«If I had to do it all over again, I’d start with culture.» Jean Monnet’s vision also resonates in Saint-Grégoire, where a street is named after the ambitious founding father of Europe. What is the purpose of culture? To reinvent local democracy and give more power to residents.
Saint-Grégoire Vie Créative proposes to develop a guide to provide direction and inspiration for the Saint-Grégoire 2024–2026 transition.
Serving as a true roadmap for reinventing governance in Saint-Grégoire, the guide aims to identify numerous best practices to counteract the intellectual laziness of elected officials and staff: the tree charter, for example, is a «copy-and-paste» version of the one from Puteaux, a hotbed of «greenwashing» and the excesses of Gaullist real estate development in the Hauts-de-Seine department.
It outlines five priorities proposed for future decisions in 2024–2026: thinking outside the box, promoting a sustainable digital approach to quickly resolve fiber-optic coverage issues and bridge the digital divide in the Small Smart City, designing the architecture, green spaces, and urban landscapes of tomorrow in the face of rapid urbanization, conserving and preserving for future generations, and finally, reimagining residents’ mobility to ensure a city that remains accessible to all (Third metro line in Alphasis, Baobab Vertiport, new route for the trambus line, new network of bike paths inspired by the RAVE network—Wallonia’s autonomous network of slow lanes: more than 45 marked local routes ….)
It outlines the best approaches to ensuring frugality and transparency in the allocation—which is all too often based on patronage—of grants, public housing, and support for new projects, all tailored to heritage preservation and creative endeavors.
The final version, developed in collaboration with residents, could thus be featured alongside new, highly informative pages on the Saint-Grégoire town hall website, which is intended to serve as a resource center for citizen-led and community-based initiatives in this “green and blue” town.
Kevin LOGNONÉ
