2008. június 04., szerda, 14:56
Budapest trees bleeding to death? |
6th May 2005 - Protect the Future! and four residents of Jókai street took legal action on Friday, 6, May in order to save the trees of the square. The same day the residents of the square, together with green activists, held an awareness-raising demonstration under the 80-year-old trees. The action may become a precedent in cases of other public parks also being in danger.
Arguments against the deep garage and in favour of the huge trees:
This morning, the residents of Jókai square and green activists held an awareness-raising demonstration under the 80-years-old trees. They are collecting signatures for a petition against the deep garage with the capacity of 500 cars until 7 o'clock in the evening. The idea of the awareness raising action was generated the fact that Protect the Future! and four local residents sued the Administrative Office of the Capital. The first hearing began at 1 o’clock, on Friday. The court seemed to be attentive towards the arguments of environment protection, so the greens expect the second hearing, that was adjourned until 31, August, optimistically. It is important to mention that the Hungarian television channel TV2 chose the drama of the courtroom as one of its top news headlines.
On the demonstration Marton Vay summarized the arguments of greens and the protectors of the city:
* The first and maybe the biggest problem is that the Municipal Government of Terézváros has mislead its voters. While issuing the permission, the different versions of the plans introduced to the residents contained either a smaller parking lot or none at all.
* The Administrative Office violated the law concerning national administration when it rejected the appeal of residents and civil organizations while not giving substantive replies to some of its questions.
* Major contradictions can be found in the impact study: for instance, in the part where the impact on the quality of the air is discussed, the study estimates fewer number of cars than everywhere else.
* Even now, the air pollution indicator of the square and the district regularly exceeds the limit defining health risk. Since now “only” 150 cars are parking on the square, the planned capacity of 500 cars, that will invite considerable amount of traffic, will considerably decrease the life expectancy of the residents, and the lack of the air-cleansing effects of the trees makes the situation even worse.
* The most direct danger, however, may be posed by the effects of building operations. One of the houses beside the square has an underground parking lot with only two levels, still, the walls of the neighbouring house had began to crack. Most probably the six levels deep excavation necessary for the parking lot would cause irreparable damage to the 100-years-old houses standing on Jókai square. Nobody gave any guarantees to the residents. Marton Vay's opinion about it was that the local authorities must have thought that if the houses shattered, the residents would either die or move far away – in none of these cases would they mean risk in the next election.
A very important factor was highlighted by the green activists: a year ago most of the residents deemed it hopeless to demonstrate, or, if worse, believed the claims of the local authorities that the surplus 350 fuming cars and a few thujas, instead of the huge mass of foliage would make the air cleaner. There was a resident who could hardly wait for them to cut down the trees that cause allergy. However, one year of enlightening propaganda was not useless: today most of these residents can see the situation more clearly. On the meetings of the residents' committee the mood was almost rebellious, and most of the residents were aware that allergy is usually caused by the air pollution, that is usually higher that the health limit, and by artificial food, not by those plants that human race has been living together for tens of thousands of years. In short, the demonstration gets much more support, according to the activists.
Answering a question from the attending journalists, the residents and the civil activists said that they did not plan any action resembling the ones at Zengő because the case is still before the court. However, they admitted that if they have no other means to save the trees, they will even move to live among the branches.
The participating organisations:
Terézváros Group of the Hungarian Humanist Movement
Green Circle of Terézváros
Protect the Future!
Green Youth
Translated by F. Birkus Ilona
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