2023-06-11 15:18:00
“Van den Braaaaandt, if you knew, your Good Moveeeeuuuh, your Good Mooooveeeuuuh, Van den Brandt, if you knew: none, none, no use!”
The horns resound, the applause slams, the shouts fuse. And the singing resumes. Customized caps on their heads to protect themselves from the dodger that knocks out the Place du Conseil in Anderlecht, the ant-Good Move activists brandish the signs and trigger the boos. This Sunday, June 11, 2023, several neighborhood committees converged on Cureghem, a “symbolic high place”, to repeat all the bad things they think regarding the Brussels mobility and urban planning plan.
How are Good Move knits designed? Meeting with two specialized design offices, “a crossroads is almost a living being”
“Like in Copenhagen”
“We collected 1,000 signatures in a very short time to be heard in Parliament”, notes Cécile, Forestoise who is the voice of the movement. “We will ask for the suspension of the Good Move plan. In 20 years the place of the car has decreased in Brussels. The rate of car travel has fallen from 60 to 30%. Like in Copenhagen. Better than in Amsterdam. Proof that the inhabitants of Brussels are not recalcitrant. We contest the idea of meshes which send everything back to certain streets. They become car bins. The Good Move plan, it creates traffic jams with the idea that people take the car out of laziness and not out of necessity. And that when they are in traffic, it will take them so long that they will stop. But that does not solve the problems: it rots life and it makes more CO2 “.
Good Move might have been a good idea but in the way it is not democratic. It’s a bullshit. These are people in offices who do not know the reality on the ground.
The demonstrators continue to arrive. Ludo and Catherine arrive from the Azalées district in Schaerbeek. “Good Move might have been a good idea but in the way, it’s not democratic. It’s a joke. It’s people in offices who don’t know the reality on the ground. We’re also creating a division between people: we divide in order to conquer better. The peaceful zones are dead zones while other Brussels residents receive all the flow of cars”. Ludo deplores “the stress, the loss of time and the danger for pedestrians while bicycles and scooters circulate anyhow. The pedestrian is in danger”.
“We need to decarbonize, but…”
Hassan seems very upset. He laments the impact of Good Move on Pentagon traders. “We must challenge the policies imposed on us. I like the Swiss voting system. I challenged Philippe Close on the fact that the authorities do not use the democratic tools at their disposal”. The trader deplores “a loss of 30% since the introduction of Good Move in August 2022. We recover a little thanks to tourists, an excessively difficult clientele if you are not in the catering or gadgetry”, deplores the trader . Who adds: “The Good Move consultation phase took place during confinement. It only collected the opinions of 8,000 people”. Hassan also sees double standards in the reception of “for” and “anti”. “When the Gracq arrives at the Municipal Council, they are applauded. We are prevented from entering. Of course we have to decarbonize. But we deny freedom of expression. The press must also show more neutrality regarding Good Move”.
We are imposed plans designed by urban planners from Ghent or Barcelona completely above ground. Anderlecht has become a playground. Their policy is forced gentrification to increase tax revenue.
The smoke bombs spit their sulphurous smell on the line of tram 81. From the trunk lined with the baffle of a white SUV escape protest tubes, interrupted to hand the microphone to the representatives of the committees. Martin intervenes to underline “the struggle” of the districts of Anderlecht. At the heart of the concerns, the plans for Bon Air, Moortebeek or the just renovated rue Wayez. In the gueulophone, everyone takes it for their rank. “We can’t let our city be built by disconnected politicians”, harangues Martin, who welcomes the abandonment of Good Move in Cureghem. “If the citizens did not fight step by step, this authoritarian eco-liberal policy would continue. We are imposed plans designed by urban planners from Ghent or Barcelona completely above ground. For Elke Van den Brandt and Groen, with the blessing of the PS, Ecolo, DéFI, our commune has become a playground. Their policy is forced gentrification to increase tax revenue. And we will not fall into the little game of the MR which tries discontent. With them, it might be worse.” In the public, some elected Liberals from Anderlecht or Schaerbeek may have had their ears warm.
“These bobos don’t like the bike: they hate the car”
Attentive to the speech, Fatmir keeps a smirk. The Ganshorenois descended by bike from the Basilica district. “I am a cyclist, scooter rider, motorist, I take public transport. I was born in Brussels, I knew the time when there were even more cars. For me, Good Move blocks the streets, clogs up, this which creates traffic jams and asks for other plans”. He sees it as a sociological issue. “It’s a sore policy. But when these good people get old, become disabled, they won’t go cycling anymore. They have flexible hours, they telecommute, are consultants or in communications. They don’t think regarding Brussels residents who are forced to take their car to get out of Brussels and make these things that later the sores will buy. It bothers me very much”. For Fatmir, “the cycling associations or Heroes for Zero, it’s not that they like cycling, they especially hate the car. There will always be accidents. We should rather campaign for better education in the highway code of all users”.
You don’t have a magic little nose like My Beloved Witch to go home without passing through the adjacent streets.
It’s Julie’s turn to tell her experience of the Lecharlier district, in Jette. “One day, we woke up to the sound of engines and horns. Our quiet little avenue turned into a car weir. But more than the noise and the pollution, it was the distress of the traders that I To the Good Move supporters in Amnesty Square, I explained: you don’t have a magic little nose like My Belovéd Witch to go home without passing through the adjacent streets. They defend tranquility on their doorstep, but the pollution does not stop at the street”.
On the concrete pads that surround the Place du Conseil, the organizers count and recount the demonstrators. If the number does not reach 250, the demo will remain static rather than marching to the North Quarter via the Pentagon. This is the deal agreed with the police. Around 3:15 p.m., it must be admitted that the quota is not there. “Father’s Day, Roland Garros and this summer weather make it difficult to mobilize”, slips Cécile. The decision falls: “We will stay here. With this heat, it is more prudent”. No move therefore, once morest Good Move.
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