Electing the deputy of the neighborhood to the Departmental Council, a loyal spokesperson for the municipality, was akin to giving the mayor carte blanche to carry out a real estate project on the lands that will be freed up by the Ray stadium.
Three months later, it is a done deal since the project – which had been on hold since my election in 2011 – resurfaced at the last municipal council (see the blog of Dominique Boy-Mottard). The idea is to entrust half of the concerned area to a real estate developer… while we wait for what’s next.
To cement the project a bit more, the leaders of the most concerned neighborhood committees have been sidelined from responsibilities in the neighborhood council in favor of… the deputy departmental counselor. Keeping it in the family.
As a result, the Nice-Nord green corridor is turning into a trickle.
The Public-Private project of the Liberation, which is otherwise not without quality, has been struggling since its adoption due to a very significant shortfall in parking spaces. From the 1500 originally planned, the private developer did not want to commit beyond 720.
No problem, we were told, the future Jeanne d’Arc parking and the enhancement of the university parking at Valrose would make up for it. However, since the beginning of the operation, I have been consistently saying that for financial reasons (construction costs too high for a private entity) the Jeanne d’Arc parking would not materialize.
As for Valrose, the University would keep it to build student residences. Thursday’s Nice-Matin confirms both pieces of information.
The parking shortage is therefore going to poison the lives of residents well beyond the already initiated construction work.
