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Analysis: Two towns in one - where is Duchcov heading?

13 August 2013
18 minute read

The town of Duchcov in the Czech Republic today is running as if it were two separate municipalities with different administrations. The northern, wealthier section is well-financed from public resources, with well-maintained buildings, services and shops, a new sports field, and publicly subsidized activities for adults, children, and youth. Most of the practical resolutions adopted by the municipal council focus on that part of town.

The poorer southern part of Duchcov is receiving only minimal administration. The town council pays no attention to it. The municipally-owned apartment stock there is neglected and the public spaces are not maintained. A large number of abandoned buildings and total ruins can be seen there. Regular street cleaning and basic road maintenance is still provided in the standard way, and the streets don’t give a bad impression, but the most recent activities of both the central government and the town council unfortunately lead one to believe that this part of town will soon be administered mostly by the police and their CCTV cameras.

First steps toward resolving problems in Duchcov

A comparative empirical study published by Brada and Bond in the Journal of the American Criminological Society has revealed that so-called "zero tolerance" policies and the increased police surveillance of troubled places are ineffective and produce only a modicum of success. Critics such as John E. Wade and Steven M. Cox say "zero tolerance" is unsuccessful because it destroys the important prerequisites for community safety such as accountability on the part of police, their openness toward a community, and their cooperation with its members.

Elinor Ostrom performed research for which she received a Nobel Prize showing that successful policing does not stem from large numbers of forces deployed and repression, but from real cooperation with a community. Research teams have also cast doubt on whether the situation is improved just by having police officers move around on foot instead of in cars, as has been claimed. 

The current "zero tolerance" policy in Duchcov, therefore, will not necessarily be successful, as is being demonstrated by the current cases of violence there, the failure to punish racists in Duchcov for their statements made on the Internet, the assaults on Romani people in the town and at the swimming pool, and the fact that misdemeanors committed by members of the majority population and residents in the town’s better neighborhoods are ignored. All of this simply confirms the conclusions of previous research that "zero tolerance", even with the best will in the world, ultimately tends to restrict the freedoms of people who are members of alternative, critical, or minority communities. Moreover, experience from the Czech town of Rumburk shows that displacing crime through repression from one particular locality just moves it into neighboring localities.  

"Community policing", which the Czech Police is promoting on its website, is probably the best thing the police can do. Of course, this cannot just remain at the level of theory. The most important thing to do is to establish active cooperation with the community. Foot patrols in and of themselves will not ensure this. Police must find businesslike channels through which to communicate with citizens in a given locality and increase their trust in the police force.

If the police are incapable of such communication – which in this country is the case – then it is essential to establish an independent communications channel, and it is best to do so with the aid of community workers. There should be at least two such people, and at least one of them should be a member of the minority community being policed. They should be tasked with performing classic community work, focused on intensifying constructive activities and ties inside the community. 

This community work must be performed independently. In the current situation, that means it must be provided by NGOs that enjoy long-term prospects for independent financing, for example, as part of a three-year project at a minimum. These organizations must ensure support for their staffers and also protection for them against external pressures, primarily from politicians and the public administration. In the future it might be possible to assign such staff to the regional or state administrations, with the proviso that their work would be conducted together with an independent public agency (on the model of the Norwegian independent state agencies, for example).  

Expanding social services is another common solution. In Duchcov, thanks to a civic association, a drop-in center for children and youth has opened,, but it is not located in the most-afflicted locality. Moreover, its internal rules basically contravene the principles of a drop-in center and are stricter than many of the other ordinary clubs in Duchcov. This club should be moved into the troubled locality, and it would be best to move it into a newly reconstructed building so its services are closer to the users and it contributes toward improving the overall environment at the same time. 

Social work is a long-term effort. The return on investment will only show up in the long run, so the low discount rate of such services must be counted on.

