There is a complex network of dimensions that make a smart city “intelligent”, i.e. smart environment, smart mobility, and smart economy providing sustainable, accessible, and effective solutions to their citizens that can ease their lives. Another equally important component is the human aspect, which is about creating a city that fosters inclusion, embraces diversity, and ensures that all groups are able to engage in and shape their cities.

This issue is particularly relevant for the LGBT+ community that is often left behind in the process of urban development. In this section, we discuss the issue with representatives of two organisations working in the field of LGBT+ community inclusion on national and international levels respectively: Anastasia Danilova, the executive director of GENDERDOC-M Information Centre and Manuel Rosas Vázquez, the coordinator of the Rain- bow Cities Network.

Mobility is one of the basic needs of an urban dweller. We hear many prejudices about transport in the city: that we cannot bike in hilly cities and that it is expensive to create a good transit system and so on.

However, if we take a look at the numbers, we can make quite opposite assumptions. Let’s see some facts:

Bikes on average weigh 14 kg, whereas cars weigh tons. The urban infrastructure damage caused by the bicycles can not be compared to the one caused by cars, hence the repairing costs would occur much less often. Needless to say that the bikes are cheaper than cars and riding a bike is cheaper than pumping petrol in a car. The environmental impact of bicycle is also practically inconsiderable in comparison to cars - there is only the raw materials and bike production caused pollution and energy, in comparison to the cars that are much more energy con- suming both while production and using. The same goes for these two when they served their owners and become waste.

Disclaimer: This article was written in 2020, and the mentioned cities have changed since them, some for the better, some for the worse.

Have you ever pass down a street in your city and asked yourself:

Who is the person that made this pedestrian sidewalk so narrow? Who decided to remove the bus stop from a place where it used to be for decades? Who made the dumb decision to cut the trees and widened the road? You are probably not alone as most people don’t like the decisions made without consulting with the population or any explanations. Nor does anyone try to persuade us that any particular decision is justified. Instead, our protests and petitions are just ignored. In most Eastern European cities, there is no dialogue between the municipality and citizens. Thus, their needs and wants are unsatisfied. I have lived in 3 big cities so far: Tbilisi, where I was born and I grew up, Prague, where I lived for 2,5 years and Belgrade, where I moved in September 2019.

We interviewd Gunita Kulikovsky, who has an extensive background working with urban activism and participation processes in the Nordic-Baltic region. Since 2016 she has also founded an immersive technology company Vividly that works with visual communication for urban and architecture projects. Recently a new chapter Vividly Urban consultancy has launched to help urban planners with data-driven, digital, and visual urban planning decisions.

Tell us a bit about yourself, what you do and what is your background?

Large cities, especially capitals, are often overcrowded with urban and cultural activities, while people in smaller cities suffer from a lack of opportunities for cultural leisure. But there are people who prove that the development of cultural initiatives is not just an advantage of big cities. There are activists who implement projects in small towns, learn to establish communication between citizens and local authorities, and liven up the local community through culture.

As majority of youth is living in the cities and the number is just predicted to grow, it is important, that we have the basic understanding how to analyse the city. There are way too many aspects that can be analysed, and we can probably only specialise in the several, but the below mentioned aspects are the basis, on which you can build your assumptions and develop the analysis the direction you are interested in. City can be imagined as a layered pie consisting of the following layers: