Place Mazagran in Lyon: the city corridor strikes the benches however the sellers stay | EUROtoday

PLooking cheerfully on the swings, the youngsters go down solely to run from one finish to the opposite from the playground. At the tip of the sunny day on April 9, this nook of Mazagran sq., positioned within the heart of Lyon, is occupied by kids. What appears apparent, stated like that, was in no way a 12 months and a half in the past. In query: the drug trafficking that performs the place within the coronary heart of the Guillotière district.

To attempt to perceive what the inhabitants are going by, we had slept a number of nights on the spot in October 2023. We had skilled the cries, the music till late at night time, the disturbing impression of embarrassing traffickers, everlasting transactions, with out counting invectives and fights. “This place looks like a court in prison,” stated an area resident.

Mobilized by a part of the inhabitants, the prefecture and the city corridor have carried out main operations on the sq.. Was it sufficient? Not actually. March 29, Progress nonetheless made its entrance web page in Mazagran sq., described as “unlivable”.

The Mazagran case

How does an ecological city corridor handle drug medicine on the native stage? Just take a look at the Mazagran case. For a 12 months and a half, the city corridor has moved the benches, raised the sidewalks, wrapped the shared backyard and has created a pétanque land. In the summer time of 2025 can be put in “inclusive” bathrooms in chrome steel with the intention to plug a nook which serves as a cache for the sellers. Its price? 116,000 euros. Elected officers have, actually, recreated a livable playground, prolonged the shared backyard to accommodate lessons that “school outside” and closed a “alley of the deal”, a darkish nook the place the transactions have been legion.

Except that the vendor is pragmatic. We solely go away him a bench within the heart? He sits on it. Do we take over the sidewalks? It makes new benches. Do we put to the bathroom close by? Rather excellent news … Deal factors haven’t disappeared. They simply moved just a few meters away. Along the sq., the land of the planters holds the sidewalk. It has typically returned by sellers to cover their doses.

In addition to city growth, the city corridor has put the package deal on the social. A cell group of social employees, psychologists, physician, educator, nurse … was set as much as help tough profiles. Until the absurd, decide sure inhabitants, frightened by this latest interview with an affiliation in Progressthe place she calls to “re-humanize the place” by “fun and educational” actions in a mission entitled “Mazagran à Facets”. Everyone can take part, “even those who deale”! “Should we understand that the deal is lawful?” “Rit yellow Claudine (the first names have been modified), installed for 30 years in the square. “An envelope of round € 30,000 can be topic to the vote of the municipal council by the summer time in the summertime to help the tasks of the socio-cultural actors of Place Mazagran”, specifies the town hall of Lyon.

In another interview with Progressthe mayor of 7^e Lyon arrondissement, Fanny Dubot, welcomed the development of “La Grande Rue de la Guillotière, extra nice, inexperienced, with house for bikes”. Two neighborhood meetings take place per year between all the players in the square. An operational partnership group (GPO) between municipal and national policies has been set up. Two cameras were installed. A third is about to be fixed. “We can not settle nationwide points with native means,” says the mayor of 7^e. “Elected officers attempt to drown the issue by situating it nationally,” a Roman tackle, a resident.

Part of the residents strongly demand the closure of the square. The prefecture is favorable. But not the town hall, which wishes to “assure accessibility to everybody within the neighborhood”, she justifies Point. “Technically, it would be complicated to implement since there is a tangle of land properties, a terrace, a free space for events as well as traffic paths. For the municipality, it would simply move the problem.

“That a deal of deal is 500 meters from the prefecture, it’s inadmissible”

Revenue from the Mazagran Place Deal point are far from equaling those of “ovens” in the Lyon suburbs. No shooting (yet) took place. But its location rots the lives of local residents. “That a deal of deal is 500 meters from the prefecture, it’s inadmissible!” »Procure with the Point Antoine Guérin, prefect of the Rhône Delegate for Defense and Security. A specialized field brigade (BST) of 31 agents was created for the Guillotière district over a year ago. “We see the distinction,” he says.

From March 17 to 19, a large “internet sq.” operation took place in the neighborhood. “The concept was to saturate public house, collectively with the municipal police,” explains Antoine Guérin. Nearly 400 enrollments were mobilized on the Guillotière. They checked 537 people, placed 26 in police custody, and notified 35 foreigners in an irregular situation. “There are essentially arrests since we don’t see the identical heads, admit the dissatisfied residents. But those that go away are rapidly changed. »»

In order to not repair something, these operations happen in a hostile local weather. The guillotière is certainly an antifa Lyon bastion. On Wednesday April 9, within the night, a vendor was arrested on the sq.. Several anti -fested antifas on the native far left bar bodily opposed its arrest. “This bar is a ball for the police,” breathes a safety supply. On the partitions of the district, we discover the three tilted arrows of the younger guard, the Lyon antifa motion of the rebellious deputy Raphaël Arnault.

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The kangaroo of the day

Answer

Spring days ought to delight Lyonnais. Not on the Mazagran sq., the place you concern a inflow of shoppers, and subsequently very intense visitors. Who says good climate additionally says again of squatters, till late at night time, with their share of playing or audio system pushed to the underside. In June 2024, a prefectural decree prolonged the prohibition of sound diffusion to any sound diffusion system.

“When craftsmen come to do work with us, they tell us: Do you shoot ! Sighs Roger, Claudine’s husband. We isolated the windows with a triple glazing and thirteen kilos of foam. However, we still hear them! “In my building, half of the ten tenants want to move. But real estate prices in Lyon, even in La Guillotière, have increased a lot, ”deplores Romain. “We had a popular neighborhood, in the right direction. But since the deal … Misery has taken over ”, regrets Claudine.