How Warsaw improves its city center? (with Michał Lejk)
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- čas přidán 14. 06. 2024
- My Patreon - / cityforall
In this video, we talk about the Warsaw city center renovation and how the streets and squares of the Polish capital are changing. The guest of the video is Michał Lejk, who is the Delegate of the Mayor of Warsaw for the New Center project.
#cityforall #warsaw #poland #urbanism
I come from Romania and i was absolutely mindblown when i saw Poland. I often hear people saying that Poland and Romania become Europe's next big powers which i totally believe when it comes to Poland. But Poland seems far more advanced than Romania. Sadly Romania barely even has a central square where people hang out in. Bucharest is just made out of big communist towers surrounding the Palace of the Parliament. We Romanians need to be more open minded and look at what Polands doing.
w ubiegłym roku byłem przez cztery dni w Rumunii. bardzo podobało mi się.
Romania is one of the most successful countries in the wold. After the WW II had income per capita lower than today Burundi. Today it is a rich country.
@@happyfelix1440 Yes but it could be so much richer if our government actually used the European funds. We are a rich country but it doesnt really matter. What matters is who controls the country and what they do with all the money.
@@happyfelix1440one of the most successful countries in the world?! 😂 you’re funny
What saddens me about Romania is that even new infrastructure isn’t built to high standards. New pavements are crooked, bike infrastructure is poor. As an example, I see a new pavement built in front of an administrative building in Timisoara. The surface isn’t level. In Poland the company in charge would simply be forced to re-do the work from scratch. As many times as needed, until the pavement is level. This doesn’t seem to be the case in Romania. I could go on and on with such examples.
Always great to see videos about urban planning in Central/Eastern European cities, as they often don't get as much coverage.
Warsaw is in Central Europe though.
@@absolutezeronow7928It's not
@@patrickstick8249 Any Pole can tell you that Poland is part of Central Europe.
@@patrickstick8249 It is.
@@patrickstick8249 well, you can either say that there isn't Central Europe at all, or if there is, then Poland is in Central Europe. (It's literally the center of Europe)
When I visited, Warsaw is the greenest capital in Europe. Only people in Poland think differently, because they keep saying that they live in shit. They have no idea how wrong they are. Polish cities are the cleanest, safest and most colorful cities in Europe with a huge level of attractions.
Definitely not the most colourful cities in europe. Once you leave the city centre you only see ugly wasteland
@@afjo972I found a Pole
These videos from local authorities are awesome!
Also, the pronunciation of Polish words was amazing.
Thanks! I've tried my best :)
Damn you're pronouncing Polish like a local. Very impressive!
My favourite part of this renovation so far is the giant blue egg on Plac Pięciu Rogów, I always love such random goofy stuff 😆
Interveiwing Paris' mayor Anne Hidalgo would be very interesting!
Hold my bière.
Or Elke Van Den Brandt, the Brussels' minister of mobility!
It may not be easy :)
Rondo czterdziestolatka means roundabout of the forty year old guy or smthng like that. It refers to polish TV series "Czterdziestolatek".
Wow. Really?
@@cityforall Yes, it was a tongue-in-cheek homage to a TV comedy-slice of life series from 1974 where ing. Karwowski (main 40-yo character) was not so willingly designated to be a construction manager during Central Station (railway station by the roundabout) construction (which was really under construction then, not only in the series).
@@cityforall czcams.com/video/agjWqYfflBY/video.html
Wow! You pronounced Rondo Czterdziestolatka just like a Pole! Awesome video about my city. Keep up the good work!
Thank you! 😃
I love how diverse the architecture of Warsaw's center has developed. You have traditional low-mid rise buildings, modern high rise buildings, and the hulking palace of culture acting as a focal point. Because the tall buildings are spaced out throughout an existing dense urban fabric, the street level pedestrian experience is bright, vibrant, and diverse. The urban fabric feels like a midpoint between Paris and Frankfurt in this way. I honestly have no issue with high rise buildings as long as they're spaced out between dense areas of 4-12 story mixed use buildings with vibrant, walkable streets.
This is a great video! I'm a student in Warsaw University just next to the city center and as someone who lives outside of Warsaw and has long daily commute of over the hour. Pedestrian city center and Vistula bank projects are the greatest fun to me.
