Czechia is changing, basically and quickly, and this, of course, also applies to the cities and municipalities that are facing the greatest transformation in recent decades. The Czech countryside in particular is playing for a rich future and a completely new identity with it. Even though the circumstances suit well buyers, they need to take a chance. This year’s municipal elections are a great opportunity, deurbanization and finding ways to attract new residents will be one of the strong topics.
What the community needs to grow:
Why does Czechia need strong towns and villages? There are several reasons and they all function as continuous vessels. The most burning one will probably make our lives miserable in the next few years. Czechia has hit an imaginary ceiling as part of urbanization, and the housing crisis is an inevitable fact. Large cities are not ready for new inhabitants and their role must be played by villages and regional centers.
But moving urban households to the countryside is not just that. In order for the municipality to not only accommodate them, but also offer them long-term quality housing, it needs money. For infrastructure, such as water mains or sewage treatment plants, reconstruction of municipal property, such as schools or kindergartens. In order to earn money, they must be able to attract and retain quality households that will be resident, pay taxes or do business in the municipality. Taxes make up the largest share of total revenue.
It is therefore absolutely crucial to attract young households in particular who will want to take root. The depopulating village has a problem. It does not collect taxes or rent property, it decays. With the departure of the population, a spiral starts, which leads to a decline. Municipalities full of seniors look at their growth with a significantly different perspective.
However, there is another component that is forgotten. Participatory potential of young households, ability and desire to participate in municipal decision-making. Desire to associate in independently functioning neighborhood communities and associations. Facilitate the management of municipalities, work voluntarily for the “common good”. While money allows the community to live, this will give it the aura of a place where it thrives – and it’s the best marketing that, thanks to “whispering”, will attract new residents.
A game for the future
The situation now weighs on the countryside and the regions incredibly. Thanks to inflation and rising housing prices, for the first time ever, exactly the types of households that municipalities need will leave cities. With a little effort, they can attract the metropolitan middle class and perhaps even the upper middle class. These households are active. They have significantly higher purchasing power than the local population. In addition to using the services in the locality, they can also create completely new opportunities. For the first time, barriers to commuting are eliminated, working from home is becoming the norm in many fields, so even more distant settlements can easily reach these “rich cross-country”.
And of course, it’s not just the villages. In the following years, “Little Prague” or “Little Brno” will be established in virtually all cities with a commuting distance of up to an hour and a half from the center. It can be precisely these households that will transform entire neglected neighborhoods in cities – they will revitalize either family houses or even entire housing estates, because the desire to live in a panel does not leave them this time.
I don’t like shortcuts, but I’ll take one here. From my point of view, thanks to the combination of these factors, some municipalities are really playing for the future. And the result can easily be a state that is finally approaching what we admire in Austria or Germany. So how do you attract them?
The mayor as a PR manager, still learning to communicate with the community:
The path to this will definitely not be easy. When we entered the Munipolis project in Germany, one thing surprised me. While in the Czech Republic the agenda of communication with the population and relations with the general public is fragmented, in Germany, on the contrary, they are aware of its power and, in fact, even in the smallest municipalities, they have their own public relations officer, in the true sense of the word.
In the Czech Republic, under this title, we would probably imagine someone who boasts of municipal success and is paid to build a positive image of the mayor and council. In Germany, he is a person who is closer to a sociologist and, in addition to building a friendly face of the village, acts as an imaginary “customer care” and willow for the inhabitants. Do you feel the difference?
At the same time, this is exactly the expectation of people between the ages of 20 and 35. While their parents decided on residence according to job opportunities, their children already see it differently. Above all, they want to live well. And since they are used to managing their social relationships in the digital space through social networks, they expect it mine and from the village.
The new standard is clear. The office must find citizens, as well as information. The reward is the desire of citizens to get involved and change their surroundings for the better. This follows from a number of surveys conducted by the Association of Modern Communicating Municipalities. When asked what is important for the Czechs to feel good in the place where they live for a long time, open communication with the village management has even appeared in recent years in close connection with the environment.
If people were to name three tools that would make their lives easier in the community, a digital agenda and easy access to information in the first two places emerged. And in the same way – if people lived for a long time in a municipality that does not communicate with citizens and have the opportunity to move to a neighboring one, which in turn is open and worth cooperating with citizens, more than 80% of households would consider this option.
I would liken it to investing, you also don’t put money into projects where you feel reluctant to open up to the world in any way. And here you are not just putting money into the game, but the future of yourself and the whole family.
How it will end?
If I were to be an optimist, then I believe that well. Poverty has taught Dalibor housti, and the changes described above will be with us for another decade – maybe two. If I should be a realist, then it will only be clear now which municipalities, together with their leadership, are cursed in the time of the freshly post-revolutionary period and where they have already woken up to the 21st century.
“Bottom pressure” will also play a big role. After all, this year’s municipal elections, in which the influx of new residents will be a highly resonant topic, as well as open offices, will give a lot of clues. And we know it for ourselves – if we ourselves feel that the leadership of the municipalities cares about our opinion and tries to look at their hands, it is on the right track.
Author: Ondřej Švrček, CEO of Munipolis and author of the Mobile Radio project
