“The former hospital was sold by the CHU to the City of Nice. An agreement was signed with the government to convert the site into a police headquarters: we will break this agreement and restore the former hospital’s vocation of solidarity and hospitality,” proclaims the VIVA! list.
After twelve years of an excessively security-focused policy, it is high time to rebalance municipal policy. Social action is systematically the poor relation of the current majority’s choices, as confirmed by the 2020 budget.
Indeed, in the preliminary 2020 budget, for investments, while security takes 21 million euros, social action combined with city policy barely reaches 8 million euros. For operations, while security reaches 72 million euros, social action only has 25 million euros.
The city’s event and communication expenses are expected to rise, according to the budget policy report, to 22 million euros in 2020.
Unnecessary expenses even take precedence over social urgency, such as the funding of the Castellet Formula 1 Grand Prix to the tune of 6 million euros. As an example, 6 million euros is the cost of building a shelter and social support center.
The City of Nice already has the largest number of surveillance cameras (2,666 cameras, one camera for every 130 inhabitants) and municipal police officers per capita (396 municipal police officers, or one police officer for every 864 inhabitants, plus 183 auxiliary volunteers). It spends an enormous budget on security with results equivalent to those of municipalities spending less.
Christian Estrosi has planned a significant additional security expenditure for the City of Nice: 40 million euros over three years to acquire the site of the old Saint Roch Hospital (for a total project cost of 200 million) to make it a new security center, a police headquarters combining national and municipal police.
Yet, national police and municipal police can work together in many cities without incurring such expenses.
Prioritizing solidarity in Nice requires strong actions: the VIVA! list is committed to restoring the social purpose of the old Saint Roch Hospital and, in fact, to using these 40 million euros for social action.
The social needs in Nice are enormous:
- Need for municipal nursing homes (currently only 236 beds in municipal nursing homes) and intergenerational spaces.
- Need for emergency shelters (currently only 80 places for men, 19 places for women, no specific center for families or exiles).
- Need for health centers where we care for each other, regardless of our origins, citizens, residents, exiles, refugees, the homeless, and in partnership with professionals.
- Need for a women’s center, open during extended hours, where women of any age, social, economic, personal situation, culture, could be received for attentive listening, consideration of their situation, and support. (Professional difficulties, violence, discrimination, contraception, …)
We can therefore associate several social devices, whose complementarity will be refined with municipal services considering the technical constraints of the building, part of which is classified.
Faithful to its principle of active democracy, and as with each major urban development, the VIVA! list will present the project to residents with complete transparency:
- A state of the building and a detailed forecast cost of the works
- A precise assessment of social equipment needs with several possible options
The citizens will then be called upon to express their views on the project with full knowledge of the facts.
The women and men of Nice will thus be involved in the social reconversion project of the old Saint Roch Hospital site.
