National treasury hitting ground on grounds of too little initiative

by Andreea Marinas

With no aim to induce the idea of vulnerability or weakness when it comes to historic buildings turning to dust, Romania’s low rate of national heritage places revamp requires a status quo depiction.

Living so fully in our bubble does no good in regards to the civic aspects of high importance such as restoring buildings about to fall down or maintaining public places in a decent shape. Public administration does not harvest enough money from the EU, the national budget is directed to ‘more important’ matters, companies are finding low efficiency after doing their math so they don’t invest either…   Everything is just great.

And no, the idea is not to set a goal such as living off just a dollar a day like Elon Musk used to live before turning into a billionaire, but to make efforts to get things done on time or to take all the chances available, that’s doable.

And it’s not even about huge amounts of money. For instance, Croatia’s Bosnia-bypass bridge which is EU-funded costs €350 million. Meanwhile the Casino in Constanta, one of the most expensive historic buildings rehabilitations in our country, asks for only €7 million. And it’s being postponed one year after another.

On the other hand, the many examples of good practice don’t cease to impress us. Agreed, there are a lot around the world. Yet, while the others do get involved more in solving the issues, Romania lacks efficiency in terms of legislation, funding and meeting the deadlines.

The “City.people.light” contest, as much of a respectable and valuable resource as it is, can’t always be the right answer. For there are too many, one simple reason. The city of Baia Mare entered the contest in 2015 and won the €10,000 prize for the light system designed to better put the value of St. Stephen’s Tower in the city center.

We wouldn’t want to have a country where foreigners who come to stay are the ones who don’t have a place to go back to, on the same mindset as Fran Lebowitz’s who believes that ‘The only people who live in Australia are those who came to Australia and couldn’t face the trip back’. If not for the rest or for a third party, at least for that.