On Tuesday morning, a handful of protesters gathered near the Kaunas City Municipality. They all wore masks with V. Matijošaitis’s face on them.
“Do we recognize each other?” asked one protester.
“Why? After all, Kaunas has one face,” answered another sarcastically.
Those gathered for the march imitated the walk of the mayor of Kaunas, chanting: “I will wash my feet here” or “everyone walks here”.
One of the elders of Šančia – Rita Namikė, said that when in 2019 announced that a street was promised to be built on the Nemunas coast, and the environmental situation began to worsen. There is a naturally ridden gravel road in that area, and from 2019 the municipality stopped grading it.
“They tried to burn and destroy that entire coast. Large garbage trucks and containers are driving. Just to make it worse, to make people ask for something. Here is a recreational area where people come to relax. Making a street in it is simply incomprehensible. The pine forest, bike paths are being destroyed, and following all, rivers are being approached all over the world,” the old woman testified.
It needs investment to be managed, but it must be done harmoniously.
“So much has been said on that topic. If the mayor, who is elected by the people, does not even see the need to speak… There are no words”, R. Namikė answered when asked how he assesses V. Matijošaitis’ attitude towards protests.
Headed towards the old town
Soon, everyone went to Vilniaus Street, where at that time the Kaunas Regional Architecture Council (RAT) meeting was held, dedicated to the evaluation of “Nemunas waterfront street in Kaunas project proposals”.
As it was written in the press release issued by the community of Šanții on the eve of the protest, the design proposals (sketch stage) submitted for evaluation by the Kaunas RAT were presented to the public during the public meeting held on May 12, 2022. The project proposes to build a three-lane street on the Nemunas coast in Šančiai for the movement and parking of cars.
The community of Žemeių Šanųi, familiar with these project proposals, submitted their comments, but, as stated in the press release, they were not taken into account.
At the Kaunas RAT meeting scheduled for Tuesday, the proposals with the same solutions, which were largely opposed by the Lower Shanti community in 2022, were evaluated.
Third offer
This is already the third project proposal since 2019, related to the planning of the Nemunas waterfront street on the recreational riverside in Šančiai. After the first ones were published, community members had collected as many as 6,000 signatures of dissenters.
In 2019, the community of Žemeiši Šanųi organized an action in which 700 people participated. This became the beginning of the Nemunas road campaign.
Kaunas RAT did not approve the project proposals at that time.
Since 2019, the community has implemented a total of 27 civil actions to express their disapproval.
In 2021, project proposals were once more presented to the public, but the comments made by the community were once more not taken into account.
The community of Kaunas Šantių has been trying to resolve this conflict with the municipality for four years. During that time, the community itself, together with KTU researchers, created a vision of the Nemunas coast, involved thousands of local residents in the process, and was awarded the New European Bauhaus prize.
It was proposed to establish a 25-hectare recreational-memorial park with pedestrian and bicycle paths, but the proposal was rejected.
Since 2019, the community has implemented a total of 27 civic actions in which they expressed their disapproval of the Nemunas waterfront street designed by the Kaunas municipality.
Does not keep a promise
In the fall of last year, the Deputy Director of Kaunas Municipality Administration, Gedeminas Barčauskas, promised to invite community representatives to creative workshops and look for a vision of the Nemunas waterfront that is acceptable to all, and also emphasized that the street on the Nemunas waterfront will not be designed without the community’s approval.
However, as the protesters claim, the promise remained unfulfilled.
Not only did the municipality not invite to the workshop, but on the contrary, without notifying the community, it initiated a new project “Revival of Kaunas waterfronts”, to which not a single interested citizen was invited, and finally, according to the protesters, they secretly submitted old project proposals to evaluate the Kaunas RAT.
“This is an ordinary bulldozer attempt by the municipality to “push” the polluted street, basically only to satisfy narrow interests and the ambitions of the mayor of Kaunas.
In a unique world-class corner of nature, which in the context of global warming must be protected and nurtured as a recreational area for rest and refreshment for all Kaunas residents, the aim is to create a new source of pollution that will poison the citizens and guests of the city with car exhaust gases”, we write in the press release of the Šantių community.
Mariaus Vizbaros / 15min photo/The community of Šanţi, who rebelled once morest the new road, came to the presentation of the project
Time comes alive
The protestors are convinced that the construction of streets that would cut off the citizens from the rivers and that are intended for polluting cars in the green areas of the cities is a complete waste and basically contradicts the new green course strategy of the European Union and Lithuania.
In the world, for many years, the opposite trends seem to have prevailed – the streets separating the townspeople from the rivers are destroyed, and in their place parks, pedestrian promenades and other recreational and rest areas for local residents and guests of the city are established.
The local communities categorically do not agree that decisions of great importance to the city should be made by eliminating the opinion of Kaunas residents and grossly violating basic democratic values.
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2024-07-21 21:50:39
