New Year’s Eve in Krakow 2020/2021. Instead of the New Year’s Eve concert on the Main Square, we will say goodbye to 2020 … with audiovisual installations – Reads the Gazeta Krakowska news from 9/11/20
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, on December 31, 2020, there will be no New Year’s Eve concert at the Main Square in Krakow. The city authorities do not want to expose their inhabitants to contracting the disease. However, they decided to say goodbye to the old year in an artistic spirit – and organize a competition for New Year’s audiovisual installations that will decorate Krakow at that time.
A NEW New Year’s Eve in Krakow
No group celebration, no singing together, and no countdown to midnight.
It will be a New Year’s Eve full of art.
The Krakow Festival Office encourages all Krakow artists to take part in the competition for a review of audiovisual installations.
Competition entries can be submitted by November 15th.
The 10 best ideas will be presented on the last night of the old year in Krakow squares.
New Year’s Eve 2020 in Krakow with a walk of audiovisual installations
This year, safety is even more important to us than before. That is why we gave up on musical scenes and grand celebrations. Instead, we invite you to take a walk along the traces of art installations that will be located in different parts of the city. For now, we are not revealing the details of the entire evening and the great surprise that we are preparing on the Main Square, but we invite the entire artistic world of Krakow to prepare for this special night together!
– encourages Jacek Majchrowski, Mayor of Krakow.
According to the jury’s decision, each of the 10 winners will receive 10,000 PLN for the implementation of their idea. The aim of the competition enriching Krakow’s public space on New Year’s Eve is to promote visual arts as a field of culture and support local artists. It is also supposed to help popularize the visual arts by organizing an event of this kind, aimed at a mass audience.
New Year’s Eve in Krakow 2020 supporting local artists
We encourage you to participate in the competition “New Year, new art, new media – a review of audiovisual installations by Krakow artists”. This is an opportunity to show your work and make it a symbolic gesture of saying goodbye to the old year or welcoming the new one. In this way, we want to support local audiovisual artists and present their works to a larger audience
– adds Izabela Błaszczyk, director of the KBF.
The competition regulations can be found on the website www.kbf.krakow.pl. The most important information is the address to which applications can be submitted until November 15, 2020 ( HERE ) and the dimensions of the structure, which cannot be higher than five by five meters. One person or company can submit up to three designs in separate entries.
The winners and all details about New Year’s Eve 2020 will be presented by the Krakow Festival Office at the end of November.
Krakow councilors adopted a resolution calling on the president to ban the display of drastic anti-abortion posters during demonstrations within the cultural park in the Old Town. Although the majority support the idea, the chances of its implementation are slim.
Should they stay or should they go?
The initiator of the resolution was Łukasz Wantuch from the presidential club Przyjazny Kraków. The councilor has recently become famous for his effective fight against covering drastic photos on anti-abortion posters. He did it by contacting the owners of advertising media and appealing to cover the photos themselves, not the entire banner.
Now he wanted to regulate the issue of bloody banners during the pro-life demonstrations at the Main Square. The councilor wanted appropriate provisions to be introduced into the resolution on the Old Town cultural park, so as not to present drastic photos within it, which may cause fear, terror, or mental discomfort to outsiders.
Most councilors supported the resolution, but the chances of its implementation are slim. President Jacek Majchrowski issued a negative legal opinion to it. The magistrate’s lawyers refer to the constitutional right to freedom of assembly.
“As a rule, the councilors are right. The idea is right, because it is hard to disagree that such images should not appear in the urban space” – says Monika Chylaszek, spokeswoman for Jacek Majchrowski. However, she adds, even if the city added appropriate provisions to the resolution on the cultural park, these would not stay there for a long time.
“According to lawyers, there is no chance for it, because the right to express one’s opinion is guaranteed in the constitution. The problem must be solved much higher. It should also be remembered that the city hall does not issue permits for such gatherings. They are reported and we cannot block them” – adds Monika Chylaszek.
“This should be treated as an attempt to draw attention to the problem and how to put an end to it. Hope it does. Maybe it will be possible to change the regulations on a spot”, says Łukasz Wantuch.
In September 2017, Massive Dynamic AG Polska (a branch of Massive Dynamic AG based in Switzerland) submitted a proposal to build an underground metro network for Krakow and the Krakow agglomeration for about 45 billion PLN on the basis of a public-private partnership. Its representatives resent the president of Krakow and his subordinate officials that for three years their actions have only discouraged the investor from actions that would largely solve transport problems in the capital of Małopolska and neighboring municipalities.
What would the project mean?