Effective cooperation between a community and the town could take place in the area of cultural events, such as holding a "Technical Services Ball". Given that most of the rank and file employees of the Technical Services come from the poorer localities, there is a high probability that the broader community could be involved in designing such an event. Of course, it is necessary for such an activity to have widespread support and for people "from below" to participate in it. The "Otevřený svět" (Open World) organization has had good experiences with such activities in the town of Litvínov. Romani people organized their own balls there and the organization provided them with technical backup at its community center.

Events such as the Town Celebrations (Městské slavnosti), however, should not be viewed as effective. Thanks to their location and organization "from above", many of these events are viewed by citizens from the northern part of Duchcov as "events done for Romani people" (not by them or with them). Here, too, we can see that the activities organized by the town to date, the results of which have often been genuinely worthwhile, suffer from a paternalistic approach which does not manage to sufficiently engage the target community. An example of this is the tennis club, which receives the most subsidies of all (more than the entire crime prevention and social work budget combined). The club has now encountered the problem that the users of the tennis hall are not properly paying the required fees to use it – and those users are from the wealthiest part of society in Duchcov. 

Research shows the most efficient, most successful step toward improving people’s lives, increasing safety, and reducing crime is improving the visual sense of order on the streets. The maintenance of cleanliness in Duchcov, even in its impoverished neighborhoods, is currently not bad. Nevertheless, it must be realized that the abandoned, half-demolished buildings in those neighborhoods significantly deteriorate the atmosphere there. The situation with public greenery and sports facilities there is also sad, and the distance between the northern and southern parts of town in this respect is frustrating. A contribution toward improving this would be to undertake repairs in the courtyard shared by the buildings near the train station, and to take better care of the municipal apartment stock in general. Several generations of administrators and residents are to blame for the current state of affairs with that housing, not the current tenants. Most of those tenants moved into that housing precisely as a result of the apartment market decline, which made housing there accessible to low-income residents who are less demanding when it comes to housing quality.  

The above-mentioned study by Brada and Bond demonstrated that increased police monitoring is the least effective method for municipal improvement. Social work is a bit more efficient, but vastly better results are shown by improving the overall environment in a particular town. 

To date, the town council has been successful in improving the environment in the wealthier portion of Duchcov. Thanks to their lack of a guiding concept, as well as their somewhat paternalistic model of decision-making, they have succeeded in limiting options for employment by allowing the building of four foreign-owned supermarkets and the closing down of the ceramics factory. Of course, they have also completely neglected developing the historic southern part of town, which now finds itself in its historically worst-ever shape. It is no surprise that such an environment is becoming a source of frustration. There has been an influx of other troubled groups to that neighborhood, the community is falling apart, and this is resulting in a lack of cooperation and trust. 

The solution to this is a new urbanization concept which, if it is to be effective, must unavoidably lead to the demolition of many of the buildings in that neighborhood, including the train station, and in repairs to the buildings that realistically must and should be preserved. This must be accompanied by corresponding repairs to the vacant lots, which could be used for breathing room or for playgrounds, but which must be designed so as not to increase the risk of crime again. Given the extent of the town’s investment into projects implemented in the north, the implementation of this intention for the south is obviously possible should the correct financial and human resources be allocated to it. The town very reasonably has preserved its technical services department and could use those services for most of this work.

More detailed analysis

According to a situational analysis performed by the Demographic Information Center (Demografické informační centrum) the situation in Duchcov is surprisingly stable and is even showing positive trends with respect to several indicators. The population is maintaining balanced numbers, birth rates exceed death rates, and the population structure is improving with respect to levels of education achieved.

The housing situation there is also interesting. The number of apartments in which locals now reside has increased by about 1 % (40 apartments). However, during the 1990s, a total of 265 new apartments, primarily attachments to single-family houses, were built, continuing a trend from the 1970s in which new construction was supported as older constructions were abandoned. This led Duchcov to create its southern ghetto as the wealthier residents moved away from unmaintained municipally-owned properties, some of which still remain abandoned and some of which have been occupied by poorer people. 

The unemployment situation is critical, said to be around 10 % or 700 people (but realistically it evidently is as high as 12 – 13 %) and exceeding the regional average. The share of people commuting outside the municipality for work is also high, exceeding the regional average by 18 %.