The only ability to walk outside in my village are forests walks which are fine, but a fully pine forest gets really dull after few years of exploring it all your life, the city center which I can visit after my studies is much more of an attraction.
I used to walk all over Chmielna for years when I was in high school. It it also in the city center so my commute has been 1h 30 min since like 5 years, some Amercians may think it's nothing but for European standards it's a really long one. Currently, Chmielna is being redeveloped under the project for new city center and I am so hyped about it. Chmielna is a street next to Złota mentioned in the video. And a capital of bubble tea stores in Warsaw!
You gotta give Plac Trzech Krzyży more love tho, It became my favorite change for now. The cars lost lanes and the whole elipse shape gained like 20 more traffic lights slowing downs the deadly machines. There's a memorial for a pre WW2 tramtracks, a lot of greenery with fully developed trees providing great shade, the bike lanes are marvelous I showed it to my friend from Portland US and they couldn't believe it. I am really fond of it since I include this intersection in my daily commute and the rework made it became safe, less noisy, and fun to stroll. The church isn't a point of interest for me, but from what I heard it didn't get reworked due to church owning the land and not wanting to participate in the rework. If I remember correctly during the whole construction process there was always access to it, thanks to hard work of construction crew and city council (who probably did it so they wouldn't get sued by the church.)
While Plac Pięciu Rogów is a greater pedestrain redevelopment, the full stone plates have a tendency to make place pretty steamy in hot summer and wet if it's raining. The trees are still in early stages of growing when in 10 years they will get bigger and provide shade over the benches installed during the project. It will surely gain in my personal tierlist. I understand that the city had no choice they couldn't install grass patches because of amount of foot traffic there. :C
I was a resident of Warsaw most of the past five years, working on Aleje Ujazdowskie, and have seen a lot of these projects develop.
What I like is that many are quite boring - sometimes all interventions needed to improve and transform for the better are up dating infrastructure, more greenery and better choice of materials.
Three Crosses is a missed opportunity, but the river front is just amazing and a huge success.
Warsaw is so much better than any American city!!!
It's amazing how quickly you gained enough weight to get responses from officials. One short blink of an eye later, you'll be a full-fledged urban news media ! One area you could maybe, one day, touch, would be adding an investigative layer to your reporting, but this is a full-time job so it's not for now.
It's obvious that the city of Warsaw wants to communicate about these improvement. In my opinion they are in the optimal place in the development of the city (and the country) to implement this types of solution. With demands in urban quality of life, air and transportation now more and more important, it looks like the city has a clear vision... Maybe they want to attract workers from, say, the Berlin area ?
Next time, maybe you'd want to include your questions into the video response for more clarity !
Thanks! I am also pleasantly surprised that I was able to get a response from municipalities and make such videos. I would like to continue moving in this direction.
What do you mean by the investigative layer?
Regarding the questions, the guest of this video wanted to record his answers separately to make them look more attractive than the recording of the online call. Perhaps another time. There's also a risk of making the video too boring and long, I'm not that good of an interviewer yet, I need to improve my skills :)
@@cityforall I just mean that for now you are doing reporting - this is totally fine and so nice to have when you can't spend that much time on urban news. But one day you might want to start investigating why this or that project was canceled or only partially completed. In this video, M. Lejk spoke about private investors. Who are they and what do they stand to benefit from this ? That's the kind of investigation I'd love to see you do some day.
What I meant about the questions was just putting them as text on the video ;)
@@Hepad_ It's an interesting idea. I will try to take it into account in the next videos.
By the way, I have several videos in the works that will contain a lot of such information. But they take much more time to prepare, so I also make news so that it doesn't appear that new videos on the channel are released every 2 months.
As for the questions, yes, it makes sense.
Our government works for German. Of course they will prioritize serving foreigners at the cost of city citizens.
Thank you for this video! I love hearing urbanist news from less talked about cities, and especially for ones I have visited :) I want to visit Warsaw again soon and I'll make sure to visit some of the places talked about here
Beautiful walkable places
Warsaw is becoming more beautiful and people-friendly... only a loud group of car enthusiasts are dissatisfied 😅
If they enjoyed driving they would actually be glad. These changes, in general, make it less congested in the center of the city and safer for all modes of transportation to co-exist. You can't say that people who enjoy cars enjoy them because of traffic jams and stressful intersections because that's just not true. The people opposing these changes are just conservatives who enjoy stagnation in all manners of life.
