The Avenue Jean Médecin will be entirely pedestrianized on Saturday afternoon. The announcement was made by the Deputy Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, on Thursday morning. The avenue will be closed to traffic this Saturday from 1:30 PM to 7:30 PM and every Saturday in August. This initiative came from an observation: the influx of pedestrians made the avenue dangerous. The affected area extends from Pastorelli Street to the Thiers Boulevard-Assalit Street intersection along the Jean Médecin axis and the immediately adjacent roads impacted by this measure.
“This is a trial, but if it proves successful, we will continue this operation.” In unison, Christian Estrosi and his deputy Rudy Salles presented this new pedestrian walkway, nearly 900 meters long, which will undoubtedly delight walkers and window-shopping enthusiasts alike. “I want the public to make these spaces their own.” The Mayor of Nice also plans to extend this type of initiative to other arteries in the city center.
“I want to bring life to the neighborhoods without it becoming a vulgar street party.” In this regard, the municipality is currently working on setting up a commission responsible for interviewing and selecting street artists. “I want labeled entertainment that matches our city’s standards. I no longer want those grotesque inflatable structures and the candy vendors whose stalls are sometimes of questionable hygiene, not to mention itinerant merchants selling products from countries where child exploitation occurs. Nice is the city of human rights.” As in the Paris metro, a selection of artists will soon be in place to enhance these new pedestrian spaces.
Thus, starting tomorrow, the pedestrian experiment will take shape on Avenue Jean Médecin, which, although it had not changed in years, has undergone a true metamorphosis in recent months with the arrival of the tramway and starting tomorrow with the influx of walkers from Nice.
