Bucharest Life » Sorin Oprescu

Hands off RATB

Craig Turp — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:40:38 +0000

Make a list of good public services in Bucharest.

Finished?

Thought so.

There are not that many public services in Bucharest which approach anything that could even be said to resemble ‘good.’ But there are a few…

Rubbish collection is one, at least in our sector (Sector 3). We get our rubbish collected twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays: rain and snow do not stop the rubbish boys. When we tell people in the UK that we have our rubbish collected twice a week they go green with envy. (In the UK, the ‘let’s uphold moral-rectitude’ brigade are pushing for fewer and fewer rubbish collections, in order to make people consume less. They are as misguided as they are wrong. See here).

Schools are another decent public service, and we’ve discussed just why we think so before.

Public transport in Bucharest is also worthy of note. Cheap and reliable if woefully underfunded, we again discovered this morning that the city would be lost without it.

On mornings such as today, when Bucharest goes a bit Doctor Zhivago, the city is kept moving by RATB: the local public transport operator.

We took number one son to school this morning by tram. A tram that runs in all weathers. Even in February when the snow was thigh-high, when schools were closed and the city froze, RATB’s buses and trams kept running. They kept the city moving.

Yes, RATB is probably overstaffed, too many people don’t pay for their tickets, and buses and trams can be very crowded (because there are not enough of them): but by and large it works, and works well.

So it was disconcerting to read yesterday that Bucharest’s mayor, Sorin Oprescu, thinks that RATB is a drain on the city’s budget.

He insinuated that more could be spent on improving Bucharest’s roads if less money was spent on public transport.

It’s nice to know his priorities.

Or maybe he has a point?

Maybe he should do away with public transport altogether (after all, it’s only the little people like us who use it). People should either buy a car and use it in all conditions, or stay at home. Why should they expect the city council to provide public transport for them?

Imagine: no buses or trams to get in the way of all those cars.

Think how wonderful it would be to drive around Bucharest then.

Dogs. Again.

Craig Turp — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:39:33 +0000

We read this yesterday with much enthusiasm: Bucharest City Council has pledged to change the law so that all stray dogs it captures and sterilizes will no longer be returned to the city’s streets.

We take our hats off to the prefect of Bucharest, Mihai Cristian Atanasoaei, who said he supports “immediate, firm action [on the dog issue] even though it might be unpopular.” He said that more than 10,000 people have been bitten by strays since November.

We have been here too long though to get our hopes up too high, so we are not holding our breath. At least the issue is back on the agenda though, a year or so after Bucharest Mayor Sorin Oprescu had publicly stated that the issue was not a priority.

It is, and always has been.

Let’s now hope that Oprescu and the five sector mayors he has co-opted onto his anti-dog team now show backbone. Remember: Traian Basescu – when mayor of Bucharest – began a campaign to kill all of the city’s dogs in 2001. He backed down at the first whiff of bad publicity, however, revealing the spineless nature of leadership and obedience to blondes that he has since taken with him to the Romanian president’s office.

As for all you misguided animal lovers out there, a question: if the council does clear the streets of dogs without resorting to killing them (under the law it cannot kill them: it will need to put them up in kennels or such like), will you still complain?

Our guess is you will, for some of you simply want Bucharest’s streets full of dogs.

Don’t vote if you don’t want to

Craig Turp — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:19:42 +0000

Romanians go to the polls on Sunday in the first round of voting in the country’s presidential election.

That much you probably know.

You probably also know that just three of the candidates have any chance of making the second round a fortnight later. They are: current president Traian Basescu; PSD leader Mircea Geoana; and Crin Antonescu, leader of the PNL and all round nice guy, with a daughter at our son’s school.

No prizes for guessing for where our vote will be going.

When we say our vote, that will of course be Mrs. Bucharest Life’s vote. Being British, we don’t get a vote, you see.

