Around 800 people attended the reception, during which Polfer outlined the most important issues to tackle in 2019. Two issues stood out in particular. Attendees included current the PM and former City of Luxembourg mayor Xavier Bettel.
"A growing city needs a growing municipality", Luxembourg City mayor Lydie Polfer explained at the local New Year's reception on Monday. While the city has grown over the past few years, Polfer pointed out that this isn't necessarily reflected in the numbers of municipal employees. A year ago, about 4,123 people were employed by the City of Luxembourg. At the moment, this number is down to 4,048.
The year 2018 marked a record year in terms of according building permits for new housing. In total, 1,555 permits were accorded over the course of the year - an unparalleled number according to mayor Lydie Polfer.
87 homes were built by the City of Luxembourg itself. This year, this number is expected to shrink to about 70.
Some large-scale projects will be launched this year, for example in Route D'Arlon. Since the Josy Bartel stadium will be replaced by a new stadium close to Kockelscheuer and the local fire brigade and city cleaning services will move in the next few years, a lot of space will be available for new projects along the Route d'Arlon. An international architectural competition will be launched in the spring of 2019.
The second major challenge in the year 2019 will be transportation. As the tram construction site is slowly but surely moving into the centre of Luxembourg City, traffic is likely to become even more congested.
While the next two years aren't expected to be easy, mayor Polfer is confident that the city will manage and pointed out how much has already changed within the past couple of years. She named Royal Hamilius and the new tram as examples of positive change.