Don’t car enthusiasts matter, too? The new project doesn’t look like an honest compromise. I’m sure there’s a better way to improve the street without sacrificing 2/3 of passenger car space. A big part of my love for Warsaw is that it’s had so far an amazing balance between car orientation (like Chicago and Boston, where I lived and didn’t enjoy that much as a pedestrian) and pedestrian orientation (like Vienna, where I lived and didn’t enjoy by car!)!
@@pawerybacki98cars are extremely uneficcient use of city space (not mentioning their impact on public health). Majority of people use public transport or walks yet the cars take the most space in the city center (large streets and parking lots, parked cars scattered everywhere, sometimes stealing pedestrian space illegally). It's like everybody else is subsidising 'car enthusiasts'.
@@panjacek6674 Jacek, for some people, cars are necessary-the disabled; for most people, cars are useful; for some, they’re a passion (and, as such, an important part of mental wellbeing). For these groups of people, the objective upsides of passenger cars outweigh the absolute and relative costs you mentioned. I’m fine with you building a city that excludes cars, but our capital should be inclusive for all groups of people and their objective and subjective needs. I’m fine with subsidizing things I find useless and to some extent liabilities, like many sports and cultural venues.
@@pawerybacki98 so? No one is banning cars from the city. Just giving a bit of preference to pedestrians and public transport in some areas (and rightly so)
Great video as usual, keep up the good work!
Thank you!
Just one comment: the museum next to the Palace of Culture and Science is not "of Contemporary Art", but "of Modern Art". Contemporary and modern art are two different movements. There is another museum in Warsaw that is dedicated to contemporary art: The Centre of Contemporary Art at the Ujazdowski Castle.
Both modern and contemporary are no art at all. Its all scam. The emperor has no clothes. Why promote it. I call it "modern fart".
@@sheridansherr8974 who cares, what is happening in your small farting mind
@@sheridansherr8974 How to make everyone know that you have no idea what you are talking about. I get that some examples of Contemporary Art are confusing and might not be your taste, but Modern Art have one of most beautiful art pieces existing! With Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet... Modern doesn't mean only Pablo Picasso or Marcel Duchamp or Wassily Kandinsky - who experimented with form.
I thought it would be Contemporary ... Good to know it is modern - I like Modern more :)
Interesting overview. I see a lot of great improvements. But how on earth did they approve the new Museum of Modern Art? It's one of the worst designs I've ever seen, especially considering it's prominent location next to one of the old icons of the city. It feels out of place.
As Varsovian I should share some light, till 2022 before the groundbreaking works, concept was developed by the ex-city council in 2009, the project was coordinated with ministry of culture which after 2015 became controlled under a right wing national government, the 2009 project was scrapped in 2012. In 2023 the Warsaw Council and I think but not sure regional council decided to built it themselves based on the 10-year-old project made by a New Yorker with design work done in 2013, not the most modern for the modern art museum, since modern art from 2010s to today became much more digitalized. Important fact is that Modern Art Museum exists already it's located to the east next to Warsaw University Library near Vistula river so it's a move rather then New Museum. The white slab currently looks really clinical and doesn't match surroundings but if it has the same concept as old building which also was a white slab, you can expect it to be a canvas for a massive building wide paintings. I much prefer that money for that project was used for pedestrian projects in city center since I would use them often.
I also didn't like it at first, but it grew on me. I think it's fine to say you don't like it, but phrasing it as objective truth is a little unfair. I think that one reason I grew to like it is because it's unlike anything else in the city or in Europe, but not in this eye-sore way, since it's a very simple building. I believe with time it will also work in concert with the surrounding park.
A conservative government would never fund an ugly modernist building like that.
@@jettjones9889 The construction of this building started under a conservative government.
Most new buildings are modernist, I like them much less than this one, but it has nothing to do with governments, but rather economical reasons. In areas which are viewed as premium, new buildings are also nicer. Port Praski is one such place in Warsaw, the buildings are still simple compared to classic ones, but much nicer than 1930s modernism in my opinion, which you'd probably associate with conservative times.
The explanation for this building lies in it's name, that being modern art. A lot of other buildings funded by the government don't look like this. Narodowe Forum Muzyki, Szczecin Philharmonic Hall, or Sąd Apelacyjny in Wrocław are great designs in my opinion.
