The DK-led municipality creates a gravel parking lot right in the middle of the green area, without consulting the residents. Outraged residents refer to "disgusting propaganda".
Crucial decisions are made without consulting and taking into account the residents, with implementation under the grass - unfortunately, this procedure is not unknown to the residents of Pestszentlőrinc-Pestszentimre. In the 18th district, decisions are often made against the will of the residents, which make the daily lives of those living there miserable. This time, the municipality is planning a 40-space gravel parking lot right in the middle of a park that is used as a green space by the residents - bounded by Építő utca and Dolgozó utca. They are doing this without informing the majority of the residents of the area about the plans until today, while the implementation is already well underway. Zoltán moved to the Lakatos housing estate in the 18th district, built in the 1860s and 1970s, a year and a half ago. Coming home from work last summer, he noticed by chance that surveyors were working serenely in the park. Since he lives a few hundred meters from the affected section, he asked the surveyors what will be built next to his apartment overlooking the park. "I already suspected that there was something wrong here, because the engineers said they didn't know, it was probably a parking lot," Zoltán tells Mandiner.
"I was outraged, because after a long search - I looked at at least a hundred apartments - I chose this property precisely because of the view of the park, which I wouldn't want to exchange for a "panorama" with a parking lot," he adds. He immediately contacted István Láng, local government representative from DK. As he says, the politician confirmed his information in his "cynical" answer.
"That in itself is a problem
a parking lot is built right in the middle of a green area - where a car has never been before -
but the fact that no one from the district administration tried to inform the residents about this at all is simply unsustainable," he says. Zoltán also contacted deputy mayor László Petrovai, from whom he received the answer that the previous management did not deal with the parking problems, which is why the investment was initiated. "I asked him that the problem could not be that there are too many cars, and instead of building a parking lot, they should investigate whether people have the right to store their cars here at all," reports the resident. As he says, the municipality argues that the section intended for the parking lot is not officially green space, since the part where the parking lot is planned used to be a concrete-asphalt soccer field. However, that area can only be accessed through the green park without a driveway. "They destroy a park just because many people refuse to walk more than thirty meters and think they have to park their cars in front of their stairwells," sums up the concerned resident.
"This is an imprudent, unreasonable, environmentally damaging investment that has not been agreed with the local residents at any level"
he adds.
As he says, in the meantime they started painting the parking spaces in the surrounding streets, but the municipality chose a rather strange procedure for painting. "They didn't post a no-stopping sign, and they didn't even close off the affected section with tape, but during the day, the cars parked in the area were dragged into the part intended for parking, in the middle of the park, with a stealthy car," says Zoltán. As he says, a few days later it became clear to the people living there why all this happened.
"Mayor Sándor Szaniszló, MP István Láng and Kőrösi appeared on the scene, then they took a selfie with the cars in the middle of the park in the background and put it on the social media page, saying that this is the new parking lot, an old problem has finally been solved," he emphasizes with excitement in his voice the resident. Who, as he says, has never seen "such disgusting propaganda".
He immediately contacted the Public Spaces Authority and Láng. He received a promise from the latter a week and a half ago that they would deliver the cars, but they have been standing there ever since. "They were able to destroy a park to prove that there is more demand for parking than for the park," he adds.
István Csontos and his wife, Ilona, who live in the housing estate, are not happy about the parking lot either, they also miss the public forum before the plans were drawn up.
"We do not dispute that there are parking problems in the housing estate, but the fact that our opinion is swept off the table is quite outrageous"
says the head of the family to the Mandiner. István also visited the municipality. He wanted to speak before the agenda at the council meeting, but he was not given the opportunity to do so, so he submitted the residents' suggestions in writing. In it, the decision-makers of the municipality are asked to expand the parking lot next to the doctor's office instead of the planned parking lot in the middle of the park, because, as they say, this area has the greatest shortage of parking spaces during the day. They also recommend that the area next to the existing garage row on Építő út be turned into a parking lot. According to them, the most reasonable way to alleviate the lack of parking spaces for nine-story buildings is here. In addition, they request that the municipality create herringbone parking spaces next to the sidewalks, with which the number of spaces can be doubled. Furthermore, I would like vans not exceeding 3.5 tons - with a company logo - to be excluded from parking in residential areas.
To be remembered: two years ago in Pestszentlőrinc-Pestszentimrén, there was great indignation that the DK leadership of the district, under the vortex of the special legal order, pushed through the complete reorganization of the district's kindergarten network in a few weeks, without meaningful social dialogue. A few months later, the people living in the neighborhood of the Péterhalmi forest contacted our editorial office with the request that would asphalt Flór Ferenc Street against their will, even though they also chose the street as their place of residence because of the forest environment. The outraged residents complained that, while the written declaration to the residents of the street about the investment was still in full swing at the end of May, the procedure to prepare the construction was started in the government office. With hard work, they finally managed to get the municipality to stop asphalting.
would reclassify the section a few meters from their homes , so that the new owner could then build a complete industrial park there. Most recently, outraged parents approached the editorial office with the knowledge that the municipality is methodically demolishing the oldest kindergarten in Pestszentlőrinc-Pestszentimre, which has been operating since 1904, under the grass.
Featured image: Magyar Hírlap
