In the heart of the famous Puces de Saint-Ouen, one of the most important drug trafficking in Ile-de-France thrives in two HLM towers.
Powerless, the municipality decided to raze the city, a radical measure deemed "
unnecessary
" by some elected officials who instead advocate a debate on the decriminalization of cannabis.
To read also: The Saint-Ouen fleas, it's gone again but in slow motion
Once the relocation is completed next spring, the two towers of 200 housing units must be destroyed.
Not enough to get rid of traffickers, however immediately tempers Eric Coquerel, the LFI deputy of the constituency.
"
It is not because we demolish that the traffic stops, it will necessarily move to the nearby deal points, it is illusory to think the opposite
".
At the Puces de Saint-Ouen, "
you will go hunting for your vintage table and you will buy your hash at the same time
", testifies bluntly William Delannoy, the former mayor (UDI) of the city.
“
Unless you put men in front of a city every day, the traffic is not going to stop.
It's a dip in the net
”, adds, fatalist, a police officer.
The fight against drug trafficking is "
a war of harassment that the state cannot win,
" said William Delannoy, now in the municipal opposition.
“
We set up tenant associations who negotiate with dealers, it's surreal!
“, Believes the elected center-right, who defends a decriminalization of cannabis.
"
France is the European champion in cannabis consumption
," recalls Eric Coquerel.
"
We must ensure that this trade is no longer the trade of delinquents but that it is organized under the monopoly of the State, which would allow, as with cigarettes, to make a policy of prevention,
" he said. hammered in October during the security meetings organized after the death of Tidiane and Sofiane, shot dead in the cellar of a building against a background of drug trafficking.
On January 13, a citizen consultation was launched on the uses of “
recreational
”
cannabis
by a parliamentary mission.
"
The first victims of drugs are the inhabitants of the neighborhoods
", insists the deputy for the constituency of Saint-Ouen, which has no less than "
8 identified deal points
" out of the 4,000 identified in France by the Ministry of the Interior .
By destroying the city, the municipality also aims to “
change the image of Saint-Ouen.
Make
something
beautiful,
”explains Bouamrane, who grew up in a town in the city which is undergoing rehabilitation.
The left-wing councilor wants to consult his citizens on the future of the city of Boute-en-Train, municipal property, which could, he slips, take the form of “
an urban farm
”.
For Camille Gosselin, urban planner at the Paris Region Institute, "
having towers from the 1960s visible from the ring road is striking and stigmatizing, especially in a territory that has become gentrified
".
Destroying a city makes it possible to "de-
densify the district, make a clean sweep of the past and can therefore improve a situation
" but "
architecture is not responsible for traffic
", he adds.
"
When you bring together a population that is crumbling under difficulties in one place, it becomes conducive to a parallel economy
."