I appeal to you not to view the world so simplistically, conservative governments in Europe aren't tyrants that can dictate every little thing like in China anyway.
I see a lot of drivers complaining about this in comments sections of beautiful renders of the city after this project. I drive myself, and I know these people are just a very vocal minority, but I don't even think it will impact us greatly. You can redesign cars however you want, make them electric, a little smaller, it's just not an efficient mode of transport, only a liberating one. This means that in dense urban enviroments you will never solve the parking or lane problem. The solution is to just offer better infrastruct for other modes of transport, then people who don't need to drive, won't. One metro train can replace between a 1000 to 2000 cars.
Exactly. Cities need efficient public transportation
Wonderful projects for Warsaw. So happy to see all this beautiful city.
Rondo Czterdziestolatka is not "40th anniversary" but rather "Being Forty" because it comes from a name of TV series (or rather its main character, a fictional engineer. Karwowski).
Oh, I didn't know about that. That's quite unusual :)
@@cityforall in the 70's series mr Karwowski was an engeener on the contruction of Central Station :) In Poland, roundabouts are most often named after historical figures, but this is one of the exceptions. In this case, the residents' initiative resulted in the name of the roundabout after a fictional character.
It must have been a very popular movie. Is it possible to watch it online?
Good to have you back! So nice from the city official to take this time to explain, and in English. He doesn't ignore that not everyone in on board but he's super optimistic. Good to see.
@02:37 Some of the completed projects are veeeery shy. From 3 to 4 lanes and a few benches? Do pedestrians want to hang out there?
@03:50 YES, that's bold!
@09:45 Wow is Warsaw always so foggy? It looked like a North American skyline for a second!
OFF TOPIC: Also as a French speaker, it's funny to read people congratulating you on your pronunciation of Polish words as a Czech. How mutually intelligible are Polish and Czech, and how hard is it to pronounce? Sorry I love linguistics and all the similarities between neighbours but also what makes them unique.
03:50 They close three streets there to cars
Czech and Polish are not mutually intelligible, but the level of similarity allows to have a conversation where the meaning of the words can be either understood or guessed. There are a lot of 'false friends', which produces a lot of funny situations. In general Poles can understand Czechs better than the other way round (this is the opinion of Czech people I spoke to)
This is to be expected anyway, Poland is growing economically very fast, so higher standards urban design with more greenery and walking-cycling are expected for Poland.
And i can only encourage it 👍👍
Will Warsaw see more bigger skyscrapers in the future?.
Envious from Prague.❤ Great job.
i love poland 🇵🇱
I would have loved if you went even deeper into the topic, i believe there's much more to show (and say) about this
What do you want to see?
@@cityforall I would have loved to see more of what's planned. Maybe there are also some places that aren't in the redesigning phase yet but were promised during the election.
Aside from that video, maybe do one on Salzburgs (Austria) public transport. The main mode there are busses, but those are at capacity limits, so an expansion of the S-Bahn Network is discussed. Maybe do a video on that?
I visited Warsaw in 2010 around World Cup time, and it was a kinda "charming" city for me... Krakow at that time was already full of tourists and I couldn't get the "polish feelling". there.... The only "weird" thing for me was: when I just arrrived at the Warsaw bus terminal, the skyscraper besides it had a GIANT nike Billboard with Robinho and another one (maybe Samsung) with Kaká... and I had the feeling that I arrived in Rio or Sao Paulo instead of Warsaw! heheheheeheh
As a Warsaw cyclist, pedastrian and public transport commuter I’d say there is still a long way to go…
But the direction is right, isn't it?
Warsaw is literally best city in Poland in those terms, maybe not in cycling cause Poznań is higher but its catching up...
Good vid!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Bucharest🇹🇩 should take notes
I live here!!!
Nice :)
4:19 trees growing out of concrete look strange, they should introduce some grass instead
In fact, this is not a problem in itself. There are engineering solutions that allow water and air to reach the roots of trees. A properly planted tree in the city is much more complicated than digging a hole, sticking a plant and pouring soil.
As for the grass, it can dry out the soil and hinder the development of the tree, so it's not so simple.
@@cityforall it's a problem to me aesthetically
@@maganzo I see. That's another thing
This is a very busy place. Grass would be destroyed.
@@2mek99 true, but you can have at least a small radious of grass around tree leaving space for walking
I'm not going to visit Warsaw when I go to Poland this year (sticking to Southern Poland), but I'd like to visit it eventually.
