Living Cities: Polish election offers hope of inclusiveness

A conversation on what makes a livable city.

By LOUISE GUILLOT

With GIOVANNA COI

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Happy Thursday, city-lovers, and welcome to Living Cities.

My name is Louise Guillot. I’m a sustainability reporter at POLITICO, usually covering how the EU is trying to reconcile environmental protection and economic growth, be that in the realm of agriculture or dreams of a circular economy. But today I’m delighted to bring you your weekly shot of urban news. Aitor will be back with you on November 2.

Before we get into it, a quick update for those of you reading us from Brussels and who, like me, are biking to work: You may have noticed construction has started to secure the bike lanes on Rue de la Loi in the EU neighborhood. Belgian media reports that work will wrap up by the end of the school holidays in early November (though don’t hold me to it!).

In today’s edition, we take a look at what the results of Poland’s recent national election might mean for cities — and for the LGBTQ+ communities who live there. And because climate change remains one of the biggest challenges facing cities across the world, we’ll also check in with Paris and how it’s practicing to manage next summer’s heat waves.

More on that after the jump!

METRO BRIEFING

MORE INCLUSIVE POLISH CITIES: The opposition’s victory in Poland’s general election earlier this month has sparked hope of radical change in the country — and particularly in its cities. In its eight years in power, the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party waged a crusade against what it called “LGBT ideology,” encouraging the creation of “LGBT-free” zones in towns and cities across the country. Residents and campaigners are breathing a sigh of relief, hoping that the remaining LGBT-free zones will soon bite the dust and that similar discriminatory actions will finally become a thing of the past.

Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) party encouraged the creation of “LGBT-free” zones during its eight years in power | Omar Marques/Getty Images

‘LGBT-free’ zones: Starting in 2019, local authorities and regional governments in the south of the country passed resolutions declaring their constituencies “LGBT-free zones.” The declarations made these areas unwelcoming to LGBTQ+ people, with some even banning Pride marches and other community events. A large majority have since been overturned, but some still remain, including in the cities of Wilamowice, Kock and Debica, according to a map regularly updated by LGBTQ+ associations.

Looking ahead: “It was obviously very hateful and … I hope every one of those zones will be abandoned and forgotten forever,” said Nina Gabryś-Janowska, head of equality policy for the mayor of Kraków, adding that “now is a moment to feel optimistic.” The election result creates the “possibility for a larger conversation at [the] national level about important issues like civil unions [for same-sex couples], equality in education, discrimination, hate crimes,” she said.

Wanted: Bravery. Gabryś-Janowska warned that “a lot has to be done” to reverse nearly a decade of policies that were harmful to LGBTQ+ and women’s rights. “I hope the politicians on every level will be brave, and will be open and will be really invested in human rights,” she said. “We are a part of Europe, and we have an obligation to protect human rights on the European level.”

Heads up: Although most of the work needs to be done at the national level, Gabryś-Janowska said she believes cities will continue to be allies in the fight for more equality. Donald Tusk, the leader of the Civic Coalition — the largest opposition party — and a former Polish prime minister and European Council president, has said that introducing a civil partnership for same-sex couples and reinforcing transgender rights will be among the priorities of his new government — if he’s able to form one. But that might be easier said than done, given that at least one of his coalition partners, the farmers’ party PSL, has a more conservative stance on these issues.

CITY HIGHLIGHTS

MEDITERRANEAN CITIES WANT BETTER DISASTER COOPERATION: Cities and regional governments are calling on countries to improve cooperation and preparedness to natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, wildfires and water scarcity. Acknowledging that national civil protection services are already talking to each other, André Viola, a member of the Departmental Council of Aude in France who drafted the recommendations, said “it is now time to include local and regional authorities in the governance of civil-protection systems.” He added that “their role is crucial in improving resilience to disasters, and also, as we see in these sad days of war, to provide a prompt humanitarian response.” A study accompanying Viola’s report recommends creating risk maps and early warning systems for climatic hazards but also training staff in crisis management.

HEAT PUMPS SUBSIDIES WORK, NGOS SAY: Decarbonizing heating can make a big contribution to reducing cities’ overall CO2 emissions. And the good news is that subsidizing people’s switch to electricity-powered heat pumps would cost EU countries less than keeping those fossil fuel boilers running, according to an assessment by NGOs. The report notes that the upfront cost of installing a heat pump varies widely across the EU, but argues that if national governments were to stop subsidizing fossil fuel heating and use that money to support the rollout of heat pumps, the bloc could “potentially decarbonise the whole heating stock by 2030,” covering 100 percent of the upfront cost for the 30 percent of boiler users “who are low-income or impoverished.”

