ROMANIA: Business Crowds Out Bucharest Life

• by Claudia Ciobanu (bucharest)
• Friday, November 27, 2009
• Inter Press Service

The report by the Romanian Presidential Commission for Natural and Historical Patrimony records how heritage buildings were brought down to make way for high-rise office buildings and large commercial centres.

Green spaces and school playgrounds are giving way to new businesses, public transportation is deficient and the traffic nightmarish, making air quality unfit for the Romanian capital’s two million inhabitants.

All these problems point to the conclusion that, in the rush to development that has gripped the city since 1989, city authorities have forgotten that coherent planning is needed to make the city livable for the people.

In addition to the lack of a coherent development strategy, specific faults in legislation have been identified by architects as root causes for the chaotic life in the city today.

Unique in Europe, Romanian urbanism legislation has permitted private actors to elaborate Zone Urban Plans, normally a task to be completed by the city authorities in line with the requirements of the General Urban Plan. As a consequence, high-rise buildings are constructed alongside two-storey houses, increasing population density in central areas and putting pressure on traffic.

But, at least here, there is scope for optimism says Nicusor Dan, president of Salvati Bucurestiul (Save Bucharest), an association created in 2008 to propose solutions for better city planning.

'After a massive media pressure campaign, we managed to bring about changes in urbanism legislation which mean that high-rise buildings will no longer be built in two-storey areas,' Dan told IPS. 'We have also managed to prevent the local council from approving over 100 projects which would have altered the General Urban Plan.’’

Dan said that Bucharest’s chief architect is expected to launch, in the near future, tenders for both the Bucharest development strategy and a new General Urban Plan.

According to a former chief architect, Adrian Bold, up to 300 Zone Urban Plans representing alterations to the General Urban Plan have been approved yearly by the local council. In 2007 only, a third of these Zone Plans were for very high buildings. Most of these edifices are used as office spaces.

Additional pressure comes from hypermarkets built inside the city rather than on the outskirts.

The growing value of property in Bucharest has made owners of old houses interested in tearing them down in order to sell the land to developers.

Salvati Bucurestiul says over 24,000 houses with architectural value are being left to degrade on purpose by their owners so that they would collapse. Such buildings have been dubbed 'crying houses' by conservationists.

The organisation argues that national legislation is inefficient in protecting valuable buildings. While the 2008-2009 financial crisis has slowed down the pace of construction, architects insist that the destruction of Bucharest will continue unless radical legislative changes are implemented.

Affected are not only historical buildings but also parks and schools.

The Bucharest-based environmental group Eco-Civica has reported that 45 sports facilities have disappeared from Bucharest since 1989 to make space for new constructions. 1,500,000 trees have been cut down, most of them in the green belt of the city. Of the 3,470 hectares of green areas Bucharest had in 1989, only half survive.

Currently, Bucharest has only seven sq m of green area per inhabitant, as compared to 32 sq m in Polish capital Warsaw and 64 sq m in London.

The high density of offices and malls inside the city, combined with booming car ownership since the mid-1990s (900,000 vehicles run daily on the streets of the city) has led to a situation where traffic is no longer manageable.

According to the Bucharest Ambulance Service, average ambulance destination reach time increased from 12 minutes in 2002 to 35 minutes in 2006. In 2006, over 2,000 people died in Bucharest while waiting for the ambulance to arrive.

High density construction is not the only cause of clogged traffic.

According to Salvati Bucurestiul, 'public transportation lines are poorly and inefficiently connected. Routes are planned empirically without any studies of connectivity requirements.' The group argues that use should be made of the existing railway ring and stations surrounding Bucharest in order to relax traffic inside the city.

However, authorities are resorting to less than efficient measures. For example, while an existing rail line could bring travellers from the city to Otopeni airport one km to the north, the local council has decided to allocate one billion euro to build a metro line along the same route.

Public health is another worry. Chaotic construction, hellish traffic and the drastic reduction of green areas have already taken their toll on air quality. Emissions of toxic substances such as nitrogen dioxide, benzene, dust and lead are surpassing acceptable limits. Doctors have been sending out warnings about arise in respiratory ailments among children.

Salvati Bucurestiul is calling for a concrete development strategy to be adopted by Romanian authorities in order to make business development compatible with good quality life in the city.

One starting point could be for authorities to organise urban planning tenders—since 1990 only 25 architecture and urban planning tenders have been organised in Romania as compared to 17,000 in France.

Legislative changes are needed to prohibit destruction of green areas and measures must be taken to promote and improve public transport.

Architects say if heritage buildings and historical areas receive better protection, it could attract more tourists to Bucharest nringing in badly needed income for the city budget.

Salvati Bucurestiul is using 'urban guerrilla' strategies to improve the quality of life in Bucharest and roping in grassroots groups, media and the judiciary to break the politician-business nexus which is responsible, according to them, for the destruction of green areas and valuable buildings.

'More and more people are starting to appeal to courts on issues of urbanism and construction and our organization intends to offer them the necessary legal instruments,’’ said Dan.

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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