Background

The game was played on October 28 & 29, 2009. The participants (residents, municipality representatives, experts, architects, urbanists, artists, designers and students) debated the future of the main street - Peace Avenue - of the Rakow district in Częstochowa.

Objectives

The participants focused on revitalising Peace Avenue in Raków district. Abandoned by both business and culture, the empty district seeks ideas to offer something to its residents, mostly elderly people.

The game was co-organised by Czestochowa Municipality, Rakow District Council, the Association for the City's Development "PROGRESJA", the Association of Polish Architects  and the Youth Culture Centre in Czestochowa.
 

Winning idea

Promenade in Raków (Promenada na Rakowie)

The Blue Team believe that, thanks to the preferential terms offered by the city authorities to investors renting spaces for their small businesses, Raków could become a cultural and recreational heart of Czestochowa, with small cafes and tea houses that would attract people all year round. New walking routes and pedestrian precincts could connect Peace Avenue with other parts in the city, while the cycling route could be extended up to the river. Riverbanks could be restored and Częstochowa could get back to the good old tradition of family picnics by the Warta River. Swimming places, beach volleyball grounds, small gastronomy, fishing on retention ponds – these could also help to bring Raków back to life.

But just like most of the other players, the Blue Team would start by solving basic problems – renovating building façades, making them more colourful, improving street lightning, introducing street monitoring (safety) and arranging backyards.

Winning ideas from the other teams

Raków's Forum (Forum Rakowa)

The Green Team's idea is a kind of follow-up to what happened during the FCG in Częstochowa – a meeting of representatives of various social groups. The team proposed establishing a working group that would meet regularly and consist of familiar representatives of the City Council, Raków District Council, business, education centres, church, NGOs, housing co-operatives, police, city guards etc. The aim of these meetings would be to work plans and strategies for common events, e.g. festives, enterprises, initiatives, trainings, mutual support.

The advantages of creating such a group would be e.g. promoting Raków district, developing an integrated plan of actions that would help enliven this part of Częstochowa, building up a sustainable social network, and would allow Raków to shed its rather bad image.
 

Theory of co-existence's development (Koegzystencji teoria rozwoju)

The Orange Team presented some ideas combining economy, society, the natural environment and culture. They would like to do this by e.g. investing in arranging and managing green zones created on former steelworks sites. Within these green zones, a summer cultural centre could be opened, with its annual event, characteristic for Częstochowa/Raków only (e.g. St. John's Night, like the one in Kraków, or a festival of street theatre, or Raków Days). Sport fields could be sited there too, an a winter skate-park. The city could be proud of its brand new canoe trip (along the Warta River) starting point.

Raków – my district (Raków – moja dzielnica)

The idea of the Red Team seemed quite amusing to the rest of the players at first, but in fact it was quite serious and has already worked in other Polish cities, like in Nowa Huta in Kraków. The team proposed introducing 'A gulp of PRL – Polish People's Republic sentimental journey around Raków'. Players believe that the strength of this district is its unique and inimitable historical atmosphere, and they would like to 'stylise' the district and make it a museum of communism, but with rather positive overtones – a place filled with warm nostalgia and humour from those past, not so easy to live, but still liveable times.

The Red Team would begin by renovating the railway station in Raków, as well as other historical buildings; then they would open PRL bars and restaurants with designs from the 60s and 70s, inviting all inhabitants to dance.

This project would be financed by using 10% of all taxes from investors willing to open businesses in Raków.


Peace Avenue and Raków – a place with great potential (Al. Pokoju i Raków - obszar z potencjałem)

The Yellow Team claimed that Raków was marginalised at some point, and in recent decades brought the local community has gradually decayed. The first thing residents noticed was a decrease in the meaning of their district in the city, and then, a bit abandoned, they gave in to stagnation and the convinction that no positive changes are possible in Raków. All that was followed by lack of security. The local authority claims that Raków is a cultural desert.
 
This team's solution was therefore very simple and pragmatic. They do not believe that Raków's inhabitants have no dreams and would not welcome greater changes. What has to be done in the very first place is to improve the quality of residents’ lives. This could be done by arranging public spaces – creating a system of green enclaves that would be perfect places to rest; by addressing and meeting residents' basic needs (building car-parks and playgrounds, introducing small architecture) and strengthening local bonds (by organising happenings, linking lodgers' communities, making people feel responsible for their surrounding, neighbourhood)‏. Public spaces should be friendly for elderly people, the disabled and mothers with small children.