The important thing is that there is work in Pabianice. There is no unemployment in sight. Of course, you can find some nooks and crannies recalling more difficult times, but you can feel in this city, above all, some will to fight, energy to act. There are many companies operating in Pabianice. The pharmaceutical industry is very strong here, represented by Adamed and Aflofarm, among others. People also work at the nearby Miele factory or Amazon's logistics center. This diversity is not accidental, as it usually stems from the past, from the traditions and competences of the city, which, unlike Lodz, did not specialize exclusively in the clothing industry; there were also light industry, chemical industry, machinery and others. In pre-war Poland, Pabianice was one of the most important industrial centers, and had the most diversified - next to Gliwice and Bielsko-Biała - economy. The heirs of those predecessors today give the city a diversification of the businesses conducted here. This is a good starting point for further development.
Just as Lodz has become an interesting alternative to Warsaw, Pabianice is an interesting alternative to Lodz. Almost everything is here on the spot, at hand, real estate prices are attractive, and it's close to Lodz. From here, by the way, it's close to everywhere - an obvious advantage of the city is its location next to Europe's most important intersection. Quickly, half jokingly, half seriously, I wrote in my head a slogan advertising Pabianice: "Probably the best city to live in Poland....
...for those who have the eternal dilemma: then where would you jump here now, to the mountains or to the sea?". Really - from here it is the most convenient to get to both the Baltic Sea and the Beskids.
Crucial to the identity and future of Pabianice, however, is a somewhat more difficult to grasp feature of the city. I am referring here to social activism. Pabianice is full of NGOs, associations and societies. Civil society here has good conditions for development. And this is one of the most important issues for the city, very difficult to stimulate when they are not widespread and grassroots.
Looking at Pabianice is important for the Lodz constellation, because success will come most readily to a metropolis that operates efficiently as a whole. This one, together with the satellite cities precisely, has a chance to flourish like the plants in Pabianice's Aflopark garden (which caused me a genuine stupor, it's worth seeing the place with your own eyes).
the best walking distance? after Krakow, the world will now discover the metropolis of Lodz from this perspective
© Lodz City Hall
I like how much local successful people are involved in urban affairs here. I observe similar processes in many cities, but here there are especially many of them. Pabianice businessmen are local patriots, they are building another landmark of the city, investing in it. Pabianice does not have complexes against its larger neighbor. They show that it is here that solutions to Poland's biggest social and economic problems should be sought. I have defined this issue with the phrase "proud littlePoland." Because Poland's great metropolises - Poznań, Tricity, Kraków, Warsaw and Wrocław - have already succeeded. The Polish countryside has also risen from its former troubles in the European Union. By contrast, relatively the least good things have happened so far in smaller cities (and especially in former provincial cities). People living in cities such as Pabianice, Elblag, Cieszyn or Jaslo have so far taken the least part in the stunning development success. And that is our thirty years of the fastest (according to the IMF) free-market socio-economic development in the world.
The time has come to shift the strategic reins to Pabianice and all other cities of similar size (and there are about 200 of them in Poland!). It is their development that will now be the priority. The idea is to build the competencies of the local workforce and attract more and better jobs, increasing the wealth of the residents. This will be facilitated by lower labor and living costs - because these are rising rapidly in metropolitan areas, changing the rules of the game.
More and more investors will look to Elblag, Slupsk or Pabianice precisely. This is also fostered by the growing potential of professions that can benefit from remote work. So what does Pabianice need to succeed on the right scale? I think good coworking spaces and a more attractive leisure offer. If, in a renovated and necessarily green city, pubs full of people will finally function, meeting places alternative to Levitin will appear, salaries will rise - everything will go in the right direction.
Pabianice will become a racial city of fifteen minutes. This is the right fashion, this is the logical trend. For many contemporaries it no longer makes sense to live in a megacity, too big, noisy, heated, congested and overpriced. It's a waste of time, money and health. The future belongs to more intimate communities, knowing their neighbors. Pabianice, together with Lodz and the rest of its satellite cities, is now joining the ranks of successful metropolises.
The dot over the i is still needed. There is a lot of work to be done, but the important thing is that the Lodz metropolis is beginning to effectively apply long-term planning. Twenty years from now it will be a completely different space. For me, the symbol of the Lodz way of life are the woonerfs. Streets given over to pedestrians and greenery, with slowed and limited vehicle traffic. Anyway - it was in Lodz many years ago that the first woonerf in Poland was created, I think. Coincidence? I don't think so. Since then, Lodz has built these woonerfs in abundance. When you add to this the ubiquitous care for urban greenery, retention and the extensive parks of Lodz, a picture emerges of a very good city to live in. A metropolis that is growing into a place ready to fulfill the dreams of its citizens.
In a few years, Lodz will be connected to Warsaw by a high-speed railroad, a Lodz-Warsaw supercity will emerge. In this super-city, it will be Lodz that will become the most beautiful "neighborhood". - this is worth remembering.
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I wish Pabianice to become an exemplary city boasting the title of "proud little city". This is very important - after all, the experiment successfully conducted here will be able to be repeated in hundreds of smaller Polish cities. And I wish Lodz and the entire Lodz metropolis to succeed to the measure of its ambitions and its unique character. Remember that the greatest cities are those that have a unique character. And you excel at this - you are the best.
Mateusz Zmyślony
Illustrations courtesy of the author and the Offices of the Cities of Lodz and Pabianice
