Development Northeast and the new regulation of the City District Committée

A newly started municipal company called Development Northeast (UNO in Swedish) has received funds from The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth to carry out an urban development project during the period 2011-2013 in Angered and East Gothenburg at a total cost of SEK 125 million. Hammarkullen got its foot in the door of this project because, when the application was being written, the pilot project was able to supply knowledge on important areas to invest in in Hammarkullen – knowledge based on the students’ dialogues with residents. These areas were: improve the square’s qualities as a meeting place and make the train stop into an exhibition hall where Hammarkullen’s culture could be displayed. What makes UNO particularly interesting for the pilot project is that, according to the application, the linchpin for their work is resident dialogues.

In January 2011 when the city development project started, the city district committees (SDN in Swedish) received their new regulations in conjunction with the reorganization from 21 to 10 districts. These new regulations entail that part of the responsibility for resident dialogues on city development of the physical environment is now delegated to the city district level. Decisions are still made by central, specialized committees, but responsibility for pursuing a dialogue with residents now lies with the city district councils.

In UNO, attention has been drawn to this by adding a position for one person in Hammarkullen/Angered who is to generate knowledge about the city districts’ new role. This person is to go about this by, among other things, gleaning knowledge from the pilot project Urban Empowerment and making this knowledge available to city district employees. This ongoing process is very interesting for the pilot project to follow.