The undertaking would consist in the fact that Massive Dynamic AG will design, build and finance the metro network, then use it and earn money on it until the return on investment (analyzes have shown a return on the investment after 22 years), and then it will hand over the property to the city.
The concept proposed by Massive Dynamic AG assumed the construction of 5 metro lines with a total length of over 170 km (139 stations and 19 park & ride parking lots with a total capacity of about 6,100 parking spaces). It would be a subway network that would connect Krakow with the adjacent municipalities. 4 lines would run radially with a common point at the Main Railway Station, and 1 line would be a circumferential line.
The Numbers
It was noted that, according to preliminary arrangements with the provincial conservation authorities, the metro could run at a depth of at least 20 meters. The first 2 lines would be built within 3 years. The following ticket prices were adopted: tourists staying up to 3 days: 72-hour ticket – 54 PLN; tourists staying over 3 days: 7-day ticket – 74 PLN; students from outside the commune: monthly ticket – 82 PLN; students living in Krakow: monthly ticket – 65 PLN; people commuting to work from outside the commune: monthly ticket – 129 PLN; Krakow residents: monthly ticket – 92 PLN.
What happened?
The case was transferred to the Municipal Economy Department of the Krakow City Hall. “There, after the initial meeting, I was informed about the need to be patient. From the beginning of December 2017 to the end of March 2018, I was disposed of for all kinds of contacts with the Municipal Economy Department because of the lack of time for meetings regarding the metro” – admits Marcin Boroń, president of Massive Dynamic AG Polska.
In connection with the situation, in June 2018, Massive Dynamic AG submitted a petition to the Krakow City Council, in which it renewed its proposal to build the metro. As a result, there was finally a meeting with the management of the Municipal Economy Department, where president Marcin Boroń presented the concept of the metro to officials. He declared that the company had adequate financial resources and was in talks with companies involved in tunneling (Herrenknecht), rolling stock production (Siemens), and train traffic control systems.
Officials pointed out that a Study for Collision-Free Transport in Krakow is being developed, its effect may be the construction of the 1st metro line, therefore any works related to the construction of the metro line would have to be carried out in parallel and completely independent of the route of the metro in the eastern corridor analyzed in the Study West. Officials also pointed out that 3 metro lines were planned in the Krakow Development Study. The concept would, therefore, have to be adapted to this document or changed. The representatives of the city hall also expected more specific analyzes and documents confirming the investor’s financial capacity.
In October 2018, Massive Dynamic AG submitted to the office the preliminary analysis of the investment, and two months later it sent documents confirming the financial capacity. In order to read the documents sent, including agreements with foreign partners, the investor expected the city to sign a confidentiality agreement. The contract template was sent to the office at the end of 2018.
“After sending these documents, the Municipal Economy Department began to act very slowly. After many phone calls and messages sent by e-mail, a meeting with the vice-president of Krakow, Andrzej Kulig, was finally arranged on February 12, 2019, i.e. after more than 16 months from the moment our company submitted the proposal to build the metro“ – emphasizes President Marcin Boroń. “At the meeting attended by other representatives of the office, the scope of the project was initially discussed and it was agreed that a confidentiality agreement would be prepared. Later, the office again acted very sluggishly, in my opinion, so as to discourage us from further action in this matter”.
2019 & The Mayor of Krakow
In April 2019, Massive Dynamic filed a complaint against the work of the vice-president of Krakow, Andrzej Kulig, and the Municipal Economy Department. The Mayor of Krakow, Jacek Majchrowski, found it unfounded. In response, he recalled that the proposed solutions for the metro were not in line with the spatial development study for Kraków. The president also emphasized that although the president of Massive Dynamic Polska had sent documents confirming financial credibility, officials could not read their content, because they were secured with a password along with the information that they could be read after signing a confidentiality agreement.
The president also asked attention that the proposed routes of the metro lines should be verified by professional analyzes and forecasts of traffic, as well as the locations of transfer stations/nodes so that they do not conflict with the existing development. The president also noted that the city could not afford to cooperate with one entity selected without respecting the provisions related to public procurement.
Lack of interest…
“If it were an investment under a public-private partnership, the city could have prepared a tender and started a technical dialogue with our company” – says President Marcin Boroń. “We presented the general concept of the metro lines, which could be detailed at subsequent stages of the works to meet the city’s requirements. However, about PLN 20 million would be needed to conduct detailed analyzes. We could not afford such an expense without any agreements, especially non-disclosure agreements. It is difficult to imagine that without it, we would disclose all the financial secrets of our company to the office” – he adds.
