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Radu Mihaiu (46 years old) is one of the big surprises of the 2020 local elections. Coming from civil society and having an insignificant notoriety at the time, he managed to impose himself in the electoral competition for the City Hall of Sector 2 in Bucharest. Candidate from USR-PLUS, Mihaiu then defeated Dan Cristian Popescu, PSD representative.
Ziare.com analyzed Radu Mihaiu’s 4-year mandate and offers you a balance sheet.
Parks and green spaces
In the 2020 election campaign, Radu Mihaiu promised to invest time and energy for the green lung of the Capital. The mayor said that he would clean up District 2, that he would plant 100,000 trees, that he would stop barbaric tree trimming, that he would make bicycle parking, park&ride parking and that he would improve the shores of Lake Colentina.
An electoral objective stated by the candidate Mihaiu was the abolition of the internal pipes of the blocks used as channels for the evacuation of garbage. However, Romanian legislation prevents such a measure from being taken by the public authority, showing that the owners’ associations must decide. The goal seems to have been abandoned in the meantime, with the attempt to convince as many administrators as possible to join the project failing.
“It will ensure the infrastructure for selective collection of waste within the owners’ associations, on the streets, in public institutions and in schools and the encouragement of selective collection through bonuses for citizens”, it was stated, among other things, in the electoral program designed by the candidate Radu Mihaiu.
After becoming mayor, Radu Mihaiu stated that “he will waive the habitat tax and return to a reasonable tariff for the sanitation service for citizens and economic agents”.
The City Hall of Sector 2 managed to a small extent to solve the problem of garbage, an acute one, inherited from previous mandates.
Among other things, the City Hall of Sector 2 was fined 7 million lei for not reaching the waste recycling targets, and the sanction was enforceable.
On the other hand, the City Hall of Sector 2 managed to recover four hectares of green space, to reintegrate Plumbuita Park, after that land was retroceded in 2014. The value of the purchase amounts to 4,325,000 euros, which implies a price of 104.66 euros/sq.m.
The mayor also promised, in 2020, that he will take all the necessary steps at the Capital City Hall to initiate the relocation of the Central STB Repair Plant and launch a transparent and open competition to revitalize the area and transform it into a business district, which to facilitate the location of new job-creating businesses.
Projects from scratch, new destinations for old spaces
Radu Mihaiu also promised in the electoral campaign that he would build four public kindergartens and nurseries within Sector 2, with a capacity of 240 places. In addition, he stated as an objective the seismic expertise of all schools, kindergartens and nurseries within the radius of the sector and that he will urgently find solutions for those buildings to receive fire safety permits.
To a large extent, the buildings intended for public education were rehabilitated by the Mihaiu administration. The big challenge listed by the mayor after almost four years in office is obtaining land on which new nurseries, kindergartens and schools can be built without risking long-term legal disputes related to the establishment of ownership rights.
“There are five new kindergartens built in this term, plus the courtyard of School number 25, the former workshop, which is also being transformed into a kindergarten.
It is important from my point of view that we have good educational conditions for children, because this means that people also like to live in this city, and they no longer leave to stay in Ilfov, for example”, Mayor Mihaiu said recently in – an edition of Dialogurilor Ziare.com.
Parking spaces, the luxury of life in the Capital
Radu Mihaiu also promised in the 2020 election campaign that he would free up the sidewalks in areas with intense pedestrian traffic, rehabilitate them so that they no longer have bumps or potholes, make them accessible for people with disabilities, and put hedges on the edge.
One of the measures taken by the District 2 City Hall during Mihaiu’s mandate was to restrict the pedestrian or road space misused for parking. In this sense, thousands of plastic, metal or stone bollards were installed.
“There is a discussion about what parking space means. A lot of people scolded me because I removed the parking spaces, they say. Which is not true. I cleared some sidewalks. We have created a lot of parking spaces by systematizing the streets, because that is the fastest way to create a lot of parking spaces.
More than 5,000 places were created in this mandate, some of them by reconfiguring the streets”, says the mayor.
The mayor explains that an above-ground parking space must be built far from the houses, and the underground ones are extremely expensive, they exceed 30,000 euros/piece. Moreover, even a classic place reaches somewhere around 10,000 euros if it is built from scratch.
“And the question arises, if it is normal for the town hall to subsidize this cost. Do we expect the state to give each of us a house? Isn’t the right to housing more important than a parking space? And, if we rely on the market for housing, so that every person can buy their home, why does the town hall have to subsidize the parking space?”, Radu Mihaiu said.
The mayor promised in the campaign on this issue that:
– will create an integrated parking space management system;
– will create unique directions on the streets of the sector.
– will build secure bicycle parking in residential areas.
Many streets have been converted into one-way streets, with parking spaces set up on the free traffic lanes. Mayor Mihaiu now expresses his regret that they were not done in the “spike” system (diagonal parking – no).
The reorganization of the markets was not part of the initial electoral plan, but the public administration promises to transform Obor Square into a promenade area for both Bucharest residents and tourists, and the money would come from European funding and the study is being done by the World Bank.
How the citizen Radu Mihaiu sued the town hall led by the mayor Radu Mihaiu
For Radu Mihaiu, a moment to recall the purpose of the mandate is the situation in which he won a case against him as a mayor. The mayor mentioned the episode that took place in the very first days of his mandate for Dialogurile Ziare.com.
“Mayor Radu Mihaiu lost the case with citizen Radu Mihaiu regarding the habitat tax, that is, the habitat tax is canceled. The tax was canceled by the court on my second day in office, on October 29.
The citizen Radu Mihaiu, together with other citizens, who were part of the process, won the case against the District 2 City Hall. The habitat tax was cancelled. The Local Council decision establishing the habitat tax was canceled definitively. In practice, citizens no longer have to pay the tax from the date of cancellation. What has been paid can no longer be recovered, as well as the debt, if applicable”, declared Radu Mihaiu, at the time of winning the case.
The relationship with Nicușor Dan
Mihaiu’s relationship with the general mayor of Bucharest was not always smooth. Radu Mihaiu says that, despite the misunderstandings, the goal is a common one.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a blockage. Romanians were used to “that’s how it goes”. If we want to change the way we do administration, we have to follow the rules.
It is not possible for the Voluntari or Chitila or Chiajna mayor’s offices to approve constructions for tens of thousands of people without also building schools, kindergartens, without building hospitals, relying on the fact that anyway in Bucharest they will create them (the authorities – no )”, declared Radu Mihaiu.
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