A city with more than 2.500 kilometers of streets and roads, in which more severe snowfalls were predicted days in advance, showed that there is no system that can react when conditions become more complex than an average day. The snow was predictable.. The collapse, however, is a consequence of the political decision to run the city with minimum capacity, without reserves, without a plan for a bad scenario and without a clear hierarchy of responsibilities.
In such a system, the first reflex of the authorities is always the same - responsibility is sought everywhere except where it belongs. It is unacceptable to shift the blame to the employees of the communal system, people who work ten, twelve or more hours a day, in shifts that are extended because there is no one to replace them.
Those people are not the cause of the problem, but the only reason why the city functions at least minimally. They clean, they sprinkle, they try to maintain passability in conditions that are predestined to failure due to poor planning. The problem lies with the decision-makers - in the City Administration and at its top - who, even this time, have not shown that they understand that the city is not run from the cabinet, with announcements and statistics, but with presence, coordination and assuming responsibility.
In serious cities, in emergency situations, the leadership is visible: on the ground, in the operational centers, among the working people. In Belgrade, instead, citizens receive arrogant and boastful announcements, without basic information about when traffic will be normalized and how long the collapse will last. Such communication is not only bad – it is offensive, because it tries to normalize chaos as an inevitability.
Today, Belgrade is not paying the price of snow, but the price of a long-standing policy of minimal investment, lack of responsibility and complete misunderstanding of how a big city works. The snow will melt, but the management problem remains – until someone finally takes charge of a city left to fend for itself.
The author is the executive director of the Belgrade on the Move organization
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