What happens when the whole world suddenly looks towards the north due to oil resources and climate change? What happens when a small city realizes it is developing and expanding too fast only to build too many lousy housing projects? The answer: the city indulges itself with a timeout from city planning. Tromsø City Council declared 2005 the Year of Urban Development. Now the city might be holding the key to modern democracy.
The Year of Good Ideas
After a seven year long process towards a new plan for Tromsø’s city center, some concerned citizens calls an open meeting between the public, politicians and planners. Architect Knut Erik Dahl enters the podium and suggests to put the new plan on hold, and think about what challenges the city is facing. He wants the whole city to take a timeout from city planning. A couple of weeks later this is exactly what the local politicians in the Tromsø City Council do. Showing us that Tromsø has some politicians who care, and who are searching for new answers for their expanding city.
- The seven year process of working with the city center plan had been without ideas. People started to have the feeling all new building projects where low quality, and that all old buildings were falling into ruin. The Year of Urban Development was intended to be a year of fronting the good ideas and getting more people and groups involved in city planning, says architect Knut Erik Dahl.
Critics also claimed that the City Planning Office didn’t really come to terms with the city’s new challenges, such as climate changes and oil resources in the Barents Sea.
- The City Planning Office didn’t manage to involve researchers from the University of Tromsø or other human resources in Tromsø in the urban development.
- To make the best city center plan, it was necessary to invite artists, intellectuals, youths, researchers and other groups with unique competence and experiences, says Dahl who started out initiating the “Book 1” who contained texts concerning urban development written by different kinds of people in Tromsø. The book was handed over to the City Council when they decided on their timeout.
Entrepreneurs and architects forced to debate
The Year of Urban Development also meant some more waiting for big building projects, and was not met with applause from investors and entrepreneurs who want to make a profit on housing projects.
- Although many big projects were put on hold, it is great to indulge the whole city with a timeout, says Grete Kristoffersen, managing director at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Tromsø.
- Now we had the possibility to see the urban space from new perspectives. Different groups and interests got involved in a constructive and liberal debate. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry was involved, and we learned a lot from the debates. People in general seem to be more conscious about urban development, but I think that the entrepreneurs also learned a lot.
On the weekend of the 2nd of September 2006, some of Tromsø’s biggest entrepreneurs go to the newspaper telling the citizens about a big building project by Tromsø’s market square by the harbor. “We know people will get involved and have opinions about the project, we want to start the debate at an early stage of the process,” says one of the entrepreneurs to Nordlys.
-This is a typical example of something that shows that the Year of Urban Development has lead to something, says Kristoffersen.
- These leading entrepreneurs in the city goes public and asks for feedback on their project, opening for debate. I really hope this means we all learned something, says Kristoffersen.
Open round – new possibilities for the democracy
- Our goal was to cut into the closed processes of city planning, says Knut Erik Dahl.
- The city’s future were run in closed rooms and processes only open to politicians and bureaucrats.
By opening the exhibition “Tromsø x-files”, showing most of the planned building projects in Tromsø and making miniature models of them, Tromsø’s future was visualized for the public.
- Our idea was that exhibiting is to open up the processes and inviting to debate, says Dahl.
The result was that even school children showed up and got involved. In the Year of Urban Development people were invited to city walks, a guide to Tromsø’s history and future projects. North of Norway’s biggest selling newspaper, Nordlys, invited researchers, artists, students, city planners and leaders of private businesses to write about urban development in their main page three commentary every Saturday for the whole year. People were invited to open meetings discussing the role of the city center, newly planned projects etc.
- At first our themes and meetings were rather simple and basic, but later we developed the debates to new and advanced levels. I think it is important to be a bit experimental and primitive to become truly courageous.
- The Year of Urban Development is a method for developing democracy in general, says Magne Amundsen, manager at the cultural youth house, “Tvibit”.
- Norway’s representative democracy is an old structure, created in a time where neither the Internet nor airplanes existed. The methods developed through the Year of Urban Development is a way of modernizing democracy.
Reinhold Fieler, deputy member of the City Council of Tromsø shares his view.
- The local democracy has been weakened through complicated bureaucratic and technocratic processes. The common citizens are not able to influence city planning other than through the voting for their candidates in the City Council. Through the Year of Urban Development the citizens got a chance to debate and comment on the city planning in the middle of the processes rather than being informed after the city council had passed their resolutions. People got involved and informed through media and open meetings, says Fieler.
- I have to admit that I was skeptical to this “open round” concerning the city center, but I was pleasantly surprised. The methods used through this “open round” should be transferred to other political topics, such as education or senior citizen care. Political processes should be made available for the common citizen in an earlier phase, and we should have organizations that continually refine and hand in their suggestions as a premise to the city planners and politicians.
- We have to improve democracy, or people will give up trying to participate in decision making. The Year of Urban Development shows us the method to get more people involved.
City activists get involved
- Through the youth center, Tvibit, I was encouraged to arrange a city walk to the wharf property, says Aurora Nielsen, project worker and ”city activist”.
After The Year of Urban Development there is now an open debate, which gives young people the opportunity to participate and have an influence in the debates concerning city planning.
- Suddenly I realized that I was really committed! I saw the possibilities I had, and realized what I could do to influence, and I suddenly saw what wasn’t being done in the city. Now I am searching for information wherever I can get it, and I am the leader of “The city activists”, a group of young people who are interested in city planning. I am often walking into the town’s city planning office asking questions about the lately planned city projects. I read endless bureaucratic documents so I am up to date with what’s going on in the city. It is important to me that we keep some of the public spaces left in the city center, not building private apartments all over. Right now I think we should rather wait and leave space for big national building projects like an Art Academy, or other important projects. Don’t waste all the public space now!
The awakening
- I think Tromsø has developed a new way of involving the citizens, a new way of using our citizens qualifications and knowledge as an alternative to the bureaucratic processes, and we have we have created a contemporary culture for changing the city and looking towards the future city, says Dahl
- Not everybody wants to get involved by writing letters for the newspaper or voice their opinion out loud. Some people were happy just to walk with us at the city walks, says Dahl.
- “I am happy just being able to participate and getting informed” they said.
The methods developed through The Year of Urban Development give people the chance to get involved in different levels of city planning.
- The Year of Urban Development forced the architects to participate in the debate. We now have a better city where people are awake and starting to demand more from the architects and their projects. The hit and run projects are being rejected. The city center is looked upon as a cultural arena, not just a property for lousy housing projects, says Dahl.
Through the Venezia biennale Tromsø is now exposed to the international community. The city has to continue its courageous debate with itself at an international arena, but the city will also be forced to discuss its challenges with the world.
Amundsen thinks the democratic methods developed through The Year of Urban Development will give Tromsø future advantages.
- The cities able to realize democratic methods such as The Year of Urban Development, are the cities who will win the struggle for recruiting talent. Skilled people are searching for the open, tolerant places. Only the truly humanist cities, which realize the human resources they inhabit in the best possible way, and give their talents the opportunity to create and use their abilities, will grow and be the leading cities of the world.