From June 1st to June 30th, an online run, called Run4Prague, will take place to support small French shops impacted by the current epidemic situation. The organizers are aiming to collect 2,000,000 Kč through subscriptions and donations and give it back to the merchants. The initiative belongs to two young French guys, Brice and Charlie, both working in a startup studio based in Prague. “Every day after work, we were questioning how we can make a positive impact on people impacted by the crisis. One day, we were running along the Vltava and the idea became obvious!”. The idea being there, they directly tested it through the French community in a Facebook group called “Prahoo” and received their first positive feedback from runners. Feeling the idea’s traction, they went immediately visiting some French merchants to speak about the solidarity run. They are proud to have in the loop traditional and younger French shops of the Czech Republic such as Farmstore, Au Gourmand, Café Milleme, Le Marché – Tučné a Zdravé, Vino Delikatesy, and others to come. “More than just organizing the run, it is fantastic to meet these merchants, hearing their extraordinary stories and understanding how they reacted to this...
Prague City Hall is aiming to cut the number of Airbnb-style short-term rentals and boost affordable housing in the city, according to Hospodářské noviny (HN). Following the example of Lisbon, Prague wants to expand its housing stock and at the same time gain the opportunity to reduce Airbnb-type services. In the first phase, the Czech capital wants to acquire 50 flats that would be used by seniors and homeless. The plan to rent apartments from private owners is in an advanced stage of preparation. “By the end of April, we would like to discuss the launch of a pilot project,” said Adam Zábranský, the City Councillor for Housing. He added that the city will initially not be looking for apartments in the center. Prague plans to spend CZK 10 million on rentals in the first year. “In the first year, the program will bring a loss of CZK 5 million, the following year, we should reach a break-even point”. An impact report from the city’s institute of planning and development said the number of Airbnb outlets almost tripled from 5,537 in March 2016 to more than 13,000 in May 2018, representing a jump from 17,913 to 52,738 in the number...
The construction of a footbridge for pedestrians and cyclists, which will connect Holešovice and Karlín across the island of Štvanice, will begin next year. The Prague City Council has today announced a public contract for the construction of the HolKa footbridge connecting Holešovice and Karlín. “It will be built by the end of next year”, said Deputy Mayor Adam Scheinherr (Praha Sobě). “The construction costs should be a maximum of CZK 197 million. The footbridge will make it easier for pedestrians and cyclists to travel to Štvanice island and at the same time will be another connection between Holešovice and Karlín”. The deck is designed to separate the cyclist traffic from the pedestrians by a subtle difference in height. This provides a safety feature for both cyclists and pedestrians while allowing cyclists to confidently ride without the fear of a collision. Designed by Marek Blanek and Petr Teje architects, the bridge pushes building technology to the limit; the use of freeze-resistant and fiber-reinforced ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) helped reduce the structural shell thickness. At the moment, Karlín and Holešovice are connected by a ferry, which should stop running after the footbridge is completed. The idea of building a footbridge in...
Prague 2 Municipal District disagrees with a Prague City Hall’s proposal which includes adjustments to the traffic regime in the area of Smetanovo Nábřeží and Malá Strana. According to Prague 2, if the adjustments are implemented, the traffic load in the municipality will increase drastically as a result of moving the transit of up to thirty thousand cars a day. Prague City Hall has previously announced that it wants to allow passage through Smetanovo Nábřeží and Malá Strana only to locals, whereas other drivers will have to return in the same direction whence they came. Particularly, the regional office of Prague seeks to impose restrictions which will prohibit the passage of motor vehicles through the intersection of Letenská and Tomášská streets on Malostranské Náměstí and parts of Křižovnická street in the section Novotného Lávka – Platněřská street. According to Adam Scheinherr, Prague’s Deputy Mayor for Transport, the ban will not affect residents of districts Prague 1, Prague 2, and Prague 5. It will only apply to drivers who pass through the area. They will be able to enter the center of the city as before, but thoroughfares will be forbidden – drivers will have to return the same way from where...
The Czech branch of Ronald McDonald House Charities has reached an agreement with Motol Teaching Hospital after 15 years of effort. Ronald McDonald House Charity is a worldwide network of organizations with a common goal and mission: to help families with seriously ill children stay together. RMHC builds and operates houses near children’s hospitals, which then act as facilities and alternative homes for families of seriously ill children who do not live within the reach of hospitals. Today, there are already 376 of them all over the world, and more are still being built. The first Ronald McDonald House Charity in the Czech Republic will be built at the University Hospital in Motol. It will offer free and comfortable accommodation with all the necessary facilities to ensure mental well-being for up to 21 families at once. “We will offer parents rest and facilities that will support their psyche so that they can spend as much time as possible with their child,” says the director of the foundation, Ivana Pešatová. If all goes well, the Czech House of Ronald McDonald could open in the second half of next year. Families that use the house will pay a symbolic fee, but families...
A storage facility near the Prague-Braník train station engulfed in flames on Monday morning and officials are still unsure of the cause. The fire was first noticed around half past 9 and took a very long time to get under control firefighters are still currently combating the flames. Officials warned local residents near, Braník, Kamýk, and Modřany against ventilating their home and allowing any of the smoke to come inside. It’s estimated that at least five volunteers and six professional firefighter units were collaborating to try and put the massive fire out. No injuries have yet been reported as medical professionals, police forces, and other rescuers were on the scene ready to assist the firefighter units. “The fire was divided into three sections. Chemists from the laboratory did not find out whether the limits of hygienic standards were exceeded in the residential area of Braník and Modřany. A cloud of smoke was monitored by the helicopter,” added Kavka. Trams did not run on the line to Braník for more than seven hours, and the parallel Modřanská street was closed. The operation of tram lines 2, 3, 17, and 21 was limited for seven hours. According to the Prague fire brigade...
