France - Ile de la Réunion

INTO MY ECO-SUSTAINABLE BUBBLE ...

"Cities around the world: when our cities tell of our lives"

HELLO,

Located in the south of Réunion, a small tropical island which is mountainy and volcanic, in the middle of the Indian Ocean, I bear the name "LE TAMPON". Although I'm a French city, I certainly owe my name to the Madagascan inhabitants of the neighboring Land, for whom "Tampony" means "summit you see from afar".

I will soon be 83 years old, but in spite of it all I'm considered a young city. I am also privileged to have the label of "flowery city". I enjoy an agreeable climate and a stunning view over both the ocean and the mountains... it is also said of me that I am "a city where life is good". I have a university, a theatre, a media library and so many other beautiful things to discover...

But today, I feel tired, sad and dirty...

In the park where I sleep, it's really dreary and colorless. Alas, I no longer breathe the nice smell of flowers but instead the bad smell of smoke from your cars which blacken my lungs. My ears are faced with incessant and deafening noise from engines and horns.

I am sad to see your papers flying about, your chewing-gum dirtying my gray dress. I feel bad and not able to protect my poor pedestrians and disabled people who try to find a path across my robe which has been warped and torn by tree roots, your cars and your scooters which constantly give me little bruises...

So STOP!!! ...

I would really like for the planet to accept me and for my inhabitants to constantly improve me. Wouldn't it be marvellous to live in harmony? That's what I dream of... people who are happy to live together and who respect me.

Please, preserve my health, my joy at being alive and make me AN "ECO-SUSTAINABLE" CITY with more rubbish bins so that your flying papers won't be seen anymore, gutters to collect rain water, solar panels on public buildings, the flowering and maintenance of my park so that children's laughter can be heaard...

My dearest wish: MAKE ME ACCESSIBLE TO EVERYONE...

Help me achieve this...
 

My city centre is close together... so why not create an area without cars? If you knew all the good ideas that my children have given me about this - a cycle path, safety work to make access to me easier for disabled people and pedestrians.
A city without cars is a less polluted city, less noisy, more beautiful and, especially, easier to live in. Oh ... just to think of it, I am already imagining the smell of flowers making me giddy again, hearing once again the song of sparrows, seeing my visitors happy to be able to enjoy the fine weather, wandering about leisurely on foot, on bikes, roller-skates, skateboards, scooters, pushchairs and wheelchairs ... at their convenience

I bid you
BIENVENUE
WELCOME
BIENVENIDA
WILLKOMMEN