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Johan Leman, 26 March 2022

Soon, the Place Sainctelette (a very black spot in terms of air pollution), known for its expensive land, the result of years of speculation by developers, will be decorated with a poster announcing the construction of a 14-storey residential tower.

This is happening at a time when the latest air pollution measurements in Brussels indicate that the quality of the air in that neighbourhood is downright poor: at least between 36 and 40 micrograms of NO2/m3 , if not higher.

The residents have already stated on several occasions that they do not want such a tower block, but that they do want fresh air: a small park is therefore the obvious choice. In addition, they do not want to see the rents skyrocket.

Those who know the neighbourhood know that such a park has the added advantage of providing fresh air as well as visibility and social control, something drug dealers shun.

With the so-called helicopter view from behind desks, where one cares little about additional inconvenience for local residents, some regional authorities still prefer to give speculators and building promoters more weight than local residents. So: they keep going for a 14-storey residential tower. Because that will be nice, you see.

And the greenery and fresh air that this is supposed to compensate for? In their vision, these will be provided by an inner road, which will have to be closed off at night if it is not to become an area for the exclusive use of drug dealers, because… no social control, no one who will dare to walk there after a certain hour, no police or park rangers… And this will be called the compensation for the residential tower on Sainctelette and for the fact that the neighbourhood urgently needs green and fresh air. Deprive the existing open spaces, which already provide fresh air, of their social control, as if suddenly people will be jogging and cycling there instead of alongside the canal. How unworldly some people can be!

Well, regional authorities: know that the local residents are resolutely against it, and not because of nimby, but because it is totally counterproductive and something like this can only be thought up from behind a desk by people who have no insight into life in the actual neighbourhood. And the fact that, in the meantime, rent prices in the neighbourhood, even outside the gentrification zone, are skyrocketing, which is facilitated by such investment housing towers, is apparently unknown to those people, or leaves them indifferent.

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