Puplinge is a municipality in the canton of Geneva in Switzerland.
History
According to Pierre Bertrand, the village of Puplinge was part of ancient Burgundy and settled in 443 by 'le peuple germanique des Burgondes' The name of the village is derived from Old German and has since been modified to fit with French spelling conventions by adding an 'e' at the end. Bertrand further states that the names of the villages of Presinge, Puplinge, Corsinge, Merlinge, etc. 'tended to indicate an area of Germanic preponderance'.
It was part of the County of Geneva originated in the 10th century, in the Kingdom of Burgundy; in the domain of Aymar of Geneva, who married Bertha of Flanders, daughter of Baudouin III, count of Flanders, and died in 1016. The territory passed to the de Thoire et Villars family on the death of Count Robert (the Avignon Pope Clement VII) in 1394, was sold in 1400 to the Counts of Savoy. During the attempts by the Duke of Savoy to capture Geneva in 1602, Puplinge was part of the Savoy territory as an appendage as part of the Bailiwick of Gaillard. It was subsequently conceded to several Savoyard princes before being joined to the Duchy of Savoy in 1659.
Puplinge is first mentioned in 1573 as Puplinge.
Prior to 1860, it was part of the Ville-La-Grand commune of Savoy as the other half of Ville La Grand commune of France of the present times. As a result of the Treaty of Turin, signed on 16 March 1816, Savoy was annexed to France as agreed back in 1858 at Plombières-les-Bains dividing the commune between Switzerland and France and Puplinge was awarded to Switzerland along with Presinge. The duty-free zone north of a line defined by Saint-Genix-sur-Guiers, Le Châtelard, Faverges and Les Contamines-Montjoie created as result of the treaty ensured that the official French frontier was located a significant distance away from the actual frontier with Switzerland. Presinge, Puplinge and the hamlets of Cara, La Louviere, and Pesay Angle were combined to form a single municipality. In 1824, the first school building opened in the town.
In 1842, the first direct elections to the town council occurred. Due to long standing tensions between Presinge and Puplinge, on 9 November 1850 Puplinge and Presinge were split into two communes creating the present day borders of the municipality.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 18 February 2011 The commune has swung between Protestantism and Catholicism based on the government in charge.
In 1924, the municipality received its coat of arms.
Champ-Dollon Prison
Approximately from the village, across the Route de Jussy lies the Maximum Security prison of Champ-Dollon, which is officially part of the municipality. It employs about 200 people and houses 500 inmates. It was built in 1977 to house 200 inmates. There are several controversies surrounding this prison. Over 60% of the prisoners are awaiting trial which has caused significant overcrowding. In 2006, the prison faced a mutiny of the inmates over the conditions as well as police brutality. Over 80% of the prisoners are of foreign origin.
Geography Puplinge has an area, , of . Of this area, or 74.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 4.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 20.7% is settled (buildings or roads).Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics 2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 13.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.6%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.5%. Out of the forested land, 0.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 59.4% is used for growing crops and 6.8% is pastures, while 7.9% is used for orchards or vine crops.
The municipality is located on the left bank of the Rhone river. This municipality borders Ville la Grand commune in Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in southeastern France. It consists of the linear village of Puplinge and the hamlets of Mon-Idée and Cornier. Apart from France, it is surrounded by other Swiss municipalities of Choulex, Presinge and Thônex.
The municipality of Puplinge consists of the sub-sections or villages of Dardelles, Champ-Dollon, Pesay and Puplinge - village.Canton of Geneva Statistical Office Liste des 475 sous-secteurs statistiques du canton de Genève. accessed 18 April 2011
Demographics + Largest groups of foreign residents 2013Nationality Amount % total(population)1075.2582.8351.7211.0190.9150.7131.6110.5110.570.3
Puplinge has a population () of . , 17.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008 accessed 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 0.9%. It has changed at a rate of -7.8% due to migration and at a rate of 8.4% due to births and deaths.Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 29-April-2011
, the gender distribution of the population was 47.3% male and 52.7% female. The population was made up of 771 Swiss men (37.9% of the population) and 191 (9.4%) non-Swiss men. There were 923 Swiss women (45.4%) and 150 (7.4%) non-Swiss women.Canton of Geneva Statistical Office Population résidante du canton de Genève, selon l'origine et le sexe, par commune, en mars 2011 accessed 18 April 2011 Of the population in the municipality 426 or about 18.9% were born in Puplinge and lived there in 2000. There were 688 or 30.5% who were born in the same canton, while 364 or 16.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 514 or 22.8% were born outside of Switzerland.
