Apple founder street name shakes Paris suburb to the core

He changed technology and how the world communicates. Now, five years after he died, Apple founder Steve Jobs may be remembered in another way-on a Paris street. “Rue Steve Jobs” is among names shortlisted for one of the new roads in the French capital’s southeastern 13th arrondissement that will lead to a new incubator for hi-tech start-ups.

The tech titan’s name was put forward by the district’s socialist mayor who credited Jobswhose company altered the face of computing, revolutionised music with the iPod and launched the iPhone and iPad-with “changing our daily lives”. But the mayor, Jerome Coumet, has faced a backlash from elected Communists, who in a statement said “the reality of the legacy” of Jobs was “insufficient wages” and “forced overtime” for Apple subcontractors.

They also hit out at what they alleged was the technology giant’s “use of illegal tax arrangements” across the globe. Coumet said he was not seeking controversy. “I wanted a name that speaks to as many people as possible,” he said. Among other suggestions was Alan Turing, in memory of the British mathematician and computer scientist whose wartime work allowed the allies to crack German codes and defeat Nazism. Grace Murray Hopper, an American computer scientist and former Navy rear admiral who pioneered coding, is also proposed.

Currently dubbed Station F, names for the start-up hub are to be discussed by Paris council officials in December, before it opens in March next year.