the essential
Speaking of a “disgusting city”, François Bayrou, the mayor of Pau, reignited the controversy over the cleanliness of Toulouse which suffers from an old image that sticks to it.
“Mirror, my beautiful mirror, tell me, who is the most beautiful? » Like a much-courted star, Toulouse has gotten into the habit of contemplating its image in the very gratifying reflection of opinion surveys which regularly make it one of the French metropolises where life is happiest. But the coin has its other side and the Pink City still suffers from a bad reputation which sticks to it and which suggests that it is also a dirty city.
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Fantasy or reality? The exit of François Bayrou, the mayor of Pau, who spoke last week at a press conference of a “perpetually disgusting city” says a lot about preconceived ideas on the subject. Of course, the Béarnais elected official immediately apologized, admitting “a stupid and inappropriate comment”, but the damage was (again) done. Calling for an immediate response from the mayor of Toulouse, Jean-Luc Moudenc, who invited him to come and see what was really happening on the ground. “I must correct what, I am sure, is only a mistake,” quipped the master of the Capitol. I invite you to come to Toulouse to discover, on the ground, our action in this area, in contact with the teams who work every day to keep our beautiful Pink City clean. »
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Cleanliness in the city is a constant battle…
In fact, the maintenance of streets and green spaces has become a priority for the metropolis. Butts, traces of fat, urine, dog droppings, stuck chewing gum, overflowing trash cans, the most visible of pollution, are tracked daily by the 750 agents, who cover the 37 metropolitan municipalities. Among them, 628 are precisely in charge of cleaning, 65 of collecting bulky items, 31 are assigned to removing tags and removing displays for 26 agents patrolling the Brigade Against Incivility (BCI). “It’s a remarkable effort,” insists Nicolas Miziak, the Toulouse elected representative responsible for the cleanliness of public spaces, conceding that the fight against incivility and raising public awareness of good habits is a battle that is always started again. Especially from a stewardship perspective.
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“For dog droppings, we currently have 818 bag dispensers in the mainland, including 458 in the city of Toulouse alone,” he explains. And where there is this equipment, people have the reflex to use it,” he says. Without forgetting the 45 dog parks already installed in the city. “We add more as we go and we enlarge them,” specifies the elected official. But it is on cigarette butts that he intends to fight this year. “We are going to launch a major prevention campaign by developing and testing street ashtrays,” confirms Nicolas Misiak. “We must understand that it is not only about cleanliness, but also about ecology. To throw a cigarette butt on a Toulouse sidewalk is to throw it into the ocean, where it takes years to decompose… All that remains is to get the message across, by sanctioning if necessary the recalcitrants, closely monitored by the Brigade Against Incivility. The carrot or the stick!
“Toulouse rampage”, whistleblower
For two years, on the social networks Twitter and Instagram, based on the model of “Saccage Paris”, the keyword “Saccage Toulouse” has flourished and denounces on a daily basis the dirt, incivility, failed developments or repairs never carried out observed almost everywhere in the streets of the Pink City. Overflowing trash cans, peeled lawns on the banks of the Garonne, patched-up lamp bases on the Pont Neuf, planters transformed into giant ashtrays on Rue de Metz… The Toulouse resident at the origin of this “citizen” approach pointed out from the start the let- go to the historic center and in particular to the banks of the Garonne with their bare lawns, strewn with broken glass and beer capsules. But who loves well, punishes well… Saccage Toulouse also finds that the city is “cleaner” than before with less illegal dumping and quality trash cans.