Heavy rain in Madrid flooded the metro system and the neighborhood around the Spanish capital’s airport | Oscar del Pozo/AFP via Getty Images

MADRID QUÉ BIEN RESISTES: A record-setting amount of rain fell in Madrid last weekend, flooding the city’s metro system, several major thoroughfares and the neighborhood around the Spanish capital’s airport. But in all the chaos, one part of the city weathered the storm without a hitch: the Madrid Río complex, the re-naturalized river that Aitor wrote about last December, handled the additional water with no problem whatsoever.

UPTOWN / DOWNTOWN

⬆ CURBING LOCAL FOOD EMISSIONS: Lambeth is the first London borough to endorse the Plant-Based Treaty, which commits local governments to step up efforts to slash emissions from food production. In a statement, Lambeth said it will offer more plant-based alternatives to meat at council events and schools in an effort to lower its carbon footprint.

⬇ PROHIBITIVE RENTS IN UK CITIES: High rents and reduced social benefits are pushing poorer people out of city centers in the United Kingdom, the Guardian reports. This phenomenon, which researchers describe as the “suburbanization of poverty,” is leading to deep transformations of cities’ diversity and dynamics, and increasing divisions between the rich and the poor.

URBAN TRENDS

PARIS’ CLIMATE CHANGE SIMULATION GAME: How would Parisians react if a 50 degrees Celsius heat wave were to descend on the city? The French capital set up a real-life simulation game last week to answer precisely that question, asking residents to seek refuge in cool tunnels and teachers to conduct lessons in underground parking lots, among other exercises. I spoke to Pénélope Komitès, Paris’ city councillor in charge of innovation and resilience, to hear more about the unusual event.

Get ready for the worst: The simulation involved a host of sectors — from health and police services to energy and transport providers, schools and care homes — with the goal of prepping their responses to a major heat wave. “The idea is to adapt the city and get prepared to face the crises we know about, but also the ones we don’t yet know about,” Komitès told me over the phone. “We chose to focus this simulation exercise on heatwaves because we already know that this is not a science fiction scenario … a heat dome of 50 degrees is something we are likely to experience in the second half of the 21st century.”

The simulation game is part of a broader effort to rework Paris’ climate resilience strategy | Bertrand Guay/AFP via Getty Images

Testing resilience: The exercise was also intended to highlight the potential ripple effects on emergency services, traffic and infrastructure. Specific exercises included testing nurses’ capacity to handle a rapid influx of patients, deploying generators when main power sources are down, and relocating classrooms to cooler places like underground tunnels to ensure children can continue to go to school. “The idea was also to raise awareness among residents about the impacts of such events,” notably on people’s health and working conditions, Komitès said.

Big plans: The exercise is part of a broader effort to rework Paris’ climate resilience strategy, according to Komitès, who said she expects the revised plan to be ready by mid-2024. Officials from London and Barcelona, among other cities, were present to observe the simulation and showed interest in the findings, she said, as did representatives from the C40 network of cities climate leadership group.

More to come: The city council is already providing local residents with training on how to handle floods, and will repeat similar real-life simulations in the future to test other climate issues like food resilience. “But that’s more likely to happen after the Olympics,” which will take place next summer, Komitès said.

STATS & THE CITY

STREET SMARTS

We’re back with our weekly cities-related trivia challenge! Atli Stannard of Rome was the quickest to identify Toripolliisi, the statue that honors policemen in the Finnish city of Oulu.

Installed in 1987, the squat bronze sculpture honors the police force who kept order in the central marketplace during the 20th century.

Toripolliisi is the statue that honors policemen in the Finnish city of Oulu | Timo/Creative Commons via Flickr

This week’s challenge is one for the mythologists and classicists among you: Which city’s mayor is guarded by twin statues, one sighted, the other blind, neither alive, neither dead — and who are these otherworldly brothers? The first to correctly identify it gets a shout-out in next week’s newsletter!

LOCAL LIBRARY

— In Fast Company, friend-of-the-newsletter David Zipper writes about how a decision to eliminate mass transit fares paradoxically led to a rise in car traffic in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.

— Berlin is famous the world over for its clubs in abandoned air-raid bunkers and power plants, so it may come as no surprise that its hottest new dance locale is in a 16th-century fortress; before hitting the dancefloor, make sure to check out the building’s controversial monuments collection.

— The Guardian has a long read about how what started out as a small protest by Sheffield residents against plans to cut down trees turned into a decade-long fight to make their city greener.

THANKS TO: My colleagues Aitor Hernández-Morales, Mari Eccles and Antonia Zimmermann for their tips and tales. My editors Esther King, Kelsey Hayes and Stephan Faris, and producer Giulia Poloni.

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