Two Marseilles?

Are there two Marseilles? Senator Samia Ghali, a Marseille politician who grew up in housing projects, seems to think so. There seems to be the drug and crime plagued area and the beautiful, old port city with its host of fancy clubs, restaurants and shops. The Capital of Culture beautification projects seem to have furthered this divide by pouring money into improving Marseille's tourist centers while the immigrant and poorer communities continue to suffer in poverty and unemployment. This line and seperatiion of the North and South is very apparent, especially when talking to people. One white, native French young man that I spoke to told me that the immigrants, specifically North Africans are taking away all of the jobs and they are ruining the city. It is ironic that this man thought North Africans were stealing jobs because the unemployment rate in the Northern Quarters and immigrant communities is the highest in Marseille.

There is more than one Marseille, there may even be more than two Marseilles. This is why the classification of a hybrid city, rather than simply 'French' or 'Mediterranean' is so fitting because Marseille is constantly constructing a new identity or trying to hide an identity. Of course many cities could claim something similar but what I think makes  Marseille special and unique is its geographical closeness to North Africa and it's placement in the Mediterranean as well as its proximity to the bourgeois city of Aix-en-Provence. Aix is completely different in almost every way from Marseille, including architecture, demograhics and the personalities of people even though the cities are about thirty minutes apart from each other. I am interested to follow what the impact of the Capital of Culture is on Marseille's people and economy, as well as its reputation.