Five things we can look forward to in Prague in 2022
The metropolis is entering its third coronavirus year, knowing that theories about “overcoming the covid” or “making a dot” behind it look good on posters, but reality, as elected managers and press departments have proven on naivety many times (at best ).
Waiting for the end of a pandemic is like waiting for the end of middle age – it’s something you just have to learn to live with. And the things you put off for later, you just have to start dealing right away. So what will we solve in Prague in 2022?
Fewer tourists
In 2019, over 8 million tourists visited the capital. In the first coronavirus year, it was over 2 million, as a result of which several stalls with earphones went bankrupt and a few taxi drivers had to refuse a holiday in the Canary Islands, but you could buy coffee on Old Town Square for less than 150 crowns and the inhabitants of Prague 1 could after years of raids by adolescent alcoholics from Britain, Denmark and the Benelux, he finally sleeps.
What 2022 will bring, however, is only in omicron stars.
The owners of flats rented via Airbnb also got into trouble, because there is no one in their dungeons to sleep in, which, of course, is also sorry for very few people except these flat owners. The decline of tourism brought fundamental economic problems to Prague and a lot of official accommodation facilities and pubs also got into economic problems.
Most of them have managed to cope with scratched ears, either with the help of the state or because their owners have adhered to the classic Darwinian principle – those who adapt will survive. In any case, in 2021, in terms of earnings in these facilities, we are in Prague at an average of twice as much as 2020. What 2022 will bring, however, is only in omicron stars.
Traffic hell
Regardless of the number of tourists in Prague, the number of cars in it is constantly increasing. Activists have repeatedly said that the unfinished circuit has nothing to do with it, but the fact is that without its completion, the traffic situation in the city will never improve. The metropolis has 1.3 million inhabitants and 1.1 million cars, another half a million come to Prague every day from outside.
Let’s add to the reconstruction of several bridges over the Vltava, drastically neglected infrastructure, the reluctance of Praguers to change to public transport and we have another year, which we will spend swearing at who is to blame. Several dozen regular closures are planned, the construction of the metro from Pankrác to Písnice will begin and it will be closed in 2022 due to the reconstruction of the Barrandov Bridge. So it is quite possible that we will remember the current situation in 12 months as good old days.
New buildings
Fortunately, Prague is not an open-air museum, although so many would like to see it. New projects are finally starting as the current situation allows, and the good news is that their designers are slowly learning to listen to both the city and the voice of the public. Probably the most visible will be the transformation of the city center in the vicinity of Masaryk Railway Station, where both the railway station building (belonging to České dráhy) and the entire surroundings of Masaryčka, which has Penta under its thumb, will be repaired. And it was she who had to compromise a lot on the basis of the feedback from the original giant plans.
The biggest brownfields in Prague are starting to change. A new district will be built in Smíchov, the first part of the project is already under construction and the second is awaiting a building permit, the development of the Žižkov Freight Station has been given green, a new Rohan Island project continues, a new bridge between Holešovice and Karlín is to be built. In the south of Prague, the project of the new Sports Complex Lahovice is also coming to life, which is also to be proof that giant projects can be climate and energy sustainable. I just have to create things in pandas that I have to be ashamed of in Europe.
Revival of culture and pubs
If anyone deserves the title of “pandemic bastard”, then it is pubs and culture. Constant changes in the rules, lockdowns, confusing state (non) support and also the expansion of import services qualifications, that a lot of pubs and restaurateurs, but also organizers of cultural events simply coughed it up. It’s nice to fulfill your dreams of favorite bands or to have your own pub, but slips and family don’t ask.
In April 2020, pessimistic forecasts estimated the crash of up to half of the pubs, but in the end it is certainly not so tragic. This is due not only to the improving situation, but also to vaccination. And simply the fact that we have learned to coexist with the pandemic. Concerts and festivals have also begun to return, albeit in a reduced form. Culture has moved from the halls to a club environment, which may not suit everyone, but if you want festivals, there are dozens of them planned in Prague alone – Respect, Metronome, Dvořák’s Prague, Prague Spring, Jazz Meets World … Just keep going.
Communal election
Great fun awaits us in October. Political parties are already preparing for the elections so fiercely that many of them have managed to use up a large part of the election budgets for booking advertising space online and offline. And that’s three-quarters of the year until the election. At first glance, the situation in Prague is clear, but it boils unbelievably under the surface. After the national election failure, the pirates will try to save what they can in Prague.
However, Prague also aspires to this position, which, of course, may not be of interest to the national elections. Can the parties of the three-party coalition agree together and one candidate come out, or will their nationwide victory shatter in intra-coalition quarrels? Will Jan Čižinský attach the mayor’s chain? Will the Pirates be able to defend their position in their traditional main stronghold?
In the coming months, of course, we will hear hundreds of comments that will provide sound answers to these questions – and will contradict each other quite reliably. But no matter how the elections turn out, the problems and joys of Prague will remain, and the people who will put political dirt on themselves here will have to live together for the next four years and solve the very common problems we talked about above.
The situation will not stop due to the elections or their results, you will not stop going to pubs and there will be fewer cars just because the councilor will change. That is why, most of all, he wishes that we will be able to find common ground more than ever. It is no coincidence that Prague is regularly placed in the rankings of the most beautiful cities on an imaginary box. It is a beautiful city and we deserve to be treated accordingly.
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photo: Pavel Vojta