Are you going to Krakow (most people choose it) or do you have other cities in plan? I always recommend going to my city - Zabrze. We have great coal mines that are now touristic attraction, where you can see history of coal mining, but also sail a boat in underground and drink a beer (or coffee) in the lowest pub on earth (320 meters below the ground - which is height of Eiffel tower) . Not recommend them to claustrophobic people though - biggest issue is going down in small elevator as down there are quite spacious corridors :)
@@MaraMara89 Krakow, Katowice, Wroclaw. I think Zabrze is also in Silesia so I might be able to visit it. Any recommendations there?
@@absolutezeronow7928 Zabrze is short trip from Katowice (only 20 minutes by train), so going to Guido Mine or The Queen Louis Adit Complex might be good idea if you like industrial themed attractions. Katowice for me have that youthful energy with many pubs and restaurants - nice place to just relax. Right next to city center there is Spodek (it s concert arena that looks like UFO) and International Congress Centre - that looks amazing after the dark. Nikiszowiec neighbourhood is pretty and quite unique. If you go in the summer you might go to Valley of Three Ponds for a swim or spend some time in Silesian Park.
My favourite thing to do while living in Krakow was skating along Vistula River ;) You might go for a nice walk there, at least from Wawel Castle to Kazimierz district (maybe for famous original polish street food "zapiekanka" - it is made of a sliced baguette or other long roll of bread, topped with white mushrooms, cheese and sometimes other ingredients such as ham). Krakow have a lot of great museums, my favourite are probably Rynek Underground and Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory (I want be writing about going to Auschwitz as it is quite known destination).
If you go in the summer Zakrzówek is worth visiting - but I haven't been since they made pools there, so I wont be helpful with that.
All 3 cities have a lot to offer - museums, concerts, theater, architecture etc. Wrocław have beautiful Main Square and while there find as many dwarves as possible - they are everywhere and are really cute :)
Nobody is inviting u😂
Any attempt to include green roofs, rooftop gardens & renewable energy tech. What community activities occur here, eg car free Sundays.
Besides greenery I'm not seeing a lot of colour (painted buildings etc)? The "white box museum" is a great canvas for mural art that would certainly beighten the space up.
Is the city experiencing any heat-related issues - it did notice some street shading, but not much. What about local flooding - I see lots of hard surfaces & very few natural parks & public spaces for rain water management?
How is climate change expected to affect this city? Is it prepared?
I'm glad this city is taking steps to make it a good place to live, work & play. I wish this city every success & prosperity for the future.
At 0:45, it's impossible to read that white text when the background is also white.
I live in Warsaw, and this is all great. But there is a real problem with the architectural design. Besides most new building having poor aesthetics, they also don’t blend in with each other. Also, many of the new estates are just versions of communist blocks.
AND WE NEED AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN THE CENTER.
Really like yours video, good job. Maybe it would be a great idea to ask local authorities of Warsaw why they not fighting with the awful graffiti you can see all over this city. I think they have a big problem with that, plus looks disgusting.
As for me the graffiti problem is spread in lots of cities, as for me it's not something unique in Warsaw.
I suppose it's more about social relationships
Akruas takes notes for Altengrad
Helo i borat. I from Kazakhstan
Hello Borat!
where's the parking at...
Lets say its look good for:
1) Tourist
2) Leftist activst who either ride a bike only or have wealthy parents who bought them a flat directly in city center.
Baiscly it looks nice that its walkable but combined with degradation of city public transport network and hevy redevelopment with incresing density you cant get there to work. And 90% of well paying jobs demands form you to travel to Mordor (Domaniwska Street area) or New Mordor (over Rondo ONZ and Rondo Daszyńskisgo Metro stations). Getting there in rush hours is nearly imposible if you don't bike like 99,8% of people.
Funniest thing was adding a buspas on Pułaska street. Buses were already overcrowded before, now they romove a line of trafic without adding aditional buses so now from southern part of aglomeratio your ride work ekstended by 1/3 or 1/2.
Oh and if you still like Warsaws style of Urbanism i would highly advice you to read about Warsaw's HongKong (new development by J.W. Construction near Katsprzaka. Prisons have more greean and sunlight in Poland 😉
Exactly!
