<Fair City Amsterdam> Fwd: Zagreb against the Waterfront development - we won!

[P.W.B.J. van Ginkel]

Ondertussen in Zagreb!

*Subject: *Zagreb against the Waterfront development - we won!



Dear Inurians,

we have some great news from Zagreb!

Yesterday, our City parliament rejected the changes of city Masterplan that
were to enable the Mayor to put forward a Waterfront project on Sava river,
not unlike the one in Belgrade. The project, for which the Mayor signed the
Memorandum of understanding last spring with the developer Eagle Hills (the
same investor as in Belgrade) is of now void.

This victory comes on shoulders of the civil disobedience that came in form
of actions and large protest (with more than 20 000 people on a protest
just a week before the plan was voted out) organized by Right to the city,
Green action and Siget organization from Zagreb, but also on the shoulders
of more then 10 years of fighting against the neoliberal rule of our Mayor
and in large part helped with grassroots organizations that emerged in city
neighborhoods, some of which you had a chance to visit in last year's
INURA.

Also, we had a fortunate situation inside the City parliament where the
opposition, basically led by INURA's own, Tomislav Tomašević, energized the
conversation and fought aggressively against this plan and privatization of
large part of the city. And, not to forget that, by some miracle, and by
miracle I mean by the voice of our comrades in Belgrade that have managed
to show the world what was happening in Belgrade, our architectural
associations and Architectural school of the University of Zagreb (the one
where we had panels and meetings last summer) all came together and held
their ground against this project and the Masterplan even though they were
threatened to be expelled from the process of architectural competitions
(one of their main source of income).

In the end, I am writing this here, not just to inform you, but to *thank
INURA and all who came to Zagreb for the conference and especially all of
you who helped shape the open letter against the devastation of Zagreb's
river banks. You are also a part of this victory and peace of the puzzle we
needed to get to where we are today. *

Ofcourse, we have won the battle, but we know that there is more to come
and we are prepared to fight another day, but this was a major major
victory for Zagreb's activists scene and for Zagreb itself and the biggest
win against the long term mayor Milan Bandić. We are all rooting for him to
fall and will continue to organize further in the hope that our demand for
radically different Masterplan that will envision a more just city will be
in the works soon after the fall of current administration in next year
elections.

On that note, all of us from the organizing team of INURA would like to
thank you all again for being a part of our organizing efforts!



best,

Iva & INURA Zagreb team
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