Bronx jeers are flying in Paris, where a heated mayoral race is raging.
“Paris resembles The Bronx!” one election operative was recently quoted as sniffing, touching off what one publication is calling a bizarre and distinctly rude discussion: Has the City of Light turned into The Bronx?
The debate began when former National Police chief Frederic Pechenard, a pro-law-and-order right-winger, complained during the ongoing electioneering that Paris was becoming Bronxified.
The remark was meant to tap into fears about rampant crime, the online publication Quartz reported.
Socialist candidate Anne Hidalgo was quick to counter that, non, “Paris is not The Bronx.”
That led another candidate, Rachida Dati, to agree, asserting, “The Bronx is lawless. Paris is not The Bronx,” the Web site said.
The battle upset some Parisians, who complained that all the Bronx-Paris comparisons were bad for their snooty city.
“This argument could turn into a street fight,” warned Liliane Muller, manager of the luxury Paris residential rental firm Guest Apartment Services on the Ile Saint-Louis, Quartz reported.
“Tourists don’t want to hear such talk from politicians.”
Residents of “Le Bronx” — home to 1.4 million New Yorkers — weren’t exactly thrilled about the debate either.
Parisians have it backward, argued one resident.
“The Bronx is very much becoming like Paris, with the artists and the cafes,” said Mott Haven denizen Joshua Bedford, a 29-year-old local chef.
“This part is up and coming. It’s a funky little niche.”
Jamie Jones, 42, owns a nearby artists’ boutique, and agrees that the borough can be beautiful.
“We are like Paris, but not because of crime,” she said.
“Every area of The Bronx is not that bad,” she insisted.
“All the other boroughs are just as bad or worse than The Bronx,” added Jones, who was born and raised in Mott Haven.
“I’ve never had a problem.”
Jones’ business partner, Edith Harper, summed it up this way: “We don’t all have guns. Some of us do, but not all of us.”