Other Tabladas in Europe

This last week we found two cities that are working in the same direction as us, with Sevilla and it´s River. Sofía, in Bulgaria and Zyrardow in Poland. These two european cities are looking for similar strategies in order to be kinder and competitive, renewing themselves while looking around.

In Sofia we´ve met with  Martin Zaimov, of City Hall, who has shown us some of the challenges they face for the next few years:

1. Rediscover the multitude of canals to place a value of these spaces as both natural and urban connections.

2. Rediscover Vitosha, the neighbouring mountain, with the intention of linking the territory to the city.

3. Rediscover the mineral springs which abound throughout the urban center and are associated to its founding.

This way, Sofia, one of the oldest european capitals, works to link its future development to its historical and natural qualities. Concretely, the project of the canals of Sofia was born of a  civil innitiative, made up of anxious people that propose ideas and solutions to those responsable for developing them.

In Zyrardow, a city with an industrial past located to the south west of Warsaw, we´ve been sharing experiences. They´ve shown us their rich cultural heritage composed of buidlings that once belonged to the linen industry and linked to an old canal. Buildings that once the loss of economic activity that cheered them on are now found in disuse, waiting new changes, all the while the city is mired in both a social and economic depression.

Now they are attempting to develop a strategy that tries to reorient the above mentioned heritage as a gateway towards Bolimow Park, an old forest associated to a system of canals that contains a multitude of wet ecosystems, among them swamps (belonging to the European Nature Network).

It is not a coincidence that cities like Sofia or Zyrardow are trying to create new alliances between  their natural resources, heritage and culture, because the cities reflect our own collective situation: these are uncertain times in which we seek to reference with which to orient our efforts and growth, sharing knowledge and the same tools, and it should not surprise us that we are on the same path.

After these experiences we return very motivated and with the hope of being able to organize a common space for these proposals, where to debate, and learn together.

This post is also available in: Spanish