Toulouse. An open letter for the purchase of the former Saint-Michel prison
The shooting of a film in the prison, an exceptional concert by the National Capitol Orchestra conducted by Tugan Sokhiev, a fruitful harvest of vegetables in shared gardens, an ephemeral cultural season or the launch of a study for future uses of the two wings of the former prison, on the Grande rue Saint-Michel side …
The Saint-Michel district committee and the association Le VBusca, our district list in an open letter to Jean-Luc Moudenc, mayor of Toulouse and president of Toulouse Métropole, everything that could be done in the premises of the former prison “if the community owned the site. For 18 years, the former prison has been almost entirely abandoned. For 11 years, the 19,400 m² site in the heart of the district has been abandoned by the State, which wishes to sell it and waits for the community to position itself before going to private promotion “, we can read in this letter.
“In 2014, you were elected by promising a Cité de la Musique on the site of the former prison, including an auditorium for the National Orchestra of the Théâtre du Capitole. During the summer of 2019, the prefect validates the project. development of the site supported by the associations concerned and you propose that the community buy the site on this basis for 5.5 M € instead of the 11.50 M € envisaged in 2017. In 2020, you were re-elected by promising again the City of Music on the site […] despite your re-election, nothing has happened yet! This acquisition makes it possible to do the necessary emergency work, to start opening the site to the public with transitional activities, to move forward on the Cité de la musique project “, continues the committee, in its letter to the mayor, who questions : “Would you prefer to wait until the State, without a response to its offer to sell to the community, ends up turning to private developers?” The signatories of the letter ask the mayor to “submit the acquisition of the ex-prison […] for € 5.50 million to the municipal or metropolitan council by the end of 2021 “. The mayor indicated, this summer in the Dispatch, that he was awaiting the commitment of the State, the Region and the Department for the financing of the auditorium …