Vandalism and riots in Schaerbeek against new circulation plan for two evenings in a row, municipality intervenes (Inland)
Good move is not the right move for everyone. Over the years, Brussels has been rolling out spatial plans in all municipalities and districts to improve the quality of life and to avoid heavy traffic outside the residential neighbourhood. But the Great Mobility Plan, official Good move thus, the capital seems to be split in two. Pro and contra. And after Cureghem, on Monday and Tuesday also in Schaerbeek caused demonstrations, vandalism and riots.
The circulation plan in Schaerbeek was moved in three phases. The closing was Monday. Some cuts at the Paviljoenplein and Stephensonplein. They should ensure less cut-through traffic. For lesser people avoiding the busy Lambermont to get out of town.
The result seems successful. It was safe at the school gates of the Pavilion school on Monday and Tuesday. And most importantly: it didn’t smell of exhaust fumes. The trucks could be counted on a few hands. Well seen: one or a few cars that wrongly drove into a (new) one-way street. Beginner’s mistakes, probably. A new traffic situation is always a learning process.
Polarizing
But circulation plans also do in Brussels what they did in the country before, with Ghent as an – ahem – example. They polarize. Putting for and against each other. And in Brussels that is starting to take on grim forms. It started well, but things went wrong in Cureghem – a neighborhood in Anderlecht. The sounds are louder than the pleadings. Concrete blocks were towed and poles kept away. A cyclist eventually corrected him when he hit such a block that was out of place. Riots were inevitable. The city council folded and slightly reversed the circulation plan.
Scene Monday evening at Place Stephenson in Schaerbeek. Fewer hundred people together to protest against the circulation plan. It didn’t stop with scanning. Poles were removed again. It got grim. The same scenario on Tuesday evening, also at Paviljoenplein. There, firefighters were pelted with eggs by protesters when they tried to put out a fire. One firefighter was hit in the eye and directed to hospital.
Pieter Fannes of the citizens’ collective 1030/0 is pro-circulation plan. He was at the protest on Monday but went home quickly. “I want to talk to everyone. But when called, it is no longer for me.” Fannes thinks that it is not so easy to walk in Schaerbeek. “Those instigators of Cureghem were here too. They have made it more difficult to enter into a dialogue.” Because you have to confirm that the plan has positive effects, Fannes thinks. “You notice immediately that it has become more livable here. We all want streets with fewer trucks. Both the advance and the income.”
(read more below the photo)
Two speeds
Not that he denies that the neighborhood lives on two. You have the people who are assembled here in the district. And then you have the newcomers: Syrians, Bulgarians… but also Flemish. I’ll be there. I come from Leuven and have lived in Schaerbeek for 15 years now.”
Fannes does not want to divide the neighborhood into colors. “But many people who have lived here for a long time no longer trust the government. They have lived here since Mayor Nolfs’ time. He rode around here on a camel at election time. Either you choose me, or it will be here.” He totally disapproves. “But it has struck a community that is still unhealed. The mistrust of government and politics has not gone away yet.”
already saw pamphlets in which there is already fantasizing about colonization. “Give us our neighborhood back, it reads. As if the new Flemings were the new settlers.” Fannes is sorry. “Would the people here say goodbye to each other.” According to him, it is individuals who are responsible for the polarization.
The city council already announced on Tuesday evening that it would not ignore the protest. Good move is already being adapted in Schaerbeek, including the cut on the Paviljoenplein. “We are going for an accelerated evaluation, and not only after six months initially planned,” it sounds.