Tenants of non-residential business premises rented to the city of Prague can submit an application for a 30% discount until 31 May Throughout the past year, businesses have struggled tremendously. Some have seen a sharp decline in revenue while others have had no other choice but to permanently close. Understanding the severity of this, Prague has offered support to entrepreneurs, in an effort to help them recover from the economic impact of the pandemic. On 9 April, the municipality of Prague announced that entrepreneurs who are based in buildings in the capital can now apply for a discount on rent until the end of May. Commenting on this, Councillor Jan Chabr clarified that entrepreneurs will have access to a 30% discount. “We are fully aware of the current crisis situation associated with COVID-19, which has serious economic consequences for tenants of non-residential premises in the capital city of Prague, and therefore, we are always looking for ways to make it as easy as possible for them,” Chabr disclosed. On its website, the City of Prague clarified that the 30% discount will only apply for the third and fourth quarters of last year. More specifically, the director of the property management department...
The largest COVID-19 vaccination centre in the Czech Republic was put through its paces on Friday, but it will not be fully operational until May as the country badly hit by the pandemic waits for more vaccine shots. “The vaccination centre at Prague’s O2 Arena complex will start in full at the beginning of May because at the moment there are not enough vaccines for it to go at full capacity,” Prime Minister Andrej Babis said during an inspection on Friday. The centre is to be a key component in ramping up inoculations. But it faces a three-week delay until May 3 before starting with a capacity of 7,000 people a day. The government has come under criticism for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, including its failure to order as many vaccines as it could under the EU’s program. Following a spat in Brussels over the distribution of extra vaccines among member states, the Czechs are now projected to lag behind all other EU countries by mid-year. Deaths from the disease have hit 27,617, more than doubling in 2021 alone. On Thursday, 5,245 new cases were reported, the lowest weekday tally since mid-December. In total, 1.57 million infections have...
The Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences and the Prague Public Transport Company (DPP) initiated a sampling and testing of the inside areas of public transport to find out if they can detect the coronavirus. During the current month, they plan to take around 500 samples from surfaces and the air on buses, trams and metro cars and stations. The findings of their research should reportedly be available at the end of May. Workers in protective gear will take swabs from vehicles’ bars, handrails, seats, control buttons, ticket terminals, elevators, stairs, and even benches on platforms. Moreover, they will also take samples directly from the air, which will be aided by their use of a device that sucks in the oxygen around it, and collects coronavirus particles using a filter. The samples will then be taken to a laboratory in České Budějovice. They will in turn use newly developed ‘biosensors’ to detect the presence of the coronavirus. The samples taken will also be checked by experts through PCR tests. Results will be drawn to comparison from both the biosensors and the PCR tests. The biosensors have been developed by Hana Lísalová from the Academy of Sciences. The development...
Prague airport today celebrates 84 years of its existence. The Václav Havel Airport in Prague, formerly called Ruzyně, started operation this week in 1937. Beginnings of the airport: 1932−1937 The history of the airport dates back to 1929, when the proposal of the then Czechoslovak government on the construction of a new airport was adopted. The construction of the airport started in July 1932 with minimal use of machines so that the construction could help to reduce unemployment during the crisis. The construction was completed on 1 March 1937 and the airport was immediately described by foreign experts as one of the largest in Europe. Its modern and timeless terminal became a model for many other new airports across Europe. The first aircraft landed at the new airport on 5 April 1937 at 9 a.m. It was a Douglas DC-2 travelling on the Piešťany – Zlín – Brno – Prague route. This landing was the official start of operations of the brand-new airport Prague-Ruzyně. The first international aeroplane on the Vienna – Prague – Berlin route landed in Prague one hour later. The war years: 1940–1945 During the occupation and World War 2, the airport was operated by the military...
On Sunday evening, April 4, the Prague police intervened to break up an illegal party in one apartment in the city center. It was attended by 56 people, mainly foreign students. “We received a call around 8 pm about a party on the top floor of an apartment located at Vojtěšská street. Organizers were being identified as the party ended while some participants were taken to police stations,” said police spokesman Yar Rybansky. Police officers found small quantities of drugs (marijuana and methamphetamine). They will have to answer for this offense within the framework of a separate administrative case. In the past few weeks police have increased controls of the measures imposed. The curfew between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. is still in place, while the State of Emergency will officially terminate at midnight, April 11, 2021.
You see them all over city streets: pedestrians wearing headphones or earbuds — their faces glued to their phones as they stroll along oblivious to their surroundings. Known as twalking, the behavior is not without its dangers. Headphone-wearing pedestrians often can’t hear the auditory cues — horns, shouts, or the sound of approaching cars — that signal imminent harm. The City Hall of Prague 14 decided to paint in white two different warning signs (a crossed-out mobile phone and headphones) on the ground in front of Rajská zahrada metro station and at the Lehovec tram turnaround. The City Hall is planning to mark other crossings in the district with other warning signs. Citizens can turn to the municipality with different suggestions. “We are still at the beginning of this project. We will be happy if the citizens will help us and we welcome every suggestion,” said Deputy Mayor Hukal. The drop in road fatalities in the Czech Republic during 2020 was of particular note, falling to the lowest levels since these statistics were first collected in 1961. There were 460 road deaths in the country in 2020, a reduction of 87%. Meanwhile, serious injuries from road crashes also dropped to...
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