We last spoke with ODS Mayor of Prague 13 David Vodrážka two years ago. That was halfway through the electoral term. Now another election is just around the corner, and if he succeeds, in 2027 he will mark an incredible twenty-five years of continuous service as Mayor. Before elections, new visions are always presented, but it is also a time to take stock. And that is what we did with David Vodrážka.
If you had to choose two or three things in which Prague 13 has changed the most over the past four years, what would they be? And what should be different by the end of the next electoral term?
If I had to choose three things, I would say schools, public space and services for residents. Over the past four years, Prague 13 has continued to invest significantly in what people use every day. We have new or modernised schools and kindergartens, and we invest in sports facilities, playgrounds, parks and public spaces. At the same time, we have managed to keep the municipal district financially stable. Another major change is how quickly Prague 13 is developing. New residents are arriving, new neighbourhoods are being built and the character of some places is changing. Our role is not to prevent this development, but to ensure that infrastructure and the quality of public space do not lag behind new housing. And what would I like to see in four years? For us to be able to say that Prague 13 has even better schools, safer and higher-quality public spaces, more opportunities for sport and leisure activities and, above all, that we have managed to keep the pace of the municipal district’s development under control. I want Prague 13 to be a place where people enjoy living.
Two years ago, in connection with opposition to new construction, you said that we live in a city, not in a forest, and that we have to accept that the city changes and continues to develop. But does such development have its limits?
Of course it does. I have never said that we can build without limits. But Prague 13 is not an open-air museum and cannot remain frozen in the form it had twenty or thirty years ago. When I said back then that we live in a city, not in a forest, this is exactly what I meant. In my view, the limit to development is not determined by a specific number of flats or by the number of new buildings. It is determined by whether the city can simultaneously provide transport, schools, kindergartens, healthcare and other services, sufficient public space and, above all, a reasonable quality of life. That is why it is essential to me that infrastructure is planned alongside new construction. I do not want a situation where a developer hands people the keys to hundreds of flats and only then do we start addressing where their children will go to school and how they will get around the new neighbourhood. So yes, there are limits. But in my view, Prague 13 has not yet reached them. We must, however, be very cautious, because some of the decisions we make today will affect the municipal district for decades.
Renovated children’s playground in Holýšovská Street.
You also spoke about the planned primary school in the Britská čtvrť neighbourhood for one thousand pupils. How has the project progressed over the past two years?
It has progressed significantly. This is exactly the type of infrastructure that has to grow alongside new development. The new primary school has been designed and has received a building permit. We are currently laying the foundation stone and construction can begin. Today, Prague 13 has ten primary schools and twenty-three kindergartens. In the long term, we have managed to maintain sufficient capacity so that children do not have to commute across Prague because of a lack of places. For me, this is one of the most important indicators of whether the municipal district is managing its development successfully. But I do not want to claim that our work is done. Prague 13 is growing, and areas beyond our borders are developing as well. This means that we have to look at school capacity across a much wider area rather than considering only the number of our own residents. Next year, we will open two new grammar schools so that, amid the current crisis in secondary education in Prague, we can provide our students with a high-quality education. We are constantly preparing additional capacity and investing in existing schools as well. On 1 September, we opened a new kindergarten for more than 150 children. We now also have capacity for younger children, and all our kindergartens have designated catchment areas. My goal is simple – when a child is born in Prague 13 or moves here, parents must be certain that we will find a place for them in both kindergarten and school. That is a basic municipal service.
You have been at the helm of Prague 13 for almost a quarter of a century. After such a long time, doesn’t routine or fatigue from everyday local politics and bureaucracy begin to set in?
Routine is certainly a risk for anyone who does the same job for a long time. But local politics has one great advantage – every day you see the result of your work right in front of you. When you build a school, you meet the children who attend it. When you renovate a playground, you see families using it. When you solve a problem in a street, people will tell you the next day whether you solved it well. Of course, I am a different mayor today than I was almost twenty-five years ago. Back then, I may have had more ideals and less experience. Today, I have a much better understanding of what can be pushed through quickly and what, on the other hand, requires years of work. A person learns to be more patient, but should not become more complacent. And that is precisely why I make sure that we do not become too inward-looking at the town hall. You need to listen to people who tell you that you are doing something wrong. You need to go out among residents, talk to them and not rely solely on spreadsheets and official documents. If I have gained anything over those almost twenty-five years, it is above all a sense of perspective. And perhaps also the ability to distinguish between a genuine problem and momentary political noise. Fatigue? Of course it comes at times. But when you see that over those almost twenty-five years Prague 13 has changed from an outlying part of Prague into a modern municipal district with high-quality schools, services, sports facilities and parks, and one that is capable of managing further development, that remains a great source of motivation for me. I have not lost my ideals. I have simply added experience to them over time. And I think it is precisely the combination of the two that is important for a mayor.
CV BOX
David Vodrážka (born 23 March 1971 in Prague) has served continuously as Mayor of the Prague 13 municipal district since 2002.
He studied at the Faculty of Education in Hradec Králové and the University of Finance and Administration.
He joined ODS in 1998 and served as First Vice-Chair from 2008 to 2010. From 2010 until the early elections in 2013, he was a member of the Chamber of Deputies and Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
He also briefly served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Prague Public Transit Company. Since 2018, he has been a member of the Prague City Assembly, a position he also held from 2006 to 2010.
He is married, has three children and lives in Prague.
RADLICKÁ RADIAL ROAD
The Radlická radial road is one of the key transport projects for Prague 13. Can the town hall do anything to speed up its construction? “It needs to be said openly that neither its preparation nor its construction is in the hands of the municipal district,” says David Vodrážka. “But that does not mean that we should simply sit and wait. Our task is to keep emphasising, persistently and emphatically, that this is a project of importance not only to Prague 13, but to the entire western part of Prague. If Prague 13, Prague 5, Řeporyje or other surrounding areas are developing, the transport infrastructure must develop accordingly. For me, the most important thing is to ensure that the preparations do not become unnecessarily bogged down in individual administrative steps. The municipal district is ready to cooperate, provide assistance and put pressure on all the competent institutions. And above all, we should stop viewing the Radlická radial road as some distant project. For the residents of Prague 13, it is a matter of everyday life.”
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