Red Tape Hot Box on Warsaw dreaming
No doubt Varsovians are quite excited by that fact, as for three days we will be at the center of world's attention! However, many people are also anxious and skeptical about whether their native town, the capital of the largest of the EU's newcomers, will be positively received by all those foreigners. Warsaw is a city that has more than once been occupied by foreign powers and brought down on her knees, with its buildings and monuments partly or completely destroyed. But it was rebuilt every time, even after the second World War when the city was in a state of complete ruin, it was rebuilt. This fact shouldn't be forgotten, and it makes sense to boast about what has been done, especially in front of foreigners.
But the new generation disregards the past. They care little for Warsaw's miraculous reconstruction. They want to live in a normal city. Yet Warsaw isn't a normal city. It lacks the atmosphere that it once possessed before the war, when its streets looked like those of Barcelona, Milan or Prague. Today, our main attractions are the 'Pałac Kultury' and the 'Stadion,' while all the new skyscrapers or big socialist blocks of flats cast a shadow on the little houses and buildings from pre-war times.
However, what especially unnerves Varsovians is the lack of money for the basic needs of such a big city. With the exception of parliamentarians, everybody knows how much Warsaw pays into the State Treasury and how little it receives back from it. The transport system is still far from sufficient - every taxi driver will tell you that. Although the construction of new metro lines is underway, the pace is incredibly slow, thus it will take a very long time before we have an extensive metro network in place. Was building the tunnel along the Vistula river for zł.200 million really such a priority when the bridge on Łazienkowska Street is falling apart and will soon have to be closed? And though there is a lot of talk about the orbital road around Warsaw, nothing has been done about this matter and the trucks and lorries still pass through the city causing a lot of congestion.
Warsaw is developing in rather a chaotic manner. Huge and luxurious skyscrapers are popping up next to historic buildings. A few of these newbuilds are masterpieces, but unfortunately most of them are not suited to their surroundings, and many are, in fact, plain ugly. All this sits uncomfortably with the little garden shacks or allotments that are spread all over the city and the gray blocks of flats which, of course, won't be replaced with anything new. No wonder Varsovians aren't too enthusiastic when it comes to showing their city to foreigners.
But the new generation disregards the past. They care little for Warsaw's miraculous reconstruction. They want to live in a normal city. Yet Warsaw isn't a normal city. It lacks the atmosphere that it once possessed before the war, when its streets looked like those of Barcelona, Milan or Prague. Today, our main attractions are the 'Pałac Kultury' and the 'Stadion,' while all the new skyscrapers or big socialist blocks of flats cast a shadow on the little houses and buildings from pre-war times.
However, what especially unnerves Varsovians is the lack of money for the basic needs of such a big city. With the exception of parliamentarians, everybody knows how much Warsaw pays into the State Treasury and how little it receives back from it. The transport system is still far from sufficient - every taxi driver will tell you that. Although the construction of new metro lines is underway, the pace is incredibly slow, thus it will take a very long time before we have an extensive metro network in place. Was building the tunnel along the Vistula river for zł.200 million really such a priority when the bridge on Łazienkowska Street is falling apart and will soon have to be closed? And though there is a lot of talk about the orbital road around Warsaw, nothing has been done about this matter and the trucks and lorries still pass through the city causing a lot of congestion.
Warsaw is developing in rather a chaotic manner. Huge and luxurious skyscrapers are popping up next to historic buildings. A few of these newbuilds are masterpieces, but unfortunately most of them are not suited to their surroundings, and many are, in fact, plain ugly. All this sits uncomfortably with the little garden shacks or allotments that are spread all over the city and the gray blocks of flats which, of course, won't be replaced with anything new. No wonder Varsovians aren't too enthusiastic when it comes to showing their city to foreigners.