Unfortunately, unless the opinion polls have been very inaccurate, it is unlikely that Antonescu will make the second round. Instead, it looks a sure bet that Basescu and Geoana will make round two, and that Geoana will win.

Much will depend on the turnout, however, expected to be the lowest in post-communist Romanian history. In a desperate attempt to sure up his own support Basescu has tagged a pointless referendum (something about reducing the size of parliament) onto the ballot paper, though even this looks unlikely to boost turnout: we will be shocked if more than 45 per cent of the electorate turns up. (Although expect there to be plenty of people voting twice to try and boost the numbers of one candidate or another…)

To those 55 per cent who will not vote, we say: ‘Good on you.’ If there is one thing we hate it is the idea that people have to vote, that it is their patriotic duty to vote. That revolutionaries died in 1989 to give people a vote. (Ergo they have to exercise that right).

All mistaken. The revolutionaries died to give people a choice: I can vote for the candidate I choose to support, or I can choose to stay at home and vote for nobody. The idea that anyone should feel obliged to vote is ridiculous and – quite frankly – as undemocratic as the one-candidate elections that went on in these parts before 1989.

Indeed, our dream result (not just for Romania on Sunday but for any election) in fact would nil points all round, as in nobody turns up to vote. Not a soul.

Lipscani is doing just fine without any input from Bucharest City Council

Craig Turp — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:46:29 +0000

As we wrote in the foreword of the current edition of Bucharest In Your Pocket, the rehabilitation of Lipscani/Centru Vechi/Historic Bucharest as the city’s heart and soul continues apace. It is the one part of the capital that has the potential to become a worthwhile place to visit, a centre of nightlife and debauchery to rival anywhere in the region.

And, not wanting to miss an opportunity to say ‘we told you so’, we have been banging on about Lipscani for years. It is not quite a case of ‘we saw it first,’ but we have certainly been cheerleading for Lipscani longer than most. Quite often in the face of being told ‘don’t be ridiculous.’

There are – as we write – 59 pubs, bars, clubs, cafes, restaurants and hotels in the area: approximately 59 more than there were 10 years ago. Indeed, almost all of those venues have in fact appeared over the past two years, with many of them more or less brand new.

The latest are the brilliant Mojo, a genuinely outstanding live music venue that we are certain is set for great things, and the Grand Cafe Van Gogh, the latest adventure in cafe excellence from the man who brought you the Amsterdam Grand Cafe.

Though Mojo and Van Gogh are too good not to be raging successes, not all of the new places which have opened in Lipscani will survive. The law of averages means that a few will go by the wayside, but you can be sure that the vast majority will still be in business by the time the streets of the Lipscani area are finally repaved.

(And those that do get shuttered will be replaced by others).

Exactly when the Lipscani area will be fully paved is now a date so distant in the future that quite frankly nobody really cares.

And why should they?

Lipscani has proven that it can become a fantastic area even when the streets are muddy and barely passable. This was Strada Gabroveni last Thursday:

So the news yesterday that Bucharest’s mayor and would-be Romanian president Sorin Oprescu has cancelled the contract to repave Lipscani’s streets his predecessor had signed with Spanish firm Sedesa neither surprised nor particularly bothered anybody.

Why should it?

It would indeed be nice if you could stroll the whole area on paving stones or tarmac as opposed to makeshift wooden walkways placed perilously over sodden mud, exposed sewage pipes and the like, but if the resilience of those entrepreneurs who have thrown cash at venues – and the thousands of people who flock to them each night – is anything to go by, paved streets in Lipscani are an optional extra.

The Week in Bucharest: September 18

Craig Turp — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:00:42 +0000

A weekly digest of news, business and sport from Bucharest and around Romania

Basescu defends record before parliament

Traian Basescu, Romania’s president, defended his record in office on Wednesday in front of a generally supine parliament. Representatives of the main opposition parties left well before the close of Basescu’s speech.

