In Paris, in the squares between Bastille and the Saint-Martin canal, the gates of discord

On the wide Jules-Ferry and Richard-Lenoir boulevards, an axis of almost 2 km where the canal was covered in previous centuries, the town hall intends to create pedestrian and plant continuity between four small squares that have until now been separated.

“It will be a very green boulevard whereas today, it is a very road-based boulevard,” the PS mayor of the 11th arrondissement, François Vauglin, told AFP.

But the dismantling of the gates of the first square affected by the work, located opposite the Bataclan and in which the stele of homage to the victims of the attack of November 13, 2015, was erected, is not to the taste of certain local residents and residents. SOS Paris and France Nature Environnement (FNE) associations.

The latter filed an interim appeal to prevent the dismantling of the grids, imminent since the start of the work on Monday.

“The squares are spaces for breathing and tranquility separated from the urban flow,” argues Christine Nedelec, president of SOS Paris, who fears that their opening will harm the fauna and flora concentrated in the hedges.

The association “Sauvons Jules et Richard” argues for its part that the removal of the gates “de facto destroys the squares as such and poses a safety problem for children”.

Installed during the last redevelopment in the 1990s, the gates "are beautiful and in good condition", deplores the secretary of the association, Martine Cohen, who criticizes the town hall for a lack of "consultation".

“When we remove the gates, people live better together,” François Vauglin replies.

PS Mayor Anne Hidalgo has already faced similar controversy in 2023 with the gates of the square adjoining Notre-Dame Cathedral. They will ultimately be maintained, but perhaps moved.