Community rallies around Vršovice lot

Between Moskevská and Krymská streets in Prague 10's Vršovice neighborhood is a spot lovingly referred to by locals as "Proluka" ("the vacant site"). According to historical accounts, this 1,200 square meter space demarks the northern end of the original Vršovice village, dating to the 12th century. A tržíček, or small market, served as the heart of the area.

"We realized it is still real, this part of Vršovice," says Kateřina McCreary, who heads Start Vršovice, a civic association of people residing and working in the area. "It is the crossroads everybody has to pass in order to take a tram, go to the shop, or to take kids to schools."

McCreary describes the area as no more than an "ugly parking lot" and an empty meadow connecting to "something that once aspired to be a little park with chestnut trees." But the historical significance of the tržíček, coupled with the opaque actions of Prague 10 Town Hall, has turned the patch of land into a scene of community protests against the neighborhood's ambivalent stance on developing the area.

The community is active and diverse, McCreary says. The Academy of Fine Arts has a studio close to Proluka where students often display projects, like their end-of-term exhibitions in early February. Sculptor Matouš Lipus encircled Proluka with a long rubber band to point out the public space that could disappear. Dozens of community supporters joined hands around it in an act of solidarity. Local artist Krištof Kintera also curated an outdoor exhibition space on the lot.

About five years ago, Start Vršovice met with Prague 10 about establishing a permanent market on Proluka, but they discovered a private company, Magnolia Invest, had already purchased most of it. The rest belonged to the city of Prague. Without owning the plot in its entirety, Magnolia Director Karim Reda Rashidi's residential development would not be feasible, but he believed it would be easy to convince the city to sell him the rest of the plot. When he found himself mired in bureaucracy months later, Rashidi began researching the plot's mixed history.

"In the 1970s, this was in such bad shape, they just destroyed it," Rashidi says of the area. "After the communists left in 1989, there was restitution, and there was another key moment in the history of the area: Some plots were given back, and some were kept by the state because they didn't find all the previous owners."

At the start of negotiations, Prague 10 wanted to impose some regulations on Rashidi's plot before it handed over the scattered parcels - 10  square meters or smaller - that were still in the city part's possession. Rashidi agreed, and in May 2012 he began working on a new development plan for the area.

"The big surprise came in November, when we found out from the City Hall official statement they were going to sell the plot to a company called Kupiano," Rashidi explains. "I was shocked, furious."

Attempts to contact Kupiano Consulting for comment have been fruitless, as the company lacks an official website or phone number. Sources told The Prague Post the entity was created by Prague 10 in order to put pressure on Rashidi.

"Start Vršovice as well as Magnolia Invest protested in letters sent within a week after the announcement," McCreary explains. "We never received an answer, just as we didn't every time we tried to communicate with Mayor [Milan] Richter or other politicians."

Eventually, the city voided the Kupiano deal and in December organized a sale by tender. Only Rashidi's company was able to put up the required 43.5 million Kč. However, Rashidi says, the city would have sold the plot off to anyone offering more.

Local civic groups, who have since stormed Prague 10 council meetings and organized events on Facebook, call Prague 10's actions "unacceptable." In the future, McCreary says, public property should be managed, rented and sold in accordance with public interest, especially considering Prague 10's spotty history. In 2009, the bipartisan city council led by ODS and ČSSD politicians lost 200 million Kč of public money invested in Key Investments Fund, which the Czech National Bank had described as "dangerous."

"In Vršovice, there are very few open public spaces left," McCreary says. "By selling public space, Prague 10 is stripping itself and the local community of the possibility of any future profit or revenue, as opposed to an option of renting the land on a long-term lease. Prague 10 is therefore selling its future for immediate profit."

Earlier this month, Prague 10 Deputy Mayor Ivana Cabrnochová wrote of the decision to sell to Magnolia Invest that by meeting with investors and imposing restrictions on land, Prague 10 was guarding its interests. The municipality will allegedly reinvest the money from the sale into assets like renovating the kindergarten on Na Sychrově; however, no official allotment plan had been released as of press time.

"There is no publicly announced plan what the money from the sale will be used for," McCreary says. "In the words of the mayor, 'The Prague 10 government needs it.' That is not the right answer."

Kasia Pilat can be reached at
kpilat@praguepost.com