The biggest trouble in Prague this year: Traffic jams, squares dangerous for wheelchairs and junkies in the streets
What went wrong in Prague this year and what provoked the most criticism? This year, many drivers were upset by the number of traffic closures throughout the city, which forced them to stand in convoys. Criticism was also caused by the cycle lane, which was drawn and then disappeared again, the number of drug addicts in the streets or the just successful reconstruction of the Modřany square.
About fifty people today in Prague on the Smetana Embankment demonstrated against the plan of the City Hall of Prague 1 to cut down a mature silver maple. The plan is to give way to paving the now grassy area at the Karlovy Lázně tram stop and to build a passage under the road to the river.
Author: CNC / Jan Zázvorka, TaK Architects
The planned passions aroused great passion among politicians and activists this year revitalization of the so-called Anennian triangle, which is a small park on Smetana Square near Karlovy Vary. It was created at a place where rubble was weighed during the modification of the embankment, and gradually shrubs and especially tall maple trees grew up there. Precisely because of him, the former mayor of Prague 1, Pavel Čižinský (Prague Sobě) and some local residents, opposed the planned transformation of the entire area.
The main thing that bothered me was that the tree was to be felled during the work and up on the spot demonstrations also took place twice. Because of this, a battle broke out at the town hall between one of the maple rescue activists and the office secretary.
The topic of maples has been addressed for several weeks and has been discussed at the City Council. cities. The fight to save the tree was ultimately successful and Prague 1 agreed that the tree would not be cut down and the whole project is reworked. This, of course, entails additional costs. So there was no passage to the embankment on the spot. However, the embankment was accessible to the public at least on the catwalks.
Prague 12 spent almost 50 million crowns on the new appearance of the square.
Author: Tonda Tran
This year, Modřany had to deal with a complaint about the recent reconstruction of Sofia Square, which cost more than 50 million. Shortly after the work was completed, the National Council of the Disabled received a complaint. She pointed out that due to major shortcomings, moving around the square can even be dangerous for the disabled.
The consultant Dagmar Lanzová, who prepared the audit of the entire project, stated a number of shortcomings, e.g. non-marking of obstacles, missing railings, handrails, sharp edges, spatial optical illusions and inappropriately designed guide lines for the blind and partially sighted.
The City Hall of Prague 12 rejected the fact that the square would be inaccessible for wheelchairs. According to the town hall, it was a mistake of the author’s supervision, technical supervision or the supplier of the construction work. However, the contractor and the architect refused to make a mistake.
Traffic in Žižkov is collapsing again. This is mainly due to 7 current repairs and closures on the backbone roads
Author: Blesk: Karel Kopáč
This year, they caused great resentment, especially from drivers road closures throughout the city. Even President Miloš Zeman spoke about this. “The fact that road repairs are completely uncoordinated, chaotic and ill-considered, additionally complicates hundreds of thousands of people every day,” he wrote in an open letter to the mayor.
This year, congestion took place in the vicinity of the National Theater or at the shopping center in Letňany. Clearly, the traffic collapse then occurred in Žižkov, where at one point there were even seven closures on the busiest streets.
The city’s leadership has been criticized mainly by the opposition due to the number of streets dug up. Deputy Mayor for Transport Adam Scheinherr (Prague Sobě) replied that the maintenance of roads in Prague had been neglected for a long time and an internal infrastructure debt of over 30 billion crowns had arisen.
This year, the Technical Administration of Roads throughout Prague carried out 153 events with a total investment of 2.5 billion crowns. At the same time, they concerned not only maintenance, reconstruction of areas for pedestrians, cyclists or motorists, but they were also connected, for example, with repairs of engineering networks or the construction of parking spaces.
illustrative photo
Author: Daniel Vitous
The case is also related to transport cycle lane on Plzeňská streetor for which the municipality also garnered criticism. The road, which is crossed by tens of thousands of cars a day, has become a single-lane road and just one lane became a bike lane and a parking space.
Prague 5 in particular spoke out against this, which bothered that the municipality had not sufficiently consulted the town hall. Plzeňská is also one of the access roads for ambulances heading to the Motol hospitalwhich you can’t ride here on the tram lane.
The municipality claimed that the town hall had known about the change since last year, but did not raise any objections until the work began. But he eventually heard the criticism, and the road returned to its former form.
Visualization of metro station D Depo Písnice
Author: DPP
According to earlier rather optimistic estimates, it was to become the fourth line of the Prague metro to start this year. The delay was previously caused mainly by the coronavirus epidemic, but this year by the activities of the local association.
