As Exit has written before, the Tirana 2030 Masterplan was adopted by the Municipal Council last year in spite of many legal violations, including the law on public consultations. The masterplan itself, drafted by Stefano Boeri’s architecture firm, was full of mistakes and moreover in breach of contract.
Although the masterplan was allegedly approved by the National Territorial Council (KKT), headed by Prime Minister Edi Rama, in April, official documents have still not appeared on the website of the KKT, again in violation of the law.
Meanwhile, the first effects of the Boeri’s masterplan, which advocated an “intensification” of construction work through public–private partnerships, are felt by the citizens of Tirana. New and unnecessary skyscrapers have been approved by the KKT, while parks have to make way for construction projects of oligarchs close to the government. Just like in Durrës, archeological heritage is shamelessly destroyed under the vague excuse of touristic development.
After several months of waiting, and appealing its case to the Commissioner for the Right of Information and the Protection of Personal Data (with the help of Publeaks), Exit has received the transcripts of the public hearings organized by the municipality in preparation of the Tirana 2030 Masterplan. In an accompanying letter, director of urban planning Joni Baboçi claims that all hearings were organized in accordance with the law, even though in January he still denied the existence of the law on public consultations.
The transcripts of the public hearings and expert meetings show the scandalous incompetence with which the municipality handled one of the most important documents for the future of Tirana.
First of all is the general ignorance of the participants in these “expert panels.” In the first round table on economy, Deputy Mayor Arbjan Mazniku “opens the discussion” with a “development concept” based on a monkey that swings from tree to tree, grabbing the nearest branch in sight. I cite:
He [Mazniku] mentioned that development is like a monkey that moves and jumps between tree that are close to him in such a way that he arrives in higher trees according to his prediction. Mr Mazniku suggests that the development of Tirana itself has to be like that of a monkey.
Mazniku took this monkey metaphor from Ricardo Hausmann, Director of Harvard’s Center for International Development, who also happens to be friends with Prime Minister Edi Rama. The right citation itself can be easily found on his website:
Think of each product as a tree in the forest. Any pair of products is akin to any pair of trees in the forest; they are at a certain distance from each other. Now think of firms as animals living on the tree, like monkeys living off the tree, exploiting a certain product. Following our metaphor – in order for countries to progress, they have to move from poorer trees to richer, more fruitful trees, and they do so by jumping to nearby trees.
It may be clear that Mazniku’s attempt it injecting an “intelligent” concept into a discussion about sustainable development was not entirely successful. And like all the other round tables and panels that I read through, nothing concrete came from it.
Often essential stakeholders were absent from the discussion. For example, at a round table on water infrastructure, representatives of the Ministry of Energy and Industry and Tirana Water Supply and Sanitation (UKT) were “unfortunately” absent.
However, the most scandalous transcript is that of the hastily organized public hearing for members of the Municipal Council and interest groups in December, hours before the master plan was supposed to be approved by the Municipal Council. The transcript of the meeting states:
After the presentation of the plan by Boeri, Francesca, Andreas, the word was taken by members of the Municipal Council to make comments and ask their questions.
The transcript then dryly enumerates all questions, commenting on a variety of serious technical and conceptual issues. However, in the transcript neither the architects nor the municipality manages to provide any answers. Apparently, all questions and criticism were met by the municipality with complete, arrogant silence.
