the fears and questions of the opposition

Following the presentation of very ambitious metamorphosis project from the right bank of the Rhône, Grandstand of Lyon contacted the representatives of the three opposition groups in order to know their reaction, their expectations, and their fears.

If they share the aesthetic aspect of the project and more generally the objectives in terms of improving the quality of life, their criticisms relate to other points.

Will the project really start in 2025?

“It’s as beautiful as a postal door. But the question is when are we going to receive it? »asks David Kimelfeld (Progressives and Republicans).

“We are not on a project for the current term, but on a project for the next term. What is really going start in 2025? Studies or pickaxes? For me, it is an operation that is similar to the start of an electoral campaign”adds the metropolitan councilor and former president of the Métropole de Lyon.

Will the project cost more than 100 million euros?

“The project is very ambitious and I don’t know if the amount is well estimated. Unlike the left bank, we are still on a project with a lot of interventions and spaces to create in depth, it seems to me completely undervalued “believes David Kimelfeld.

Will the new right bank be made to the detriment of other projects?

“There is a form of segregation between those who are lucky enough to be able to live in the city center, to have an electric vehicle and to be able to access the Peninsula, and the middle or working classes who have no other choice than to live in the third ring and need to take their car to go to town. For a party that wants to be on the left, I find that it is the opposite of their convictions”believes Pierre Oliver (Right, center and independents).

For their part, Yann Cucherat (For Lyon) and Louis Pelaez (Inventing the Metropolis of Tomorrow) fear that the project “transforms the Presqu’Île into an island while it constitutes the beating heart of our Metropolis. »

“I wonder about the cost of the project: 100 million euros is not a problem for this project, but it is one to work at the Guillotière or at the Safeguard. It’s a very very ultra-center choice, with the impression that everything is concentrated in the Presqu’île to the detriment of the outlying districts”says David Kimelfeld.

The absence of impact studies

“What will be the connections with the Presqu’île project, the redeployment of public transport? We are cutting the projects. On paper, who can be opposed to the desire to appease the peninsula? But is all of this realistic? »asks David Kimelfeld.

“I am extremely surprised that there is no impact study and no costing for the postponement of traffic on an axis where 80,000 vehicles circulate. In addition to calming the peninsula, the ZTL (Restricted traffic areaeditor’s note), the closure of rue Grenette, we are blocking the first artery which gives access to the city center, without the ecologists offering the slightest solution to save our traders and our jobs ”says Pierre Oliver.

“I am not saying that there is no evaporation, but between saying it and providing concrete elements, impact studies, in connection in particular with the closure of rue Grenette, because everything it comes to accumulate. I think it deserves a little more tangible elements, ”said David Kimelfeld.

“By bunkering Lyon, we are jeopardizing our businesses. However, when Bruno Bernard says that traffic is down, he is not saying that these new developments are already having a negative effect on the turnover of businesses.is indignant Pierre Oliver.

How to compensate for the decline in cars?

“The management of automotive flows is an unthought of the project presented by the Nupes executive. Reducing the number of lanes, clogging hoppers and eliminating parking spaces are very poor substitutes for a real global policy of gradually moving traffic outside the city and developing serious alternatives to the car.say Yann Cucherat and Louis Pelaez

Metropolitan councilors point to the abandonment of the tramway that environmentalists and their allies had once mentioned for the right bank. Its replacement by buses thus shows their disinterest in the rise of low-carbon transport”say Yann Cucherat and Louis Pelaez.

“I’m thinking of the constraints to go to Part-Dieu, Confluence, and the Presqu’île. However, not everyone is lucky enough to live along the metro lines. What do we do with these people who can no longer access downtown Lyon? »wonders for his part Pierre Oliver.

What economic effects?

“We already don’t have enough municipal police officers, people in green spaces, we are closing cradles in crèches, for lack of staff who can go to downtown Lyon. Beyond the beautiful photo, we have above all a huge blow to the economic world”believes Pierre Oliver.

“Where are the analyzes in terms of economic benefits for merchants? Our repeated requests in this sense, which have also become those of a certain number of economic actors and local residents, remain unanswered.worry Yann Cucherat and Louis Pelaez.

“In their absence, it is impossible to say whether this requalification project is viable for the commercial vitality of the Presqu’île or for the successful evaporation of the traffic sought on this Right Bank of the Rhône”they add.

Surveillance of the area remains unclear

“A pedestrian area of ​​this size is a problem for me because pedestrian areas are the most dangerous areas in our urban area: we have the example of rue de la République, the banks of the Rhône… How are we going to monitor this area in the to the extent that we are already unable to secure existing areas. Nothing has been prepared, we are in communication ”says Pierre Oliver.