Housing or an urban farm? Arm wrestling at Les Pradettes between the town hall of Toulouse and an association
The refusal goes badly for the members of the NATURES association The town hall of Toulouse has said “no” to their urban farm project in the heart of the Pradettes district, in Toulouse. Instead, the municipal majority wants to see on this wasteland of Bordeblanche some 375 accommodationsas well as “local public facilities”.
This Wednesday, the association met to oppose this ambition, symbolically baptizing the wasteland “Oasis de Bordeblanche”. For the town hall of Toulouse, the project carried out by the collective of inhabitants is not “viable” economically and would generate a loss of income of 3.8 million euros for the municipality. An argument that is not understandable for Sophie Dezzou Mercier, co-president of NATURES: “We have the funding, we checked with the Region that all the investments were funded, and we checked by preliminary studies.
“The town hall is not worried about the IPCC report, she continues, that we simply cannot breathe when we are surrounded by concrete. We have to stop thinking like in the years when we built all over the place, we have to think about renovation, and that is not mentioned at all.”
Last island of freshness in the neighborhood
The collective does not want to let go of the matter, it sent a letter to the mayor, Jean-Luc Moudenc, to ask him to treat the file “seriously”. Philippe Lebailly, co-president of the association, also intends to mobilize the inhabitants, for him it is a ecological necessity.
“For the inhabitants around the wasteland, it is a matter of well-being, does he advance. It is vital to preserve this wasteland. Studies show that during heat waves, it plays a cooling role. We arrive in imbalances where the city is no longer livable. We are determined to oppose, by all means, new constructions.”
Some opposition municipal elected officials were present, groups Alternative municipaliste citoyenne and Toulouse ecologist, solidarity & citizen. They call on the majority to reconsider its decision.
The town hall of Toulouse says it has offered the association to support it in this project but elsewhere, which the association has refused according to them.