PEDESTRIANIZATION IS THE NEED OF THE CITY (09.12.2019, Hürriyet Ankara Deniz Gürel Interview)

13 December 2019 Friday 12:00

Will Bahcelievler 7th Avenue and Tunalı be closed to traffic?

With a population approaching 1 million Çankaya is the largest district municipality of Turkey...

In fact, more people than Turkey's 64 provinces live in Çankaya district. When it comes to the daytime population, things change even more, and more than 2 and a half million people spend their days in Çankaya in daytime.

The budget is over 1 billion TL.

When regarding the number of voters, we can easily say that “Çankaya had been the turning point of the March 31 elections”.

Metropolitan Mayor Mansur Yavaş had taken almost one third of 1 million 662 thousand 183 votes from Çankaya in Capital, which changed hands after 25 years.

And yet, I called Çankaya Mayor Alper Taşdelen to ask him, “How is it going?”, we met at a lunch.

Our chat started with the question: “The cliché of Ankara politics, the Metropolis-Çankaya contention has now officially ended and what has changed in Ankara in the last 8 months?”:

“A lot has changed in Ankara. Metropolitan Municipality was supposed to be the municipality of all the people of Ankara. But as you know, the understanding “we do not take service where we do not receive vote” was dominant. In this sense, Çankaya was also a victim. With the arrival of our Metropolitan Mayor Mansur Yavaş, we started the process we longed for. A period began in which the money of the people was spent on the real needs of the people, waste was prevented, there were no wacky projects, and the metropolitan municipality provided dialogue with the district.

‘FIRST TARGET IS KIZILAY‘

At the point of beginning, there was Kızılay, which became a depression area. The center of cities should be the most lively places. For this reason, we renewed the pedestrian areas such as Sakarya, Tuna and Yüksel, Konur and Karanfil together with the Metropolitan Municipality. First of all, their infrastructure was renewed. Intact infrastructure had not been renewed for 30 years. There had been no street lighting in the center of Ankara for 30 years. We built underground garbage systems for all these areas. We planted new trees. Total renewal and landscaping was done. The most important side of this, Ankara Metropolitan Municipality and Çankaya Municipality worked hand in hand and achieved these.

“There is a situation in İstanbul and Ankara that the metropolitan mayors selected form different party and the parliamentary majority belong to different parties. How does this affect Ankara? Mr. Taşdelen answered:

The electoral psychology did not disappear after the election. İstanbul elections continued for 2 months. Therefore, the election environment continued for the first 3-4 months. Party reflexes did not soften. But now I wish that there will be a process in which the understanding that everyone is trying to serve Ankara is becoming dominant rather than political party belonging. This process has started in metropolitan and district budgets. The budget passed unanimously there. This is what it should be. There will be politics in the election, there will be criticism, but after the election we all have an obligation to serve Ankara. I believe that the AK Party and the MHP will not stand behind at the service point for Ankara. I believe, I want to believe that they will support every project and every issue that benefits Ankara. Because we serve together. A decision was taken from the Metropolitan Assembly and a problem was solved in Çankaya. AK Party, MHP, İYİ Party and CHP all together. Nobody should act with party selfishness.

‘THE 2nd AOÇ (ATATURK FOREST FARM) IS COMING TO BADEMLİDERE‘

During this period, I asked Mr. Taşdelen about his three important projects in Çankaya. He said “they would serve not only Çankaya, but all of Ankara, and listed these 3 important projects as follows:

“Our nighttime population iis 940 thousand. Our daytime population is 2-2.5 million. Çankaya serves all of Ankara. Everyone comes to Çankaya to have fun, socialize and rest. Therefore, the motto of Çankaya in the coming period is as follows: ‘We will make such projects that which all the people of Ankara will benefit. Our youth center and library project continues. As we promised at the elections. We are building a youth center and a library not a (Maltepe) Shopping Mall. It will be open 24/7, close to the metro. There will also be theater halls within the library for a thousand people. We're building the biggest youth center in Turkey. The value of the property is at least 90 million TL. We did not sell that land we did such a project. It will serve for free.

‘THE ZOO WILL ALSO TAKE PLACE THERE‘

We will establish a second Atatürk Forest Farm (AOÇ) in Bademlidere’. We'll make a great park there. We spoke to the Mayor Mansur, about an urban park. We will do this together with the Metropolitan Municipality. It is currently the largest parking area in Ankara. Now we are working on the projects. During this period, we will open stages. No concrete, no buffet. Our children grew up before they could go to the zoo for years. However, those who came to Ankara would surely go, now we will add it to this project. We want to build a science center for our children. It is exactly where the Çankaya-Mamak border is. The Cakaya people will benefit as well as the Mamak people.

‘WE WILL BUILD THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE AND THE REPUBLIC MUSEUM TOGETHER WITH ATO‘

We will build the War of Independence and the Republic Museum. We talked about this with ATO President Gürsel Baran. We want to do it with ATO. Each of our compatriots from the Mausoleum may come from anywhere in Turkey will also everyone in this museum. This museum is not a classic museum with visual effects, but an extremely modern museum. Çankaya will be a pioneer in this sense. These projects will serve all of Ankara.

Will Bahcelievler 7th Street and Tunalı be closed to traffic?

And our conversation ended with the issue that I have expressed from this corner for years in Hürriyet Ankara, pedestrian roads closed to traffic. We also chatted in the past. Bahçelievler 7. Avenue and Tunali Hilmi Avenue, you lean towards of closing these places to the car traffic. There were even some attempts, but it was supposed to remain. I asked Mr. Taşdelen, “Will this come to life in that term?...

My opinion is that, there are two places that this can be done in the first place. We will do this together with the Metropolitan Municipality. The first one is Bahçelievler 7th Avenue and the other is Tunalı. I do not know now the place in Tunalı would be Tunalı Hilmi Avenue or Bestekar Street. We need to study these and create pedestrian zones just like in the west. Here issues such as parking, traffic flow are under metropolitan control. We have always expressed our desire on this subject. Our tradesmen friends will see that the shops gain value and their turnover increases when they are pedestrianized there. Ankara needs this. We are stuck in shopping malls but this is the solution of the complaint. ”

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