Massive Dynamic AG also submitted complaints to the Krakow City Council and tried to present its vision to the councilors at the RMK session. “Until today, however, we have not obtained consent for it” – says President Marcin Boroń.
On the other hand, the chairman of the Krakow City Council, Dominik Jaśkowiec (PO councilor), informed Gazeta Krakowsa that he would look at the matter. “We have not recently invited guests to the meetings of the Krakow City Council due to the coronavirus pandemic. If epidemiological conditions make it possible, a presentation of the subway project could be organized in September” – explains Dominik Jaśkowiec.
Krakow voted in favor of having a metro line!
In May 2014, the inhabitants of Kraków voted in favor of building the metro in a referendum. In September 2018, the city signed an agreement with ILF Consulting Engineers Polska to develop a study for collision-free transport, including metro, for 9.4 million. The contract includes a deadline for the completion of the works by the end of 2019. Just before that date, the Krakow authorities informed that the document would not be prepared on time, as the proposals for the location of underground stops for the metro (planned on the Nowa Huta – city center – Bronowice route) were negatively assessed by the conservation authorities.
Initially, the Małopolska Voivodship Conservator of Monuments Monika Bogdanowska agreed only to the metro stop at the Nowaka-Jeziorański Square, so in the vicinity of the Main Railway Station. There was no consent for stops at the Mogilskie roundabout, the intersection of Dunajewskiego, Karmelicka and Podwale streets, and the square between Karmelicka and Dolnych Młynów streets, where there is now an above-ground parking lot and a municipal park is to be built. The contractors of the study proposed new solutions for the stops and the conservation authorities approved two of them: in the area of the Mogilskie roundabout and ul. Karmelicka, but with conditions. In the case of the Mogilskie roundabout, the recommendation was that the stop should not collide with the remains of the former fortification buildings.
Half a year ago, it seemed that both parties would be able to complete all the details efficiently and by the end of June this year, the authors of the study would be able to complete the necessary work. However, there are further delays and so far the Study has not been presented…
For more details on how the proposed 5 metro lines would look like, please do check the Gazeta Krakowska article and photos.
Yours truly,
The Twisted Red LadyBug bringing you the Krakow News
The first session of the Krakow City Council after the summer break will take place this week. There are many indications that councilors will not yet deal with the issue of increasing the price of tickets for public transport. Officials want to give themselves and the councilors more time to talk about the final shape of the increases, before the latter deal with the project. This one has still not appeared among the draft resolutions awaiting adoption.
Officials plan to increase the public transport ticket prices
I was telling you already that the officials were getting ready to increase the prices of tickets for public transport. In July, it was officially known what changes were planned by officials. As they explained, the increases are necessary, because the Coronavirus pandemic had a negative impact on the city’s transport budget and if we want to maintain the pre-pandemic network and frequency of connections in the autumn, the increases are necessary.
It seemed that the councilors would deal with the raises at the first session after the holidays, which is on the last Wednesday of August (Yup! Tomorrow!). But they won’t! “In order for the print to go to the session, the president must submit it at least one week before the session, i.e. by 17th August. It has not happened so far and I doubt it will change” – Dominik Jaśkowiec, chairman of the City Council tells us. The draft resolution is still not in the Public Information Bulletin.
Confirmation from The Mayor
His words are confirmed by a spokeswoman for Jacek Majchrowski. “The ticket resolution will not be available until one of the September sessions. We want to propose a project that has a chance to be adopted and will be a compromise” – says Monika Chylaszek. The officials will, therefore, work with the councilors on the project for some time to come.
What are the current propositions?
a one-way ticket for 6 PLN (now 4.6),
a 10-minute ticket for 3 PLN (now a 20-minute ticket for 3.6)
a 90-mint ticket for 8 PLN (now 6). The entire ticket tariff is to be changed. There will be no more monthly tickets for one or two lines. The current monthly ticket for all lines on the Krakow Card, instead of 69, is to cost 96 PLN (zone I) and 110 PLN (zone I and II).
New transport tickets may appear
A novelty will be the possibility to buy a 6-month ticket for all lines for the Krakow Card (i.e. for people paying taxes in Krakow) for 480 or 550 PLN (zones I and II).
Zone III is also to be a novelty – these are the farthest areas outside the city, where public transport from Krakow now commutes. However, we still do not know the border of the third zone. A monthly ticket for zone I, without Krakow Card, is to cost 128 PLN for the zone I, 96 PLN for zone II, and 69 PLN for zone III. In turn, a ticket without Krakow Card for zones I and II will cost 146 PLN(the same for zones II and III), and 166 PLN for all zones.
