Urban Development

Urban Development - The business centre is the showpiece of a city, as is its industrial quarter. Public space forms the essence of the city.

Increased social disparity is a problem encountered by many European cities. Poorly managed public space is being overtaken by advertisements and cars and is rapidly becoming privatised. This neo-liberal concept of a city as a good, based on the principle that “you must pay to feel well in the city”, results in the segregation of people and encloses them in ghettoes: some in “luxury prisons”, e.g enclosed and monitored estates, others, in neglected high-rise estates.

The green city concept is based on the assumption that the essence of a city is that which is public. The quality of common space, the equal distribution and full availability of public goods and services are the foundations of a democratic, egalitarian, sustainable city. That is why instead of investments in shopping malls or national football stadiums, the Greens call for a greater number of local sport centres and swimming pools, well maintained parks and children’s play areas, clean streets with wide pavements and cycle lanes and aesthetically pleasing bus and tram stops. To summarise: a friendly and safe public space, accessible to everyone. In order to achieve equally distributed city development, it is also vitally important that a city infoway is developed - free broadband internet access which provides all citizens with greater internet access to public services(e-government, e-learning, e-health etc).

Did You Know?
Artists are becoming increasingly involved in revitalising neglected city areas. In 2007, the Polish artist Joanna Rajkowska created the Oxygenator project – a small pond on Grzybowski Square in central Warsaw, a place which she described as “belonging to nobody, unwanted, abandoned”. The surface of the pond produced bubbles of oxygen enriched air, and seats surrounding it provided a place for local people to rest, breathe and talk.

The Oxygenator became a central meeting place and also the stimulus for local citizens to act together – a written protest against the destruction of the Oxygenator was produced (the city had granted permission for the square to be used for only two months). In the autumn of 2007, the city authorities met with the artist and agreed to provide funds to recreate and maintain the pond from spring 2008. Until now it is still an object of dispute, as the Warsaw Town Hall official called it "making a village in the centre of the city". Warsaw Greens 2004 supported the citizance of Grzybowski Square in their struggle for the Oxygenerator's return.