Kaladze on City Hall Initiatives

On October 23, “GQ” published an interview with the mayor of Tbilisi Kakha Kaladze, where he spoke about his first year as the mayor.

After the municipal elections in October 2017, Kakha Kaladze became a mayor with 51.09% of votes. In his election program he was promising development in the following 7 directions:

- Urban Development Policy

- Transport policy

- Ecological policy

- Social policy

- Education, culture, sports and youth policy

- Economic policy

- Management policy

In the interview, he said that some important changes he and his team already managed to implement:

"First of all, we started with the system and structural reform to make our policy more efficient, reduce the bureaucratic processes and improve the quality of services that I think we managed. At first, it seemed to me that the properly organizing city was the most difficult part. The urban environment should first be comfortable for people. And this needs to be that every citizen should take responsibility for creating such an environment. I realized very soon that the city trusts me and my vision, and verification of this is an initiative of the demolition of garages built in old Soviet times and instead create spaces for common use. The municipality could not do it without the desire and will of citizens. Today more than 220 garages have been run down and instead 10 recreation space have been organized,” – said Kakha Kaladze.

As mayor of Tbilisi declared the main achievement for him is the increased public participation.

"Citizens started active participation in the processes: helping us, criticize us. We are one team - the survival and development team of the city. We really need it. That is exactly what I meant when I said that the development of the city is impossible without the active participation of its population. " – said Kaladze.

City Hall approved Land Use General Plan, and after the confirmation from City Assembly, from January 2019 finally, city development will be regulated by the plan. Another important direction is initiatives and planned changes in transportation policy. The City Hall started regulation of taxi services, started speaking about possible solutions for parking problems. All the initiatives will be regulated by the Transportation Plan which will be in accordance with the Master Plan.