Duchcov is a textbook example of how management can create a crisis situation. When we look at the town’s budget we get a very clear picture of the direction its management is taking. The budget is naturally the basic tool for providing care to a population and for urban development. We see a clear trend at many different levels, including the local level in Duchcov. The priority is to take decisions and spend money to benefit the wealthiest, while crisis areas and impoverished people receive the least attention. Naturally, the disproportion grows between the poorer and wealthier parts of town, and it would be strange if tensions did not also grow between the higher-placed recipients of these subsidies and support and those who basically get nothing. In the end it is the impoverished who are berated for drawing even mandatory state support, very often by those who receive the same benefits themselves.

The wealthiest get the most

Duchcov’s first bad decision in favor of multinational corporations was the establishment of a "new center" by building three supermarkets on Osecká Street. The KIK, LIDL, and Tesco supermarkets do not compete with one another in terms of the goods on offer. However, they have practically eliminated all cooperatively-owned or locally-owned options for purchasing groceries. 

Prior to the creation of this "new center", local businesspeople were criticized for not being flexible enough, for keeping restricted sales hours, and for not providing a sufficient selection of products. These criticisms were justified, but it was possible to resolve them other than by opening up the market of this small town to big firms that do not provide sufficient resources to their employees, are not open to selling locally or regionally-sourced products, and do not pay any taxes on their profits to Duchcov (and only minimal tax to the state). A more appropriate option would have been to negotiate with the local businesses about adjusting their sales hours and selections, as well as negotiating with cooperatively-owned retailers, as they provide an opportunity to directly participate in the business.

The creation of this "new center" and the influx of consumers to the supermarkets was also supported by moving the local post office to that particular location. As a result, other services moved to the area, abandoning the traditional shopping location on the main square and its adjoining streets. Naturally, this has impacted the residents of the historic part of town, who now have to travel further to access basic services. The value of real estate in the historic center is falling. One advertiser in the July edition of the Regio monthly is offering to lease a building on the main square there for just CZK 5 000 monthly.

Of course, in historical terms this is nothing new, as this process began in the 1970s. A symbolic example of its impact was the moving of a memorial to the victims of WWII and demonstrators who were shot dead near the viaduct in Duchcov from the southern part of town to the wealthier north.

Middle-class subsidies

The middle class is the most important carrier of urban development. Nevertheless, it must also somehow contribute to that development. In Duchcov the situation with the middle class is again similar to most of the rest of the country:  A large part of public subsidies target this group in particular.

In Duchcov the rational decision initially predominated to keep a large part of the municipally-owned apartment stock in the town’s hands. The town has invested significant sums into insulating and reconstructing buildings, repairing sidewalks, and maintaining greenery. Rents are acceptable and the town has vacant apartments available.

The town also invests into recreational activities. Sports clubs receive subsidies for their activities, the bowling alley has been repaired, and a new club building and two-court tennis hall has been built at a cost of several million crowns for the tennis club, which has 200 members. Today this over-subsidized club is grappling with the problem that its members are not properly paying their user fees, a result of the fact that they barely participated in building the facility. Here we should recall that immediately after the war, the tennis club in Duchcov was primarily built by the members themselves.

A children’s building also receives public subsidies allocated to this neighborhood of villa-owners. The Duchcov town council’s resolutions are examples of high subsidies for the middle class (the highest subsidies go to a privately-owned theater agency and the tennis club) and of minimum support for associations working with marginalized people. 

What all of the subsidies mentioned here have in common is that their recipients are members of the middle class and the wealthy. People or youth from impoverished or Romani families are not involved in the vast majority of these activities, both because they are too expensive and because most of the managers of these clubs are not interested in having such members. Naturally, there are exceptions to the rule – enlightened managers can be found everywhere, but unfortunately if they are not sufficient prepared, both in practical and theoretical terms, to perform integration work, such people very quickly experience disenchantment and disillusionment when they learn that in real life things don’t work as they do in a Dickens novel. 

