On September 30, we learned about the projects that residents selected as part of the civic budget. They were clearly dominated by greenery. Is this the result of a real need or fashion?
In Warsaw, for several years now, attention has been increasingly drawn for respecting greenery. This is mainly due to activists, not only city activists, but also those raising awareness on climate change, who collectively show how important plants are in the face of global warming. The debate on the subject has been going on long enough that this year grass cutting has been discontinued on a huge part of green urban areas. Moreover, the appearance of lawnmowers in many places has provoked outrage and complaints from defenders of tall grass. Awareness of tree cutting and social control over these activities has developed considerably (residents, for example, demand to be shown permits for cutting), flower meadows have become extremely popular, and they are also increasing year by year. The topic has become fashionable.
An office building in the Służewiec Przemysłowy district
Photo: Anna Cymer
civic bipartisanship
To make this seemingly idyllic picture more realistic, one can't help but recall the still numerous group of plant enemies. Dominant among them are lovers of four-wheelers, adherents of the theory that in search of greenery one should go to the countryside, while in the city lawns should give way to parking lots. The debates are sometimes punctuated by the voice of allergy sufferers, who supposedly suffer greater torment when there is a flower meadow nearby.
This bipartisan voice - for and against greenery - is laboriously supported by the capital's City Hall, favoring, perhaps surprisingly, both groups with its actions. Because on the one hand, hundreds of trees are being planted (but many of them are drying out due to lack of water), Jana Pawla II Avenue, which has just been narrowed, is being planted with greenery and grass, and the latter has also appeared on several sections of streetcar tracks. On the other hand, drivers devastating the greenery face virtually no penalties. Meanwhile, among the offenses is not only driving one wheel onto a neighborhood lawn, but also regularly tearing up parks and squares, which are becoming increasingly popular parking lots.
The estate behind the Iron Gate
Photo: Anna Cymer
Nor do consequences threaten developers who cut down trees without restraint - at least several times this year residents intervened when trees with nests and chicks fell under the saws. The fine for such action is imperceptible to the developer. Trees are cut down near school playgrounds because they shed their leaves on valuable new pavement, the rule is to cut them down when a street or city utilities are being repaired. Not out of necessity, but for convenience - it' s easier and faster to get the job done if you don't have to avoid roots, watch out for growing plants.
There is no area of life in which Poles and Polish women do not divide into two opposing camps; and in the face of greenery we dig into our positions. Some, in the increasingly annoying heat and droughts, see rescue in plants that accumulate moisture and provide shade, others warn against branches falling on babies (yes, such tragedies have happened), falling leaves under which everything rots, weeds full of ticks recently replacing elegant lawns.
23 percent
Warsaw is not one of the greenest cities in Poland. Here, according to 2017 CSO data, Sopot leads the way with 61 percent covered with green areas; 45 percent of the area of Katowice, 37 of Bydgoszcz, 35 of Jelenia Gora, 29 of Chorzów, 25 of Białystok - are green areas. In the capital, forests, parks, neighborhood and street greenery, green spaces and cemeteries (because such areas are included in the statistics) occupy 23.3 percent of the city's area. That's about the same as in Gdansk and Szczecin, twice as much as in Krakow, and radically more in relation to the greenest Krosno (4 percent) or Tarnów and Lomza with six percent. Is this 23 percent enough for a city in a warming climate to provide bearable living conditions?
Targówek
Photo: Anna Cymer
warsaw civic budget
Science is silent on how many plants should exist in a city, but Warsaw residents revealed their view on the subject by voting for projects in this year's civic budget. This is because here greenery came out firmly in the first position. For example, in Mokotow, the capital's largest district, as many as 17 of the 22 projects selected for implementation are related to greenery. Pocket parks, shrub plantings, flower meadows and vegetable gardens, houses for birds and hedgehogs, renovations of squares - it turned out that such needs dominate in virtually every district. The situation is no different in the all-city projects (in Warsaw, you can vote separately for the all-city list and for projects for a selected district). "Planting low vegetation along streets in Warsaw", "Stop smog - let's green the streets of our capital", "2220 trees for Warsaw", "Rescue and care of large old trees, preceded by dendrological expertise", "Let's plant trees of the world - beautiful anduseful", "Planting trees, shrubs and perennials, protecting trees and improving their habitat conditions, improving walking conditions, that is, a mix of ideas for improving public space"- tens of thousands of people voted for each of these top-listed projects. The awakened sensitivity of Warsaw residents can also be evidenced by a project that won first place among those citywide - the idea of building a rehabilitation room for animals in the city's largest shelter.
Morskie Oko Park
photo: Anna Cymer
If it was the capital's residents who voted in the civic budget (that is, 109,025 people to be exact, so unfortunately very few) who decided on the shape of the city, Warsaw would be the greenest city in the world. However, respecting plants, not to mention increasing their number, is not an easy task and also requires action at a level higher than the civic level. With this in Warsaw (and many other Polish cities) is crumbling. Local government authorities do not know how (?) to regulate this topic in an organized and all-encompassing manner. Despite the fact that we already know what awaits us in connection with climate change and how much vegetation can help here, city authorities are doing at best haphazard, spotty and often contradictory actions. A bit like removing private cars from city centers. Everyone knows that there are dramatically too many of them, they degrade space and pollute the air, and everyone also knows that they are used by a minority of residents (in Warsaw, less than 30 percent), and yet no one has yet made the leap to coherent and consistent systemic action that could effectively solve this problem. Residents already know that we need greenery in the city. Even if these views and the selection of projects in the civic budget are the result of fashion and intense debate - the effect is positive. May the city's rulers also succumb to this fashion!
