Prague Takes Steps to Fight Sprawl, But Not Everyone Is Pleased

Could Prague’s skyline soon be spiked with flashy glass skyscrapers? The idea of what could be Europe’s most beautiful city turning into a Central European version of Pudong might seem ludicrous, but this is exactly the nightmare scenario now being splashed across billboards in the Czech capital. Above a banner shouting “Prague Under Hudeček” (the name of Prague’s mayor) a current advertising campaign show Charles Bridge cowering beneath a phalanx of pig-ugly towers, which seem to be slouching toward it like drunks at a urinal.

The campaign’s shock tactics have sprung up in opposition to Prague’s new *Building Regulations plan, a set of regulations that seem like a guided tour of standard anti-sprawl urban policies. In the Czech Republic, however, they’ve been causing a storm of complaints, pitting the city against central government and prying the lid off of a spaghetti-like mess of vested interests—a textbook case of the intricate clockwork that ticks behind many cities' public decision-making facades.