David Ondráčka: Municipal elections. What should be talked about, not only in Prague
Municipal elections are upon us. In his commentary, the former head of the Czech Transparency International, David Ondráčka, describes several topics on which he would like to hear politicians debate in Prague, but the same applies to Ostrava, Brno or Pilsen, for example.
I watched the debate of the candidates for mayor of Prague. I have seen enough tired arguments about who is more involved in the Dosimeter case and quasi-cultural disputes, who is more of a cyclist or a driver? Very little has been said about the structural problems of the city, how to manage a dynamic metropolis with a budget of almost 90 billion.
In Prague alone, there are roughly 1,200 representatives from the large municipality to the council of the last peripheral district. How to manage a city where there are actually 1,200 politicians, each with completely different interests (personal and party), defending interests at different levels (cities, municipalities and city districts often go directly against each other). This the branched self-government model has run out of steam, hinders the development of cities, and does not allow for a comprehensive solution. In my opinion, it needs a thorough change, but it is complicated, so it is left to run on its own, and it always works out somehow and the trams eventually run.
1200 aldermen and councilors’ departmentalism
The second problem of the city is the extreme departmentalism of the councilors and the partisan division of agendas. too many councilors play the de facto ministry of health, education, social affairs or transport, and above all, parties and individual councilors jealously and anxiously guard their responsibilities and agendas. It seems a bit comical, but that’s how it is.
The implication is that The city council is not really a single team working for common success, but a coalition conglomerate. And the mayor does not actually manage anything, he is not the superior of the councillors, he cannot fire them or order them to do anything, he is only one of the 11 members of the council. He has no special powers, he just represents a real city. But voters don’t know much about that, and they perceive that it happened under Bém, Hudeček or Hřib.
The Vltava Philharmonic: It should be up and running within 10 years and will become a symbol of Prague, says the city planner
Enjoy
Not only the architecture, but also the solution of the public space were the main aspects of the selection of the expert committee, which was looking for the ideal design of the Vltava Philharmonic. The winner is now known. The prestigious building on the Vltava will be designed by the Danish studio Bjarke Ingels. The design of the Czech architect Petr Hájek also made it into the top five of the best projects.
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We don’t have direct election of mayors, and no one even really thinks about it (although they have it around us, for example in Slovakia or Poland). It’s simply always a matter of collective decision-making by the City Council, or then the council, which has its advantages, but also disadvantages, whatever can be done for collective (ir)responsibility.
NIMBYs, build anywhere but here
The systemic problem of urban development is the so-called NIMBY (not in my backyard). An approach that is strongly prevalent in cities (and everywhere in the world) is being confirmed in the fight against developers, expanding construction, leads to passionate fights and clashes that often define local politics.
Citizens’ associations are formed to block construction (from which electoral candidates are often generated), demonstrations are held, there is opposition to the gentrification of some parts of the city. In many cases, such resistance is understandable, some projects are megalomaniac, destroy local specifics or the environment. But from the point of view of the whole city, this view makes strategic management of housing, transport or social policy of the metropolis difficult.
Summit on development: The city should change its brownfields for ready-made apartments
Newstream Television
How to support construction development and solve the problems of the metropolis? This is the main topic of the current Architecture and Development Summit, which is being held in Prague’s Municipal House. The Association for Architecture and Development defines eight points to aim for.
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A wider problem is the possibility of municipalities to really shape their city territorially. Spatial planning should free the hands of municipalities in the management of their territory, where they want to build and have. Against this is the rigid approach that represents the state administration, specifically MMR officials, and now they have also worked on the new minister Bartoš. And they issue relatively rigid decrees that at least complicate planning for the municipalities of large cities.
Of course, this is also related to the influx of new residents of the metropolis, who often live in the city and use its services, but do not have a permanent residence there, and thus Prague loses a significant part of its tax revenue.
The Poor City of Prague study was published at the IPR, which sounds provocative, but the data nicely shows the underfunding of municipal budgets compared to growing expenses. This is where the discussion between big cities and the state should be focused on how to fine-tune this.
City companies
Only Prague has an extraordinary number of city companies that it wholly owns or in which it has shares. The greatest attention is logically focused on the Transport Company hl. m of Prague (DPP), which is dramatically the largest and most insignificant, in the case of Prague, it automatically sends almost a fifth of the city’s budget there every year (about 16 billion). That’s it also the biggest refuge of all kinds of raiders and thus corruption.
But Prague also has, for example, Prague Services, Prague Heating, Prague Gas, Gas, Technical Administration of Communications, shares in water, heat and energy, de facto it provides most public services through city companies. But how does the city have a strategy with its businesses, does it have an ownership policy, does it know what it wants from them?
Does it invest in targeted and long-term innovation, renewal, and modernization? And how professionally they are managed and controlled by their management. Does the City Council, which is usually the General Assembly, know what is going on inside? Cases like the Dosimeter show deep gaps, and it’s just one of many cases in this area. The potential for systemic change is enormous.
Petr Hlaváček in the Realitní klub podcast: Not all developers know how to build. Print only profit
Reality
Petr Hlaváček, the Prague councilor for territorial development for TOP 09 and the current leader of the Prague candidate STAN, is not afraid of the fact that he might not succeed in the upcoming municipal elections. I have a lot of options. He is not worried about the continuity of the projects he started, whether it is the Vltava Philharmonic, the Prague Ring Road or construction under the baton of the Prague Development Company. But what Prague would need, according to him, is an efficient state administration.
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Municipal elections as a referendum on the government?
Are municipal elections a referendum on the government? Practically not. It is true that in big cities they are to some extent a probe of current political moods and preferences, but big conclusions cannot be drawn from them. Local influences and the popularity of local personalities play a role. But the municipal elections in Prague will be watched, even journalists are close to Mariánské náměstí. So hopefully they will bring about some shifts in the strategic management of the metropolis, and not just changes of people and staff.