Krakow is updating its local development strategy - the new document is intended to respond not only to the City's metropolitan ambitions, but also to the basic needs of Cracovians and Cracovian women. What is included in this document?
Recent years have been full of events that can be described using Nassim Taleb 's definition of "black swans." The COVID-19 pandemic, the outbreak of war in Ukraine are just two factors from recent years that have completely changed the rules of everyday life. Updating the city's strategy therefore had to take the new contexts into account.
On January 18 this year. Deputy Mayor of the City of Krakow Jerzy Muzyk presented some of the issues from the draft update of the City's strategy - among the solutions presented were issues not only of economic goals, but among others those related to spatial development, housing or public infrastructure. What do we find in this document?
three goals for the future
Kraków Development Strategy. This is where I want to live. Kraków 2030/2050 contains three basic goals. Each of them refers to different aspects.
The first refers to the quality of life in Krakow, pointing to the need to increase the quality of life for residents, improve safety, accessibility to housing or building a community of self-government.
The second focuses on developing a climate-neutral city with an innovative economy with a diversified industry structure. Among the elements of this goal is strengthening Krakow as a scientific center combining cooperation of science, business and administration.
Thethird goal primarily indicates the direction of management development - improving service to residents, monitoring phenomena or balancing the City's budget.
The strategy implies changes in many aspects that try to break down the paradigms on which Krakow's development has operated over the past years - what, among other things, is included in the proposals?
The city has set three strategic goals
© Courtesy of the Department of Strategy, Planning and Investment Monitoring at Krakow City Hall
towards a polycentric city
One of the most interesting elements of the new strategy is the move away from Krakow as a city concentrated in one center. The new development concept calls for the creation of more than twenty local centers within Strategic Intervention Areas.
The new centers are an opening toward the development of a polycentric city, where instead of creating a city where all traffic is shifted to the center, we create a set of places ready to meet the needs of Cracovians and Cracovian women in the immediate vicinity.
One of the strategy's ideas is also to create metropolitan city avenues as part of the "New Planty," which involves cleaning up the Vistula River boulevards, developing the public spaces of Grzegórzki and Wesoła. It is also related to the expansion of transportation hubs.
city defines new local centers
© Courtesy of the Department of Strategy, Planning and Investment Monitoring at Krakow City Hall
housing - greenery - transportation
The City's new measures are expected to take into account the increase in Krakow's municipal housing stock, although no details are available here other than a target of an average annual increase of 1,000 apartments. The city wants to be active through SIM, as well as by acquiring apartments on the primary market.
Krakow is also looking to increase green space with 43 new parks, expected to total 230 hectares. In addition, the City wants to pursue the development of streetcar lines, primarily in Krowodrza and Prądnik Biały. The lion's share of investments is primarily in the expansion of transportation hubs, ring roads and communications.
The strategy also points to the creation of new plant
© Courtesy of the Department of Strategy, Planning and Investment Monitoring at Krakow City Hall
known direction - question of next steps
The strategy update includes directions that have been desired in Krakow for years. The concept of a polycentric city formed by local centers has already been suggested by Stanislaw Deńko. Implementation of the strategy's assumptions depends not only on the multi-year financial forecast, but also on the city's future authorities, relations with the central government or the appearance of more "black swans" that will redefine our everyday life. Implementation of the strategy will therefore require will.
