Active creating of better cities
Osamu Okamura
And also through participatory processes promoting participatory processes because people in here are only learning how to actively enter and participate in public realm, in the public space on creating cities. So it means not being passive in public space, not to rely only on what politicians bring us. But to actively create things, to discuss things, to produce things.
And for example when we come to Prague now again, the institute of planning just invited NGOs and activists who are dealing with the city development, with public space to kind of informal board or I would say a consultation board and also programmatic board for public spaces. So all these organizations I would say they may be even 30 now already, they are being now in direct touch with the city of Prague, with these top-down approaches. So it means the top-down and bottom-up is starting to connect actively. So it is not like about tolerating each other, not to say even like aggressive denying each other like it used to be before but it starts to be a real cooperation and active cooperation. Also this is a kind of revolution in here I believe that it is not still daily practice in many cities in Central Europe.
But this is a kind of I would say a promising moment and when the politicians and city administrations understand that we are not fighting each other or we are not competing each other. But we are actually trying to achieve the same goal and when we just join our energy and in the synergy we can achieve this goal much better and much easier and cheaper and economically and maybe more sustainable and viable way because this will be lift kind of experience and lift practice. It will not be just something that is being dictated or just imposed on people from top.
You know it is very often that cities when they make some reconstruction or redesign of public space they just design it with their invited architects secretly somewhere in the offices. Then they make the reconstruction and then make this opening before the elections you know. And they want to get more votes for themselves. And then the space is maybe not well used and well maintained and it is deteriorating fast because nobody really wanted the space, nobody really knows how to use it, and it was super expensive etc. And this is not the right way how to do it.
Right way is of course to have a long-term planning coordination, involve the community and residents in the process from the beginning. To ask the people what they want, what they expect from public space, how it will be used by them. For example local businesses around square if it is being a public square the businesses they have some initiatives. They want to have some cafés with gardens and so they can also participate in it. It is something this I would say private-public partnership that is not very well developed in here as well that is something that is very vital. Because if there is not interest of the users you can really bet on very bad maintenance and very bad use later. So it means the involvement is important.
And for example in New York when you start to plan some redesign of public space you first ask the community what they want, what they expect and they are able to remain it and keep it up. And sometimes even from their own budget, from their own local community budget etc. And only in that moment when these local communities agree they want this tree, they want this bench and they will take care of it the city just brings this a tree and a bench. It means that it is not wasting the money. It is kind of a gift but there has to be the energy from the community given as well. So it is a kind of a partnership in the public space.
This is very important and still we are in this process. I think it is a growing interest I mean is a basically with the people who experienced this somewhere abroad. When somebody goes to London or goes to New York or goes to Berlin and Vienna and see how things work, how the public space works, how this diverse culture, the little tissue and I would say all the details has been designed, how the community works, how rich the city culture is. This is something that has to be cultivated for years. This does not come from above. I still find our cities mono-functional, mono-cultural. The space is very like I would say single-used spaces. Not to say that a lot of spaces are taken by cars that is maybe not in good proportion to other modes from transportation.
So it is only starting now. There should be more bicycle lanes and more space for pedestrians and more space for the life on public space and more space for trees. So now is the discussion starting that the space we share we have to discuss how we use it and what we expect from it. So this is just in short what we think that is important to make cities really welcoming place where people feel being welcomed and where they can develop their own ideas in a simple and easy way. They do not see any barriers, it is a barrier-free and inclusive. It is something that has a very easy access for everybody, that has a lot of infrastructure to support your own ideas, to develop your own ideas, either cultural or business ideas or whatever.
So this is what makes cities really I would say viable and rich and resilient and successful in the end. Because many cities are facing the decrease of population especially smaller cities. Of course the capital cities they have advantage of being a seed of many institutions and international companies headquarters. So it is much easier for capital cities, but for second cities and smaller cities it is very difficult to find their own identity, to find their place on the sun to attract people, to find investors, to find good job opportunities or create job opportunities to make themselves attractive enough. If some cities such as Kosice for example that are in major transformation from industrial to something else, maybe more creative and creative industries oriented place. And so this is all connected.
And what does not work well is investment into the stone and concrete only. You have to invest in people. That is first. You have to invest in people and you have to invest in education. That is where everything starts. You can build how many skyscrapers you want. You can build the best transportation system you want. But if you do not invest in people there will never grow the potential to make the cities liveable. So it is good education, universities. That is on all levels the different courses, you know, involvement. So this is somehow inspiring the people so that they live the city. They just bring their energy and invest it into the city. And then the city will thrive. That is the starting point.
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