Chêne-Bougeries


Chêne-Bougeries is a municipality in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland.
WWW chene-bougeries.ch

History

Chêne-Bougeries is first mentioned in 1270 as Quercus. In 1801 it was mentioned as Chêne-les-Bougeries.
Chêne-Bougeries was inhabited for most of its history, and neither the Romans nor the Genevans settled there. An important concern for the Genevans was the leprosy hospital that occupied part of the commune; it is only when this illness was defeated around the 16th century that Chêne-Bougeries really started to develop.
During the French Revolution the territory was occupied by the French. In 1798 the commune was forced to merge with the neighbouring communes of Chêne-Thônex and Chêne-Bourg to create a new entity, the Trois-Chêne.
In 1801, however, it was able to regain the autonomous commune status, while Chêne-Thônex and Chêne-Bourg remained unified. In 1816, Chêne-Bougeries, as many of other neighboring communes, became part of a newly Swiss Geneva.
Incidentally, Chêne-Thônex was subsequently called Thônex when dissensions led to a new separation with Chêne-Bourg in 1869.
The three communes are still referred today as Trois-Chêne and close ties are still in place. Work on social security, medical assistance, cultural offerings and sport infrastructure, to name a few, are operated in close cooperation between the three.
While it used to be an agricultural commune for most of its history, Chêne-Bougeries, due to its close position to the city of Geneva, became essentially residential, attracting middle to very high revenue families.

Geography

Chêne-Bougeries has an area,, of. Of this area, or 10.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 5.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 83.3% is settled, or 1.0% is either rivers or lakes.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 66.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 11.6%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 3.9%. Out of the forested land, 3.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 5.1% is used for growing crops and 2.9% is pastures, while 2.2% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
The municipality is located to the left of Lake Geneva and to the right of the Seymaz. It borders the city of Geneva which is connected by three major roads as well as tram and bus lines. It consists of the town center and the neighborhoods of Grange-Canal, Malagnou, Le Vallon, La Pommière and Conches as well as the new high-rise developments of La Gradelle and La Montagne.
The municipality of Chêne-Bougeries consists of the sub-sections or villages of Boucle-de-Conches, Conches - La-Petite-Paumière, Conches - Vert-Pré, Bougeries - Clos-du-Velours, Bougeries - Chapeau, Chevillarde - Ermitage, Grange-Canal, Gradelle, Grange-Falquet, Rigaud - Montagne, Chêne-Bougeries - village.

Name

The name of Chêne-Bougeries derives from a massive oak that used to limit the build land with the forestry camps, called the Bougeries.

Demographics

NationalityAmount% total
France

Notable people

; Sport

Heritage sites of national significance

The Grange Falquet and the Temple are listed as Swiss heritage sites of national significance.

Sights

Chêne-Bougeries hosts an annex of the Musée d'ethnographie de Genève, Geneva's ethnographic museum.

Politics

The parliament, composed of 23 people, is dominated by the Parti Libéral Genevois, the main right-wing political party of the Canton. The mayor's office, called the Conseil Administratif, is composed by 3 people: the rotating president becomes the mayor. Currently, it is Mr Emile Biedermann.
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the LPS Party which received 27.61% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP, the SP and the Green Party. In the federal election, a total of 3,026 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 53.0%.
In the 2009 Grand Conseil election, there were a total of 5,745 registered voters of which 2,673 voted. The most popular party in the municipality for this election was the Libéral with 31.5% of the ballots. In the canton-wide election they received the highest proportion of votes. The second most popular party was the Les Verts, they were also second in the canton-wide election, while the third most popular party was the Les Radicaux, they were sixth in the canton-wide election.
For the 2009 Conseil d'Etat election, there were a total of 5,740 registered voters of which 3,024 voted.
In 2011, all the municipalities held local elections, and in Chêne-Bougeries there were 25 spots open on the municipal council. There were a total of 7,207 registered voters of which 3,131 voted. Out of the 3,131 votes, there were 18 blank votes, 11 null or unreadable votes and 147 votes with a name that was not on the list.

Economy

, Chêne-Bougeries had an unemployment rate of 4%., there were 5 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 2 businesses involved in this sector. 297 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 51 businesses in this sector. 2,835 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 283 businesses in this sector. There were 4,361 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 45.2% of the workforce.
the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 2,536. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 4, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 287 of which 62 or were in manufacturing and 225 were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 2,245. In the tertiary sector; 197 or 8.8% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 29 or 1.3% were in the movement and storage of goods, 76 or 3.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 53 or 2.4% were in the information industry, 20 or 0.9% were the insurance or financial industry, 154 or 6.9% were technical professionals or scientists, 558 or 24.9% were in education and 959 or 42.7% were in health care.
, there were 2,635 workers who commuted into the municipality and 3,681 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 14.7% of the workforce coming into Chêne-Bougeries are coming from outside Switzerland, while 0.2% of the locals commute out of Switzerland for work. Of the working population, 31.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 48.2% used a private car.

Religion

From the, 3,441 or 35.3% were Roman Catholic, while 2,178 or 22.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 239 members of an Orthodox church, there were 8 individuals who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 180 individuals who belonged to another Christian church. There were 284 individuals who were Jewish, and 236 who were Islamic. There were 23 individuals who were Buddhist, 18 individuals who were Hindu and 29 individuals who belonged to another church. 2,155 belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 968 individuals did not answer the question.

Education

In Chêne-Bougeries about 2,580 or of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 2,800 or have completed additional higher education. Of the 2,800 who completed tertiary schooling, 38.4% were Swiss men, 33.6% were Swiss women, 16.3% were non-Swiss men and 11.8% were non-Swiss women.
During the 2009–2010 school year there were a total of 1,868 students in the Chêne-Bougeries school system. The education system in the Canton of Geneva allows young children to attend two years of non-obligatory kindergarten. During that school year, there were 135 children who were in a pre-kindergarten class. The canton's school system provides two years of non-mandatory kindergarten and requires students to attend six years of primary school, with some of the children attending smaller, specialized classes. In Chêne-Bougeries there were 214 students in kindergarten or primary school and 37 students were in the special, smaller classes. The secondary school program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling, followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. There were 214 lower secondary students who attended school in Chêne-Bougeries. There were 376 upper secondary students from the municipality along with 73 students who were in a professional, non-university track program. An additional 519 students attended a private school.
, there were 2,350 students in Chêne-Bougeries who came from another municipality, while 921 residents attended schools outside the municipality.