Elected officials and decision-makers have done everything possible to spare the nostalgia of local residents, while justifying the merits of the operation.
« I had my grandmother in these buildings, my aunt, friends… Everything here takes me back to my past, but we have to move forward », We could hear in the crowd gathered, Tuesday October 15, at the Parc au Lièvres roundabout in Evry-Courcouronnes. As rarely, a certain melancholy reigned over the ceremony organized that day to mark the end of the demolition of the famous slab of Parc aux Lièvres, an emblematic place of the new town of Evry, one of its very first districts.
In a short film broadcast as a preamble to the official speeches, we even hear the voice of a young man, presented as having grown up on this slab, openly criticizing the decision: “ I would have left it as is. But apparently, we don’t have a say, it’s a bit of contempt… »
“We can understand nostalgia, but it cannot stop us from moving forward”
A large veil had been installed from one side of the road to the other, to create a “before and after” effect.
On this small portion of departmental road 91, a large semi-transparent veil had been deployed to give a quite striking “before and after” effect. On the veil, a photo of the axis as it was just a few months ago, that is to say walled under the slab, showed the street as it is now, free of its roof. At the podium, everyone did their best to spare the nostalgia of local residents and former residents, while defending the project of which this demolition marks a symbolic stage.
The mayor, Stéphane Beaudet, declared: “ As a child of the new town, I too often walked through the Parc aux Lièvres, my father was even the director of the neighborhood center installed on the slab. We can understand the nostalgia and even the bitterness that some residents express. But that cannot stop us from moving forward, we, elected officials, who have the duty to make decisions five, ten or 20 years from now in order to ensure the attractiveness and renewal of the city. If demolition does not erase the good memories we have on this slab, we cannot ignore the problems that the neighborhood was facing, its degradation, its insecurity… Architecture on slab with ultra-specialized neighborhoods, model on which all of Evry was built, did not work. We must take note of the results of this experiment to make the “laboratory city” a real city. »
Buildings soon to be demolished to make way for 900 new housing units
While the entire commune of Evry-Courcouronnes has been transformed for several years over the course of numerous urban redevelopment projects, the case of Parc aux Lièvres actually falls within a larger framework, and has already begun with, for example, the establishment of new public services, which also concerns the Bras de Fer district. If the buildings which surrounded the slab must be demolished over the coming year, 900 new housing units must also be created, with the ambition “ to increase the diversity of housing » (the Parc aux Lièvres had 1,200 housing units, including 870 social ones). In addition to this issue, the municipality also ensures that it works for the living environment, in particular with the planting of more than 400 trees in the area.
