Gagarine

Among those commemorating the end of Cité Gagarine was Gilles Blanc, 36, wearing a red T-shirt of Vietnam’s Communist Party.

As poverty levels rose, so did instances of juvenile delinquency and crime, and also the Cite Gagarine region became of France’s notorious”sensitive urban zones” requiring more concentrated state aid to fight joblessness.

The second was the retreat of laid-off workers, who moved away from places like Cité Gagarine, and the arrival of immigrants, mostly from former French colonies in Africa, who filled their apartments.

Unlike older public housing, the Gagarine apartments had private toilets, small living rooms, bathtubs — though not the prized spacious kitchens that even newer buildings would eventually have.