The benefits of agglomerations are powerful. In the largest cities, citizens find it easier to find well paid jobs and a wide scope of public and private services. Companies, on the another hand, are more easy employed by their employees and specialised suppliers. In large cities it pays to specialize in narrow competitions, due to the fact that even then there is simply a chance to find many employers. Information and innovation are more rapidly circulating between businesses and industries, for example, due to the fact that they are usually carried by workers changing jobs, which is easier in deep labour markets. Creative destruction, replacing older companies and technologies with newer ones, is simpler in larger cities, where people and method means are easier to "move" into fresh applications.
Most well-paid, highly skilled jobs will be created in the largest urban centres. People will go to work. The fastest increasing old and depopulating in Poland will be smaller towns, which will lead to feedback – falling attractiveness of towns and even greater outflow of population. If we want to maximize the improvement of Poland and the well-being of Poles, we should maximize the benefits of agglomeration and keep a advanced quality of life in localities that are losing residents. We request more, not less, agglomeration. due to the fact that today, the choice that many of our villages and towns face is migration not only to Lublin or Warsaw, but besides to Dublin and Berlin. Our large cities must become even bigger and more attractive to accommodate and fulfill the aspirations of migrants from all over Poland.
We request more, not less, agglomeration. due to the fact that today, the choice that many of our villages and towns face is migration not only to Lublin or Warsaw, but besides to Dublin and Berlin. Our large cities must become even bigger and more attractive to accommodate and fulfill the aspirations of migrants from all over Poland.
Poland and the countries of our region separate from the Western Europe comparatively low urbanization. After 1945, the industrialization of our region took place with a reduced concentration of residents in large cities compared to the West. In the 1970s, it was decided that, in the face of the demographic boom and the deficiency of funds for the simultaneous improvement of the housing manufacture and construction, appropriate to the increasing number of working-age populations, a large part of the factories should be built in medium-sized towns. It was assumed that the young generation of demographic booms already lives somewhere, and power should first supply young people with work. Good calculations in the short term. In the long term, shallow, low-performance labour markets based on 1 plant were created.
Warsaw and another large cities – in spite of the widespread stereotypes of “sucking” the population out of towns – are increasing slow against the background of large centres in developed countries. Rafał Trzedakowski notes: "Warsaw is increasing slow against the background of metropolitan areas in another EU and OECD countries. Between 2000 and 2014 Warsaw was the fastest increasing metropolitan area in Poland, but its 6% increase was slow in comparison to another EU capitals. Of those capitals for which data are available, Warsaw is the sixth slowest growing”1.
The depopulation of many areas is simply a multi-decade phenomenon which cannot be reversed by the possible implementation of state policies. The anticipation of importantly expanding immigration in Poland was rejected. “50 million Poles in 2050” will stay only a slogan. The Polish population will shrink. According to the CSO, by 2060 the number of Polish population in the main script will decrease to 30.4 million people, in the low script to 26.7 million and in the advanced script to 34.8 million. The main script of the GUS is to decrease the population in 91% of districts to 2040 and 93% of districts to 2060!
According to the Central Statistical Office, by 2060 the number of Polish population in the main script will decrease to 30.4 million people. This means a decline in 91% of counties to 2040 and 93% of counties to 2060!
The rational growth of large cities will be possible erstwhile they are better communicated inside and with their facilities. In order to make the benefits of large cities available to all Poles, urban investments should increase the usefulness of cities not only for the residents of their city centre, but besides for commuters from outside the centre and coming to a large city outside the city. The ability to decision inside cities limits an area that can function efficiently as 1 city. For centuries, the ends of the city could usage each another if they were not more than an hr distant 1 way. The average pedestrian moves at about 5 km/h. By the 18th century, the area of functional urban centres was limited to 25 km2. Since the 19th century, changes in transport technology and architecture, including especially the improvement of rail and later automobile transport, have reduced the cost of transporting people and goods and increased the cost-effective size of cities.