Breakdown and under-financing

When we look at Duchcov’s budget, we can see that the town pays for one so-called "field worker" and provides several thousand crowns’ worth of subsidies to civic clubs involved with the situation in its troubled localities, primarily in the southern part of town where some businesses have closed and others are still running. Despite the fact that the town has approved its "Community Plan for Developing Social and Related Services in the Town of Duchcov", to this day that plan has not been implemented. 

Unlike the current plans being implemented by the municipal and regional leadership, the "Community Plan" presumed that at-risk groups would be provided with services, including preventative ones, through the end of 2013. A drop-in facility for youth from those localities was to have been one component of those services, but the presumed sum of CZK 900 000 annually (0.7 % of the municipal annual budget) was never allocated for it. A drop-in facility was ultimately built by a civic association, but not in the afflicted locality, and it runs under rules that contravene the purpose of a drop-in facility. Of course, its location could be perceived as a positive, as it has been built at the intersection of the roads one which all of the schools in Duchcov are located, and it therefore could be considered quite accessible from that perspective. Nevertheless, I consider it best to install such facilities directly in the locality they are meant to serve. Close cooperation directly with the community served is also crucial.

While in the northern part of town building and reconstruction are underway, most of it with public money, the southern part of town is falling apart more and more, services are disappearing, and the place is depressing. While the municipally-owned apartments in Duchcov are offered for some of the lowest rents in the Czech Republic and in the region, the town has now decided to privatize the apartments it owns in the southern neighborhood, even though it is evident that this will result in rising rents. The town is making the not very rational argument that reconstruction will not pay off and therefore must be done by a private entity, even though it is evident that private entities definitely will not buy buildings to lose money on them. Given that the town has better options for raising financing compared to local businesspeople, and can therefore go into investments that have long-term returns, this step seems to be just one more kind of pressure on impoverished residents that will increase their misery and therefore increase tensions in the locality. 

Analysis of the budget makes it clear that the town simply has neglected caring for one of its neighborhoods, which has resulted in deteriorating the situation and increasing tensions. Money from public funds is flowing to the middle class and the wealthy while support for at-risk localities is neglected. The problems thus created are not being solved through simple structural corrections, but are relying on repression and surveillance. This trend is continuing and is supported by regional authorities.

After unsuccessful repression, more unsuccessful repression

A reporter for the Aktuálně news server recently wrote an article about Duchcov describing the situation as follows:  "First and foremost monitoring and repression, then social interventions. That is the process awaiting the northern Bohemian town of Duchcov in the immediate future."  

For all intents and purposes, this is continuing the trend in which this town of not quite 9 000, which has three socially excluded localities, is solving its problems particularly by expanding surveillance of its territory at the cost of failing to provide other preventative social measures. Moreover, the expansion of CCTV coverage in Duchcov is a controversial solution at the very least, as the events of recent weeks have shown us.  

The town has decided to privatize apartments that are today predominantly occupied by Romani people, giving the excuse that it has no money to reconstruct them. However, at the same time the town has also approved the building of infrastructure worth CZK 4 million for the construction of new single-family homes, once again subsidizing the wealthiest residents. The Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion has raised its suspicion that town councilors will be making these homes available to acquaintances of theirs so they can enter into the so-called "trafficking in poverty" business. That is performed by municipal authorities housing socially vulnerable people in special apartments or residential facilities with overpriced rents which are then paid for by the state. This is how municipal authorities helping real estate speculators access state money.   

The complete amateurism and incompetence of the town councilors to resolve the situation is also exemplified by their recently convening a so-called "round table" to which they invited first the militant racists of Duchcov and then members of the Romani community. Local Roma correctly decided not to participate in those negotiations.

In conclusion, it is possible to summarize the situation not only in Duchcov, but throughout the entire state through the simple facts resulting from this analysis:  Excluded localities and poverty are being created in places where public funds are distributed inequitably, i.e., where more public funding goes to the wealthy and less public funding goes to the poorest of the poor. Moreover, any public funding flows toward the most impoverished are primarily spent on repression of those communities. 

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