Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe PARIS, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- Paris has approved a plan to stop the so-called Londonization of its core by encouraging small shops and the middle class to stay in the city. The Local Urbanism Plan will guide the development of Paris for the next two decades by benefiting butchers, bakers and other trades. It requires developers to devote 25 percent of any project of more than 3,000 square feet to affordable housing to create a mix of people. Advertisement "I don't want Paris to look like London, with a very wealthy population on one side and a very poor population on the other," Jean-Yves Mano, a housing policy official, told the Times of London. "It is the social balance that makes Paris what it is." Critics blame soaring costs of a flat on investors who buy up entire blocks and then sell the homes at prices the middle class cannot afford. Mayor Bertrand Delanoe says he wants to create 4,500 affordable homes a year, primarily in upscale West Paris, which boast landmarks such as the Champs Elysées.
