What problem are you solving?:

Chaotic urban development and the ongoing aggressions against the built heritage of Bucharest have been noted and commented upon by many observers, including expert groups, NGOs, and the media. The massive deterioration of urban heritage in Bucharest was documented by the Presidential Commission for Built Heritage, Historical and Natural Sites in 2009 (The report is available at http://patr.presidency.ro).

The poor performance of local government and passivity of local communities were blamed for the situation, but the lack of generally available information on construction and planning, heritage and urban environment issues, was found at the root of the problem.

Describe your idea:

The project aims to provide the public with a coherent set of information on each of the four domains: construction, planning, heritage and urban environment protection.

Activities:

a) Website development. The main project activity will consist in developing a website (www.lexcivitas.ro) that will present in structured and explanatory manner information on each of the four relevant domains identified above. For each domain, the website will contain:
– introductions/general presentations;
– national legislation and planning regulations applicable in Bucharest;
– guides and forms to be used in specific instances;
– glossary;
– contact form (see section b) ).

b) Guidance. Website visitors will have the possibility to report urbanistic problems to the Association by filling in an online form, and the Association will provide guidance on such problems.

c) Website promotion, including: launch event, media coverage, leaflets and brochures.

What country will this operate in?: Romania

Who are you?:

Mission: promoting sustainable urban development, protecting urban heritage and green areas of Bucharest.

The Association:
-has made surveys on the urbanistic status of Bucharest; the report “Bucharest, a disastrous city planning”, became the reference on the urbanistic problems of Bucharest;
-has monitored the activities of the General Council of Bucharest concerning the approval of urbanistic plans
-has assisted over 50 citizens on problems involving urbanistic, heritage or environmental issues;
-has organized public debates and media campaigns promoting/supporting legislative changes; was invited to many public debates on proposed legislative changes by the Parliament and by the Government.

The Association was quoted approximately 500 times in the national media and 10 times in the international media (Der Spiegel, Das Erste, TV5, etc.) and was awarded the Group for Social Dialogue Prize for promoting the values of civil society and rule of law, for the year 2008.