Piaseczno has almost a billion zlotys budget, if it wants buses to run every minute, all it needs to do is pay.
@@aleon7424 well neither Warsaw or Piaseczno has money. Piaseczno has deficyt of 100M PLN. Also money is not gona solve issue, there is not enough bus drivers. More trains would be a better option (ten even Buspas would be useless) but there is no capacity on the tracks to give aditional SKM/KM trains to Piaseczno, Góra Kalwaria and new line to Konstancin-Jeziorna.
In Warsaw intrest is to get people out of the car especialy those who drive in, but first we have to build capacity in public transport. Also lack of metropolitan union is a problem, and if money was a problem that would be the answere.
There are also long, three-articulated buses that do not require more drivers.
Or they could build a bicycle path (highway) to the Kabaty metro.
@@aleon7424 maximum size of bus in Poland is 18,75M by law (12 for 2 Axis, 15 for more then 2 without articulation). Also its hard to drive vehicle with single articulation, double is nearly imposible without fully separated BRT system.
Ps. M1 metro is out of capasity, and like 99,8% of people will not chose to bike even if there is infrastructure. Bearly anyone bike to work (excluding Uber eats and similar) even if there is a infrastructure.
It was for all. Now it will be for tourists.
I don't quite understand your logic. Should cities be as unattractive as possible to discourage tourists? Don't locals deserve a better street space?
@@cityforall There are no locals to this place already. The population of central part of Warsaw fell from 140k people to less than 100k in 15 years. Nobody needs these changes but tourists.
And yes, cities should be unattractive to discourage tourists. Tourism doesn't do any good to a city.
Or maybe, on the contrary, the population fell because there were no such changes and the environment was uncomfortable?
@@cityforall yes, it became uncomfortable ever since the changes have been undertaken. Every little change was pro-tourist and anti-resident. I know that because I was a downtown resident myself but I left a long time ago and I'm never coming back. Let's say you live in the area where you have every ammenity you can think of. Then the pharmacy is gone and it becomes a bank. Then the grocery store is gone and it becomes a fancy cafeteria. Then your parking lot is gone and it becomes a useless piece of grass that dogs use to shit on. Then 3 night clubs open in your building and you constantly hear screams and bass rumble until 3 AM. Then they close your street to make it pedestrian-friendly but there's no fuckin grocery store so you can't just walk with your groceries like you used to but you have to take the car to a mall to buy your groceries there, but you cannot drive it to your home because these idiots pedestrianized the shit out of the place. Meanwhile they brag how friendly it is now, but for some strange reason half of the apartments in your block are airbnbs now. After 3-5 years this number increases to 90 percent and all of the neighbours you knew and formed a community with left already. So what do you do? You leave. Just as I did. It's my story.
I understand your point/ That worth a specific video about this topic.
Perfect pronunciation. A rare thing to hear from a non-native speaker 👌
That pedestrian-bike bridge is rather controversial. Bike lanes were not marked so bikes run into pedestrians and there's also no crossing over the busy street on the left bank
....you can't say that about the english pronounciation of the polish city representative spokesman 😂
wow skyscrapers in Eastern Europe
What is so extraordinary about this?
8:11 I was going to say before the narrator said it. This building sucks and doesn't belong in the city. Absolutely obnoxious.
They want to do something, but they are afraid of drivers. Recently, when drivers heard that the city wanted to make 2 lanes from the current 3 lanes (i.e. 6 in both directions), there was great outrage. Fighting with drivers is not easy, they are aggressive creatures.
Those American cities that are now full of cars and want to transform into more bike-friendly cities should look to Warsaw and see how it handles them.
There are 2 million registered cars in Warsaw for 1,800,000 people.
still the roads are getting tighter and the city doesnt really care about what the carbains say for the most part.
@@randriu1221 Why should the city worry about drivers from other smaller towns? They do not pay for road renovations, and these are huge sums.
On the streets surrounding the Palace: The urban planners haven’t convinced me how a single new parking garage could possibly reduce traffic congestion while reducing three passenger car lanes to just one… Moreover, while I do love greenery, I think it’s not the best idea to cover the nice panoramic view with too many tall trees. (Maybe I’m wrong, but the visualization gives this impression.) I really love the current shape of these streets, and I’m seriously afraid that driving through that area won’t be much fun, while not so much will really improve for pedestrians and bike riders.