In addition, the tariff will include a monthly social ticket for 30, 50, and 70 PLN (zone I, I and II, zone I, II, and III) and an activation ticket for the unemployed for 50 and 100 PLN (zone I, I and II).
Coronavirus affecting public transport/price of tickets
According to officials, the increases are necessary due to the coronavirus epidemic, which plowed through the city’s transport systems. How much Krakow’s public transport has suffered can be seen from the April data on the inflow of ticket sales – only 4.12 million PLN, compared to 23.76 million PLNin April 2019. It was a little better in May – 8.89 million PLN. But that was over 16 million PLNless than in May a year ago. In June, the proceeds amounted to 13.2 million PLN. A year ago, it was 22.7 millionPLN.
During the epidemic, the daily revenues from ticket sales decreased from approx. 1.5-2.5 million PLN to several dozen thousand zlotys or a maximum of 200-400 thousand PLN.
“We estimate that by the end of the year, the revenues from tickets will be at the level we forecast, i.e. in autumn they will reach 70%. what before the pandemic, we will lose PLN 100 to 140 million by the end of the year” – Łukasz Franek, director of the Public Transport Board told Gazeta Krakowska some time ago.
Already in this year’s city budget for public transport, a deficit of PLN 300 million was planned. If the above assumptions are met, at the end of the year the budget gap in public transport will start to reach half a billion zlotys.
Original article (in Polish language) from Gazeta Krakowska can be found here.
City councilors want Krakow murals to be protected and secured against vandalism
The councilors have adopted a directional resolution to President Jacek Majchrowski – Mayor of the City of Krakow. The originator is Alicja Szczepańska from the Krakow Councilors for Residents (Kraków dla Mieszkańców) club. He prepared a draft resolution on the prevention and protection of murals in public space against acts of vandalism.
How did the idea start?
Mural “Travelers ul. Wielicka and tram”, can be seen by everyone who goes along Wielicka street or waits at the “Bieżanowska” public transport stop. It is located in Krakow on the building No. 2b at ul. Wolska. Its author is the Krakow painter Tomasz W Cotton
The mural shows dozens of portrayed people, Cracovians(men and women). The work was created in 2015. In 2018, Tomasz Wool painted a continuation of the mural entitled “Wielicka Street 100 years ago”. On it, you can also find portrayed inhabitants of Krakow. These murals enjoy a very positive reception among the inhabitants of Bieżanów and thousands of travelers traveling along Wielicka Street – emphasizes Alicja Szczepańska.
In April 2019, the vandal destroyed the mural with red paint. – Cracovians, through social media, expressed their huge indignation with this barbaric act of vandalism destroying our common space – we read in the resolution. Currently, this work has been carefully reproduced by the author, who restored its original appearance, although with some modifications resulting from repainting – adds the councilor. This reminds us that in the past other valuable murals were destroyed.
Other wrecked murals in Krakow
In 2012, the mural “Triumphal Gate of the City of Victoria Grunwaldzka” on the flyover at the intersection of Wielicka and Powstańców Śląskich Streets was damaged, which became the target of pseudo graffiti artists. In 2014, the mural at the clinic at Pachońskiego Street in Krakow, which was created to cover unsightly paintings, was also damaged by vandals.These are just a few examples of the losses that Krakow suffers from the thoughtless actions of pseudo-painters – writes Szczepańska.
She points out that murals are not purely aesthetic phenomena. – Over time, they become a social phenomenon, growing into everyday life, affect the lives of city residents. Murals are works of art created by artists. They are noticeable by everyone, and due to the public accessibility of the public space, they are a valuable complement to the strongly urbanized and subordinated function of the urban fabric– adds Szczepańska.
What does the mayor say?
Monika Chylaszek, the spokeswoman for the president, admitted that Jacek Majchrowski is in favor of protecting murals.– The city, however, only affects those that arise in places belonging to the municipality. One should also take into account that the mural is by definition a temporary work and it is natural that later the same surface is passed on to subsequent artists who want to implement their projects – Chylaszek said to journalists.
What do you think of the subject? I, for one, absolutely love the StreetArt / Murals of Krakow and I love hunting them and taking photos. It makes me sad to see them destroyed by local hooligans… especially the pretty ones, into which the artist placed great care, work and time. What is your opinion?
Yours sincerly,
The Twisted Red LadyBug That Loves The Murals of Krakow
Share:
Reading time: 3 min
Get more stuff
Subscribe to our mailing list and get interesting stuff and updates to your email inbox.
Recent Comments