-1000 sq.feet) you ll have to pay between $3,000 and $4,500 depending on the area (so-called arrondissements). After taxes this is the whole disposable average income of a household with two working parents. Do you want something cheaper? So how about a studio of 300 sq.feet for $1,500-2,000 a month? These rents match those in luxury buildings in NYC but don't forget the fact that in the Big Apple you'll have a 24-hour service desk, not to mention the pool, underground garage etc. In Paris these rents for the most of the premises include only the floor and the roof, with no extra amenities.

With such rents still going up and up* it isn't surprising at all why teachers, nurses and policemen leave the city, as was said in the above mentioned TV report. What I'm curious of is who is coming on their place, filling up the vacancies? Looking on the available premises I couldn't believe that thousands and thousands of millionaires are besieging landlords asking for a room in such old and out-of-date apartments. Then maybe some students are interested? But they won't rent anything larger than a studio that most probably will be shared by at least 4 (when half of them occupy the available beds the other half study and vice versa).

So who else than the tourists are storming the Paris central areas? The French capital is becoming step by step a whole new tourist facility where hundreds of thousands apartments are competing with the existing hotels to offer beds for the millions of tourists visiting the city all year long. The process of emptying the city of its permanent residents has become long ago but in the past it has touched only the most luxurious areas. Today as we see from the reports and offers this process is expanding in all directions from the historical center of the city to its beltway.

To end this story I'll use a section from the same TV report when the journalist was trying to understand the profile of who is living in one of the central areas by asking the passing-bys. His survey turned to be a total failure. At least half of the asked didn't speak French. Maybe the next time they will be close to 100 percent.

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* - 5% rents increase in Paris only for the first half of 2002.

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