“Things have changed a lot in Saint-André-de-Cubzac in recent years. We no longer need to go to Bordeaux as much as before. » Words from Cubzaguais. Michel, who has settled in the small town of Haute Gironde for almost twenty years, fully appreciates the efforts made by the municipality to respond autonomously to the needs of the inhabitants, without completely dissolving into the sphere of influence. of a Bordeaux metropolis hungry for housing. A major challenge given its flourishing demographics, its population having simply doubled since the 1990s.
The time is long gone when Saint-André-de-Cubzac was only recognized for having been the first and last resting place of Commander Cousteau. The man in the red cap remains fondly remembered. But the town has patiently built its own identity as a small town in the countryside, with neo-rural residents coming to seek the comfort of an individual house, which has become inaccessible to the average wallet in Bordeaux. A younger population expressing different expectations and consumption patterns.
Quality of life
“The city has evolved,” believes Michel. There were fewer services before, no commercial area, you had to take the car for each medical appointment. » It was the place “where you shouldn't be” a few years ago, remembers Virginie, who has now moved there. The thirty-year-old now works in the town, her husband in Bordeaux, they live there happily. They could even do without a car if her husband did not work atypical hours. Bonuses? “Quality of life, proximity to Bordeaux, the market, the shows at the Fairgrounds…”
“We had to build schools, expand them, build equipment, increase services”
The least? “We would like more restaurants,” says this busy Cubzaguais coming to get his bread. And there is this question of the reform of waste collection by the Smicval, which divides opinions without really disrupting habits, the municipality having long ago developed a range of collective collection points…
New arrivals
Célia Monseigne, PS mayor of Saint-André-de-Cubzac, is aware of all this. A native of Cubzac-les-Ponts, she experienced the city organized around the RN 10, the Paris-Bayonne axis, the accidents and the endless traffic jams, memories that are still vivid among old-timers, not just at the Vincennes counter. A “city street” shaken up by the influx of new arrivals. The population arrived in waves, at the end of the 1970s with the A10 motorway, in the 1990s, then more recently with the rise in Bordeaux real estate. And the search for another quality of life. “In the new Bois-Milon district, 70% come from the Metropolis,” says the elected official.
Saint-André-de-Cubzac, with one eye on the metropolitan RER, the other on its urban plan, is adapting, reconfiguring itself, resizing itself. “The daily life of a municipal team, when faced with a demographic change of 2 to 3% each year, is to update and adapt equipment and services to the needs of the population,” confides Célia Monseigne. These are young people, who move in with children, of all ages. It was necessary to build schools, expand them, build equipment, increase services. This is what we did until 2014.”
The development of the commercial zones, Garosse and Parc d'Aquitaine, at the confluence of the motorway and the RN 10, has made it possible to strengthen a plural offering. But with sometimes undesirable effects. “During a period, all the bakeries were on the outskirts, there was no longer one in the city center…” recalls the elected official.
Preserve a soul
Things are stabilizing today. The real estate supply is under pressure, land is more scarce, population transfers are being expressed in other territories. The town is now looking at its living environment, with the project of reconquering its city center, rethinking it and calming it down. With balances to find. Between car use and the development of soft mobility. Between attractive outskirts and desirable city center. With the ambition not to miss the turn of the environmental transition…
The elders sometimes get lost there, regretting the rural “good old days” where everyone knew each other, against a backdrop of security anxiety. The moderns validate the new offer by wishing for an acceleration of gentrification. Saint-André-de-Cubzac, with its dense and committed associative fabric, works to preserve its soul. Between welcome and solidarity(s).
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