As a Pole i would like to point out that this new pedestrian bridge has become a meme. Because it was presented as a great national success in the time when the same political party is stopping the construction of plane - rail hub Central Communication Hub
Did it become a meme I didn't know, I heard only cries from right wing of urban planners that it is going to be useless, and for them to be shocked when it was packed to full capacity in few days since opening, I went there twice, once in the evening and at noon. It has no shade so on hot days with sun It can be unpleasant during the day, It's a great place to hang out in the evening. I planning to include it in my commute in the morning by going over it on my bike, but only in the morning since it becomes packed after noon, if the weather is right. I heard lot of voices critising it over this exact point since pedestrians are packing it so full biking is hard on it after noon, but I don't consider it such a downside since literally a kilometer next to it you have a great bike path on Świętokrzyski Brigde adding max 5 minutes to the commute.
It is regretable, with what is happening with CPK while all parties are positive on the rail plan which is great, the fact that the project was created under right wing government and had that typical nationalistic-megalomanic rhetoric during the concept phase. It became a sour spot for new government, they know we need it, land is already bought, high speed rail tunnels in Warsaw and Łódź are already ready for building. There is no massive cargo hub in Eastern European Union, which both USA wants and all Eastern European countries are looking forward too, cause currently the closest massive cargo plane hub is in Frankfurt, I'm personally just not sure about passenger idea, without rail connection preexisitng the hub I worry it would became second Radom airport if you know what I mean by that. In my opinion they should focus on highspeed connection in next 2-4 years, at the same time Chopin airport is having redevelopment till 2028 and when the highspeed connection is up and running, they should focus on a hub around 2030, of course they should build a highspeed station there ahead of time where the hub is planned and just have it as inactive till they get it done in a next decade. Since all the land is already bought and families living there were resettled.
No one presented this footbridge as a great national undertaking, but only as a new, local attraction on the boulevards on the Vistula River. Don't embarrass yourself. As a political opponent of those who currently rule Warsaw, try to be more intelligent.
@alh6255 I actually like what they are doing in Warsaw. I just wanted to point out something that I find interesting. But in the video posted by the Ministry of Development, it is presented as a great national achievement
@alh6255 yes they did. They promoted it heavily on even the national Ministry’s twitter.
That is because the current ruling party is quite neoliberal and its mentality is still jn the 90s where “no money” and “we’re not able to achieve this” was justified. There is a reason as to why the authoritarian party PiS came to power in 2015 and rules for two terms. Nothing is without its own consequences. If the current government will abandon projects like the new Communication Hub, the nuclear power plants and the sea ports, this will eventually catch up to them and they will lose elections to PiS.
I'd suggest they build a biiig parking lot there
It's great to see Eastern European countries finally getting on board with good urbanism. They have a long way to go, but this is a very promising start.
Western countries, however, are getting older😂😂😂
The ugliness came from the West: le Corbusier, brutalism and so on. "Thanks" for that . 😡
mate, better not visit us with that attitude and especially with that vocabulary
Eastern European countries? Rather Central European. Are you just another uneducated and unwashed ignoramus, making fun of himself with his stereotypes?.... You don't even know how beautiful Czechia, Hungary or Poland were and are, and what urban pearls you can find there, from many different eras, even the era of Stalinism (if do you even understand what I'm writing about)
FYI, Poland is in Central Europe like Czechia and Germany.
WHA(#SS20)
?
5:54 proper allocation of public space:
Public transportation = 13.5 meters
Pedestrians = 12.1 m
Cars (including parking) = 11 m
Greenery/trees = 6.4 m
Cyclists = 6 m
Hopefully eventually they will remove the parking for wider cycling lanes/sidewalks/more greenery.
1:14 "Central park", what a joke
Getting rid of parkings lots hmm... I don't think people who drive cars like it.. We have so little parking lots already....
I drive cars and I like it, I know it might seem counter-intiutive but reducing traffic in the centre can actually make things easier for people who NEED to go there. I recommend reading about the concept of "induced demand" in urban design.
The museum of modern fart should be torn down. Ugly boring building and modern "art" is scam any way.
this modern art museum is such an ugly eyesore....
What is the point of translating every little thing into English? I can't stop laughing at this futile over-accomodation of English speakers. Some of these things aren't even properly translated: 'rondo' isn't a word in English; try 'traffic circle' or 'roundabout'.