Since the 6^th of October City’s founding in the late 1970s its squares have borne the names of its sponsors – Juhaina Company for Dairy Products in the square that holds the company’s name, for example, or a square named after the late Sheikh Mahmoud Khalil Hussary.

Yet many of these named squares are disappearing. Despite housing the Hussary Mosque, the Hussary Association, a gas station and the largest and oldest university in the city, Hussary Square is more.

Visual and conceptual image

Since the 6^th of October City’s founding in the late 1970s its squares have borne the names of its sponsors – Juhaina Company for Dairy Products in the square that holds the company’s name, for example, or a square named after the late Sheikh Mahmoud Khalil Hussary.

Yet many of these named squares are disappearing. Despite housing the Hussary Mosque, the Hussary Association, a gas station and the largest and oldest university in the city, Hussary Square is more.

Visual and conceptual image

Although the 6^th of October City continues to expand both westward towards the Oasis highway and eastward toward Sheikh Zayed City, the removal of the most famous squares within the oldest parts of the city seems like deliberate vandalism.

Any car might turn in the opposite direction at any point due to missing pavement and gaping holes. There are neither traffic lights nor pedestrian crossings. Sometimes, electrical cables reach out of roads making it impossible for drivers to avoid them. Natural gas distribution outlets have remained in their places and are now like islands in the middle of the road.

Near the city court, there is a huge billboard advertising the Hussary Square Visual and Mental Image Development Project without clarifying the nature or the implementation method of the project, which will take more than three months.

“The new conceptual image is not yet clear,” said Muhammad Mustapha, an engineer in charge of the project at the city court which is affiliated with the Ministry of Housing. “It will be clear overtime.”

Getting around October 6 University

According to the new visual and conceptual image, the 6^th of October City will have only one entry and one exit. The removal of squares will make the Nadi road a one-way entry and the University road a one-way exit.

A huge architectural mass will serve as a hub for traffic where there will be a virtual square and vehicles will go around an extended block comprised of 6^th of October City University and its hospital, in addition to several malls in the middle. “This will be a square with vehicles circling around it to facilitate traffic,” said Mustapha.

This scenario will affect traffic among many neighborhoods. The city consists of two parallel groups with each having six neighborhoods where the first neighborhood is opposite the seventh and the second is opposite the eighth and so on. Between these two groups, several parallel roads cross them.

“Residents of neighborhoods 1-3 and 7-9 will move through a side road being currently paved between the first and seventh neighborhoods. Moreover, a large area of the road between the second and eighth neighborhoods will be a two-way road to facilitate moving among the other neighborhoods,” said Mustapha.

Felling trees

Meanwhile, city court employees are destroying green spaces within city neighborhoods as part of the project. In a big garden at the entry to a restaurant in the first neighborhood, there was a massacre of trees and palm trees. Consequently, the restaurant administration placed a sign on the trunk of a palm tree saying the tree was a victim of the city court.

The owner of the restaurant has pressed charges against the city court and a Facebook campaign has been launched, holding the city court accountable and calling for the dismissal of its head.

Another garden is destined to a doomed fate. With an area of nearly 700 meters, this garden had been empty land until residents of the second neighborhood planted it, turning it into their own backyard. Nonetheless, the city court has announced its intention to establish shops and malls in it.

“We do not want to lose this green space,” said Ashraf Radwan, a resident. “But the city court does not care about such things. They only think about how it is going to bring them money.”

Two terrifying narratives

The destruction resulting from the removal of green space and squares does not match the fear that has started to befall this one-time calm city from repeated car bombings. A car bombing occurred near the Thani Police Station claiming the lives of the three passengers in the car. Also in early July, nine people were killed inside an apartment in the 11^th neighborhood, which was the most ever terrifying incident witnessed by the city.

The Ministry of Interior’s statement claims that the apartment was a den of terrorists planning attacks against vital facilities. The statement underscores that the apartment residents were killed only after they started shooting. One of the suspects, Abdulfattah Ibrahim, was a criminal wanted in seven cases, while the others were wanted in other cases. The Muslim Brotherhood’s statement, however, says the nine suspects were holding a meeting of the Brotherhood Committee on Legal and Human Right Support to Families of Detainees and Martyrs and were killed in cold blood. The statement shows that Egypt has become a state of lawless bands.

Though inconsistent, both statements imply that the fear witnessed by the city will not be conquered by the awaited conceptual image.