On the 23rd of October 2013 the City District of Prague 2 together with the Prague Mothers organized a meeting of representatives of the Prague public administration and citizens who discussed results and efficiency of the portal Pedestrians United (PU) operated by the Prague Mothers. Each and every citizen or visitor of Prague can address their representatives through the Portal and propose changes for public space to become safer, more accessible, interconnected and attractive for pedestrians.
The meeting was launched by the Mayor of the City District Prague 2 Jana Černochová that has successfully cooperated with Prague Mothers to calm the traffic near schools (as a part of the Safe Routes to School Program) ."That is why the Portal Pedestrians United can be seen as a further contribution to improving the quality of life in our neighborhood and consequently also of life in Prague 2 ", said Černochová.
The purpose of the meeting in the City Hall of Prague 2 was to present results of one and half year service of the Portal and look for an agreement on improving communication between public administration on one side and website administration and citizens on the other side to make cooperation between them through the Portal as effective as possible. Presentations of the Portal users, public administration representatives and discussion revealed that the biggest problem are unclear competencies and a tangle of relations between City Districts on one side and the City resp. TSK (Technical Administration of Communications) on the other. The City Districts are mostly upset that complaints of citizens are often sent to them according to their localization and not according to the liability to solve them and finance the improvements. City of Prague is an owner of more than 90% of communications, but all the complaints are sent to City Districts that cannot be either solved or financed by them. They argue that they are just the mailmen and the complaints are largely forwarded to someone else to deal with it, which gives an unjustified impression in public that the City Districts solve nothing. Present citizens argued that the clearest way for them to communicate through the portal is to sent their complaints to City Districts, ie. to one place, respectively to one person who would be responsible at least to inform them about the fate of their own initiative regardless of the real liability. All participants of the meeting seemed to agree that the site makes sense because it provides the City Districts and the City of Prague an overview of the defects in the streets, where citizens feel that "shoe pinches" them and gives citizens the opportunity to participate in improving of the quality of urban life and to learn about how City Districts deal with their propositions. Prague Mothers together with present public administration representatives have agreed that they would adjust the Portal to suit both parties.
In addition such projects with a similar focus as „Ladíme Prahu“ (We are tuning Prague) of the Insitute for City Development and "Link for the Mayor " of the Slovak Governance Institute in Bratislava, from which Prague Mothers took over an Internet tool for Pedestrians United were presented to the audience of the meeting.
After lunch Prague Mothers made a “sighteseeing tour“ for participants in the streets of the City District of Prague 2 to show a real impact of this Internet tool for citizen´s participation on life in the City of Prague. For instance the City District of Prague 2 installed along the FN building (University Hospital) pillars, which prevent cars to park deep into the pavement and thus ensure wheelchair users and parents with prams sufficient space to move around on the sidewalk. „This measure based on citizen´s complaint submitted through the Portal is an excellent example how Pedestrians United can benefit themselves and the City“, concluded the initiator and project manager Petra Syrová of Prague Mothers.
The presentations form the event are below:
The meeting was launched by the Mayor of the City District Prague 2 Jana Černochová that has successfully cooperated with Prague Mothers to calm the traffic near schools (as a part of the Safe Routes to School Program) ."That is why the Portal Pedestrians United can be seen as a further contribution to improving the quality of life in our neighborhood and consequently also of life in Prague 2 ", said Černochová.
The purpose of the meeting in the City Hall of Prague 2 was to present results of one and half year service of the Portal and look for an agreement on improving communication between public administration on one side and website administration and citizens on the other side to make cooperation between them through the Portal as effective as possible. Presentations of the Portal users, public administration representatives and discussion revealed that the biggest problem are unclear competencies and a tangle of relations between City Districts on one side and the City resp. TSK (Technical Administration of Communications) on the other. The City Districts are mostly upset that complaints of citizens are often sent to them according to their localization and not according to the liability to solve them and finance the improvements. City of Prague is an owner of more than 90% of communications, but all the complaints are sent to City Districts that cannot be either solved or financed by them. They argue that they are just the mailmen and the complaints are largely forwarded to someone else to deal with it, which gives an unjustified impression in public that the City Districts solve nothing. Present citizens argued that the clearest way for them to communicate through the portal is to sent their complaints to City Districts, ie. to one place, respectively to one person who would be responsible at least to inform them about the fate of their own initiative regardless of the real liability. All participants of the meeting seemed to agree that the site makes sense because it provides the City Districts and the City of Prague an overview of the defects in the streets, where citizens feel that "shoe pinches" them and gives citizens the opportunity to participate in improving of the quality of urban life and to learn about how City Districts deal with their propositions. Prague Mothers together with present public administration representatives have agreed that they would adjust the Portal to suit both parties.
In addition such projects with a similar focus as „Ladíme Prahu“ (We are tuning Prague) of the Insitute for City Development and "Link for the Mayor " of the Slovak Governance Institute in Bratislava, from which Prague Mothers took over an Internet tool for Pedestrians United were presented to the audience of the meeting.
After lunch Prague Mothers made a “sighteseeing tour“ for participants in the streets of the City District of Prague 2 to show a real impact of this Internet tool for citizen´s participation on life in the City of Prague. For instance the City District of Prague 2 installed along the FN building (University Hospital) pillars, which prevent cars to park deep into the pavement and thus ensure wheelchair users and parents with prams sufficient space to move around on the sidewalk. „This measure based on citizen´s complaint submitted through the Portal is an excellent example how Pedestrians United can benefit themselves and the City“, concluded the initiator and project manager Petra Syrová of Prague Mothers.
The presentations form the event are below: