“It struck us to see the dismantling of the nursery”, we breathe at the Generous Farmers. On this Wednesday morning, the last bulldozer blows brought down a plant project, a bit utopian launched a few years earlier under the rails of line 2, in the 18th arrondissement. In March 2019, the association Vergers urbains won the call for projects entitled “Let’s cultivate the Barbès-Chapelle-Stalingrad Promenade” launched by the Paris City Hall with Generous Fermiers. “It was a nursery intended to produce fruit trees, perennial vegetables, cuttings in order to supply urban agriculture sites”, explains a member of the project. At the same time, workshops and training are organized around gardening and culture.
The site made available and developed by the municipality is anything but simple. Located along the Boulevard de la Chapelle, it is sandwiched between the railway tracks from the Gare de l’Est and the metro viaduct. “The results were rather positive and the site was appreciated by the inhabitants, we managed to do something nice, continues our source. It took a while to start but it was starting to take. »
“We spent a lot of time cleaning and repairing”
Except that last June, migrants began to camp there at night, while freeing the site during the day. But “it became difficult to reconcile the two and we spent a lot of time cleaning and repairing”. “The animation component of the project around containers which was to be developed in 2022 could not be initiated”, adds the town hall of Paris. Little by little, the site is deserted by its original occupants, replaced by people in great precariousness. “On November 17, the evacuation of the camp near Barbès led to a postponement of the nursery and this put a complete end to the project”.
Finally the new camp, which brought together nearly 800 people, was also evacuated on Friday, December 16. But the team had already turned the page when the Paris town hall decided to dismantle the nursery. “It was decided to proceed with the withdrawal of all the installations (planter and containers) due to the degraded state of the equipment and the impossibility of reinstalling an urban agriculture project on this site”, indicates the municipality. “We were able to collect the plants on site to distribute them to the other Urban Orchards sites, but it hurt our hearts to see that. But the Generous Farmers are still wondering about the lack of reaction from state services. “We were waiting for accommodation for these people in order to resume our activity. It finally happened, but obviously too late.