Konsolidácia mestských častí v meste Košice – teoretické východiská a postoje verejných aktérov
Stela Csachová
Consolidation of city wards in Košice - theoretical framework and opinions of public actorsMany European cities have undergone the inner administrative structure changes in order to create a functional and cost-effective administrative system. Many times, there is a political-geographical disjunction of functional regions and politically constrained local governments. This paper introduces the question of administrative reorganisation of Košice – the second largest city in Slovakia. The reason to analyse it stems from the unevenness of its population size and number of local (city and city wards) councillors what makes an impression of economic ineffectiveness of „a bloated city“. The city is administratively organised at two tiers – the upper tier is a city-wide self-government and the lower tier is local self-government in city wards. It has a population of (234 thousand inhabitants (in 2015), 22 city wards, and currently 244 local councillors. Paper gives the reader a consistent set of information on administrative organisation of a city, structure and characteristics of city wards and division of competencies. There have obviously been political disputes and proposals for cost-saving measures in the last years. The paper presents the political maps of generalised opinions of city-ward mayors to the question of administrative reduction. It can clearly be seen from them that the mayors of inner city wards and panel housing estates claim for the integration whereas the mayors of historically autonomous municipalities call rather for the repeated autonomy. The author uses the traditional methods of qualitative research (historical method, analysis and synthesis) which are accompanied by tables and maps illustrating the spatial aspects of the presented topic.