Basescu said his main achievement had been to oversee ‘unprecedented economic growth,’ and was quick to praise the current government of Emil Boc, a member of Basescu’s Democratic Liberal Party (PDL).

Basescu heavily criticised the government of Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, with which he uncomfortably cohabited for the first four years of his term.

Romania’s presidential election will be held on November 28. Basescu is expected to officially confirm that he will run for a second term of office within the next few days.

PSD agrees to stay in coalition

Romania’s Social Democratic Party (PSD) stated this week that it will not pull out of the government despite its opposition to a package of reform bills put forward by the centre-left coalition.

Some local political commentators had said in recent weeks that the PSD may leave the coalition because of disagreements with their centrist partners, the PDL.

” I believe a government that exists and functions right now is better than a political crisis,’ PSD leader Mircea Geoana said. ‘Had we opposed these reforms, the government would have collapsed.’

The reforms focus on three areas: education, civil service salaries and civil service jobs. If passed, the bills will lead to as many as 9,500 Romanian civil servants losing their jobs over the next few months.

The opposition PNL has asked for a vote of no confidence on the issue of the reform bills.

Romanian National Bank spends €4.5 billion on propping up the leu

Romania’s national bank, the BNR, has spent €4.5 billion this year on propping up the country’s currency, the leu. The claim was made in a report published by ING, a bank.

The leu, which had traded at or around 3.50 to the €uro for some time, fell sharply at the end of last year as investors fled Romania. The BNR stepped at the beginning of 2009 to prevent further falls. It has since steadied, trading at between 4.20-4.30 to the €uro

The ING report claims that the BNR has enough foreign currency reserves to protect the leu ‘for a good few years yet.’

The leu closed trading on Friday at 4.264 to the €uro.

Energy Minister claims progress in gas pipeline talks

Romania is in advanced talks with Asian states to secure supplies for a planned natural gas pipeline designed to reduce Europe’s energy dependence on Russia by transporting gas from the Caspian and Middle East from 2014.

“We are in talks with Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan … to import gas for the Nabucco pipeline,” Deputy Economy Minister Tudor Serban told an energy seminar.

Nabucco’s shareholders are Hungary’s MOL, Romania’s Transgaz, Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz, Turkey’s Botas, Germany’s RWE and Austria’s OMV. The pipeline is seen pumping as much as 31 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually, but its viability has already been questioned because of limited supplies and infrastructure.

Visa free travel hints at Romanian-Moldovan detente

As of today, Romanians can travel visa-free to the neighbouring Republic of Moldova. The move to offer Romanians visa-tree travel was one of the first acts of office taken by newly elected Moldovan president Mihai Ghimpu.

Ghimpu, though officially only interim president, is keen to move quickly improve relations with Romania, which became extremely strained under the regime of his pro-Russian predecessor, Vladimir Voronin.

Urziceni beaten in Seville

Romania’s only representative in this season’s UEFA Champions League, Unirea Urziceni, were beaten 2-0 by Seville, in Spain, in their first group match. Urziceni coach Dan Petrescu said after the game that the better side had won, but that he was disappointed with his team’s performance.

In Europe’s second-string competition, the Europa League, there were wins for Dinamo Bucharestand CFR Cluj, while Timisoara held Ajax 0-0 in Amsterdam.

Steaua Bucharest drew 0-0 at home with Serif Tiraspol. Coach Cristiano Bergodi was sacked immediately after the game, allegedly for not allowing the team’s owner, Gheorghe Becali, into the dressing room at half-time.

Misc

The new Romanian school year began on Monday, though a number of schools around the country were not passed fit for purpose, and welcomed pupils in dreadful conditions. Well-organised criminals made off with 240,000 lei in cash (around €56,000) in a daring raid on a security van in the remote Gutai Pass, in the far north of Romania. Prime Minister Emil Boc visited Italy. A 17-year old from Bistrita was voted Miss Romania: