Albertine has a lot on her heart. For more than forty years, she has lived in the town of Saige, in Pessac. For nothing in the world, she would leave her apartment located in Tower 6, which is slated for demolition. Even if she knows that there are social problems, security or unsanitary concerns, she does not care about the negative image that these large towers reflect in the collective mind and in the eyes of the municipality. The City wants to raze towers 3, 6 and 9 and part of building 11 (373 apartments) to rehabilitate the entire neighborhood one of the poorest in the Bordeaux metropolis. This is where she has lived a large part of her life and she has no desire to accept the proposed rehousing…
Albertine has a lot on her heart. For more than forty years, she has lived in the town of Saige, in Pessac. For nothing in the world, she would leave her apartment located in Tower 6, which is slated for demolition. Even if she knows that there are social problems, security or unsanitary concerns, she does not care about the negative image that these large towers reflect in the collective mind and in the eyes of the municipality. The City wants to raze towers 3, 6 and 9 and part of building 11 (373 apartments) to rehabilitate the entire neighborhoodone of the poorest in the Bordeaux metropolis. This is where she lived a large part of her life and she has no desire to accept the rehousing offered by the town hall.
She took advantage of a meeting between residents of the towers, supported by the National Housing Confederation (CNL) and Women Equality, and Bordeaux architect Christophe Hutin specializing in the rehabilitation of collective housing in the metropolis, to speak. Some elected officials from the opposition and around forty people are present in this room of the Saige social center, this Wednesday, June 12. “Why don’t I leave?” I have my whole life here and there is everything nearby, the tram, the supermarket… I also have my health problems. I know that if I have a problem, I have the Saint-Martin clinic not far away. And if I fall in the street, I know that there will always be someone to pick me up in Saige, whether they are Chinese, white or black. I am in good hands in this neighborhood because there is solidarity here. What am I going to do elsewhere? »
“Lives Inside”
If 60% of people have already accepted rehousing (as of April 24) and “75% of the people met expressed the wish to leave the towers”, according to the town hall, Albertine is not the only one to think that demolition of these tricks “makes no sense”. “We don’t want to leave here, it hurts our hearts too much. If we are relocated, we want to be in this neighborhood. We don’t understand why the town hall wants to demolish it when there is a lack of social housing and there are still so many people sleeping on the street. Why destroy instead of renovate? », protest Annie and Carmen, residents of tower 6 for thirty and fifty-three years.
The architect Christophe Hutin also thinks that a rehabilitation of the towers would be more appropriate, while ensuring that the urban renovation of the district launched by the town hall is “necessary”. “This demolition will cost 211 million euros. It’s huge and it’s not really ecological. With less public money, we can do better by renovating these towers which are in good condition. Yes, there are unsanitary apartments, poorly insulated, with poor joinery and pipes or asbestos, but these are maintenance problems, not design. From a distance, you just see towers, but there are lives, families, cultures and stories inside,” he explains.
“This demolition will cost 211 million euros. It’s huge and it’s not really ecological”
It presents to residents several successful rehabilitation projects carried out in the metropolis, including that of the Grand-Parc in Bordeaux (winner of the European Union Architecture Prize) and the city of Beutre in Mérignac, where he had convinced the municipality not to destroy anything. “We see that even starting from a dilapidated building, we can do something good, which makes us want to live there again. »
Defense of the popular neighborhood
But according to the mayor of Pessac, Franck Raynal, this demolition would restore more social diversity to the neighborhood and above all eliminate a “ghetto” which acts as “a repellent since when social housing becomes available, it must be offered to seven families before finding a buyer,” he said last October.Residents met with architect Christophe Hutin in the room of the Saige social center on Wednesday June 12.
“We neglect an entire neighborhood for years, and as soon as it becomes unsanitary, we are surprised that no one wants to come there anymore. And it’s dishonest to say that we contribute to social diversity by removing social housing,” regrets a resident. “It is also not by razing buildings that we will solve the social problems of the neighborhood,” he adds. According to Christophe Hutin, “no one wanted to come to the Grand-Parc building before it was renovated either. But as soon as it was rehabilitated, the requests for housing came back.”
The demolition project, planned for 2026, has been approved by Bordeaux Métropole. But the residents most resistant to rehousing intend to mobilize collectively to prevent it. A new meeting is planned for September with Christophe Hutin. More than their apartment, they defend above all a social model of a working-class neighborhood. An eminently political subject, closely followed by the left-wing municipal opposition.