In there were 19 live births to Swiss citizens and 6 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 4 deaths of Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 15 while the foreign population increased by 6. There were 8 Swiss men and 5 Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 6 non-Swiss men and 4 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was a decrease of 6 and the non-Swiss population increased by 11 people. This represents a population growth rate of 0.2%.
The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 25.2% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 66.4% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 8.4%.
, there were 1,010 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,030 married individuals, 62 widows or widowers and 156 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000 accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 820 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household. There were 237 households that consist of only one person and 62 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 837 households that answered this question, 28.3% were households made up of just one person and there were 2 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 196 married couples without children, 305 married couples with children. There were 72 single parents with a child or children. There were 8 households that were made up of unrelated people and 17 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.
there were 154 single family homes (or 52.9% of the total) out of a total of 291 inhabited buildings. There were 100 multi-family buildings (34.4%), along with 29 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (10.0%) and 8 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (2.7%). Of the single family homes 37 were built before 1919, while 7 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (63) were built between 1981 and 1990. The most multi-family homes (42) were built between 1971 and 1980 and the next most (22) were built between 1996 and 2000.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen accessed 28 January 2011
there were 836 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 271. There were 41 single room apartments and 215 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 802 apartments (95.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 24 apartments (2.9%) were seasonally occupied and 10 apartments (1.2%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 0 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.23%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Bevölkerungsentwicklung nach Region, 1850-2000 accessed 29 January 2011
Politics In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 21.27% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Green Party (20.19%), the LPS Party (17.53%) and the SP (15.76%). In the federal election, a total of 652 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 49.4%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office, Nationalratswahlen 2007: Stärke der Parteien und Wahlbeteiligung, nach Gemeinden/Bezirk/Canton accessed 28 May 2010
In the 2009 Grand Conseil election, there were a total of 1,318 registered voters of which 598 (45.4%) voted. The most popular party in the municipality for this election was the Les Verts with 19.0% of the ballots. In the canton-wide election they received the second highest proportion of votes. The second most popular party was the Libéral (with 17.7%), they were first in the canton-wide election, while the third most popular party was the MCG (with 14.5%), they were also third in the canton-wide election.Canton of Geneva Statistical Office Election Results from multiple spreadsheets accessed 18 April 2011
For the 2009 Conseil d'État election, there were a total of 1,314 registered voters of which 698 (53.1%) voted.
In 2011, all the municipalities held local elections, and in Puplinge there were 17 spots open on the municipal council. There were a total of 1,513 registered voters of which 756 (50.0%) voted. Out of the 756 votes, there were 14 blank votes, 7 null or unreadable votes and 56 votes with a name that was not on the list.
Local government Like all municipalities in the canton of Geneva, the political authorities of Puplinge consist of an Administrative Council (Conseil administratif) headed by a mayor as executive and a Municipal Council (Conseil municipal), composed of three and twenty-seven citizens respectively, elected for four years. The local government is responsible for providing services such as primary education, social services, public transportation, and tax collection. The primary source of income is direct taxes.
Puplinge also has the distinction of being 7th in the country for the highest number of registered Green Party of Switzerland (PES) voters with 20.2% of all voters indicating their preference for PES in 2007.
The elections are scheduled once every 4 years. Swiss citizens and foreigners residing in the Canton of Geneva for eight years or more are eligible to vote. The current mayor is Michel Pitteloud and the Deputy Mayor is Gilles Marti.
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