Contrasts of Belleville

Following up on my previous post, this picture could be a metaphor of the diversity in my quarter. Old buildings constructed well before the first world war, at the end of the nineteenth century, contrast with tall (and a bit too simple), 18-story tall HLMs or "housing at modest rent" apartment blocks from the 70s, built mostly for the middle and working class. Very similarly, the old French seniors who grew up in the neighborhood before any of the high-risers were built mix in the streets and at the farmers' market with the immigrant youth from North and West Africa, China or even Latin America.

The question is, though, whether the diverse residents of Belleville merely exist next to each other like these contrasting buildings without any contact, passing each other while shopping for their bread in the little Tunisian-run boulangerie on the corner, or whether they actually go beyond the formal contact to make bridges between the diverse communities.

It's a question that makes me think of the little town of Chapel Hill in the Southern United States.