Citizen Engagement: Mr. Péter Pfliegler Deputy Mayor of Miskolc, Hungary speaks to REMOURBAN
What benefits for urban governance do you see coming as a result of citizen engagement? Citizen engagement actions strengthen dialogue between inhabitants and city governance and help integrate the viewpoints of various stakeholders on a balanced way. A city leader must certainly not work for themselves alone and not for keeping their position but to defend and maintain positive results of the city and to further improve them. However, development of a city’s streets, buildings, squares and institutions should be basically aimed at improving the quality of life and living conditions for citizens. So city leaders are serving, in the most honorable term of the word, citizens. This service cannot be carried out well without spending time and effort to meet with local people, listening to their needs, problems, preferences and remarks, as well as asking for their opinion and ideas on various planned developments. Never forgetting that, in fact, citizens are the final beneficiaries of urban improvements. When city leaders carry out such activities on information and involvement in a fair manner, a sort of citizen involvement is achieved. Involvement is successful when citizens are enabled and motivated to share their views and ideas to city representatives who took these remarks into account for decision. Nevertheless, contrary decisions should be well explained for citizens and assure transparency and fairness of decision-making. Such city leadership may, still just “may”, get a new mandate when election-times come. The latter is certainly not the reason for governing the city in a reliable and transparent way with particular attention on exploiting synergies, but derives from the principles summarized above. Additionally, one more advantage of citizen involvement from the perspective of the mayor’s office: no one is flawless and unerring and no one knows everything, even working with a great team. Considering and implementing complementary or new useful ideas coming from citizens can be more beneficial for the city than predicted in the original scenario. In this regard, several positive examples have already been encountered in Miskolc and we see these projects are more and more accepted and supported by the residents. Engaging communities to the process of planning, developing, implementing a project can foster personal responsibility of people in general, but in also in particular can improve felt responsibility for the “jointly created” values, personal commitment to and ability to influence public affairs. How can local governments and cities shape urban regeneration with the help of residents? One of the common (and natural) features of urban developments is that they are for improving life conditions of citizens - for citizens and with them. In a contrary case, certain developments carried out that are finally not used by the citizens or may likely become neglected and opposed. Urban regeneration is not a self-contained process but goes on for improving the city’s livability and attractiveness. Projects often go together with common inconveniences for people i.e. difficulties in traffic around the area being developed, noise and dust resulting from the works. These unpleasant outcomes are best to be discussed with locals, through municipal open citizen forums, to work on a common agreement on the acceptance of these side effects prior to their appearance, with regards to particular citizen benefits in post- implementation phase. Read more at: http://www.remourban.eu/News--Events/News/Citizen-Engagement-Mr-Peter-Pfliegler-Deputy-Mayor-Of-Miskolc-Hungary-Speaks-To-REMOURBAN.kl(opens in new window)
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Hungary