The construction has already received a building permit this year, but the Pankrác Society association filed an appeal against itt, headed today by the former Pirate of Prague 4 Marie Jelínková. The association had reservations, for example, that more than a hundred trees were to be felled, or that it bothered the construction site near the houses.
The construction procedure has stopped once due to their suspension and the project has been modified. “The association often disputes the existence of the legally located metro station Olbrachtova,“Deputy Mayor Adam Scheinherr (Prague Sobě) commented on their activities. The Ministry of Transport finally rejected the objection of bias raised by the association. But he still has permission to appeal it against the construction.
Residents around the U Zvonu tram stop in Prague 5 have repeatedly complained about a large number of drug users in the streets around the contact center in Mahenova Street. One of the initiators of the petition, Jan Vondráček, documented some of the cases he saw around his house.
Author: Jan Vondráček
One of the things that residents and politicians from Prague 5 have complained about this year is a large number of drug users, especially around Anděl. In Prague 1, the town hall bothered the homeless people on U Bulhara Street near the main railway station and again demands that the municipality not renew the lease.
Politicians mainly complained that a large number of people who use the services of contact centers gather in these places. In Prague 5, there were also petitions from locals who complain, for example, that some drug users apply them calmly even in front of their house on the street.
It was even created in September joint declaration Prague 1, 2 and 5, which requires the municipality to situation with large contact centers in urban areas addressed. The Prague City Council finally approved a resolution according to which the municipality should start working on the decentralization of these services and also increase the budget for cleaning and security of critical sites.
According to the new mayor of Prague 22, Uhříněves is mainly concerned with disproportionate construction at the expense of the missing infrastructure. This needs to be completed in the coming years.
Author: ÚMČ Praha 22
The mayor was replaced in Prague 14 during the year, when in June Radek Vondra (TOP 09) was replaced by Jiří Zajac (ODS). At that time, the whole council ended, and after the creation of the new one, Vondra became deputy mayor. He resigned due to disputes in the coalition. A new council was formed consisting of TOP 09, ODS and Pirates.
But before Christmas, there was another concussion when councilors and deputy mayors from the ranks of Pirates and TOP 09 resigned. The reason for the resignation was a proposal to include materials on cooperative housing and construction in Hloubětín in the program without the prior approval of the council. Five of the seven members resigned from the board. Then a new coalition of ODS, STAN, KDU-ČSL and ANO was formed.
Disagreements obviously also exist in, for example Uhříněves, where Mayor Vojtěch Zelenka was removed this year (STAN and Svobodní) and in December the city district even applied for it a criminal complaint due to an amendment to the contract for the construction of a home for the elderly, which he signed.
The councilors were also uncomfortable in Prague 11, where the councilor for education Zuzana Ujhelyiová (Pirates) and the deputy mayor Ondřej Prokop (YES) finished in the council this October.
Mayor Hřib also immortalized himself with a Chinese respirator at one of a total of 40 points of sale.
Author: Martin Pekárek, DPP, Facebook
During the spring wave of the pandemic, respirators for CZK 10 began to be sold in the Prague metro. But people soon began to wonder where the respirators were from. From Mayor Zdeněk Hřiby (Pirates) received a reply that he was from Taiwan, with whom Prague is trying to maintain very friendly relations, for example, promised to the Prague.
In the end, however, it turned out that the respirators in the subway were from a Chinese manufacturer. Boletus then apologized for his inaccurate statement. “According to the original plan, respirators made in the Czech Republic were to be sold in vending machines on Taiwanese lines from Czech nanofibers, but there has been a change. So far, the transport company has decided to sell respirators from its own previous stocks, “he said. However, vending machines have not yet occurred.
This is what the Ice Sports Complex should look like after completion.
Author: ÚMČ Praha 11
The project, which was to enable rich sports activities for local residents in Prague 11, was jone of the priorities of the management of the local town hall. But now even councilors often can’t agree on what to do with him.
The construction of the complex has been planned for a long time and the completion date was postponed again. It was originally supposed to stand last year. The city district also has a stake in AR Delta, which is to build it.
In December, however, the council did not approve the extension of the building right to the city, where the complex is to stand. It also refused to amend the terms and conditions, which stipulate that the sports ground must be completed this year, otherwise the city district may withdraw from the contract. The deputies also refused to sell part of the shares owned by the city district. On the website of the company that is building the complex, it was written in October that the construction is “growing before our eyes”. What will be the participation of the city district in the completion of the complex is therefore quite uncertain.