The people of Toulouse have quite simple aspirations. They want trees, bike lanes well separated from pedestrian flows, less noise and bat houses to put an end to the mosquito problem. This is at least what emerges from the “My ideas for my neighborhood” operation, launched in June by the town hall and whose objective was to ask the inhabitants how to spend equitably in the twenty districts the eight million euros of the participatory budget revised upwards. In all, 1,644 proposals were submitted online. Once the most “utopian” filtered, there remained 791, passed through the mill of citizen workshops and then an online vote. Results of this general brainstorming: 83 mini-projects selected, which the mayor Jean-Luc Moudenc (ex-LR) undertakes to achieve “within two years”.
And one of them, who came third in the votes of Internet users, is not anecdotal. Because it concerns the sacrosanct Place du Capitole, the place of tourist selfies and political meetings, the nerve center where anger erupts and where we converge on days of jubilation. But Toulouse people seem to be more pragmatic than conservative. The place may be beautiful, it is very mineral. “At the height of summer, crossing the square can be a challenge,” admits the mayor. We would even tend to avoid it. The idea retained, and which the city councilor undertakes to implement “from the summer of 2023” is vague enough to leave room for interpretation: “Vegetation of the Place du Capitole”, says the document, for “200,000 euros”.
A real headache
But there are many pitfalls to this greening. The first is the underground car park built below which virtually prohibits any attempt to plant a tree wishing to deploy its roots as it pleases. The second imperative is not to clutter it too much or limit access to it. We shouldn’t have to squeeze between the trunks for the next return of the Shield of Brennus. And then there is “heritage”, underlines Jean-Luc Moudenc, this facade of the middle of the 18th century and its marble colonnades, which we cannot decently hide.
For the mayor, who has requested the services and is awaiting new proposals, “we have to imagine mobile facilities”. A first project which consisted of planting a few trees in the corners of the square has already been revoked. It did not solve the problem of the crossing “under the dodger”. So what ? Giant cache-pots, mounted on wheels? A design shade house? Creeping, seasonal plants? The suspense should end soon.