TAXPAYERS, IN YOUR POCKETS

We want to widen the Pont de la Concorde so as not to interfere with the exhibition

Yesterday, L'Œuvre reproduced the details that the press committee of the future Decorative Arts Exhibition had given it: "There is only one bridge, the Alexandre IIJ bridge, which must be included in the exhibition, and this for seven months, from April to October 1925. »

It's still too much, we said. Let us judge by these explanations provided to the City Council by Mr. Naudin, prefect of police, the day after the day when the councilors consented without debate to new encroachments on the organizers of the exhibition.

— You had reserved, he said, the passage of the Alexandre III bridge to pedestrians and you had decided that public traffic would remain assured on the quays. By approving the amendment that was submitted to you yesterday, you reconsidered this decision and, at present, there will be no more traffic possible on the Alexandre IlI bridge, completely enclosed in the exhibition, and more authorized traffic on the quays.

The inconvenience that will result for the public from the ban on driving on the platforms for several months, there is no need to highlight it; everyone understands it, only the councilors and the Minister of Public Works, who insisted that this prohibition be made, seem not to realize it. Besides, we will come back to this point.

For the Alexandre III bridge, Mr. Naudin specified, apart from the inconvenience for the public, caused by its monopolization, the consequences which would result for traffic. 11,000 cars pass daily on the Alexandre III bridge
You report, said Mr. Naudin, on the Concorde bridge, if not the first 11,000 cars which now pass on the Alexandre III bridge, at least 8 to 9,000 vehicles. But I point out to you that the Pont de la Concorde is not sufficient to receive, in addition to the 9,000 cars that currently pass through it, the 11,000 that it would still receive.

Conclusion: there is talk of widening the Pont de la Concorde. That's all we found. Not for a moment did the Council think, in the face of the difficulties facing it
were reported, to leave the Alexandre III bridge open to traffic; no, that was too simple. The Concorde bridge is too narrow for 20,000 cars a day? It will be widened, and the costs will be paid by these good Parisians, who see themselves during this time deprived of spring water, deprived of a paving, if not perfect, at least bearable, under the pretext that financial resources do not allow not to undertake major works at this time.

We agree to recognize the interest that the Exhibition of Decorative Arts can present, but that it should be done elsewhere. The interest that takes precedence over all others is that of the inhabitants of Paris. Now, of this one, we do not care.

And when the Decorative Arts Exhibition is over, will the Colonial Exhibition take over the same locations, under the same conditions?

It is unacceptable.

Petitions are circulating in all the neighborhoods concerned to protest against the unlikely decision of the City Council. We do not know if they will produce a happy result, because the current majority of the Hôtel de Ville seems much more inclined to satisfy the desires of a few financial consortia than to protect the most legitimate interests of the population.

HENRY MONTAZEL