The strategical precedence of Poland is to make our biggest cities 45-minute cities! So that from any point of the city you can get to its another end. In developed countries, urban mobility is halving faster than in mediocre cities. The pace of transport in the cities of rich countries is higher due to better infrastructure, especially the main roads and the lower density of people in the centres. In large cities of mediocre countries, people are centered at the heart of mediocre transport and deficiency of effective property taxes.
A good city serves not only residents of its downtown, but besides residents of the suburbs and further towns coming to work, in business, for study, treatment or entertainment. In order for our largest cities to play this role, it is essential to destruct bottlenecks on the inlet routes of large cities. For this purpose, not only investment in infrastructure is needed, but besides a change in mentality and, perhaps, a change in the rules and financing of infrastructure from state level.
The strategical precedence of Poland is to make our biggest cities 45-minute cities! So that from any point of the city you can get to its another end. A good city serves not only residents of its downtown, but besides residents of the suburbs and further towns coming to work, in business, for study, treatment or entertainment.
The fight for housing and mobility in a large city is the heart of the conflict for social status. The owners of the largest cities, in the interests of their voters, and to the detriment of the utility of cities for all citizens, restrict access to residence and the anticipation of visiting from suburbs, towns and villages. The centres of large cities focus on public and private services with advanced added value and deep labour markets with the largest offer of above-average paid jobs. Access to them is the key determinant of the social ladder.
It is in the interest of the resident of the centre to extend the access to it. And if it has an flat there – it besides increases the price of housing in the center by limiting their supply. erstwhile people surviving on the outskirts, suburbs and surrounding towns or villages increase their commute to the city centre, the number of competitors will decrease to the workplaces and public services available there. erstwhile the construction of another residential building in the center is blocked, the value of its flat will increase.
It is hard to anticipate that presidents of large cities will take into account the needs of Poles who are not their constituents. Therefore, the State should make the financing of large-town infrastructure dependent on investments that increase the attractiveness of cities for visitors – especially those investments that aim to increase the capacity of inlet routes and the anticipation of moving around the city (e.g. the contribution to the financing of bridges or metros in Warsaw entails improved entry to Warsaw).
The State should make the financing of large-town infrastructure dependent on investment that makes cities attractive to visitors, in peculiar investments that aim to increase inlet capacity and urban mobility.
In smaller towns, the strategical challenge is to keep the availability of infrastructure and services in the face of population decline. Depopulation will consequence in a simplification in the income of local governments and a simplification of municipalities to supply only mandatory tasks at an increasingly weaker level, which will velocity up depopulation. Maintaining public infrastructure and services will be more costly per user/resident and technically more difficult2.
Meeting these challenges requires allowing local governments to jointly supply selected public services and to transport residents outside the municipality to, for example, a common point for issuing individual IDs or a infirmary for 2 or 3 municipalities. The savings made in this way can be allocated to investments that increase the quality of life: clean streets, well-maintained parks and squares, or expanding cultural and amusement offer. Increasingly, a real investment offer for residents of smaller cities will be to keep the attractiveness of life and make a chance that their children and grandchildren will go to a large city in Poland alternatively of abroad.
Spatial concentration reduces the cost of distributing goods, people and thoughts. The main challenge of Poland's spatial policy is to exploit the maximum benefits of the improvement of the agglomeration and to minimize the negative consequences of the decline in the number of agrarian and small-town populations. The creation of an efficient agglomeration is simply a prerequisite for further improvement of Poland.
1 R. Trzebakowski, Deglomeration – an costly redistribution of prestige. Analysis of the Citizens' improvement Forum, 2019.
2 For example: waterworks, sewerage and sewage treatment plants are optimised for circumstantial flows. Water from the treatment plant must scope the tap at a certain time to be fit for consumption. The sewage works decently with a specified volume of sewage. The towns developing waterworks and sewerage to peripheral settlements and streets in the future will increasingly face their method incapacity.
