Cav's Place

A site from here recently asked people what are the top three changes they’d make in Bucharest. Exactly where the question was, I couldn’t say, since I just saw the article publishing a selection of answers last night, but that of course made me comment with my own answer as well and now I thought I might as well translate it, make a few additions and clarifications and put it here too. Some parts of the first item do refer to specific things taking place here recently, but the general idea applies everywhere, and the other two items clearly do in full.

1. Putting Nature first, so the city will be as “green” as possible. No more building or paving any area that’s currently any sort of green space, whether formally recognized as such or not. A significant amount of relatively wild areas need to be left or created in parks, the only interventions being those required to eliminate pests and disease carriers, create some footpaths and place lights and trash cans along them. Paths shouldn’t usually be too wide in the other areas either, tree branches should join above them and any buildings or other such elements must be few in number and designed to look as natural as possible.
Streets should be lined with large trees with thick crowns, so during the warmer parts of the year the sidewalks will be shaded and plenty of the narrower streets, and at least a few larger avenues as well, will be covered by their branches joining above. Trees shouldn’t be hacked apart under the excuse of “pruning” or killed by work done around their roots, as it keeps happening here in recent years, regardless of whether those that die as a result of this are replaced by others or not. Instead, existing ones need to be properly cared for in order to survive as long as possible, with old or particularly large ones receiving special attention.
In addition, gardens should be planted on top of some buildings, at least where solar panels won’t be a better option, and plants could cover some facades. Personal gardens definitely need to be strongly encouraged, penalizing people who pave large parts of their yards or turn them into mere lawns, which is the opposite of what happens in most places.

2. Making citizens be far more involved. When it comes to local matters, protests, petitions and other methods of making the officials aware of the issue and the proposed solutions need to be paired with a very “hands on” approach, direct action escalating to whatever level will prove necessary to solve the problem. For national and global matters, activism will take the form of information and awareness campaigns, protests, petitions, contacting officials and showing solidarity with those directly affected in various other ways. Actions should be carried out in a civilized manner whenever possible, but with determination and the willingness to continue for however long it will prove necessary. People must understand we’re all in this together.

3. Reorganizing the transport infrastructure so pedestrians will be the top priority. Second will be the metro, but developed as a way to quickly travel between areas and important points of interest, not with stops so close together that the train will barely get time to speed up before needing to stop again, as the plans for the new routes planned for here seem to involve. Third, bicycles and other similar alternative means of transportation. Fourth, surface public transportation, using vehicles that don’t cause pollution. All of these will be priorities, but in this order. What can’t be a priority are drivers and their cars, and I’m including taxis here as well, as the use of personal automobiles needs to be discouraged as much as possible and relegated to certain special situations, which will be as few and as rare as possible.