“David versus Goliath on the Promenade des Anglais isn’t a Niçoise salad but a collective effort to save a place of life: a building, and beyond that, a neighborhood doomed to demolition to satisfy the megalomaniac appetites of a few politicians under the pretext of a renovation program whose necessity has been proven groundless.”
With these clear and simple words, Laurent Rodriguez, president of the Parc Trachel association, whom we came to know during the rallies and demonstrations faced against the municipal administration, explains his literary fatigue.
And he adds: “This story is also about the victory of the underdog. More concretely, it could be called: how to push back a 70-million-euro project in shorts and from your living room. And I add: peacefully, without hatred or anger. Simply, with faith in the fight, with method and consistency.”
Nice Premium: Now, with the combat helmet set aside, let’s come back to your book. How did you come up with the idea to write it?
Laurent Rodriguez: The purpose of this book isn’t just to recount our battle. It aims to deliver a strong message: “what we achieved, anyone can achieve”. The “iron pot” deemed invincible, the “powerful” presumed untouchable, derive their strength only from the fear they inspire. If reason prevails over fear, if action is prioritized over doubt, if legality is referenced instead of yielding to politics, if solidarity triumphs over fatalism, victory is within reach for all of us.
Nice Premium: This battle has thrust you into the spotlight and made you a local figure…
Laurent Rodriguez: At the outset, to be honest, it was meant to be a secret, intimate adventure, but life, and especially the media, decided otherwise. Why? Surely because I have the naivety to believe that everyone, within themselves, possesses a treasure that, sooner or later, one day, reveals itself. No one escapes it. Sometimes it only takes an event, a conjunction of circumstances, an obviousness… I did it and I know the path I took with a master word, a creed: live in the present moment, believe in it and move forward. “The art of not getting demolished,” some have told me. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter the situation and with whom I won: I swam among sharks. By keeping the faith.
Nice Premium: What would you say to encourage people to read you…
Laurent Rodriguez: To motivate you to read me from start to finish, I clarify that my story is true, unadorned, drawn from the reality of my existence which almost tipped over. I’ve related it chronologically for it to be comprehensible and, in some way, exemplary, I could even say universal. But, what the readers of the newspaper, the viewers of France 3’s news, the radio listeners, the neighbors, the politicians, the locals, the journalists, the friends do not yet know, is how we pushed back this 70-million-euro project!
“Robin of Roofs,” savior of parks, the school heart mason, creator of a mutual aid site, teammate on a municipal election list… I had a lot of fun during this year of combat but at the start, it all began badly, even tragically, the dice were cast… against us!
Nice Premium: And, if you had to summarize it?
Laurent Rodriguez: What was it about? An absurd demolition project, but which seemed particularly well-crafted under the pretext of renovating a supposedly degraded neighborhood. And yet, ultimately, today, it seems to me that this fight was easy, without forcing, without expecting anything from my enemies. They lent me their weapons (press, media, politics, public opinion) and we defeated them.
Who? Those who believe they possess the power to control everything, who think that all blows are allowed for them. I have shown them that there is something stronger than “public power,” the uniform, the diplomas, the speeches, and the “blah-blah,” something stronger than all that: the power of the present, here and now…
Nice Premium: So, there is a sort of moral in all that happened…
Laurent Rodriguez: I’ve learned that the strength of the “self” makes one invincible. No one decides our life for us. I’ll tell you about it. I enjoyed it very much to be honest, but what matters is what you remember from it, for yourself. One of the lessons I’ve well integrated from my life: “people have shown me problems, chaos, painful situations, but in reality, they are just a hidden source of great benefit.”
Alone with my wife, then with everyone. Us, against the State, the Region, the City, the outcome seemed compromised. In the face of danger, catastrophe, I implemented with the entire “village” of a neighborhood, a city, the law of least effort. Surrender to the present moment. There was a hidden meaning behind this event that I lived firsthand. This event presented itself to me, to my family, in my neighborhood, on September 11, 2012.
Nice Premium: Why this book?
Laurent Rodriguez: If I talk about myself, it’s not for the satisfaction of taking the lead role. My goal is precisely the opposite: I am someone completely ordinary, with an ordinary family, even though I wish everyone to have the same. Before this story, I had never thought for a moment about putting myself forward, leading a fight, campaigning, “displaying” myself. It was the events, and those who provoked them, that decided for me.
