For many, French urban spending can't shake the ghetto feeling

A woman walks past a car, burnt during nights of unrest following the death of Nahel, a 17-year-old teenager killed by a French police officer in Nanterre during a traffic stop, at Saint-Eloy neighbourhood in Woippy, suburb of the French city of Metz, France, July 5, 2023. REUTERS/Horaci Garcia

WOIPPY, France (Reuters) - After a bout of street unrest just over a decade ago, the Woippy suburb of the northeastern city of Metz secured state funding to improve housing, refurbish streets and even create a riverside beach and educational farm complete with beehives and a llama.

But such spending, part of France's longstanding policy of urban renewal projects, did not discourage youths from looting its shops and setting fire to a local school in riots last week after the police shooting of a teenager of North African descent at a traffic stop in a Paris suburb.