“Before it was the best street in Perpignan!” remembers “Ramounet”, the oldest shopkeeper on rue des Augustins, who has been there for 55 years. Today most of the gates of commercial premises are down. Out of sixty of them, the RN town hall of Perpignan lists 75% of them empty. It’s for “revitalize” the street, according to the words of the first deputy Charles Pons, that the City has decided to pedestrianize it – the works must last approximately 1 year – and to buy approximately half of the commercial premises (27 exactly) to rehabilitate them and rent them again .
The works make the street difficult to access
If some traders like Patrice Burel, the roaster, or Alexandre, owner of the restaurant La Droguerie, rejoice that the street will eventually become pedestrianizedothers are headwind against the works. “If at least they told us what they’re doing! They’re making holes, but what are they looking for? Treasure?”, gets carried away “Ramounet” in his ready-to-wear store. He claims to have already seen his turnover drop, “free fall”since the beginning of the works. “The only thing that still made us work a little on this street was the cars passing by. Now no one passes. When you are no longer visible, no one comes”, he assures. He is both opposed to the pedestrianization project, and annoyed by the works.
Same observation in a neighboring business, whose boss prefers to remain anonymous. “The construction trucks take up all the space, people can no longer even access our businesses. _How do you expect them to get in if they can’t come to us?_“ she laments. In one morning, she only saw two people walk through the door of her business – “closed due to noise and dust” – against twenty or even thirty usual, according to her.
– Manon Claverie
On the Raconte pas d’Salades terrace, Mathieu Porta, the boss, saw three customers leave their table barely seated, a few days after the start of the work. “They had the jackhammer next door so it was really loud!”
The takeover of businesses by the town hall is debated
It’s not just the works that Mathieu Porta regrets. Its establishment is one of those designated by the town hall as part of the DUP, the declaration of public utility, which consists of buy, with the agreement of the Prefecture, an establishment to rehabilitate and re-let it. The boss, owner of the walls and the restaurant, had already decided to sell the building to pay the charges, and repay the loan for his business. He had found a buyer, but was eventually forced to sell to the town hall, for much less. “What the town hall is offering us for the takeover does not even reimburse the loan. We have no other solution than to liquidate the two companies. We have gone through all the emotions, rage, tears, sadness. .. but now we are resigned”, he says.
“Ramounet”, he does not see how the town hall “would do better than the traders themselves“.
Charles Pons, first deputy mayor, assures that he is well aware of the problem of the owner of Raconte pas d’Salades, but that “In these cases, we cannot do it on a case-by-case basis. The mayor’s project [Louis Aliot] to revitalize downtown is great. There was nothing left on this street. If we don’t do anything, if the public authorities don’t take matters into their own hands and don’t go straight ahead, things won’t change. Especially since nature abhors a vacuum and since, in the evening, the street becomes a place of dealing, it’s infamous”, he replies. He assures that the repurchase price of the premises corresponds to an estimate by the State Real Estate Department (formerly “France Domaine”), which depends on the Ministry of the Economy. As for the inconveniences related to the work, he acknowledges that “who says works says nuisances, but unfortunately we can’t do otherwise”.